Queen Maud of Norway: A Homesick Immigrant (1869-1938) by Rachel Faldet At First Around morning rush hour, I step off an express train from Gatwick airport into unexplained confusion. Officials shout. The Underground in central London is closed. Taxi drivers don’t stop. My traveling companion and I drag suitcases-on-wheels away from London Victoria station, consult a paper map, walk miles toward the Victoria & Albert Museum. I persuade a nearby hotel concierge—who learns we are jet-lagged Americans—to keep our bags, though we are not guests. In the museum, en route to an arts and crafts gallery, we chance upon Style & Splendour: Queen Maud of Norway’s Wardrobe 1896-1938. Clothed mannequins are my unfulfilled gaze as a loudspeaker commands everyone to evacuate the galleries, gather together, stay in the building. A suspicious bag is on the pavement. Unhinged, not knowing the magnitude of public terror, I long to sneak to cases of glass-beaded evening gowns and fur-trimmed daywear, shoes, and clutch handbags, study their details and detach from the problem of how, with transportation shut down, we will get to our out-of-the-city destination where a bed is waiting. On July 7, 2005, I crave Queen Maud. Royal Pedigree from Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland Princess Maud Charlotte Mary Victoria, granddaughter of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, did not grow up in the country where she was crowned. European royals typically looked to other countries for marriage partners, with politically-motivated match-makers pushing cousins together. Royal marriage partners could stay within their social class, gain titles, make powerful alliances, but also be lonely, not knowing whom to trust. At times, as with first cousins Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of SaxeCoburg and Gotha, there was also love. That pair produced nine children, including Princess Maud’s father, heir to the British Empire. Unraveling the descendants of Queen Victoria—who was crowned in 1837 at eighteen and died at eighty-one in 1901—is tricky, because relatives were often named the same name and/or had nicknames. Given names could change when acquiring titles through inheritance, marriage, or reward. Dynastic houses—the Germanic Hanoverians in Princess Maud’s grandmother’s case—relied on mystique and relevance to survive, because monarchies can be viewed as parasites. For instance, after Prince Albert died in 1861, the widowed queen embraced perpetual mourning in black clothing, hiding from her subjects, even refusing to wear the Imperial State Crown because its showcase gems were colored. To dampen antimonarchy rumblings and unrest, jewelers made the 1870 Small Diamond Crown, set with over 1000 colorless diamonds, for the queen to wear during official events. The Imperial State Crown, carried on a cushion, accompanied her to symbolically 26
Queen Maud likely wore this dress during World War I. Fur-trimmed summer dress in silk and embroidered tulle, 1915-1917. Photo: Nasjonalmuseet for kunst, arkitektur og design, Oslo, Norway. Used with permission.
Vesterheim