Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1890-11-27
DEATH OF A KING.
William of Holland Finally Passes
Away.

The King of Holland died at the
Hague on the morning of Nov. 23.
The life of King William III OF Hol-
Land, must be divided into two distinct
and separate parts. His public life as
the constitutional sovereign of the
Newfoundland as the benfactor of
his country has been above reproach.
On the other hand his private life has
been beneath all contempt. His i'm
moralities and debaucheries have rem
dered his name very bye-word
among European monarchs. Certain
ly no monarch of the present century,
with the possible exception of King
George Nv of England and Victor
Emanuel, of Italy, have given rise to
so much scandal and although he
goes down to his grave mourned by
his subjects as a kindly and patriotic
king, yet his memory abroad will live
as that of one of the great proAigates
of the present age. Probably this
somewhat peculiar anomaly is due to
the fact that most of his intrigues and
love affairs took place abroad, chiefly
in Paris and on the shores of the lake
OF Geneva, in Switzerland while,
when at home, either in his palace at
the Hague or in his beautiful county
seat at Loo, his conduct was exceed
ingly decorous and praiseworthy.
For several months past his exist
ence has been prolonged mainly by
artificial means. His sufferings have
been OF such nature as to render his
life but living death, and so horrible
was his condition that no one was
able to remain in the sick room for
more than few minutes at time.
Meanwhile he refused to receive any
medicine or any care excepting from
the hands Of his wife, Queen Emma,
young princess just forty-two years
his junior; and the touching devotion
and attention with which she has per-
formed her painfnl and loathsome task
for the past few months goes far to
disarm the criticism 10 which she sub
jected herself when in 1879 she sold
her q years and her beauty to Ga
year-old William for the sake OF be-
D.
However, her task is at an end.
The cabinet, realizing the fact that
William could scarcely be regarded
any longer as a living creature, de-
clared him incapacitated from reign
ing, and the regency was vested in
the hands of the young queen as the
guardian of her little 10-year-old
daughter Wilhelmine, who will be
proclaimed as queen regent of Hol-
land.
King William was born in Febru.
airy, 1917, his mother being Russian
grand duchess, the daughter of the
crazy Gar Paul OF Russia. He as
cended the throne OF the Netherlands
on the death of his father, King Will
liam III, in 1S49, having married ten
years previously Princess Sophie of
Wurtemburg, who was one of the
most remarkable and talented women
OF her time. She died in 1877, after
having given birth to two sons. The
eldest of the two, well-known in Paris
by the nickname of "Citron,m almost
excelled his father in repution as
profigate, and died at Paris some fif-
teen years ago. The second son,
Prince Alexandra, cripple and phys
ically deformed. died few years af-
forwards of consumption. In 1879
King William married the 21-yeor-
old daughter of the reigning prince OF
Waldeck Pyrmont, one OF the most inn
poverished of the petty reigning SOW
ereigns of Germany. BY this mar
riage he had one little daughter, born
in 1880, and on whose head is conferred
all Hollands hopes. ''