The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-08-31
A PRINCESS OF ROMANCE.
The Stery of the widew of the Last Elector
Of Hesse.

The Story of the WideSv of the Last Electo,
Of Hesse.
The London Telegraph says: OF
the strange life stories that mar be
CLEANED from that portion of the cal
manach de Gotha" dealing with dynas
tic and personal facts, few are more
romantic than that which has Just been
concluded by the demise of Gertrude
Won Hanau, the widow of the last
elector of Hesse. Her titular descrip.
tion, taken from the German civilstands-
register, or official obituary record, is in
itself the skeleton of three-volume
novel. 1t runs as follows: Gertrude,
Princess of Hanau, Countess of
Schaumburg, nee Falkenstein, divorcee
| Lehman"
This interesting parsonage, who died
a short time ago at Prague, in her sew
enty-seventh year, was the daughter of
well-to-do wine merchant established
at Bonn about the commencement of
the present century. Endowed by ma
ture with extraordinary personal at
fractions, she. had several offers of
marriage while still in her teens, and
bestowed her hand, some fifty
eight years ago, =, upon young
Prussian paymaster called Leh-
mann, d, then serving in the
Seventh lancers, regiment quar-
tered at Marienwerder, in West Prus-
sia. Shortly after her union to this
person she paid visit to her parents
in her native town, and during her
stay with them made the acquaintance
of Frederick William, electoral prince
of Hesse and a captain of Prussian
cavalry in garrison at Bonn. The
young officer, who had quilted his
fathers court in consequence of a
quarrel with the reigning electors
friend" Countess Reichenbach, and
was, oddly enough, notorious for his
disapproval of princely peccadilloes,
fell desperately in love with "AIrs.
Captain Lehmann," and soon proposed
to make practical recantation of his
high principles in her favor, by carry
ing her off from her husband. The
fair Gertrude, however, promptly gave
him to understand that her views were
exclusively matrimonial. She was, in
deed, already wife, but suggested to
his serene highness that her husband,
Lehman. was sensible and
manageable fellow, open to reasons of
a certain sort, and that in all proba-
bility little judicious persuasion
would convince him of the expediency
of parting with his handsome spouse
for consideration. Negotiations were
opened between the husbands in esse
and in posse, resulting in hard cash
transaction, whereby Lehman became
the happy possessor of $75 900. Having
pocketed this comfortable little com
pensation he proceeded to institute a
divorce suit against his wife upon the
plea of "incompatibility of tempera-
ment," and as soon as the degree of
scleidung had been pronounced, Ger
trude Falkenstein, eX-Lehmann, was
led to the altar by her all-serenest"
suitor, who few months later con-
ferred upon her the title of Countess
Won Schaumburg. The wedding took
place in the autumn of 1881, the year in
which popular discomfort with the
elector Williams regime in Hesse COM
PEELED that singularly dissolute poten-
tate to nominate his son co-regent-a
step which practically amounted to his
abdication in favor of Frederick Will
liam. Frau Won Schaumburg, there
fore-at that time in the zenith of her
beauty-had not long to wait for the
position and power to which she had
aspired when she resolved to part from
the husband of her girlhood's choice,
who, by the way, had been compelled
to throw up his commission in the Prus-
sian service by his brother officers, and
into dishonorable obscurity
with the price of his infamy. When she
took up her abode, however, in the Hes
sian capital her new mother-in-law, the
aunt of the present Ger
man emperor refused to sit in the
same box with her at the court thea
tire, whereupon Frederick William
gave orders that his mother should
thenceforth not be admitted to that
place of entertainment. Toward the
end of the year the aged electress, ig-
noring her sons prohibition, paid a
visit to the theatre one evening, and
was enthusiastically cheered by the au-
dience upon her appearance in a pri-
vate box. This demonstration was
continued in the streets when she left
the house, and led to the populace
being charged by the electors body
guard, with drawn sabers, at his Sc
rene highness' express command. The
Hessians never forgave their elector
for giving this barbarous order. By
causing his subjects to be ridden and
cut down for cheering his own mother
"a venerable and deeply respected
princess - Frederick William utterly
destroyed his popularity in the realm of
his ancestors. Between 1881 and 1850
Countess Schaumburg bore her hus
band seven sons and two daughters
Early in the latter year she was created
Princess of Hanau by the emperor of
Austria. On the electors death in
1875 she inherited the whole of his
enormous fortune, invested in state
securities and railway stock, which
will be divided among her eight surviv-
ng children, the youngest of whom
s lieutenant in the Fourth regiment