in view of the long list of dramatic, if terrible, events that have from time to time made queen elena the most striking figure in italy, it would be the simplest matter in the world for her to make herself the most popular queen on any throne in europe. as a matter of fact, in spite of her heroism and her daring; in spite of her romantic girlhood and idyllic years of early married life—which strongly appeal to the naturally sentimental italian people—in spite of her charming home life, there is no doubt that she is one of the most unpopular queens in europe. her court, which, to meet the tastes of her people, should be bright, popular, brilliant, is really the dullest, the most stupid in the western world. i have lived in many countries, and i am more or less familiar with all the countries of europe, but never have i heard a queen so universally spoken of with disrespect and disapproval by her own court. of course, queen elena cannot be charged with the sole responsibility, for the king shares the opprobrium and may, after all, be the one to blame. it is, nevertheless, a disappointing task that is set the chronicler of italian court life of to-day. elena, as we{268} have seen, was born fairly in the lap of romance. her life should have worked out to an ideal fulfilment. extraordinary opportunities have been hers, but she has never taken advantage of the great popularity they have given her. a queen’s life is one of stern duty, intensely hard, and excessively demanding from many quarters. queen elena, in an american phrase, “plays to the gallery,” then retires. she garners the wheat and ignores the chaff. she is quick to follow dramatic exploits, but reluctant to submit to the daily grind.
the duke of ascoli, personal friend and adjutant to the queen, was much embarrassed when i asked him to tell me about the charities of queen elena. he mentioned calabria, vesuvius, certain children’s hospitals and orphanages, and there he paused. it is, to me, inexplicable that a queen who as the princess of a little state like montenegro should have done so much for the people of the country, been a patroness of the arts and done all the things that elena did, and then, as queen of a great nation do so little. rightly or wrongly, queen elena has the reputation among her own people for being the stingiest queen in europe. apparently this is true. she patronises almost nothing at all, regularly, and if once in a while she lends her name to appear on a public bill, it usually means this and nothing more. so far as is known, she gives less to charity, in proportion to her means, than any queen. in this she is in unhappy contrast to the queen-mother who, when{269} she was on the throne, did very much to encourage painting, music and sculpture throughout italy. this fact rather discredits the only excuse i have ever heard offered for queen elena, namely, that she and the king have many palaces to maintain, inheritances which have come to them from the many dukedoms and little states which were brought together to make up “united italy.” queen margherita and king humbert had the same number of estates, but their charity and philanthropic list was long and striking.
queen elena has one boast. she says that less has been written of her than of any queen in the world, and she is very proud of it. my own impression is that queen elena realises that if more of the facts of her selfish nature were made world-wide that she would cease to be the object of veneration that she is to-day. if the world at large appreciated to what extent she has carried her ideas of simplicity in dress, the glamour that surrounds her would fade. it is impossible to worship a dowd—especially if the lady be a queen with all the splendour and taste of the world at her hand.
i have seen her driving in the campagna, or even through the streets of rome, when i would never have believed her the occupant of her exalted position, had i not known her. it is somewhat ungallant to dwell upon these things, but queen elena can wear good clothes, as her court costumes testify. it is because she simply doesn’t, that{270} makes her a slouch in dress. one need not be extravagant in clothes to be tasteful, but queen elena is not even tasteful. here again, she is in unfortunate contrast to the queen-mother who, still living in rome, is always exquisitely gowned, and no matter how simply, always with unerring taste. queen elena is, indeed, sorely handicapped by the presence of queen margherita in the capital, for her popular affection will last as long as she lives, and a woman of elena’s calibre can never, even at best, supplant her.
the most ungracious task in the world is sometimes to tell the truth. when writing of kings and queens, one is expected to write in adulation. i have done my best for queen elena, in telling the story of her younger life in all its vivid and alluring colouring; and i have paid full tribute to elena, the mother. but the picture is not yet complete. elena the queen is, after all, of first importance to the nation. we, in america, believe that the institution of kingship—“divine right of kings” and all the rest—is largely archaic twaddle. queen elena, of all living queens, illustrates the emptiness of queenship as it exists to-day. i would not give the impression that the queen and king of italy are cruel tyrants like the lately deposed sultan of turkey, or autocrats like the tsar and tsaritsa of russia; nor are they active elements in the social life of the nation like the kings and queens of england and spain, or the emperor and empress of germany. what queen elena{271} and king victor emmanuel represent, however, are, the biggest of social parasites. they draw an enormous revenue of many millions annually from a heartbreakingly poor population, and give the minimum in return.
