The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-06-06
ROYAL WIDOWS.
One or More In Nearly Every Country In
Ruropc.


Europc.
Il Is just q thought astonishing to
reckon the number of royal widows,
regnant or uncrowned, now more or
less in public view. First, of course.
comes her majesty Victoria, empress of
India, queen of England, Scotland and
Ireland. Next to her one 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 Pyrmont and widow of the
English queens youngest son, and the
lately bereaved princess of Battenberg,
who is to be the duchess of Kent in her
own right.
Upon the continent there are a pair
of widowed queens regent-Christine
of Spain and Emma of Holland. Both
have won golden opinions from i'm
partial onlookers. Queen Emma, is, by
the way, sister to the duchess of Albany,
who is said TO have been the first choice
of the gay old reprobate, King William
of Holland. She refused him, but her
sister threw herself into the breach, in.
spired doubtless by that knowledge that
reignihg sovereigns, even though some
what battered and the worse for wear,
were not likely to come often a-wooing
in staryeling if princely households.
So they were married, and there is a lit
tie queen of Holland to cheat the an
ticipations 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. 1t must have gone
hard with her. in spite of the splendors
the change implied, to give over her
Danish name, which means 'daydawn,"
for an appellations SO cumbrous. Feodor-
owna means, by the way. daughter of
Theodore" al does Paulovna, daughter
of Paul" The termination "ovna,' or
'owna," has in all cases that signifi-
canoe in Russian names, just as the
sufix witch" means always ''son of; :"
thus Alexandrovitch is 1.-The son of Alex
ander."
Austrian royalty has two widows out
right, between whom it is hard to say
which has the more tragic story. All the
world still remembers the tragedy of
Meyerling-how Crown Prince Ru-
QOlpn SnOC nlInSelI ana Jne Dtuutll VI
Marie Vectsera, leaving his wife, Ste
Phanie of Belgium, by no means dis
consulate, as the pair had been on the
point of judicial separation. Still the
shock and shadow of it all for the time
overwhelmed her. But she has no con-
tinuinR sorrow such as has driven to
madness Carlotta, once empress of Mex
leo, who missed seeing her husband,
Maximillian, shot only because she had
gone to Europe asking help for him,
where no help was. Yet 1t is question
If, in spite of all, she is not less unhappy
than her sister, Empress Elizabeth OF
Austria, who has been for long years
widowed in all but name.
Besides Empress Eugenie, widowed,
childless, a withered shadow of her
beautiful self, France has a duchess of
Orleans, whom the Legitimists rank as
queen dowager-not to mention the
wife of her murdered president, Carnot.
And there is more than a Gallo trace in
the youngest Of royal widows, the Bono
parte princess, who married her uncle,
Duke dAosta, and since his death has
set the Italian court wild with her
Freaks n. Y. Journal.