The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-09-08

BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY.


Humdrum. Mediocre People. But the
Most Powerful House Earth.
The recent royal English wedding
may with almost certainty OF accuracy
be spoken of as the marriage of the
future king and queen OF England Ii
to rule is desira bic then the position Of
Prince George and Princess May IS
most enviable. The queens position at
the wedding was unique. 1t was the
fifteenth marriage OF a direct de-
scendant which has occurred during
her reign.
Nature has not been over-generous in
its gifts to the family OF Queen Victoria
1t would be stretch of courtesy to call
any of the female descendants beauti-
full, and while some OF the men are good
looking not one of them would be
chosen by sculptor as a model for
Apollo. In no instance can it be said of
Queen Victoria $ daughters that their
faces were their fortunes. or would
have been had they been renniless. It
must in fairness be admitted however,
that the daughters of the British
queen have higher gifts than beauty
Their womanly qualities would make
them desirabl wives in any station in
life. But Prince Charming would never
have offered any OF them throne had
he met them milking cows or tossing
hay in the field, or in any other capacity
of humble life. Had Queen Victoria
not been the monarch OF Great Britain
and her children born to royalty there
is not the remotest probability that the
family would have achieved dis
tinction in any form. Yet there is
the patent fact that this naturally
humdrum, mediocre house is today
the most powerful family on earth; that
two European thrones are already oc-
cupied by Victoria's offspring, and that,
in all proba bility, the crowns of the
three great empires OF Britain, Ger
many and Russia will yet be worn at
the same time by grandchildren of the
British queen. The German emperor
is Queen Victoria's grandson it is as
certain as anything in human affairs
that the royal crown of Great Britain
and the imperial crown of India will
devolve. if not to the prince OF Wales,
then to Prince George, who welded the
Princess May few days ago, and it is
stated that the betrothal of the caro-
witt, heir to the throne of Russia, to
the Princess Alice, of Hesse, grand
daughter of Queen Victoria, will short
" be announced.
The Princess Alice is sister of the
Grand Duke Ernest Louis, of Hesse-
Darmstadt, one of the sovereign states
of Germany. Another granddaughter
of Queen Victoria, the Princess Sophia,
of Prussia, is married to the Crown
Prince Constantine, of Greece. An
other granddaughter, the Princess
Charlotte, of Prussia, is married TO
Bernard, the hereditary prince of Sake
Meiningen. AS the reigning Duke Ern-
est of Saxe-Coburg-G otha, has no chill
dren, that sovereignty will fall to Queen
Victorias family on account of the
late prince consort, who was the only
brother of Duke Ernest, and Prince
Alfred, duke of Edinburg, second son
of Queen Victoria, will presumab bly, oc-
cupy the throne.
Queen Victoria's descendants will,
therefore. in the natural course of
events sit on the following thrones,
either already occupied or to be occu-
pied by them: Great Britain and India,
Germany (Prussia), Hesse Darmstadt,
Saxe-Coburg- Gotha, SAKE Meiningen,
Greece.
Assuming that the czarowitz really
intends to marry the Princess Alice the
vast empire of Russia will also be added
to the list 1t may be stated here that
in addition to the countries named
Queen Victoria is closely connected by
family relationship with the king of
the Belgians. and that she is also con-
nected, through the marriages of her
children and otherwise, with the ruling
houses of Russia, Holland, Denmark,
and through Denmark with Sweden,
Norway and Baden, and also with other
European sovereignties. Her near rela
tive, the duke of Cumberland, is claim
ant to the throne of Hanover, and it is !
proba bic that there is. hardly a non !
Catholic sovereign house in Europe with |
which Queen Victoria is not related /
either by blood or marriage. And the I
same NAV be said, more remotely, of :
Catholic royal houses. The late Dom I
Pedro, emperor of Brazil, was also re- |
lated to Queen Victoria through the !
Coburg family.
AS King Leopold. of the Belgians, is |
sovereign of the Congo Free State in I
Africa and Queen Victoria is empress I
of India, it may be said that before the 1
deposition of Dom Pedro, Queen Nicto- /
ria, besides ruling IN two quarters Of I
the globe herself, was related to rulers /
in the two other continents Of America |
and Africa 1t may be mentioned that 7
Queen Victoria is connected through 4
the royal houses of Belgium aud Dem I
mark with the Bourbons, and that
means with nearly all the reigniug 4
and non-regnant Catholic families of I
Europe
To trace these various genealogies I
would be an interInina bic task. for
enough has been stated TO show that
the aged widow who sits on the throne
OF Great Britain is indeed a mother Of
monarchs of Europe and that her prog
eny are ruling or destined 20 rule a con
siderable portion of the earth
One OF the chief and perhaps the chief
reason for the family spreading itself,
as il were, over the face OF Europe IS
the modern custom. amounting To Law,
the members OF royal houses
seek their spouses only among royal
houses. In olden times kings often
married subjects, and it Is TO be noted
E-rfouI Rad S7eE .ser-