River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-11-04
MOrganatic Marriages.

The morganatic marriage of the Car
of Russia and the Princess DolgOr0uki,
though for some time anticipated
would seem to have followed hard up
on the Czarina's death. But it can
scarcely be considered hasty when it
is remembered that the princess has
been some twelve years Alexander's
mistress and is now the mother of sew
eral of his children He certainly loves
her far more passionately than pru-
IDENTIFY, as many of his impolitic acts
prompted by her influence, and his
great desire to make her the partner of
his throne as well as of his heart,
abundantly attest. His love for her of
late according to all accounts, the alb
sorbing emotion of his life, and his evil
dent determination to indemnify her,
so far as practicable, for the very I'M
conventional past, is by no means com
mon with sovereigns. He could not
easily have taken any step which
would have met with less approval in
his own dominions than have his pc
culiar nuptials just celebrated. But
when love burns in the breast of an
emperor nearly SO years old, prudence
is not to be expected Morganatic
marriages have for centuries been
made by German princes; and as the
Romanofis are German by blood, it is
natural enough that their present head
should follow his ancestral custom.
Neither the wife nor her children are
entitled, usually in a union of this kind
to share the rank or possessions of the
husband, the dowry being considered q
requital for the loss of ordinary con
nubial rights and privileges. One of
the most noted of such alliances was
that of Frederick William III of Prussia
with the Countess Auguste Won Harrach
who at the time of the wedding, was
made Princess of Liegnitz. Out of the
usage has gradually arisen code of
matrimonial law by which the union
of princes with the members of the
lower order in other than mOrgantic
form has been attended ty very serious
consequences, mainly to the women.
The lovely and unhappy Agnes
Bernauer, whom Duke Albrecht of
Bavaria had espoused, was savagely
put to death, in the fifteenth century,
during the absence of her lord on
charge of having bewitched him. In
the sixteenth and seventeenth cen
turtles the German princes were in the
habit of taking morgantic wife i'll adj
dition to a regular wife. Landgrave
Philip of Hesse set the example,
though not without the disapproval of
the leading reformers. During the
past century Anton Ulrich, Duke of
Sake Meiningen, tried hard to depart
from the established rule in an effort
to obtain for his moragantic wife the
title of Duchess and for her children the
right of succession. The emperor sus-
tanned by the highest nobility of the
realm, refused his suit declaring that
there could be no complete marriage in
princely families except between per-
sons of equal birth Morganatic mar
riages have not decreased in Germany
during the last sixty or seventy years.
One of the most remarkable instances
was the marriage of the daughter of
the postmaster of Ansee (Styria), after
ward created Countess of Meran, to
the Archduke John. These left-hand-
ed connections are recognized and toll
Grated among the higher aristocracy
not less than among princely lines. In
Prussia, even the inferior gentry may,
and often do, contract them. Therese
Elssler. who visited this country well
nigh forty years ago, on dancing tour
with her then renowned sister Fanny,
was morgantically married ten years
later to Prince Adamhert of Prussia,
and was enObled as Frau Won Barnein.
The Roman and Greek churches have
virtually sanctioned morganatic mar
riagcs, which are palpably unjust to
women, to true domesticity, and to the
best interests of morality.