It was amidst circumstances such as these that Princess Dorothy was married to Duke Ernest-Gunther of Schleswig-Holstein, neither her father nor her mother being present at her marriage; the reigning Duke of Coburg, as chief of the Coburg family figuring in the place of her parents, and giving her away at the altar.  That with such a father, such a mother, and with a husband of such a past reputation for dissipation and wildness, the little princess should have found happiness in marriage, is, to say the least, surprising.  But the duke seems devoted to his little wife, while she on her side is completely wrapped up in her husband, and thinks him perfect, in every way.

Yet another brother-in-law of the kaiser who is a conspicuous figure at the Court of Berlin, is Prince Adolphus of Schaumburg-Lippe, married to Princess Victoria, the least attractive and least popular of William’s sisters.  After several flirtations of a rather sensational character with young Count Andrassy, and several other gay diplomats and noblemen, which were a source of amusement to the court, although of great concern to her mother, she ultimately fell in love with Prince Alexander of Battenburg, who at the time had just been forced to abandon the throne of Bulgaria, and who was certainly one of the handsomest and most fascinating of European princes.  The prince, who was at the time, to put matters plainly, out of a job, being without fortune or future, was persuaded by his relatives, notably by his brother Henry, who had married Princess Beatrice of England, to apply for her hand; this he did, on the understanding that his marriage to her would facilitate his restoration to the German army, from which he had resigned on ascending the throne of Bulgaria; for as a general of the Prussian army, he anticipated retrieving the prestige and fame which he had lost as ruler of Bulgaria.

Prince Bismarck, however, set his face strongly against the match on the ground that it would impair the friendly relations between the Courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg, Prince Alexander being for personal reasons an object of the most intense animosity to the late czar.  Indeed, it was this hatred on the part of the late Emperor of Russia that had rendered it impossible for Prince Alexander to retain his throne of Bulgaria.  Old Emperor William, supported his chancellor in the matter, and while the late Emperor Frederick, at that time merely crown prince, remained quite passive, the cause of Princess Victoria and Prince Alexander was strongly championed by Empress Frederick and Queen Victoria.  The controversy continued even after the death of old Emperor William, and finally, in face of the persistent hostility in the matter displayed by Prince Bismarck, and by the present kaiser, it was arranged that the couple should be married, not in Germany, but in England, at Windsor Castle, and that they should make their home elsewhere than in Germany.  This, however, did not meet the views