The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-06-02
FALLEN FROM POWER.
The Fate Of Queens Not Born to
the Purple.

~ 49,
thronement. For some occult reason
| women not born to the purple" fail
TO mold the crowns that chance has
! placed within their grasp, and under
varying conditions drop from their
feeble fingers the visible insignia OF
dominion. Natalie of Servia Is the
| latest victim of this seemingly strange
decree of fate. She is protesting with
all the vigor of one deeply wronged
| and who knows her rights, but so far
| without avail. A shameful conspiracy
severed the CALLING but bearable
| chains that linked her to an unloved
| husband. Another plot tore ON her
| arms the youthful son who is now
the nominal sovereign of SeFvia. By
! a third attack she has been expelled
| from her adopted country, and at
present endures the pangs of a be-
| reaved mother, an abandoned wife,
an insulted woman and a diserowned
queen.
In face of it all she holds her SPLEEN
did courage and her regal front. Her
expulsion from the kingdom cost
several lives. and she left behind at
her enforced departure a multitude OF
loyal subjects, who only await an OPP
portunity to bring her home in
tIlullDis Out lA1lb CRICA 49, -
among the possibilities, not the prob
abilities. The peace OF Europe,
the s'balance of power" and other
diplomatic exigencies are urged in
favor of her permanent exile and
separation from her son. A bitter
cup for a beautiful woman to drink at
the age of thirty-two, is it not! And
q large price she has paid for the
privilege OF gratifying her ambitionl
it was in 1876 that Natalie, daughter
of the Russian colonel, kechco, threw
| over a devoted sutton of her W race
| to wed the fat-witted sensualist Milan.
By so doing she has figured somewhat
in the worlds affairs. She might
have been obscure and happy. Now
she is neither.
Yet Natalie's sorrows are but a
| duplication of those endured by many
who have gone before, and who rose,
like her. to find a throne an uneasy
and ~precarious seat. Chief on the list
of her unhappy predecessors appears
| the name of Josephine, that peerless
maiden of Martinique. who found in
France her fame, her sorrow and her
death. Although she was not OF
| noble blood, her friends thought she
had married beneath her when she
| LOOK lOf DCI EttOilu hu6Ddn0 llC Q
publican general Bonaparte. A re-
versal of their decision followed when
| the consulate gave way to the empire
| and a crown graced her lovely brow.
| There it shone for a moment, only to
be torn off at the behest OF her alnbit-
| ious lord, who aspired to alliance
with the house of Austria. What
followed is blazoned on the page of
history.
After Josephine's enforced retire.
ment her daughter, Hortense, Queen
OF Holland and mother of Napoleon
Ill, was compelled to lay aside the
| scepter. Caroline Murat, Queen of
Naples and sister of Bonaparte, saw
her husband shot down and herself
thrust from a usurped throne. The
members of the family of the great
Corsican climbed high, but they fell
far, and the ex-Empress Eugene to-
dav wears weeds and endures sorrows
| that. had she remained the Countess
Montijo, she might have never known.
Sweden and Spain also furnish ex-
amples OF women who have risen
from the unroyal ranks to be the CON
sorts of kings, and who have fallen
from their high estate, but it is to
England that one must look for the
longest list of discrowned queens.
There have been fourteen OF them
since the Conquest, counting among
the number the widow of Oliver
| Cromwell, the lord protector. OF
| this number Catherine Parr belongs
in the same category with Natalie
| and the others mentioned as not hav-
| ing been born to the purple. She
was of good old English stock and
was a widow when Henry VIII. chose
\ her for his sixth wife. This celebrated
woman slayer found his match in
| Catherine. She had had several Eus-
bands and knew how to manage
them.
AT least she did fairly in controlling
"Bluff King Hail. but after his death
and her wedding with Lord Seymour
her success vas not so marked. Sey-
mour got up a tremendous Irritation
with Princess Elizabeth, to be known
after as tine famous English Queen,
and carried his familiarity so far as to
enter the Young wonan's chamber in
the morning and awaken her by tick
ling her feet. The relict of Henry
VIII. sorrowed, sickened and died,
and romantic vengeance was 500
wreaked OH Lord Seymour. who lost
his head because of reasonable prac-
LcSS- DO mucn tOf NaJuSIlne. AS
for the other British Queens who lost
their crowns, five married beneath
them. two were divorced, three were
exiled, two retired to nunneries and
one suffered Imprisonment.
Against this array of failure in the
art of getting and keeping the reins of
government it is gratifying to display
the brilliant exception already alluded
to-that Of Catherine l., Empress of
Russia. Here was a young woman
who, at the start. seemed the veriest
plaything of ill-fortune. who rose to
power by a combination of good luck
and good Judgment, and who, when
her time came, ruled a vast empire as
If in the manner born. She was a
Livonian peasant girl, reared amid
the surroundings of poverty and ig-
norance. The wars which the the
Eighteenth Century opened brought
her apparent disaster but actual good
fortune.
In 1902, when but fourteen years of
age, she became the prize OF a Swed-
ish Lieutenant, who condescended to
marry her. He lost his life at Marien-
burg, and she fell into the hands Of
the Russian soldiery, who treated her
as semi-barbarians have been noted
for treating their female captives