will democracy ever rule in some countries? i will not dare to prophesy, only in so far as there is a tendency gradually spreading which gives hope that in the end it will permeate the entire western life. many years will be necessary for its development here and there—in russia, for instance—but most peoples are almost ready for the change, and unless kings meet the movement and, so to speak, merge themselves in it, leading it, they will pass and their thrones with them. some great crisis will occur, and suddenly the people will themselves displace their dictators.
but the tentacles of royalty are firmly fixed into the beings of many nations. in austria, for example, before the war there was so much royalty that half the austrian army seemed doing sentry duty round the palaces of archdukes. in that country there is a vast amount of clericalism and a vast amount of court stupidity, which, however ridicu{182}lous it may appear to the outside observer, is really the prop upon which the monarchy rests. i should think that the court life there must be one degree duller than in spain.
in italy the people are more clever; the country is alive and prospering, and the king is sufficiently socialistic in his leanings to be in sympathy with the progress and the ambition which he helps to direct.
unfortunately, on our visit to rome, we had arranged, through our ambassador, to be presented both to the vatican and to the court; and at the eleventh hour, before going to the vatican, we were notified by letter that the pope would only receive us on condition that neither before nor after seeing him should we call on the king. this stipulation had been withheld from our ambassador, with characteristic cleverness, until it could put us in a position of insulting the throne by failing to keep an appointment that we had solicited. we were saved from the awkward situation by a telegram that called us back to spain, with the news that my mother-in-law was seriously ill. but that is one of the things that can make the travels of royalty not altogether comfortable.{183}
the princes of the house of orleans have almost all been very clever. they are good financiers, shrewd politicians, witty, and easy in their address. the late king leopold of belgium had these qualities in a high degree, together with the cynicism that often accompanies them. he was less like a king in his palace than like a banker in his counting-house; and he left belgium established in wealth. when his nephew, the present king albert, succeeded to the throne it was the problems of wealth and the dissatisfaction of the working classes that confronted him. how tragic that fact sounds to-day with the country laid waste and despoiled and her people scattered. he is one of the few sovereigns in europe who have clearly seen the power and virtue of the modern socialist movement; and he seemed to me to be alone in his ability to lead it beneficently for itself and its opponents. he had made it an effective engine of social reform instead of a disruptive force of revolution. the king of the belgians is a man of such quiet tact and modesty that he was little known in europe, but that did not prevent him from being one of the wisest and cleverest of its rulers. through a peaceful reign{184} he would have done much for his country. apart from the share he took in the war, he, by his ability as a sovereign, would have been a factor to be reckoned with in world politics. as it was, his success so far in the internal affairs of his kingdom could give lessons to half the governments of europe. if i did not go, at least twice a year, to see for myself what he had been doing, i had come to feel that i was neglecting my best opportunity of education. there are few kings for whom one can feel that!
another sovereign of the orleans family, recently little known but certain to become important, is king ferdinand of bulgaria, the strength of whose secret hand was shown in the downfall of the turkish power in europe. he is a son of the only daughter of louis philippe of france, and therefore my cousin by marriage; and i knew him intimately before he was called to the throne of bulgaria. he has made that country almost single-handed, building it up commercially, attracting money to it for railroads and industrial development, and administering its finances as ably as he administers his own private fortune. his cleverness in using rightly for his own ends circumstances that would pass unper{185}ceived by any one less astute, made him one of the marked men of europe. he used to flatter me that i was the only person who understood him; and i could reply that it was lucky for him, since, if others understood what he was trying to do, they would surely stop him. he has a wonderful mind.
the lives of these men, who are kings in fact as well as in name, are as full and interesting as the life of any one who has work to do and power to do it. they have something to compensate them for the restrictions of grandeur and the cramping stiffnesses of pomp. their dignity has cause. their isolation is inevitable. but, for every one of these, there are hundreds of little princes and princesses, grand dukes and archdukes, and such minor personages of royal blood, who are less free in their lives than kings are and have nothing to occupy their mental idleness.
