The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-05-13
ROYAL WIDOWS.
One or Moro In Nearly Every Country In
Europe.


Europe.
1t is just thought astonishing to
reckon tho rGmber of royal widows,
regnant or uncrowned, now more or less
in public view. First, of course, comes
her majesty, Victoria, empress of In
dia, queen of England, Scotland and
Ireland. Next to her ono must rank her
eldest child, Victoria, empress dowager
Of Prussia, more commonly known as
Empress Frederick. Then, in the same
family circle, there are the Duchess of
Albany, born Princess Of Waldeck- Pyr-
mont. and widow of the English queen g
youngest son, and the Princess of Bat
tenberg.
Upon the continent there are pair
of widowed queens regcnt-Christine of
Spain and Emma of Holland. Both
have won golden opinions from those
they govern, no less than from impartial
onlookers Queen Emma il, by the
way, sister to the Duchess of Albany,
who is said to have been the first choice
Of the gay old rcprobate, King William
of Holland. She refused him, but her
sister threw herself into the breach, in
spired doubtless by the knowledge that
reigning sovorcigns, even though some
what battered and the worse for wear,
We're not likely to como often a-wooing
III strveling if princely households So
they were married, and there Ks little
queen of Holland to cheat the anticipa-
tons of the house of Cumberland.
But none of the queens or empresses
can put out of court Dagmar. sometime
Of Denmark, now the widowed czarina,
Marie Feodorowna It must have gone
hard with her. in spite of the splendors
the change implied, to give over her
Danish name, which means "day dawn, I"
for an appellation so cumbrous. Feodo-
rowna means, by the way, daughter Of
Theodore, " as does Paulovna daughter
of Paul. The termination "ovna," or
"owna, has in all cases that signifi-
canoe III Russian names, just as the
sufiix witch" means always "son Of. 8"
Thus AlexanGrovitch is "the son CT
Alexander "
Austrian royalty has two widows out
right. between whom it is hard to say
which has the more tragic story. All tho
world still remembers the tragedy Of
Meyerling-how the Crown Prince Ru-
dolph shot himself and the beautiful
Marie Vectsera. leaving his wife, Ste
phanie Of Belgium, by no means discon-
solate, as the pair had been on the point
OF judicial separation. Still the shock
and shadow of it all for the time over
whelmod her. But she has no continuing
sorrow such as has driven to madness
Carlotta, once empress of Mexico, who
missed seeing her husband, Maximilian,
shot only because she had gone to Eu-
rope asking help for him, where no help
was. Yet it is Il question if, in spite Of
all, she is not less unhappy, than her Sis
ter, the Empress Elizabeth Of Austria,
who has been for long years widowed in
all but name
Besides Empress Eugene, widowed,
chlldless, withered shadow Of her beau
tlful self, France has Duchess of Or
leans, whom the Lcgitimists rank as
queen dowager-not to mention the wife
OF her murdered president. Carnot. And
there Is more than IL Gallo trace in the
youngest Of royal widows, the Bonaparte
princess, who married her uncle, the
Duke d'Aosta, and since his death has
set the Italiap court wild with her
eks.-New York Journal.