The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1877-03-29
A Chat About Thlrty-Six SovereIgns.
IpauI all lav

A Chat About ThIrty-Six SovereIgnl
Paul Mall Gszette.l
There are at present thirty-six reign
ing soveigns in Christendom, from tn
Queen of England, to whom 2S7, ,0O0, 90
OF human beings owe allegiance, to tn
Prince of Monaco, whom 5,741 subject
acknowledge as their liege lord. o
these princes ten are nominally Roman
Catholics, namely: The EmperOrs O
Austria and Brazil, the Kings of Italy
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Bavaria
Saxony, the Princes of Lichtenstein ant
Monaco. At least three of these mon
archs, however, are very far from being
on friendly terms with the Pope, thu
King of Italy actually lying under sen
tence of accommodation, while tn,
King ofSaxony, himself a Catholic, rulel
over a population almost exclusively
Protestant. The old maxim of German
jurists, "Cujus dominic ejus religio,'
has long wanted foundation in fact
Of the remaining twenty-six princes
two belong to the Greek Church, though
the Gar and the King of the Hellenei
belong to different branches of it. The
other twenty-fOur are PrOtestants, sixteer
being called Lutherans, four (includins
the German Emperor) belong to the
Evangelical Confession, three to the
Reformed Church, and one being the
supreme head On earth of the Church o.
England. But the vast majority o.
Queen Victoria's subjects (139, 200, 900,
are neither Protestant nor Catholic, but
Hindoos, while the Mohammedans, 49,.
600, 900 in number, are themselves more
| numerous than the Protestants of all de.
nominations of the empire.
The Oldest reigning sovereign is Viii.
liam, German Emperor and King ol
Prussia, who complete his eightieth
year on the 22d of March, in the present
year; the youngest is Alphonso XIII
of Spain, who was nineteen last birthday
(2Sth of November, 1876). In this list
we do not count the Pope, because his
holiness can scarcely be considered any
longer as sovereign, and in any case
does not belong to the royal caste OF
cousinhood of reigning families which is
30 distinguishing feauture of modern
history. The: average age of sovereigns
now reigning is forty-seven and a half
years. 1t may be added that five out OF
the thirty-six-to-wit, the kings of Spain
and Bavaria, the duke of Brunswick
and the princes of Schwarzburg- Rudols.
tadt and Lichtenstein-are bachelors,
though happily provided with heirs pre-
sumptive. There is onlya doubt in one
case, as to whether the heir, being a SOW
ereign who has lost his own dominions,
will be permitted to succeed to those OF
his cousin. At all events the Bruins
wickers need not fear lest they should be
left without governor, it being gener-
ally understood that they are the object
of much thoughtful solicitude at Berlin.
Of the thirty.one other sovereigns,
twenty-eight have been once married,
two have taken unto themselves second
consorts and one has b en- fortunate
enough to draw three prizes in the great
lottery. The mOrganatic marriages OF
certain princes need not to be taken into
account. The thirty-onc living sover.
eigns have between them ninety.fve
children living, to say nothing of grand
children, which gives an average of over
three to each. The titles borne by these
illustrious persOnages are many and va
rious. Five have in modern times as.
sumed the imperial style, the oldest OF
existing imperial titles being that of the
Gear, whose predecessor, Peter the Great,
dubbed himself emperor in 1922, and
was soon generally acknowledged as such.
The Emperor of Austria, as such, date
from 1906; the title of Emperor OF
Brazil from 1922. The King of Persia
has been styled German Emperor since
1871; and the Queen of England has
Just been proclaimed Empress of India.
The title of Dom Pedro ii, by the way
| which il that of Constitutional Emperor
and Perpetual Protector of Brazil, il
worth noting as one of the rare instan ces
in modern times in which the language
of heraldry has made an effort to be IN
accordance with fact. So the two Ma
poleons styled themselves emperors by
the will of the people as we'll as the grace
of God, and the First Napoleon ever
took at one time the curious designation
of Emperor by the Constitution of the
Republic. The old kings of France had
several centuries before designated them
selves kings by the grace of God and tn,
will of the mobiles.
The sovereigns not being emperors ART
eleven in number, seven dating theil
titles from the present century. 1t i
difficult to say which of the kingly title
in existence is the oldest. Those O
Denmark and Norway seem to run eacl
other closely. On the other hand on
own sovereigns, though in diplomati
documents they bear a title which onl,
dates from 1901, are called by the peopl
they govern, and by the rest of the world
kings and queens of England, title dat
ing from 1913. when 1t was first as
sumed by Egbert. Down to the reigl
of Henry III, however, the sovereig
seems to have been more c0mmonl.
called King of the English. Harold l
was King Of the English and Lord of tn
Island Of Britain. -Four of the sovereign
above mentioned bear titles originall
bestowed by the Pope, the Empero
Francis Joseph being Apostolic King
Hungary, whatever that may mean
Alfonso XII, the Catholic king, and tn
King of Portugal, the most Faithfn
King. The queens title of Defender 9
the Faith was conferred on Henry VIII
for an Indifferent theological treats
against one Martimus Eleutherus, VIII
was officially proclaimed by the priv
council, to have creed sore." Thos
princes who are not emperors or king
are princes, dukes or grand dukes.
majority of them will probably hav
ceased to exist as sovereigns before YER
long. Indeed, the. claim of some of tn
German princes to be regarded as indt
; pendent soveIeigns issomewhat doubtful
The various conventions concluded b
Prussia with the various states whic
form the empire have been coarsel
termed "treaties between dog and II
heas."
All the monarchies of Christendor
, are now hereditary and nominally cor
stitutional save the empire of Russii
which indeed Comte considered as hay
ing no part in the Western civilization
The Gear still proudly declares himse
! Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias
J and IL his own power sometimes appes
, to be a fiction, at any rate the libertit
of his subjects are equally non-existen
, Hence in Russia there is no such thin
as civil list. properly SC. called. the Czs