Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-02
MORGANATlC MARRIAGES
They Are Perfectly Legal in the Eyes of the
Church.
But In Law They Bind Only One of
the Parties-SOme Notable
Instances,
From Casselrs Saturday Journal.


1t must be thoroughly understood that.
| apart from the court laws, morganatic
| marriages are perfectly good and lawful
They are recognized and celebrated by the
| Protestant Greek and Roman churches. No
stigma attaches to the wife In the eyes OF
] the world. There is nothing TO prevent her
! being received as the lawful wife of her
| husband at the court of his family II the
head of his family SO wishes, and questions
| Of precedence can be settled by comforting
! on her some title which will give her a
j definite rank of her own. On the other
| hand, by the court law the marriage lever
had any binding force at all Therefore. If
1 the man chooses to be a scoundrel either
for his own purposes or because his family
| insist that he must marry in his own rank
| in order that he may continue the line, 1t
| is not necessary to take any legal steps to
establish his independence. He need not
| even inform the unhappy lady of his inten-
! tion And when we consider the extreme
hardship of her position. we must also re-
member that the rule is as old as the old
est of the reigning houses of Germany, and
is as well known the law Of military
service. The victim Of a morganauc mar
| rage can no more plead that he for the
rule applies equally to mem or she did not
| know the possibilities of the position than
the peasant who deserts his regiment could
urge that he was not aware thai the thing
was punishable.
A notable case in the last ten years is
that of Prince Oscar of Sweden, who fell in
| love with Miss Ebba Munck, the pretty
daughter of one Of the Swedish ministers.
and insisted on marrying ner. Inc mar
| rage, of course, was morganatic; the wife
did not become member OF the royal
family, and the children could never in
herit the throne. On the other hand. the
king and queen thoroughly recognize this
| lady as their daughter-in-law, and treat
her with the utmost affection The king,
moreover, has conferred on the pair the
non-royal title of Prince and Princess Der
nadotte. Another instance is tnat OF Prln-
cess Frederick of Hanover, who fell in love
| with and married her fathers court ply
stefan in defiance of her family, who made
every effort first to stop the marriage,
and, secondly, when 1t was accomplished,
to induce the princess to repudiate IT. An
other quite recent case is that OF the
Grand Duke Michael of Russia, who mar
ried morganatically German lady OF
noble but not royal birth. The late car
commanded the grand duke to give her up
ard marry within his own rank or be bar-
ished from Russia. The grand duke pre-
ferred exile with his wife. who has been
created Countess Torby by the King OF
Bavaria in order to relieve her of the
humiliation of being obliged to use her
maiden name still.
The reasons why Prince and Princess
Edward of Saxe-Weimar, Princess Victor Of
Hohenlohe- Langenburg and her son, Count
Gleichen, reside in England, and Prince
and Princess Louis of Battenberg follow the
BRITISH feet are THESE. In the hTSl case,
Prince Edward is married to a sister OF
the Duke of Richmond and Gordon in the
second, Prince Victor s widow was a daugh-
ter Of Marques of Hartford; in the third,
Prince Louis, being the son Of a morganattc
| marriage is not on the royal level. All
these marriages are morganatlc, with the
result that in Germany Princess Edward
would be known as Countess Dornberg "a
title conferred on her after her marriage;
Princess Victor would be merely Lady
Laura Seymour, and her son would have
10 title at all; while Princess Louis would
be styled Princess Victoria OF HesSe, just
as if she were unmarried. Some idea of
what be done in circumstances like
this may be taken from the case of the late
Grand Duke of Hesse, who after the death
of his first wife Jour Princess ALICE. mar
ried morganaticaffy lacy of non-royal
birth. A few days after the ceremony he
dismissed her.
of England recognized these distinctions,
and marriages with subjects were by no
means uncommon up to about a century
ago. Queen Mary II and Queen Anne We're
both the daughters of the marriage be-
tween James II and Anne Hyde. daughter
of Lord Chancellor Clarendon. George Ill, |
however. had German ideas, and resented |
some alliances of this kind He got law |
passed called the royal marriage act, |
which declared that members of the royal |
family in the line of succession could not |
marry without the consent of the crown |
before they attained the age of twenty-five. |
This law did not create caste, 1t only i'm |
posed a condition. The difference between |
1t and the morganatic rule is that under the |
latter marriage between a royalty and |
subject can never become binding against |
the roya.t,. The latter may be voluntarily |
bound as long as he or she may choose, but |
no longer; whereas a marriage between q |
royalty and subject celebrat ted in England |
under the royal marriage act with the con-
sent Of the crown is as binding as a mar
riage celebrated lawfully between subjects,
and cannot be broken except by the high |
court for legal cause. Moreover, the chill
dren Of this union have full rights of sue
cession and inheritance to both their par
ents.
The marriages Of Princess Louise Prin-
cess Henry of Battenberg and the Duchess
or Fife constitute exact examples of what |
In Germany would be styled morganatic |
union. In England. however, as they were
celebrated with the consent OF the queen |
they are on the same footing as other mar
found In the fact that the Duchess of Fife
comes next to the Duke of FORKS family
In the, line Of succession, and her daughters |
come after her. In Germany her marriage |
would have cut the duchess and her chill |
dren out of the line altogether. The strong
est case, however, is that of the Duke and |
duchess of York. According to the Ger |
man Jaw, the Duke of Teck being the son |
OF q lnorganatfc marriage, could only mar !
ry the late Princess Mary Adelaide NOR
ganatfcalfy. Their children were moreanat. |
1caliy born, and when Princess Nav mar
rled the Duke of York 1t was merely NOR |
sanatfc alliance. 1t may be added, how
ever, that not even the German emperor
has ever ventured to treat the duchess az
a morganatic wife.
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