All was not sunshine, rose-bloom and soft airs before the young German
husband of the Queen. Much doubt and jealousy and some unfriendliness
were waiting for him in high places. The disappointed Tory party, and
some Radicals, opposed hotly the proposed grant for the Prince of
L50,000, and at last cut it down to L30,000.
Then came a discussion over a clause in the Bill for the Naturalization
of the Prince, empowering the husband of the Queen to take precedence
over even the Royal Princes, and to be ever at her side, where he
belonged, which, though finally assented to by these most interested in
England--the Dukes of Sussex and Cambridge--was stoutly opposed by their
elder brother, the Duke of Cumberland, for Heaven and Hanover had not
relieved the English Government of "the bogie." In support of his rights,
Wellington and Brougham stood out, and the clause was dropped. But the
Queen, by the exercise of her prerogative, gave the Prince the title of
Royal Highness, and made him a Field Marshal in the British army; and
about a month later, she settled the precedence question, as far as
concerned England, by proclaiming that by her royal will and pleasure her
husband should "enjoy place, pre-eminence and precedence, next to Her
Majesty.
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