The Irish standard., 1895-11-16

And Yet There Is Scarcely a Drop
Of English Blood in Her
s5s Veins. ~
Az The reigning sovereigns Of Europe are
tfcrty in number and comprise one pope.
four emperors, fourteen kings and queens,
ten princes, seven grand dukes and four
dukes. It'll. 3s,4zs I; g.ss.a
of,all these the pope ii th9ee q ldests He
was born March Q, 1910, and is, therefore,
considerably past IS years Of age. Six
others have likewise passed the tradition
al three score years and ten, among whom
are King Christian, of Denmark, who is
~, and Queen Victoria, who is rs. Elev-
Ell other sovereigns are past 60, seven
more are over so, the same number in ad-
dition have reached 40, and only eight re-
main who are under this age. They are,
then, on the average decidedly mature
band, and the little King of Spain, who is
but 8; Queen Wilhelmina of Holland, aged
Is, and even Alexander of Servia, with his
f9 years, are quite exceptional personages,
says the Philadelphia Catholic Times
Queen Victoria, who ascended the
throne in 1897 has reigned far longer
than any sovereign now living.
OF the fourteen emperors the Oldest and
ie TncQYS}1 nf
Austria. He is an extremely popular rul-
.er and one Of the best politicians in the
world. A man who was not both one and
the other could scarcely have reigned sue
cessfully for nearly so years over an en-
pire composed of seventeen different ma
2tior;alities, ali with their own languages
and conflicting interests. To such man
even the intricacies of New York politics
could scarcely have any terrors. This
monarch is not only emperor OF Austria
and King of Hungary but also claims IN
addition to be king over eight other local
tiles, of which Jerusalem is one. iiefis
likewise and archduke, a grand duke Of
several places, a prince, q grand prince
and count, Margrave Duke and Seigneur
.DI, ,SG WauyEOLACAa4lOGla sthlsAGH NAAS 49,
who mastered them would have not in
considerable training in European geog-
raphy. .4.
His position comes to him by the divine
right of being a.member of the Hapsburg g
family. The first of this name known to
history was a certain Gontran the Rich,
who was count Of Altenberg in 952. This
gentleman and his descendants used their
opportunities well, acquiring in the course
of nine centuries the unriValled collection
of kingdoms and titles ait present in the
possession of his majesty Francis Joseph.
This sort of acquisition is especially sub
iect to the. law that Ito him who hath
shall be given and when the family final
ly gained the throne of Austria they
doubtless found the garnering Of these
other titles but a small matter.
" Abdul Hamid grand sultan, khan OF
ikhans, caliph or lieutenant Of Mohammed,
and many other things TOO numerous as
we'll as too difficult to express In the Eng
lish tongue, is the present sovereign OF
.tthe Dttomam Empire, and traces his an
cestrY to a remote past. Il 1924 one Soli-i
man ruled horde Of nomadic Turks, who
finally: settled in Apat0lla, "a province ct
Asia Minor. grandson Of this baFbar-
Gus chief named OsInan succeeded In MAX.
inc himself the independent sovereign of
a small territory in this part OF the world,
ana successive descendants added TO these
donna ms until the Turkish empire reached
its widest tsextent in the last century. The
$present5 sultan is the thirty-folrth sovef--s
eign of# the house of Osman and the 2Sth
since the taking of ConstantinOple
s@ The Emperor William Of Germany Is a
.Hohenzol ollern This family descends from
$Wecil OF Burchardus Of Zolorin, who.
#ffourished about 1861. Ills successors
added piece to piece with such assiduity
that by 1W they had patched up a very
respectable kindorn called Pr 18th
4tlie growing power Of that stat ped
Hlore. by} few mastery politicians and
warriors. as Frederick the Great and Bis
marck, the final elevation Of the family
Ito German imperial dignity became inev-
table. n King Charles of Roumania is also
a scion this house.
n The other emperor in Europe is Nicholas
H., incorrectly called Gar. The latter
name expresses his official designation as
to many 80 par rti ocular localities. Moscow, Kst-
zan. etc, but he is emperor and autOcrat
OF All the Russias = He is of the family Of
sRon,anoff, which originated with Michael
Feod dorovitch, born in 1896. The mother
sof this person, however, was a descendant
@of. Rurik, the first Russian sovereign,
whose reign lies back as far as 862
Among the fourteen kings and queens
0f EurnDe Victoria of England is easily
the most sinteresting figure Her full
title ID Queen Of the United Kingd donss
Sof Great Britain and Ireland, Empress
5of India and Protactress of the faith, Z
she Is not wei GIFTED down with the