The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-12-11
SOME LIVING PRETENDERs.
How the Petty Governments Ol
Europe Are Swallowed.

Europe Are Swallowed.
From Tit-Blts.
The profession of the royal pretender is
very much overdone in Europe just now. A
Madrid editor has Hound six men who think
they have claims to the crown of France,
besides any number who think that they
have paramount rights to the throne Of
Spain, and the purple Of small italian prin-
cipaities.
The most interesting of the Spanish pre-
tenders is not Don Carlos, but a man
whose name is seldom mentioned outside
the Iberian peninsula. He Is the Duke OF
Medina-Celi chief defender of the faith,
fourteen-fold grandee of Spain, first OF all
Castiian knights, and direct descendant
of Ferdinand and Isabella For him and
his family the race of Bourbon-An who
now rule Spain, are nothing more than
usurpers. AS often as new King of
Spain is crowned, the dukes herald APP
pears in the palace, and, in the presence of
all the grandees of Spain, protests In the
name of his lord against this usurpation,
sets forth the claim of the Medina-Celis to
the throne, and challenges every knight
who may venture to dispute the legitimacy
of the dukes rights to defend his opinion
in a duel 10 the death, ION the mountain
or on the plain, by day or by night"
As no grandee of Spain has ever seen Mt
to take the duke and his herald seriously,
the head of the house of Medina-Celi has
been left free to spend the income from
his enormous fortune on his fads and to
make perennial tours of his numerous es-
tates. 1t Is said that he can travel from
one end of Spain to the other. and sleep
every night in one of his own houses. I'm
der these circumstances, he has proved a
! less troublesome pretender than Don Car
| los This chief Of Spanish pretenders was
once so impoverished that, with the help
| of his second secretary, be tried to turn
into coin the gold chain of his order of the
Golden Fleece. BY the death Of Count
! Chambord and some luck in matrmony
however. he was eventually enabled TO lay
up fortune against rainy day and keep
his decorations away from the goldsmiths
and the pawnbrokers.
A group of pretenders who are chroncal-
ly bankrupt afiict the Italian provinces.
At almost any time one may find in the
continental newspapers brief paragraphs
concerning the difficulties which Count
of Aquila, or Trani, or Syracuse, Is hav-
ing with the sheriffs A census of pre-
tenders has not been taken. A partial
list Of those who think that they have valid
claims to the throne OF France was pub
| ished recently, however. They are Don
Carlos; Alfonso Kill King OF Spain;
| Francis. sometime king of both Sicilies;
| Francis, Sebastan's son by his second
wife. an aunt of the dead king; Robert,
once Duke OF Parma Louis Philippe OF
Orleans. All these gentlemen are descend
ants of Louis XIII of France The last
one to announce his pretensions to the
world Is Gen. Francis of Bourbon, who
suddenly began calling himself Duke OF
Anjou after the Count of Paris death, and
sent out a manifesto concerning his
claims. This course has been rather dis
astrous to him, for he has been deprived
not only of his command in the Spanish
army, but also of the salary that went
with It,.