it astonished me as i went among them to find them supported by a consciousness of self-importance that seemed to me pathetic. i could name a score of such persons, quite unknown, who would never believe that their existence is not a matter of eager public interest to the whole world. they apply{186} themselves to the observances of royal etiquette devotedly. they patronise and condescend to the lesser orders of mankind with a touching sense of their own supremacy. they defend themselves jealously in their degrees of royal blood and precedence, and see themselves as conspicuously exalted as if they had high seats in some hierarchy of heaven just below the eternal throne.
after a little experience, one can recognise these lesser royalties at a glance and pick them out in a crowded drawing-room. they all have the same high-shouldered carriage, stiff-backed, with a stretched neck to carry a raised chin. their lips smile very easily, but their eyes almost never. they are accustomed to being stared at; indeed, they would be disappointed if they did not attract stares; and they seem to present their faces even to a private company, not nervously, nor quite self-consciously, but with an expression of friendly and impenetrable self-complacency that becomes recognisable as the royal mask. they are usually, because of their training, rather stupid, but their dignity makes them look wise. they are always concerned with their own popularity, are gracious by policy,
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king albert of belgium
{187}
and try to leave each individual with the impression that he has been personally distinguished by their notice. they are not only playing a part, but they believe that they are really the part they play; so that any true conversation with them is largely impossible. their minds, like their faces, are always making a public appearance and considering effect.
when they are alone with their own kind, they are free to talk of the matters that really interest them, and it is a conversation as typical as the little gossip of a group of nuns. they have no opinions to express on the problems of government; “it is a duty that they owe the crown” to express none, and consequently they rarely acquire any. they know little of the world around them, and say less. to arrive at any speaking acquaintance with matters of literature and music and art, one must make a mental effort in study, to which the court life of busy empty-mindedness is not conducive. they converse, therefore, about royalty only—the latest marriage, the most recent engagement, the death of this prince, the illness of that, a birth in spain, an archduke’s affair with a mistress in austria—family happenings considered only in their family aspect, as{188} idle as gossip, largely innocent, wholly uninteresting.
i can understand the respect paid to power; and royalty with power is far from ridiculous, even when it is unintelligent; but royalty without power is as great a bore as an aristocracy without the estate to support its pride. we are no longer in the feudal ages. money has now the rule that used to belong to rank. and the chief use of the lesser royalties seems to be to dignify wealth by associating with it. hence the court that the rich pay to them—the eagerness to entertain them, to take them on private yachts, to amuse them with automobile trips, to promote their fortunes on the stock exchange, and even to give them money if they will take it. they are usually too proud, of course; and the money is made by canny aristocrats who charge wealthy “climbers” for introductions to court circles. the unfortunate royalties stifle in stuffy drawing-rooms, smiling on the compliments of aspiring riches, without even receiving a little “tip” for their complacency. life in court was little to my taste; i had found it no place for any one with an instinct for independence. but the accepted life of royalty outside of court seemed to me worse. it was a life for gulls.{189}
when my father was on his death-bed, at the age of eighty, my mother asked him, as she was leaving the sick-room: “when do you want me to come back to see you?” he replied: “no more. no one. let me, at last, have my desire for solitude. let me die alone.” and he did.
before these years of travel were over, i had come to the same conclusion about myself. since there was no life that i thought worth living in courts, and no social life for royalty outside the courts, i would have solitude. but it is easier to find solitude to die in than solitude to live in. by this time i had two sons growing up, whose careers had to be considered; i could not cut them off from the opportunities of advancement that would come from powerful friends and court influence. i was very happy with them, in a companionship that had none of the lack of intimate parental affection so often denied to royalty; and i began to live for them, contentedly, as mothers do.
after all, that is the real life—the natural life—and the best of life while it lasts.