i am quite aware that i speak in no measured terms, but a surprising number of people in italy—men and women of the court—have begged me to state the truth concerning their sovereigns to the world. perchance they themselves may take from the lips of an unbiassed observer from overseas what no one of their subjects dare to say. while not an apostle of social revolution in italy, i may perhaps be so suspected, unless i state that it is the full indifference to everyday affairs of the italian sovereigns, especially the queen, that breeds the widest discontent. the italian court, as a whole, is not politically restless so much as discouraged and disgusted with their apathetic monarchs.
the four years of blissful honeymooning enjoyed by victor emmanuel and elena seems to have spoiled them for taking up the tasks of sovereigns. they seem to have lived too much unto and for themselves. one indication of this is the almost ludicrous jealousy of the king. he guards elena with the greatest care, and few indeed are the male members of the court who ever approach her save on formal occasions. the sovereigns always have their meals alone together. it was the custom of the former monarchs to have the kin{272}g’s adjutant and the queen’s lady-in-waiting at the table; at dinner there were nearly always guests. not so victor emmanuel. he prefers to be as much as possible alone with his spouse, and never entertains at dinner save when duty demands it. it must be said that he gives elena a true and loyal devotion and he is one of the very few, if not the only monarch in europe, against whom no word of unkind gossip has ever been spoken.
the closely watchful attitude of the king may be in some measure responsible for the impression which is pretty general that elena is a timid, shy woman. there are several anecdotes recalled to illustrate this trait, each of them, to me, interesting.
one afternoon, near the beginning of her reign, elena had attended a function given by the dowager-queen. queen elena arrived somewhat late and reached the door of the salon unattended. there was a large company present and queen elena paused, as if in embarrassment, until queen margherita, seeing her, came forward and taking her by the hand led her into the room.
on the rare occasions when italian royalty patronise the theatre or opera, elena, if she knows the queen-mother is to be present, arrives a little late, and leaves a little early, so that the homage queen margherita had been accustomed to during so many years may still be hers.
social shyness is a thing apart from physical courage, of which, we all know queen elena has
[image unavailable.]
snapshots by queen elena: the king and her children.
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an abundance. the formalities of ceremonial court life are irksome to queen elena, and the afternoon “teas” that she holds for the court are stripped of all their formidableness by the present mistress of the quirinal.
among the english colony in rome is an aged lady whom queen elena calls to court once every year for a tête-à-tête. during the past year she has grown very deaf. queen elena had obvious difficulty in making herself understood, and to her very evident embarrassment the old lady noticed this and said, apologetically: “i am so sorry, your majesty, that my hearing inconveniences you.” “oh,” said the queen, “i did not know that you were deaf. come, sit here on the sofa by me.” this, surely, was worthy of a queen.
that queen elena positively dislikes social functions there can be no question. for three successive winters there was practically nothing whatever done to stimulate the social life of the capital on the part of the sovereigns. one year the reason given for the postponing of the court balls and receptions was the sicilian disaster. another year it was the death of the king of portugal. other courts went into mourning for thirty days. the italian court cancelled everything in the nature of festivities for the year. this has a very serious economic result. rome is one of the least commercial capitals of europe. the social season at best is brief—three to four months—and upon this{274} little season many of the shopkeepers have to rely for the bulk of their trade. the tourist trade does not begin to compensate for the loss of the social season. in every other capital in europe the presence of royalty at all star occasions throughout the season lends a brilliancy that seems to be lost to rome for ever—at least during the lives of the present monarchs. the old roman families do the best they can to bolster up rome’s fast fleeting prestige, but the royal box is nearly always empty. more often than not it looms up in the centre of things like a ghost at the feast. each year, fewer and fewer foreigners go to rome for the season, and this is laid directly to the door of the sovereigns. it must be borne in mind that this sort of thing means very much more in europe than it does in america. there is no city in the united states that could possibly be affected in this way, but since it is of so much importance in italy it must be mentioned here. this is one of the prime grievances of the people of rome against the king and queen. if queen elena were the wife of a country minister in our country, she would be beloved by all who knew her. her domestic virtues, her simplicity of taste and manners, her fondness for children would all be extolled. it would then be no drawback that her vision was not extended, her horizon so narrow. she would be a splendid woman to organise dorcas societies, to teach the infant class in the sunday school, and even to get up thursday night socials. alas! however,{275} she is a sovereign, and of a sovereign so much more is not merely expected but demanded. the way queen elena has shirked her daily chores—court functions, audiences and interest in national activities—during the last few years is a matter of national comment. “she promised so much, she has achieved so little!” one hears on every hand.
