The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-14
BISMARCK HATED HER
FAMOUS PRINCESS CLEMENTINE OF
COBURG DYING IN VIENNA.
welded Great Influence in European
Politics, and Her Death May Elk
pose Many State Secrets.

Vienna Cablegram to st. Louis Globe
Democrat, Feb. 12.-Many of the sovereigns
and statesmen of Europe will breathe more
freely when they receive the news Of the
demise of Princess Clementine of Coburg,
who is now dying here at the Coburg pal
! ace. having received this afternoon the last
sacraments. a daughter of crafty King
Louis Philippe of France, she is undoubt-
eddy the most intellectually gifted of all his
children and has inherited to a far greater
degree than any of them his astounding tai
ents for statecraft and intrigue. Although
she married only younger member of the
reigning house of Saxe-Coburg, yet, with
the exception of Queen Victoria, there is
no woman, not even Queen Louise of Dem
mark who has exercised so powerful and
wide-reaching an influence as herself upon
international affairs during the past half
century.
BY her marriage she became sister-in-law
to King Ferdinand of Portugal. and is con-
sequently grandaunt Of King Carlos. An
other of her brothers1n-law was the late
King Leopold, King of the Belgians, the
present King being her nephew. Her
youngest son, Ferdinand, she made Prince
OF Bulgaria. One of her daughters she has
welded to Archduke Joseph of Austria,
while for another son, Prince Augustus, she
found wife in Princess Leopoldine of Bra
zil whose children We're regarded as heirs
to the throne of Dom Pedro until Leopold
ines elder sister tardily gave birth to a
boy
In fact, there was not reigning house in
Europe to which she was not related in one
way or another, and with each of her kins-
folk she carried on volumnous and con-
slant correspondence She is generally be-
lieved to have played a very conspicuous
role in tie intrigue which brought about the
| sensational quarrel between the late Car
and Prince Bismarck, and which caused
Alexander III to break off all his relations
with Germany and to turn his eyes in the
direction of an alliance with France In
deed Bismarck wont to say that Prln-
cess Clementine was the woman whom
he was incapable or mastering, ana VINO
was forever rising in his path at various
points of Europe to Illustrate his projects,
and to place obstacles in his way. lie de-
clared that she was utterly lacking III
scruple and in principle, and did not hesitate
to confess that he not only diSllked, but
dreaded her.
Bur perhaps her most astonishing achieve
meat was her establishment of her faYorlte
ami Youngest sun, Ferdinand, on the throne
of Bulgaria. Until his marriage she ala the
honors at his palace at Sofia, only leaving
his side Tor ehe purpose OF traYellng post
haste to Paris, to Berlin, to Vienna or 10
Rome. in order to fulfill some mission in his
behalf, or to obtain money Tor MN; II M, ne
was able to maintain himself on his terribly
shaky throne during the first ten years OF
his reign in defiance of the protests or all
Europe it was solely owing to her eXtraor-
dinarv experience with men ana aftalrS IN
every country of the old world; and 10 her
likewise is due the fact that one by one,
every foreign government, including even
THAI of Russia, has now recognized FerQl-
nand as the lawful ruler of Bulgaria, and
as an independent sovereign
#
would canvass good Will and support Tor
him on every SIDE There was no fatigue
or exertion too great for her in this respect
and whenever She was here, she could be
seen at all the court and official receptions,
seated with her silver ear trumpet at the
present" talking either to the Amounted OF
the Lord or else to Austrian and foreign
dignitarieS, either in behalf or Ferdlnand
or else in connection with some present in
trigue in which she was Interested. Many
statesmen used to shun her as being too
dangerous, but Emperor Francis Joseph de-
lighted to talk to her and to seek her adj
vice until the conduct of Ferdinand toward
Austria, at the time of his reconciliation
with Russia, gave rise to some coldness:
Save for her deafness, this octogenarian
mother of Bulgaria. as she was called at
Sofia was in splendid mental and physical
health until last spring, when she sustained
an irreparable shock through the death of
her brother, the Duke D'Aumale. She was
staying with him at the time in his Sicilian
palace of Zucco, and had barely time to re-
cover her composure after learning of the
shocking death of her faVorite niece, the
Duchess of Alencon, who persisted in the
fire of the charity bazaar at Paris. when
suddenly she was called in the middle of
the night to the bedside of her brother, to
find that he was in the last gasp She never
recovered from this, and has been q differ
ent woman ever since.
She is leaving an enormous fortune, most
of which will go to her youngest son. Ferdi-
nand the elder, the dissolute and drunken
Prince Philippe, married to Princess Louise
of Belgium, being immensely wealthy, both
through his marriage and in his own right.
But important as is the disposition of her
vast fortune, what people here are inter-
eSted about most specially is the disposal OF
her papers. These comprise documents af-
fecting the reputation of many statesmen
and royal personages, living and dead.
which she has accumulated during the
course of fifty years or more, and there
are not a few who would breathe with more
freedom could they feel assured that Lett
ters formerly in her possession had been
destroyed.
Her death will leave a void for she is a
most picturesque and interesting figure,
this Princess CIementine, who, although the
daughter of a King, has borne the Hebrew
name Of Cohen. in addition to her own. For
the branch of the house of Coburg to which
her husband her sons and her grandchil
descended from a Prince Leopold of Co
burg, who married the only daughter and
heiresS of old Kohary, the most celebrated
Hebrew money lender and uSurer of the
Kingdom of Hungary. Prince Leopold was
very poor, and the old usurer would only
permit him to marry ms daughter and TO
become heir to his wealth on the stipulation
that both he and his descendants should
invariably use his own name of KOhary,
which is the Hungarian for Cohen tackled
on and in conjunction with those of Sake
Coburg-Gotha.