The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-01
DRGANATIC MARRIAGES
ADIAEVAL PRIVILEGE JUST ABOL-
IsHED BY A HIGH Tribunal.
entroversy Between Emperor Will
It's Far-Reaching Results.
ew York Tribune.


lediaevaI prerogatives that were all very
'eil when the people were willing to ad-
nit the extravagent claims OF mundane
oyalty to cousinship with the Almighty,
)ut which are thoroughly out of keeping
With the enlightened and progressive spirit
of the present age. One of the most pre-
posterous of all these extraordinary privt-
leges has been that of morganatic marriage.
form of matrimonial alliance but little
understood in the United States. Based
upon the principle that an ordinary union
was impossible between the member OF a
regning family and a person of minor rank
belonging either to the nobility or to the
people. it has been considered binding only
on the inferior of the two parties, but not
on the superior, who, enthusiastically and
legally, has been held free to contract an
other union without first getting rid of the
morganatic partner. The latter has been
debarred from sharing the social status,
title or privileges Of the higher born Of the
two, and the issue of the union has been
usually subjected to similar disadvantages.
OF course, the existence of an institution
OF this character implied a sort of obliga-
ton upon members of sovereign or media
tized houses not to contract any but NOR
ganatic marriages with people of lower
grade of society, and this has no doubt suf-
ticed TO prevent many union between an
American heiress and an impecunious Ger
man prince
Morganatic marriages may be considered
to have aad their day. Their death knell
has been sounded by the judgment just rem
dered in the Lippe-D etmoId succession con-
troversy by a specially organized tribunal,
presided over by the venerable King of
Saxony. dean of all the sovereigns COM
prised in the federation known as the Ger
man empire. According to the decision Of
this court-the highest in the land, the de-
creeS of which, by previous arrangement,
are binding upon all the states of the
pire morganatic unions on the part of
parents or of more remote ancestors are
no longer to constitute any bar to the sue
cession to the throne. This being the case
IL naturally follows that they cease to entail
any dlsquaDtying consequences in all other
particulars which are naturally of minor
Importance, and that they become identical
with ordinary marriages.
THE LIPPE-DETMOLD REGENCY.
The controversy, which has been exciting
an immense amount of interest through
out Europe. may be said to have originated
with Emperor William and in the following
manner: Two years ago Waldemar then
the reigniug Prince of Lippe-D etmold, be-
ing in falling health, bodily well as men
tally. and having no heir but his lunatic
brother Alexander, was induced by the
Emperor to draw up a will, according to
which the regency of the throne during it's
occupancy by the insane Prince Alexander
was TO be vested, not In the hands of Count
ernest or Lippe, the nearest agnate and
closest relative, but in those of a much
more remote kinsman namely. Prince
Adophus of Lippe- Schaumburg-who how
ever, enjoys the advantage of being the
most subservient and therefore most highly
favored of the brothers-in-law of the
Kaiser. Prince Waldemar, moreover, ex-
pressed the hope in his precious will, which
he had not the vestige of a right to make,
that the regency would only be preparatory
to the succession of Prince Adophus to
the throne on the death of the present in
sane prince.
On the strength of this will, as soon as
ever Prince Waldemar breathed his last,
Adolphus took up his residence at the
palace, seized the reins of the government
and caused the principality to be occupied
by a strong detachment of Prussian troops
of his brother-in-law Emperor William
quelling ali projects of resistance on the
part Of the indignant population. Indeed
in the face of Count Ernest of Lippe and
his two sons, the nearest surviving kinS-
men of the dead ruler, when they arrived
TO attend the funeral, and would not ac-
cord them any place among the royal and
princely procession of mourners-conduct
which excited so much public resentment
that the Legislature of the principality
through its president, requested the uni
Versally respected and popular count and
his two sons to walk at the head of the
parliamentary representatives and TO sit
among them in the church where the serv-
ices were celebrated.
Count Ernest of Lippe as any one who
examines the pages of the .Alamanach de
relationship nearest to the present de-
mented prince, and as such is entitled to
the $l00,OO0-a-vear regency as well as to
the eventual succession to the throne
This right, warmly Endorsed by the Parlia-
ment of Lippe, by the municipality of Det-
mold. by the entire population of the prin-
cpality, as well as by all the non-Prussian
states Of the German Empire, was con-
tested by Emperor William and by Prince
n n q hn est
was deharred from the prerogatives. which
he would otherwise have enjoyed by rea-
an 2ahs @So Of
Ing a woman of his own rank, had con-
tractsd what is known as a norganatic al.
Count Lippe, his sons, his brothers and his
nephews, all alike descended from his nom
princely ancestress being placed out Of
running, that the far more distantly re-
lated family of Schaumburg-Lippe would
have any right to the succession. Prince
Adoiphus it may be added. is merely the
youngest of five of the reigning
Prince of Schaumbur~Lipp
A POPULAR OUTCRY.
Fortunately for Count Ernest of Lippe
the high-handed and arbitrary proceedings
at Detmold and particularly the indignities
to which he had been subjected by Prince
Adolphus at the funeral excited so much
indignation throughout all other non-Prus-
sian states that Emperor William became
seriously alarmed, all the more as he him
self was held responsible for the whole af-
fair his brother-in-law being looked upon
merely as an instrument in his hands. The
Bayarian and the Wurtemberg newspapers
were quick to point out that il such things
We're tolerated at Detmold none of the SOW
eregn states of the confederation would
be safe from analogous encroachments
upon their independence by Prussia. Final
~ the cutlery became so loud that Emperor
William suggested the policy of submitting
the question to tribunal consisting of the
highest judicial authorities of the empire,
presided over for the occasion by the King
OF SaXony the senior in point of age of
the federal sovereigns. The tribunal has
now rendered its verdict. which is entirely
In favor of Count Lippe. who, by virtue
thereof, has become regent of the princi-
pahty. the administrator of the vast prop
erty of the reigning house of Lippe-Det-
mold and the next heir to the throne
which, in the natural order of events can
not much longer be retained by the now
septuagenarian and demented prince. Just
tWenty-four hours were given to Prince
Adolphus to vacate the position which he
had usurped.
The tribunal could not logically come to
any other conclusion. For if morganatic
marriages on the part of ancestors had
been pronounced sufficient to disqualify
from the succession to the crown, and had
Count Ernest of Lippes claims been held
invalid, it would have been equivalent to a
judicial declaration that at least seven
tenths of the thrones of Germany were held
Grand Duke of Baden married TO the only
daughter of the old Emperor William and
an uncle. therefore Of the present Kaiser
whose grandmother was an actress Great,