the elena of to-day does not seem the same elena who came from montenegro. the reason for her change of character is beyond my ken. but these are facts. as a queen, elena comes close to the line of failure. each time she steps into the blaze of popular admiration the sentiment toward her seems to change, but i notice that like the fickle waves of the sea, this quickly recedes.
queen elena has always been given to hobbies, and as her children take to one hobby or another their regal mother shares their enthusiasm and interest. the king, too, has one hobby that he has indulged in since boyhood and that is the collecting of coins. this fad he took up when he was a very small boy. according to his own statement it was in the year 1879 that one rare coin fell into his hands and he determined to make a “collection.” to-day his collection is reputed the largest and finest in italy. with him, the collecting of the coins is but part of the hobby. around each set of ancient and obsolete coins he has grouped a summary of historical facts so that his collection, if studied carefully would constitute an education in itself. i have been told that the{276} king has nearly sixty thousand different coins! a friend writing to senator morandi who is intimately familiar with the life of the king, asked how victor emmanuel had time to make collections of this sort. to which the senator replied: “in the midst of all the cares of state, by his indefatigable capacity for work, aided by a rare promptitude of perception and by a prodigious memory, he finds time to follow every scientific and literary movement, and to attend to this collection.” as a matter of fact, this is the king’s one hobby. the queen, on the other hand, still indulges several. in the quirinal palace in rome she maintains a studio where she spends many an afternoon working over her sketches and water colours. her interest in the coin collection is rather recent, and at bottom only nominal. it is my impression that this interest on her part is primarily for the sake of her children who will one day own this interesting and valuable collection. the king once related to senator morandi, in a personal letter, the origin of this collection. “i got my chance,” he said, “a soldo (one cent) of pius ix and i kept it. afterwards i got another which i put with the first. presently i secured fifteen different coins of different kinds. then my father gave me about seventy different copper coins. these formed the nucleus of my collection.” for several years prince victor emmanuel pestered every one he knew to give him old coins, especially at christmas and on other gift days. before long{277} he had a collection of three thousand pieces. and now it has attained the proportions of twenty times that number. recently the king testified that this collection has been “an efficacious aid to him in his study of history and geography. besides which, when i have time i always find something useful and pleasing to do, either arranging my coins or searching in books for dates for this purpose!” many an american and english boy and girl has a collection of coins and this testimony of king victor emmanuel may be an incentive to them to continue this hobby, and to make the most of it by following the scientific example of the king in carefully and accurately preserving the full data concerning each coin.
queen elena is still a young woman. if the time ever comes when she determines to throw as much energy and enthusiasm into the everyday work of queenship as she does on the special occasions of crisis she may yet make her mark upon italy. so far she has not done this. in these chapters i have tried to portray queen elena as she is—a real live woman who enjoyed a romantic youth; who made a brilliant marriage; who is a devoted wife and mother; a mediocre queen. i have written without malice and without prejudice. my task is done if my readers can now visualise queen elena—can picture her in her mountain home, a daring, untrammeled girl; can see her as she is to-day, active in her domestic tasks, lunching and dining and driving with the king, bathing{278} the babies and watching over their early slumbers. for to-day elena is wife and mother above all else—and queen incidentally as well as accidentally. it is my impression that the queen business bores her utterly; else she would not do it so badly.
