Every attempt has been made to replicate the original, printed.Some typographical errors have been corrected;a list follows the text. Some illustrationshave been moved from mid-paragraph for ease of reading. (etext transcriber's note)
THE EMPRESS FREDERICK
A MEMOIR
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
NEW YORK
Dodd, Mead and Company
1914
Copyright, 1913,
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
PREFACE
MEMOIRS of Royal personages form not the least interesting part of thewhole vast field of biography, in spite of the fact that such memoirsdiffer from the lives of most persons in a private station because ofthe reticence and discretion which are necessary, especially in regardto affairs of State and political characters. It is often not until awhole generation has passed that it is possible to publish a fullbiography of a member of a Royal House, and in the meantime the exaltedrank of the subject operates both to enhance and to diminish theinterest of the memoir.
This is also true in a modified degree of statesmen, of whom full andfrank biographies are seldom possible until their political associatesand rivals have alike disappeared from the scene. This necessary delayis a test of the subject’s greatness, for it has sometimes happened thatby the time a full memoir can be published the public interest in theindividual has waned.
By heredity, by training, by all the circumstances of their lives, Royalpersonages form a caste apart; and though their lot may seem to somepersons enviable, it is often not realised how great are the sacrificesof happiness and contentment which they are called upon to make as theinevitable consequence of their exalted position.
The Empress Frederick presents an extraordinary example of what thisexalted position may bring in the way of both happiness and suffering.Her life has the added interest that, quite apart from her rank, shepossessed an intensely vivid and human personality. History furnishesexamples of many Royal personages who ha