The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-06-01
A Ruined Dynasty.

II Is one OF the irOnies of fate that the
boy king of Spain should be an object
ofespecial eommiseration. His position
Is al once the most highly favored and
the most pitiable. In theory a king,
his own mother exercising the peroga-
tives Of the crown pending his major
ity, both are liable at any moment to
be obliged to Tee for their lives. The
son is Bourbon, the mother a Haps-
burg, and the double flight would be a
double climax Of royal disaster.
The first Bourbon of prominence was
Constable Of France. The first Of the
family to wear a crown was Henry ".
Of France. That was late in the 18th
century For two centuries all went
well with the Bourbon dynasty. II
seemed perfectly secure on the French
throne, and early in the 18th century
the family branched out and became
the royal house Of spain also. But when
the French Revolution came it was the
Bourbon Louis XVI. who was behead-
ed, and it was his son and heir, tie
Dauphin, about whose disappearance
80 much mystery has always chung.
He may be set down as the royal Char
lie Ross Of history. From that time on
the Bourbons have experienced the
truth of the familiar aphorism about
the head that wears the crown. The first
Napoleon was succeeded bya Bourbon,
whose interrupted reign WAS more of an
aggravation than a satisfaction. Then
when the revolution Of 1S4S broke it
found collateral member Of the Bour-
bon family, Louis Philippe, on the
French throne. Fate seemed to take
special delight in furnishing the crown
ed head Of the family.
The Bourbons of Spain were hardly
less unfortunate. When Napoleon
reached out and took the spanish crown
to bestow il upon his eldest brother,
Joseph, it was Bourbon who was un-
crowned. About the same time the
royal head of the Neapolitan branch Of
the Bourbon family was also dethroned
by Napoleon. In that case, too, there
was restoration, but the unity of Italy
eventually wiped out that branch Of the
BourbOns as factor in royalty. No
other family tree has borne so much
bi liter fruit.
The Queen regent Of Spain is a Haps-
burg. Not quite as old as the BOurbOns,
that family, too has had a series of
kings of the Spanish throne, holding
on to it until the line ended with an
idiot. Inssead of raising the BOnapartss
to royal dignity by dethroning the
reigning house, as in the case Of the
BourbOns, NapOleon's policy toward the
Hapsburgs was an alliance by marriage.
Poor Josephine was divorced that he
might marry a Hapsburg. The son
born of that marriage died young and
thus disappointed that hope. II was a
Hapsburg who, half century later,
conspired with the last Of the Napc-
Icons 70 establish an empire in Mexico.
and CarlOtta enjoyed for
season the satisfaction of founding an
imperial branch of the Haps5urg fam
lily. The execution of the husband and
the far more tragic fate of his wife were
a terrible blow to the Hapsburgs. Poor
CarlOtta still lives, a hopeless maniac.
\ thousand deaths could not equal in
suffering her miseries. The dead are
at rest, but the insane are under the
whip and scourge Of a mind dis
traught.
Nor did the sOrTOws Of the HapsbuTgs
stop there. Macmillan, the emPeror's
brother, fell, shot to death by Mexican
bullets; the Crown Prince Rudolph, the
son, fell, shot to death by his
own hand The kindly old father has
never recovered from that shock;
neither has the mother. The nephew
who was subsequently designated as the
heir Of the throne is slowly dying
of consumption. He has little prospect
of coming to the throne. The boy,
Alfonso Kill, who seems now likely
to be the last Of the BourbOns on n
throne, has in the Hapsburg queen
regent at his side fit com panion in