The Red Cloud chief., 1878-02-07
THE RORYAL CASTE.

There are at the present moment thir
fy-slx reigning s~overeigns in Christen
dom, from the queen of England, {.
whom 237. 900, 900 human beings owe al
legiance, to the Prince of Monaco, whom
5,141 acknowledge as their liege lord
VI thesc princes ten are nOminally Ro
mar catholics, namely: the Emperor,
OF Austria and Brazil, the Kings of II
ally, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Bavaria
Saxony, the Prince of ~Lichtenstein ant
the Prince of Monaco. At least tbre.
OF these monarchs, however, are yer,
far from being on friendly terms witt
the Pope, the King of Italy actually ".
ing under sentence Of excommunica.
ton; while the King of Saxony, him.
sell a Catholic, rules ove a populace
almost exclusively Protestant. The old
maxim OF German %jurists, sCujus oo,a-
mo ejus refigiO," has long wanted a
foundation in fact. OF the remaining
70 princes. two belong to the Greek
church, though the Car and the King
o1 the Helenes belong to different
branches OF it. The other "a are Prot.
estant, 10 being Lutherans, four lin.
Guiding the German Emperor) belong
ing to the Evangelical" confession.
three TO the reformed" church, and
n being the supreme head of the
earth" OF the church of England. But
the vast majority of Queen V~ictoria's
subjects O39, O00, 900 are neither Prot.
estants nor Catholics, but Hindoos.
while the MOhammedans, 40, 900, 900 in
number, are themselves more numer-
Gus than the Professionals OF all denom-
nations i'm the Empire.
The Oldest reigning sovereign is Will
lam, German Emperor and King of
Prussia, who completed his eightieth
year on the 22d of March, 1877, the
youngest is Alphonso XII, of Spain,
who was twenty last birthday, (2Sth of
November, 1870. In this list we do
not count the Pope, because his holi-
ness a scarcely be considered n
longer as a sovereign, and in any case
does not belong TO the royal cast OF
~cousinhOOd of reigning families. The
average age of the sovereigns now
reigning is 4S3 years. 1t may be adj
ded that five out of the thirty six-tO-
wit the Kings of Spain and Bavaria,
the Duke of Brunswick, and the Prin-
cess of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and
Litchenstein-are bachelors, though all
happily provided with heirs presump-
tive. There is only a douhtin one case
as to whether the heir, being a
sovereign who has lost his own
dominions, will be permitted to
succeed to those of his cousin.
At all events, the Brunswickers need
not fear lest they should be left without
a governor, it being generally under
too 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 c~onsorts,
and n has been fortunate enough to
draw three prizes in the great lottery.
The inorganic marriages of certain
princes need not to be taken into ac-
count. The t%hirty-one sovereigns have
between them nincty-five children liv-
ing, TO say nothing of grandchildren,
which gives an average of more than
three to each. The titles borne by the
illuStriOus persOnages are many and va
rious. Five have i'm modern times as
sumed the imperial style. the oldest of
existing imperial titles being that of the
Gar, whose predecessor, Peter the
Great, dubbed himself Emperor in 1892,
and vas soon after generally acknowl-
edged as such. The Emperors of Aus
tria. rs such, date from 1906: the title
of Emperor of Brazil from 1922. The
King of Prussia has been styled Ger
man Emperor" since 1871; and the
Queen of England has beer proclaimed
Empress of India. The title of Dom
Pedro III, by the way, which is that of
Constitutional Emperor and Perpetu-
al Protector of Brazil" is worth moth
ing as one of the rare instances i'm mod
ern times i'm which the language of her
aldry made an effort to be in accord
ance with fact. So the two NapOleons
styled themselves emperors by the will
of the people as well as by the grace of
God. and the First Napoleon even took
at one time the curious designation of
Emperor by the constitutions of the
republic" The old Kings of France
had several centuries before designated
themselves kings by the grace of God
and the will of the MOBILES"
The sovereigns not being emperOrs
are eleven in number, seven dating their
titles from the present century. 1t is
difficult to say which of the kingly IT,
ties i'm existence is the oldest. Those
of Denmark and Norway seem to run
each other closely. On the other hand,
our own sovereigns, though in diplO-
matte documents, they bear a title
which only dates from 1901, are called
by the people they govern and by the
rest of the world Kings or Queens of
England, a title dating from S28, when
il was first assumed BY Egbert. Down
TO the reign of Henry ii. however. the
sovereign seems TO have been more
commonly called the King of the Eng
lish. Harold III was king of the Eng
lish and Lord of the Island of Britain"
Four of the sOvereigns above mentioned
bear titles originally bestowed by the
Pope, the Emperor Francis Joseph be-
ing Apostolic" King Of Hungary.
whatever that may mean. AlphOnsO
MI, the Catholic" King, and the King
of Portugal 1.-The Most Faithful King.
Tn Queens title of defender of the
Faith was conferred on Henry VIII
for an Indifferent theological treatise
AGAINST lone Martinus Eleutherus,"
who was officially proclaimed by the
priyy council ( have ''erred sore"
Those princes who are not emperors or
kings are ..princes." ''dukes," or grand
dukes. A majority of them will proba.
bly have ceased to exist as sovereigns
Aefore very long. Indeed the claim OF
some of the German princes to be re,
garded as independent sovereigns is
Somewhat doubtful. The various con
yentions concluded by Prussia with the