(Analysis below!)
Sire
It was a privation for me not to write to you for so long, but it was only a few days ago that we came back from a trip that my dear parents made so that I would see different relatives and good friends again and that I take my leave from them, before the time when I have to go to my new homeland, which is dear to me already, I beg you to believe it, because it is yours, because you love it and you are called to live for it; and during that time I hardly had a moment for myself, because in a trip like this there are so many people and things that you want and that you have to see again.
It was on my way back that I received the letter of February 18 which you were kind enough to write to me; it was for me one of the most pleasant moments during all this time, because your letters make me so happy, it is then that I find an answer to the feelings which now occupy mainly my heart; Whenever I hear from you I feel closer to you, you can then judge my joy when I received your good letter of 27.
I thank you with all my heart, because it made me very happy. But I once again urge you to never let yourself stop writing, when and as you like, by the reserve or by the fear of fatiguing me, that is an impossible thing! Although I am still far from you, I already live and feel for you, it is therefore the sweet duty that Providence imposed on me and for which I always give thanks, and my happiness consists in sharing your feelings, your joys and your woes; but for that you must tell me about it and, if you do not do it now, you will cause me a great privation.
Which is the life that is without difficulties, without pain? The more we learn to live, the more we notice that they are basically the daily woe and that true joys are only light rays that are sent to us from time to time so that we do not lose heart, to elevate our spirit, to aid us regain new strength in the struggle for life. I have, of course, still very few experiences, but I have the feeling that it must be so in life and that the more we advance in it, the greater the struggles become, but the strength also increases and the experiences , often unpleasant, that we had to go through, help you by enlightening you. It is the story of the life of each human, no matter how small the circle in which he moves, how much more it must be so in an elevated position, where the duties are greater, more extensive! But then, God who is just also gives more strength and light and, when we trust Him, we arrive at Good while recognising our own helplessness.
I also believe that there can be the vice of work, like the vice of idleness, although it is much less common than the latter; it has its danger too, because it is not always for having worked enormously that one arrives at once to the best result; I believe that you must also have free time to reflect on your work, in order to collect the best fruits; and then it is a duty not to push the virtue of work, which is also a source of true happiness, to an excess which, after a certain time, renders one incapable of exercising it.
Ah! Sire, it seems to me that you are quite right in saying that the court is the friction of height and baseness; this is why, when one lives there and especially when one has to be at the head of it, one must try to look at it from a very elevated point of view so as not to be able to be affected by its intrigue and his pettiness and to have next to a sanctuary that his troubles cannot reach.
That is the family; it is the sanctuary, where you must always be able to retire to rest from business, to forget the noise of the world, to enjoy these joys so sweet that family life alone can give you, may God grant for that His Holy Blessing, may these family bonds be devoted entirely to Him, so that He may preserve them, so that they become ever closer and sweeter, because as happy, as close as they are, they are human and for that imperfect and fragile, without His help, without His grace.
I still have one thing in my heart, that I must tell you, although in any relationship other than ours it might perhaps almost seem like an affectation, something that between us cannot exist; this is that by seeing the way much too benevolent, much too flattering in which you think of me, I cannot help the fear of not being able to answer in reality to what you expect from me, and I beg of you heartily not to believe it, as this is the truth: that I would have in the accomplishment of my mission only my love for you and my good will, all the rest will depend on the grace of God.
It was very good of you, to have kindly taken into account my desire to get to know a little of the political press of my new country and to have sent me for this purpose the most significant newspapers; receive all my thanks!
My dear parents warmly commend themselves to your fond memories, Sire; the good letter you wrote to my beloved Maman touched her well and made her happy. Allow me to recommend to your benevolence my brothers and my young sister who are good and full of tenderness for me and who are now transferring some of the feelings they have for me to you, Sire.
I dare ask you to respectfully remind me of the memory of the King your Father and to present my tender tributes to Her Excellency the Dowager Empress.
Comments:
This letter, written sometime in late February or early March 1858, sees Stephanie preparing further and further for her new role as Queen of Portugal. Her parents take her on a tour to bid her goodbyes to friends and family, one which, she says, was so busy, that she unfortunately barely had the time to write to King Pedro.
And yet, Stephanie is using growingly affectionate terms towards her future husband.
She tries – and this is a constant in other letters – to give him incentive to write to her, as she seems to enjoy receiving his letters very much. Pedro’s reasons for avoiding to write might not be only caused by modesty, but also by his own character: Stephanie gently admonishes him against overworking, reminding him that working too much is just as useless as working too little, as one will not be productive enough or do the work properly.
She also says, for the first time in one of her letters, that she loves him – although they have never seen each other. Much as one could say that she is attempting to grant the King’s favour, from the overall tone of her letters and the reports that reach our days (from people such as Queen Victoria), Stephanie does seem a very affectionate person, and her relationship with Pedro will reflect that, as we will see in later letters to her mother.
Her approach to life seems very stoical – life is meant for suffering, and every once in a while, something pleasant happens to give people strength to carry on. This is a bit in the line of her husband’s approach to his life and his work. They are beginning to understand they share moral values: the Court is corrupted and frivolous, something they both disapprove.
But as Pedro is the head of the Country and the Court, he must endure it, and take refuge in family – his sanctuary – when he can. Stephanie makes a soft attempt at reminding him that people are humans, even his family, and that much as the relationships might often be strained, it is on family that he can always truly rely upon.
A very interesting detail is how Stephanie asks him to send her the main political papers, so she may begin to learn the political climate of the country; equally interesting is that Pedro agrees, thus showing he considered Stephanie a peer, and was opening her the doors to her new Consort statues as having some sort of political knowledge.
Pedro did not expect Stephanie to exclusively be a fashionable, entertaining queen, and Stephanie, sweet as she might seem, was surely no fool, and wanted to be informed and know what she was getting herself into. She’d already begun learning the Portuguese language, as she says in a previous letter.
The two families now seem to be actively writing to each other. Earlier in the year, Stephanie got a letter from one of Pedro’s sisters; now, he is writing to her Mother, and she is recommending her siblings to him.
They seem to be keen on becoming true “partners in crime”, so to say: true partners as King and Queen, supporting each other in their difficult task of ruling a country affected by decades of civil war and instability. For that, it would be essential to have a supporting family structure and, even more important, to have honesty between them – as Stephanie says, “there can be no affectation”.
The Historian Chronicles 