The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1897-04-03
never permit him to cross the threshold
of his palace.

never permit him to cross the threshold
Of his palace.
The American Marriage.
Moreover, the question as to whether
the marriage contracted in this country
by -'rince Jerome with Miss Elizabeth
Paterson was legal or not has never been
definitely decided, and at the Tuiler,es
during the reign of the third Napoleon
there were a number Of prominent peo-
pie, Empress Eugene herself at their
head, who openly pronounced themselves
in favor of the justice of the claims OF
Miss Elizabeth Patterson to be the legal
wife of Prince Jerome. For, in the hrst
place, the union was contracted in &C
cordance with the prescription OF the
laws of the land in which 1t was cele-
brated, and secondly, 1t was Lucien as
senior of the house, and not the Emperor
Napoleon, who was merely younger
brother, who had the right to sanction or
prohibit the match, while the French
law forbidding matrimonial alliances en-
the part of the princes of the reigning
house without the sanction of the SOW
ereign was not enacted till after Jerome
marriage to Miss Patterson had taken
permitting it's annulment.
The French courts had this in view,
when, in 1853, they accorded to Prince
Jerome's American-born son the right
to the name of Bonaparte. 1t was only
when this gentleman was tmpolitlc
enough to present on the death of his
| father, a claim upon his papers and CT
| fects as his eldest son and heir that
venal tribunal, yielding to the pressure OF
! the emperor, who at that moment was
| particularly interested in keeping on
good terms with his cousin, "Plon Plon'
| (tne son of Prince Jerome by his second
marriage to Princess Caroline of Wur-
| temberg) issued decree non-suiting the
| American claimant on the ground that
his mothers marriage had been declared
"souverainment" Cby the sovereign
null and void. From this 1t will be seen
that the claims of the senior American
| descendant Of Jerome eventually to sue
coed to the chieftaincy Of the house of
| Bonaparte are infinitely superior to any
that could be presented by Roland.
| At the present moment, therefore, the
male representatives of the house of Bo-
naparte, exclusive of the American branch
of the family, consist Of Prince Victor,
who lives at Brussels; Prince Louis. his
airy colonel in the Russian army, both
Of them sons of the late 'Plon Plon;"
Prince Napoleon Charles grandson of
Lucien, who resides at Rome, and the
self-styled prince" Roland Bonaparte,
| who makes his home at Paris. Of these
four the first two are unmarried and
likely to remain so. Prince Napoleon
| Charles Is a man over 60 years Of age,
his wife being equally advanced in life,
while Roland Is a widower.
Their are plenty of Bonaparte princess
es, all, with the exception OF Princess
Eugene, daughter of Napoleon Charles,
being married or widowed. Thus, Vic
tors sister, Letitia Bonaparte, is now
the widow of King Humbert's brother,
the late duke of Aosta. She has a little
boy, but he is a prince OF the house Of
Savoy and a member of the reigning
family of Italy, and in no sense a Bona
parte. Princess Charlotte Bonaparte, sis
ter of Prince Napoleon Charles, married
Count Peter Primoll, and has two sons,
Count Joseph and Count Louis Primoli,
who are as we'll known in the American
society at Rome as they are in that of
Paris. But although they inherit many
of the facial characteristics of their
mothers family, they can in no sense Of
|
play any part in the perpetuation of the
| dynasty.
In short, unless either Prince Victor or
Prince Louis Bonaparte wed, which is
regarded by those who are acquainted
with Bonapartist affairs as improbable
in the extreme, the responsibility of con-
tinuing the name of Bonaparte will lie at
the door of the American branch of the
house, since Roland is merely a Bona
parte by courtesy. This is a surprising
state of things when one remembers how
anxious the first emperor was to provide
against such contingency as the extinc-
ton of the name of Bonaparte and 1t
would be indeed an irony of fate were its
perpetuation to be secured by the grand
son of that American sIster-ln-law of his,
whom he subjected to such unjustifable
| and heartless treatment.