The record-union., 1891-11-27
EUROPEAN ROYALTY.
Humble Origin of Reigning Fami-
lies of the Great Powers.
The HohenzoIlerns and the Haps-
burgs We're Robbers-The Money
Lending Nobleman-The Election of
Czar-The Bourbons and the
House of Hanover.


is so accustomed to receiving things as
they are without cavil or question, that
most people forget that the royalty of the
present day had its origin either in the
crimes or necessities of men. 1t has fre-
quently happened that great criminal
was able to foist himself on a community
as its leader; at other times aggression
or domestic difficulty induced men for
themselves to choose a leader, and then
from devotion, often perhaps mistaken, to
his family, to adhere to his descendants
when these had lost the ability of their
ancestor. In one or the other of these
two ways every prominent reigning fam
lily of Europe has had it's origin, and
generally from humble beginning. The
Oldest continuously reigning family on
the Continent is that aof the Hohen-
zollerns, compared with whom the other
reigning houses of Europe are but of yes
terday. When the Hohenzollerns first
appeared in history, about the year 1000,
Europeans were still fighting with bows
and arrows, the Saxons still ruled in
England; William the Conqueror was not
born: Paris had just been made the capi-
tai OF France; the various nations OF the
Continent were sending millions Of men
and wasting inestimable treasure in the
effort TO conquer Palestine from the Sa-
racens; the Turks had not made their APP
pearance on the western side Of the Dar-
danelles; the ancestors of the present
reigning house Of Russia were fighting in
the armies of the Tartars; the HapSbGrgS
We're leaders of rowing band of robbers;
the Bourbons were officers in the French
army, had not even been knights, but
when at home were country gentlemen
OF no reputation and very little fortune.
The family of Hohenzollern is, therefore,
the most venerable relic of medieval
times, save the papacy, an institution
which has come down in almost un-
broken succession from the palmiest days
OF the Roman Empire, and presents the
spectacle of the longest unbroken sue
cession of any reigning family in the
present time. The Bourbons came
and went in France and Spain; dynaStieS
chased one another through the royal
halls of Italy; Acts of Parliament from
time TO time changed the succession in
England so often that hereditary right to
the throne long ago became hgure OF
speech; Kingdoms rose and fell; the mag
nificent empire OF Napoleon appeared
and vanished, but still the HohenZollerns
ruled on; not always without opposition,
not always able to accommodate them
selves to the changed times and altera-
tions in popular feeling, but still suffi-
main in power in spite of war abroad and
revolution at home.
The family takes its name from the
little district of Hohenzollern, or the
Hights of Zollern, strip of country now
located in the heart Of Wurtemburg just
north of Switzerland and in the midst of
the SchwartZwald and Suabian Alps, still
marked on the maps by small irregular
yellow streak, and indicated as belonging
TO Prussia. Here the HohenZollernS had a
castle, and began in the fifteenth century
to prominentin the person of the Bur-
grave Frederick VI. The HoZenhollern
historians have devoted much space to
the excellent qualities of this Frederick
and his immediate successors, and no.
body can say that he and they were not
as they are painted, simply because no.
body knows anything about them. There
Is, however, authentic information as to
the character of most of Frederick's
neighbors, the little noblemen who had
castles in the Suabian Alps, and from all
accounts they were the worst set of
thieves and outlaws that ever disgraced
any country. They Were in fact, so bad
that when the Emperor undertook their
subjugation, that task was accomplished
by hanging, without judge or jury, all
that could be caught. Frederick, there
fore, must have been widely different
from any and all of his neighbors il half
told of him in the histories of the Hohen-
Zollerns be true. 1t is quite probable that
he was cut-throat who plundered trav-
elers and eXtorted money from cities and
villages by the summary but effective
process Of threatening to skin the citizens
alive if funds were notimmediately forth
coming. By such simple, yet efficient
financiering, Frederick, who was thrifty
soul, accumulated considerable property,
and when the Emperor Sigismund was
urgently in need of funds loaned him
nfA i l,I~N
mortgage on the Principality of Brauden-
burg. In course of time the debt fell due
but the Emperor could not pay, Freder-
lex foreclosed the mortgage, and in 14l7
took the principality. He thus estab-
lished himself in a new and capacious
home, where, as Frederick l. of Branden-
burg, with the title of Margrave and
Elector of the Empire, he at once began
to put on airs.
The methods by which Brandenburg
was acquired proved SO profitable that by
subsequent Electors they were continued, ,
and various improvements introduced
upon them, as suggested by the weakness
and incapacity OF neighbors, so that the
size of the Brandenburg territory grew
apace until the time of the great Elector,
Frederick William, who called himself
the Duke of Prussia. Frederick Will
lam, finding the diets or little parliaments
of his people hindrances in the way of his
advancement, quietly abolished them
and so prepared the way for his son
Frederick LII. to crown himself King in
170l, under the title of Frederick |. of
Prussia. 1t was the son of this Frederick
who was characterized by MacauIey, in
his essay on Frederick the Great, as
combination of Moloch and Puck. He
deserved the opprobrium heaped upon
him, for he forced domestic discipline by
the use of his cane, and rhrashed his SUBJ
jects as literally as he did his children.
To the relief of his people he died in 1740
made way for Frederick the Great who
Scourged Europe with war for nearly half
q century, and gave place to his nephew,
Frederick William H., and he in turn to
Frederick William H., whose kingdom
was almost annihilated by Napoleon
Frederick William ". succeeded to the
throne IN 1910, and was in 1861 followed
by his brother, William l., who was pro-
claimed German Emperor in the Palace
of Versailles in 1871. Events since the
death of old Kaiser Wilhelm, the success
sion of his son and grandson are too re-
cent to need more than ar allusion.
With genuine German love of the fam
lily ancestral seal. the HohenZollerns have
not forgotten the castle whence their
mighty family started. 1t is still kept up
at the expense of the royal family, with,
of course, a large measure of assistance
from the taxpayers, and some of the
members of the Emperor'S household
spend portion of each year within its
walls.
AS the complimentary chroniclers of
the house of Hohenzollerns trace the
origin of that noble family back to the
Trojans, who fled with -Eneas. so the
historians of the house of Hapsburg do
not hesitate to stretch their imaginations
in assigning an origin to the reigning
family of Austria, and one of those vera
cious tracers of family lines, in his ambi-
as Adam, and beginning with that
worthy. brings the history of the royal