The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-10-30
Unhappy Royalty.
Risks Incurred by Pretenders to and Oc-
cupants of the French Throne-Only One
Since Louis XIV has Died Peacefully in
France.

Since Louis XIV has Died Peacefully IN
France.
The banquet at Chambord and sundry other
manifestations show that the French throne is
still regarded as prize worth winning, and
yet it has been in recent times, at any rate, sim
gularly fatal to its occupants. Only one French
king since Louis XIV, the Well Beloved, (who
narrowly escaped being assassicated by Dami-
ems and whose coffin was pelted with mud),
says the Paris correspondent of the Pail Mall
Gazette, has died peacefully in France, and
that king Nouis XVIII) was twice an ex-
lie. Louis XVI. perished on the seaffold; Ma
poleon 1. died at st. Helena; Charles X. at
Goritz: Louis Philippe at Claremont; Napole-
on III. at Chiselhurst. 1t is remarkable
fact, too, that since the accession OF the Bour-
bons only two direct heirs to the crown have
reigned in France-Louis XIII, who assembled
the throne after the Jesuits had assassinated
his father, Henry w., and Louis XIV, who
succeeded Louis XIII. Louis XIV. was there
fore the last dauphin who inherited the crown.
He had several sons and grandsons, but they
all died before him, with the exception of his
grandson the Due d'Aniou, who had been
S6stltu Ou tuc lUTOuo VI SPAIN III opibO VI A<Nh'
Peterborough and the Austrians, and who
founded the Bourbon line across the Pyrenees.
The dauphin of Louis XIV. died, leaving be-
hind him three sons-the dukes Of Burgundy,
Anjou and Bertrand Louis XIV. was the son
of the eldest of the three brothers. The grand
monarque was therefore succeeded, after the
regency of the duke of Orleans, by his great
grandson. Fearing on his death-bed that the
Bourbon line might become extinct, he de-
clared his illegitimate children, eight of whom
had been legitimatized capable of succeeding
to the throne of France in default of princes
of the blood. However, in due time, and az
though it was generally supposed that the
duke of Orleans would make away with the
youthful monarch, Louis XIV. mounted the
throne. Louis XIV, before he was sixteen
years old, married the daughter of the king of
Poland, and "such was the joy occasioned by
this pledge of peace given to Europe and OF
grandeur to France" wrote Charles de Rozier,
"that lawyers pleaded without fees and dem
fists drew teeth for nothing" By this mar
riage Louis had six children-fve daughters
and one son. Three of his daughters survived
him, and had in their old age to fly before the
revolution. The dauphin who preferred the
company of scholars and savants to the dissipa-
tions of Versailles, and who possibly would
have made an excellent monarch, died at tho
early age of thrty-six. Beneath his portrait
Voltaire wrote:-
Connu par ses vertus plue que par ses trayaux,
ii sut penser en- sage, ct mourut en- heros.
And, if we are to believe La Harpe, copy
of Locke was found under his pillow when no
died. The first wife of the dauphin died be-
fore she had been year married in giving birth
to daughters but by a second marriage with
the Princess Marie Josephe of Saxony, Louis
of France had five children-Mme. Clothilde,
who married the king of Sardinia, Mime. Eliz-
abetb, who was guillotined during the reyolu-
tion, and three sons who were all destined to
1dle over France-Louis XVI, Louis XVIII.
and Charles X. The house of Valois came to
an end with the three sons OF Henri and Cath
crime de Medecis, who reigned successfully as
Francis H., Charles TX. and Henri Ill; and
the probability seems, in spite of the predic-
tions of Nostradamus and other prophets, that
the elder Bourbon line is destined to end in the
same manner with triple reign. Louis ~.
was succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI,
and the fate of the dauphin of that unfortu-
nate monarch, who paid the penalty of the fol-
lies and vices of his predecessors, forms one OF
the most gloomy episodes OF French history.
The only son of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoi-
nette was tortured to death in the temple The
French throne was next filled by Napoleon l.,
who in order to have direct heir to the throne
and to found dynasty put away the Empress
Josephine and married Marie Louise OF Aus
tria. A son was born, but the spell renamed
unbroken, and the king of Rome died at Vien-
na duke Of Reichstadt and colonel Of an Aus
trian cavalry regiment-a victim, according to
the ''Memoirs Of Marshal Marmont' of the as
siduity with which, in spite of feeble consti-
tuition, he performed his military duties.
THE CROWN TO THE BoURDoNs.
England having taken the eagle and Aus
tria the eaglet, the French crown returned to
tba ap1 nuis XVIII aSCpn1pI the
was succeeded by his brother, Charles K, VINO
had two sons, the Due d. Angouleme, who be-
come dauphin and who lad no children, and
the Due de Berri, who was stabbed on the
steps of the Opera in 1920, by Louvel, and
whose wife was seven months afterwards con-
fined of a son, who was called duke OF Bor-
deaux, but who is now known as the Comte de
Chambord ''The royalists,'' says French
historian, "hailed the newborn prince as the
child of miracle, and saw in this event the
presage of long and glorious destinies for the
elder branch of the Bourbons." Ten years
later Charles X, the dauphin and the "child OF
miracle were driven into exile and conveyed
to England on board an American ship belong
ing to Mr.. Patterson, the father-in-law OF
jerome Bonaparte. In 1888 Chateaubriand
visited the aged monarch at Prague Il was
overcome with emotion" he wrote, on see
ing in the residence of the emperor of Austria,
the sixty-eighth king of France, bent under
the weight of seventy-six years, twenty-four OIL
which had been passed in exile, and hve ON
tottering throne. Tho monarch is ending his
days with his grandson, whose father was as
saSsinated and whose mother is captive
(confned in the fortress of Blaye, for exciting
a revolution in La Vendee against Louis Phill-
ippe) The last dauphin OF France, the Due
d. Angouleme, was destined to die like his
father at Goritz. The crown now passed from
the elder to the younger Bourbon branch, but
fate remained inexorable. Before Louis Phil
ippe was driven from France, he had the mis-
fortune to lose his eldest son, the duke OF Or-
leans, who was thrown from his carriage and
killed on the spot. When the storm OF 1913
arrived the duchess of Orleans tried to save
the crown for the Comte de Paris, but her
courageous efforts were unsuccessful and the
royalists were swept away root and branch. In
1852 the French throne was once more occu-
pied and another attempt was made TO per-
petuate tho imperial dynasty. After the
crushing defeat of Sedan, Napoleon Ill lost his
throne, and it is needless to recall how the
prince imperial fell in the Zulu war With
regard to the Bonapartes, it is curious to re-
mark that the present head of the house IS
the youngest child of the youngest brother OF
Napoleon l.; also, that before divorcing jose
phine the emperor wished for reasons it would
be rather delicate to relate) to settle the sue
cession on the eldest son of his brother Louis.
Again death interfered, and the imperial
throne descended, not to the eldest, but to the
third son of Louis and Hortense. Looking at
these facts, it is perhaps, not very astonishing
to find the adherentS of pretenders TO the
French throne more anxious than the pretend
ers themselves to disturb the existing order OF
things.
Senator Blaine's Movements.