The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-11-21
ROYAL FAMILY ROMANCE
CROWN PRINCE FERDINAND OF ROU-
MANIA MARRIED WITHOUT LOVE.
Now He Is Devoted to His Wife, Prin-
cess Marie of Edinburgh, bat
She Has Grown Cold.

NEW YORK, Nov. 20.-A most astonish-
ing romance envelops a granddaughter of
Queen Victoria, the beautiful crown prin-
cess of Roumania, who was the Princess
Marie of Edinburgh The elements in this
romance are thrilling and delectable. A
prince has fallen in love with his own wife
after years of estrangement A plot to up
set throne, in which the Queen-poetess
Carmen sylvia was an unwilling agent has
been frustrated.
The Crown Prince Ferdinand of Rou-
mania is the man who has had the curious
experience of falling in love with his own
wife. When they married in 1898 she was
in love with him and he did not care for
her. After a few years she grew tired of
loving him in vain and began to amuse
herself. She startled the courts of Europe
by her indiscretions. She paid visits in
cognito to Vienna and played various
pranks there. She was leader in the gay
cites of Monte Carlo and the Riviera. At
Bucharest, the capital of Roumania, she
showed so much kindness to d handsome
young American named Sumner Horton
that her. husband had him sent out of the
country. Then this husband astonished
everybody by falling in love with his own
wife, whom he had so long neglected. He
is now madly devoted to her. And she
spurns him. This strange affair is agitaJ-
ing all the courts and high social circles Of
Europe
Queen Victoria is a model of queens and
mothers. Her antipathy to divorce is so
great that she will not speak to a person
who has ee.l/contaminated by it. Neither
romance nor scandal is ordinarily concerned
with the women of her family. Neverthe-
less, the daughters of her second son, the
Duke of Edinburgh, are startling excep-
tions to this rule This prince, who is now
the reigning Duke of Saxe-Coburg- Gotha,
married sister of the late Car of Rus
STA. She never received the honors which
she considered her due in England. When
her husband fell heir to his uncle's duchy
of SaXe-Coburg-Gotha she insisted that he
should take it in order that she might be
a reigning sovereign and technically the
superior of the idoltzed Princess of Wales,
whom she disliked. The duke would have
preferred to remain an Engishman and re-
linquish the German duchy to his son, but
he was oVerruled. The duchess has several
pretty daughters. The oldest was the prin-
cess Marie, with whom this history is chief
ly concerned. She married in 1885, when less
than eighteen, the Crown Prince Ferdinand
| of ROumania the nephew of King Charles
1
of Roumania, whose wife is the poetesS
| Carmen Sylvia.
trlnce teroinand's engagement to the
| Princess Marie ended the Vacaresco in
| trigue that nearly cost his uncle his throne.
| The prince accepted wife as a political
! necessity, but he was still in love with
cess Marie did not touch HIM. Helene Va
| CareSco, q Roumanian lady Of ancient Ro-
| man descent and very solid charms was a
maid of honor to Queen Elizabeth, better
| known as Carmen Sylvia The Queen adored
| her and encouraged her husbands young
nephew and heir in his attentions to the
| maid of honor. She announced publicly that
| the marriage would take place, and through
her secretary INDUCED in poetical rhapsodies
on this union of youth, love and beauty.
The proposed marriage raised a storm in
Roumania, and Carmen Sylvia was COM
PEELED to leave the country. King Charles
peeded all his wits and energy to save his
Kingdom from being summarily turned in-
| to republic. He made it clear that there
would be no marriage between Prince Fer
dnand and Helene Vacaresco At the same
time he looked for a suitable partner for the
| prince, and found the Princess Marie OF
! love his vie and did not conceal the fact.
He continued his devOtions to Mile. Va
| caresco, and when she was removed he
found consolation elsewhere. The princess
grieved at first and then thought 1t would
be better to forget her love and be different.
| She succeeded Soon she realized that her
husband was little more than a well-ftting
uniform and an empty head To distract
her thoughts more completely from him she
ndQ TWO cnllQren, Prince CdrOl, DOrll IN 1885,
and Princess Elizabeth, born in 1894, to look
after.
The children did not occupy the princess
exclusively. She plunged into dissipation.
| When the social resources of ROumania
palled on her she would pay visits to the not
distant city of Vienna, called the harem of
Europe. she also passed much time in the
Riviera. AT Nice, Cannes and Monte Carlo
she was a center of attraction. A princess
of such beauty and such lineage who
deigned to enter into the amusements Of the
gay and reckless throng at Monte Carlo
| soon gained popularity and notoriety as
we'll All the time she growing more
| charming to the eye. She is only twenty
| three to-day, and the full flower of her
| beauty is only beginning to bloom.
Suddenly the heart and mind of the not
| overintelligent Prince Ferdinand underwent
a change. He fell in love with his own wife.
| Her absorption in worldly gayeties and her
evident Indifference helped greatly to make
| this change in him. Her beauty did the
rest. But the princess's love is dead, and
| she is said to be utterly Indifferent to her
| husbands passion.
! While the romance has been enacted in
| Roumania the affairs of the Grand Duke
| and Duchess of Hesse have reached a cli-
| max. Once she left her husband for months,
! and once she was induced to return. But
| the estrangement still lasts. Queen Victoria
| is reported to be greatly chagrined and sad
| dened by these unWonted infelcities in her
| family.