New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-28
UNHAPPY SOvEREIGNS.
UNEASY HEADS NOT BORN FOR CROWNS,

beyond the reach OF those who do not happen to
be of imperal or royal BIRTH yet the fact remains
that during the present century there nave oeen
no less than eight women VINO. Notwithstanding
the absence of the blood of monarohs IN tncir
veins, have been raised from among the people
10 sovereign rank Napoleon was wont 70 remark
that every brave soldier carried the oason Oh
NIsrechal de France In his knapsack' In tno
same manner 1t may be said that every PreU'S
girl carries in her Saratoga trunk the crown VI
Queen or OF an Empress.
II is worthy Of note. however. that the crowns
won by the eight women OF non-royal pirtn 10
whom I have referred above have proved 10 DC
Of an exceedingly thomy character Indeed. eacn
Of tbese fair sovereigns remains on record as an
object of sympathy and Of pity rather tnan Oh
envy Their elevation above the heads OF the
,sonle 70 whom they belonged has BEEN 40
commanded By an amount OF unhappiness. his
erv and bitterness far beyond the share thsS
falls TO the lot OF the ordinary woman, ana "no
celebrity which surrounds their names Is due' no'
so much 20 the brilliancy to the sadness Oh 'he
if -,
Empress Josephine owes her place In the nichs
~ history 10 the heartless treatment to which sne
was subjected by her husband. aud she Is ren'eu'-
bered not as the brilliant and frivolous consoS'
OF the monarch who, for twelve years. was '"o
mightiest in Chrstendom, but as the ptiaoie Vio-
tim OF his selfish ambition and Of his cruelty.
Equally sad was the fate Of beautiful Hortense.
mother of Napoleon III, who. from the day she
became Queen Of Holland until the time OF her
death in poverty, abandonment and exile, was
disappointed Borrowing and heart-broken woman
The gilded apple of royalty. which had been
placed in her hands in s04 had turned into Dead
Sea fruit. She had her eldest son de, hef NC
Ond sou killed, and her third sou fugitive, forceo
to seek q haven Of refuge in the United o,a~s
The very name she bore was proscriDed. all her
relatives either in banishment or dead whiie
her poverty was so great that she WAS forced tn
| appeal to King Louis Philippe. the bitteress
enemy Of her house and the most relentless per-
secutor Of her surviving son. Nor was the INTO
Of Queen Caroline Murat, whose hnsband was
first imprisoned and then executed by the order
Of the Bourbon King of Naples, any happier
Julia and Desiree Clary, the two daughters OF
the Marseilles broker. who became respectively
Queen of Spain and Quecn OF sweden, were both
noted for their domestic sorrows and for the neglect
and indignties of every kind 10 which they were
subjected by their husbands. QDeen Desiree
Of Sweden died at Stockholm only fifteen or twenty
years ago. and in going through my boyhood
memories I sm able to recall To mind a trip Ia
Stockholm and being taken by my father to kiss
the small and fragile hand Of singularly sweet
faced old ladya vision Of black ac". white hair.
and still wonderfully brilliant black eyes-who
en- Dyed the distinction OF having Tilted the great
Napoleon previous TO her union to his RIVAL general.
Bernadotte. Curiously enough. she could
never be persuaded to revisit her ma
| tive country, and from the time Of
her husband Bernadottes arrival in Swe"
den in 1910. after MS election as Crown Prince
Of that country she never left the dual kingdom
/
the last. all her French sympathcs and tastes.
Every Frenchnan who visited Stockholm
made welcome at her palace. and she displayed
the keenest interest in French politics, French
social events and French literature.
Exile, widowhood and the tragcal death Of her
only son in South Africa have endowed Eugene
de Montjo, the granddaughter Of the Scotch mer-
chant Kirkpatrick. with u majesty which. though
| sorrowful is far superior to any which she
possessed in the days Of her greatest magnifcencs
| al the Tueres. The aspect Of the beautiful.
brilliant and supremacy elegant. but now broken.
infim and prematurely aged consort Of Napoleon
III is sufficient to excite COMMUNICATION even in
the hearts Of the bitterest enemies OF the Bona
! parte regime. To such extent is this the case
that when she last visited Paris The mob of men
and women who had assembled at the railway sta
ton terminus to boot and hiss her on her arrival
for. her alleged responsibility in the disastrous
war Of 1870 made way respectfully for her. the
men barring their heads. and the women murmuring
Iitifully, Oh Ia pauvre femme" tOh the poor
woman. while this wreck Of former splendor great
ness. beauty aud elegance limped feeby 10 her
carriage.
Yet another OF these herones of royal romance is
Natalie de Ketchkothe less legally divorced
Queen of King Milan of Serva. Her life until now
has even been more strange, more extraordinary
and more full Of exciting incident than those Of the
other three ladies above mentioned. Were 10
described in a novel it would be set down az
eXtrava2ant. unreal and impossible: but far from
such being tine casr il constitutes one OF the most
romantic pages of the contemporary history Of
Europe
Born in 1879 at Florence Queen Natalie is the
daughter of the exceedingly wealthy Lieutenant
Colonel de Ketchko. officer of the Imperial Rus
sian Guard who died few years ago Her mother,
from whom she nherits her magnificent and some
what voluptuous style of beauty, was a member
of the Rumanan family or StOurdza, while her
grandmother the paternal side was a daughter
of the Boar Constantine Balsc, name which, OF
noble French origin is glorioGsly associated with
the history of the old Servan Empire five and
SIX centuries ago.
Queen Natalie spent most of her childhood at
Florence, where she attended one OF the schools
number Of young American girls being among her
schoolmates On completing her education she
lived time ON her fathers estates in Southern
Russia, aud at ST. Petersburg, where she, however,
did not figure among what Thackeray describes
as the upper SUCCESS For her father. although
very wealthy, occupied relatively subaltern posi-
tion in the Imperial service and her mothers title
and lineage carried but little weight in the Russian
capital, princssses. especially those Of the
Stourdza family being as plentiful as mere peas
ants and only rarely respectable-in Rumsnia
and Bessarabia.
So precarious did the position Of Milan appear
in ls.5-he had not then assumed the title Of King
but was merely a vassa prince of the Sublime