Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-05-26
UNHAPPY WIDOWED QUEENS
A Most Unpleasant Fate Has
Befallen Many Of Them.
THE STORY OF QUEEN ADELAIDE


LONDON. May ia.--There is some
thing particularly hard In the lot OF
the widows OF monarchs which do not
think is sufficiently taken into con-
sideration. In their case death rohs
them not only OF consort. but also
OF rank. power and position. They are
compelled to step down from the
throne. with all that such descent i'm
piles. and to yield the place TO their
daughters-ln-law. For once In the way
the d0ughter-in-law rises superior to
her husbands mother. and not only
releGates her to II very secondary
place. but likewise makes her feel
even u animated by the kindest In
tentions-that her presence ut court Is
source OF embarrassment
| For II there ever was IA auperfluous
piece OF furniture for which there Is
no suitable room, Il Is a dowager queen
or empress; and so thoroughly IN this
fact appreciated that sort OF un-
! written law. based ON tradition and
| precedent exists among the rcigning
houses of Europe which prescrlbes that
she should make q point OF remaining
as much as possible absent from State
/ functions and entertainments at which
her successor as first lady In the land
happens to be present.
Thus Queen Adelaide OF Great Bril-
tain. widow Of King William ", sur
vived her husband for nearly fifteen
years, vet was never seen ut court
save on two occasions. when she
emerged from her retirement Mt the
urgent solicitation OF Queen Victoria
the first time being on the occasion
OF the latter's marriage to Prince
Albert and the other Mt the christen-
ing Of the Princess Royal NOV EN-
press Frederick, when, az godmother.
she held her nlece's hrstborn ut the
font.
With these two exceptions she was
practically invisible throughout the
entire duration of her widowhood, be-
Ing so little seen In public that when
she died at Stanmore priury, her beau
titul suburban place near Harrow, and
was borne to the grave by old sailor
veterans who had served under her
hushands orders In the navy most
people became aware for the firat time
that there had been such person az
n Queen Dowager of the United King
dom.
While no one anticipates that the
widowed Czarina will attempt In any
way TO usurp the prerugatives OF the
Empress Alexandra. or TO influence
the actions OF her clever dnughter-in-
law, both the Empress Frederick OF
Germany and Queen Pia of Portugal
have, since they became widows, been
source OF no end OF turmoil and un-
pleasantness to the courts of their
respective sons
Al Berlin the Empress Frederick
was ill-adVised enough to comment In
such manner ON what she pleased
to consider the intellectual dullneHs
and density OF her dnughter-in -law
that II came to the young EmperorH
ears and created some very bad blood,
Moreover, she had become 80 much
accustomed to lord n over her chill
dren Ito exact from them even after
they hud grown up the bllndest ohe-
dience and even subscrviency- at
first she could not resign herself to be-
come In her turn submissive TO those
whom she had until then treated with
the greatest strictness and disregard
for their lncllnRtions
At Lisbon the unpleasantness has
been Of an even still more acute char
aoter. The late King Luis was an
easy-going, lndoient man. who through
out the twenty-eight years Of his oc-
cupnncy Of the throne permitted his
strong-mindod and imporiouH comfort
to reign In his name. abandoning every
thing TO her control While her eldest
son, the present king, Is quite AZ indo'
lent ny was his father, HIS French
wife IA Just the reverse.
As daughter OF the Comte de Paris
she has inherited all the masculine
traits OF her mothers character. and II
i. exceedingly independent, and, from The
moment OF the late klag's d0miso, OPP
! posed to her mother-in-law a will n,
strong, as imperious and as determined
as her own. There ennued a not alto
gether edifying struggle for supremacy
between the two qucons--betwoen tbs
, daughter Of the Comte de Paris and th'
favorite daughter OF the burly Kini
Victor Emmanuel, the only one Of hii