At the opening of Parliament in
1840, her Majesty commenced her speech by the announcement of her
intended marriage, describing the bridegroom simply as "the Prince of
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha," the same expression which she had used in
addressing the Privy Council a few weeks before. That description of him
had at once struck her uncle, Leopold--who, since the death of his
English wife, the Princess Charlotte, had become King of Belgium--as so
imperfect and insufficient, that, on reading her address to the Privy
Council, he at once wrote to her to point out that it would have been
desirable to mention the fact of the Prince being a Protestant,[250] and
that the omission would inevitably cause discontent. But, in spite of
this warning, Lord Melbourne refused to advise the Queen to insert a
statement of the Prince's religion in her speech, though it was by no
means superfluous on such an occasion, since, if he were a Roman
Catholic, a marriage with him would have incurred a forfeiture of the
crown. The Duke of Wellington, on the other hand, regarded it as a
positive duty to require that the fact of the Prince being a Protestant
should be mentioned, so as to show the care of Parliament to prevent any
constitutional precautions from being overlooked, such statement having,
indeed, been usually made on similar occasions.
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