Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1889-06-19
KINGS AND PRINCES.
The Numerical Strength Of Eu-
ropes Royal Houses.
Ups and Downs of Dynasties That Have
Played Important Parts in Making
neutrality-suspicious. of the
German Families.

1u0 ups ana downs OF the relgn1n2
houses of Europe have been much dis
cussed of late. Ali those are recognized as
being of royal blood members of whose
families now occupy or at one time have oc-
cupied thrones. According to official re-
ports, published in Harper's Weekly, there
are now % such royal families in Europe, with
459 male members, so that each dynasty
averages IL Princes, number reached,
however, only by 10 of them. OF these q
families no less than Is are German, name
ly, the Hohenzollern, Wittelsbach, Victim,
Wurtemberg, Zahringen, Hessen, Mecklen-
burg, Holstein, Anhalt, Schwarzburg,
Reuss, Schaumburg, Lippe, Waldeck, Haps-
burg Lorraine, Welt, Nassau and Liechten-
stein; six are Romantic or Latin, namely,
Bourbon, Savoyen. Braganza, Monaco,
Bonaparte, Bernadotte: two are Slav,
namely, Obrenowltch and Njenosh; and one
is Turkish, namely, Osman. OF the Ger
man no less than five, and Of these the his
toric houses of Hohenzollern, Welt and
Hapsburg originated in the little Swabian
Wurtemberg. The preponderance of the
German dynasties is all the greater, be-
cause Of the Al actually existing thrones,
they occupy SO. OF these % are in the Ger
man Empire, IL ~are in other countries
namely, Austro-H Hungary, Russia, England,
Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Portugal,
Roumania, Bulgaria, Greece and Liechten:
stein, The Romantic dynasties occupy only
five thrones, namely, those of Italy, Spain,
Brazil, Monaco and Sweden-Norway. The
Slav dynasties are found only in Servia
and Montenegro. Nothing is clearer from
these data than that the nationality of the
reigning families has had but little inf1u-.
ence in determining the political ideas and
aims of the people they govern. Notwith-
standing the thorough German character
of the Russian reigning house, the politics
OF the country is as decided in its anti
German character as though its rulers were
Slaxs.
The religion of eleven of these dynasties
IN entirely Protestant, of five others the
greater. number of the members are
Professionals. To these last belong such
houses as the Hohenzollern of Prussia of
which the older and Catholic side lines
are not entitled to the royal succession in
any case; also the house of Victim, of
which the Catholic King Of Protestant Sax
ony is+he leading representative; the Hol-
stein house of Denmark. of which the
members In Greece and Russia belong to
the Orthodox Eastern church, and the
Wurtemberg and Lippe houses The
Romantic dynasties are all Catholic. exec ut
Norway. These exceptions to the FREEDOM
mating religion of dynasty have in near
ly all cases resulted from the acceptance of
throne in country with different ma
tional religion. Where such change is
not made it is the result Of special stipula-
ton, as Is the case with Princess Sophia. of
Prussia, who in becoming engaged to the
Crown Prince of Greece, insisted upon her
adherence to the Protestant faith. Three
German dynasties are entirely Catholic
namely, the Hapsburg- Lorraine the Wittels,
bach-te which the rulers OF Bayeria belong
land Liechtenstein.
Numerically the strongest is the Danish
house of Holstein, with its IS living Princes,
next TO which comes the Saxon house of
Victim, with SO Princes. Members of the
former family rule in Russia, Greece.
Denmark and Oldenburg; of. the latter in
five German States and in Belgium, Portu-
| gal and Bulgaria, and viii, when the Welt
family becomes extinct at the death of
| Queen Victoria, wear the crown of Great
britain and ireland. The house Of Hohenzol.
lern, which lost in 1883 not only the two En-
perors Wilhelm l. and Frederick III. bpt
also the last member OF its Oldest line. the
Hohenzollern-H echingen, still have twenty
Princes in its ranks, of whom eight are less
than fifteen years old. Another side branch
| win become extinct when the childIess
| Charles Of Rcpmania dies, who viii be sue
ceeded by his nephew, Prince Ferdinand.
OF the once so powerful house Of Bour-
bon only one representative now occupies q
throne, and he is an infant, namely, the
King OF Spain. There are stin 40 Princes
OF this dynasty, of whom only one seems 70
have chance to occupy 3 throne, namely,
that Of Brazil where the husband Of the