The Queen's Husband

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The family were in the summer residence, the charming little schloss called Rosenau, some four miles from Coburg; and the two Grandmamas had come to visit them. The first thing they did when they arrived was to hurry to the nursery for both Grandmama Saxe-Coburg and Grandmama Saxe-Gotha doted on the two little boys, Ernest aged five and Albert, fondly known as Alberinchen, just a little over a year younger.

Alberinchen was the favourite. He was such a beautiful child with his big blue eyes and dimples. ‘More like a girl than a boy,’ said his nurses. Ernest was bigger than his year’s seniority warranted; he was brown-eyed and more physically energetic than his brother, and although they quarrelled constantly and fought now and then, the children were miserable when separated and because of the closeness of their ages they did almost everything together.

Alberinchen knew, though, that he was the favourite of the grandmothers and what was more important, of his mother, for the happiest times of his life were when she came to the nursery; she was beautiful and different from anyone else Alberinchen had ever known. Life without Ernest would have been inconceivable, for Ernest was almost always there, but his feelings for Ernest were made up of rivalry, companionship and custom; his mother was as beautiful as his conception of an angel; she laughed all the time and her suffocating caresses filled him with bliss.

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