The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-08-12
MORAL FAD o. ROYALTY
MORGANATIC MARRIAGES CUTTING
QUITE A FIGURE IN THE PETTY
POLITICS OF EUROPE
NOT ACCEPTED BY AMERICANS
status of Children Tested When
the BOnaparte Boys Went to
Paris and 4-lpeu1ed to
the Co \rts.

MOrgdnauc marriages are OF frequent
occurrence in the continental countries Of
Europe. Since the queen Of England has
put her seal Gn a modified form on this
Sort of marriage-it has become more pop
ular. The queen regards every woman
married by the rites Of any church or the
rites Of the state as a legal wife. Hence
the Battenburgs.
Now that the heir apparent of the
throne of Austria-Hungary has married
"morganatic" wife and the emperor has
married another, the question of these
marriages assumes, in the petty politics
of Europe, an additional interest. Amer
lean girls who have married the heirs Of
foreign thrones have never accepted a
mOrganatic marriage
There is the Hoboken girl who is now
Princess Monaco. She is not a morganat-
&c wife. There was once a chance for
Spaniard to be king of Spain, but he had
an American wife, and she said to the
deputies: What place will 1 hold-will
I be queen Of Spain2" The deputies an
swered, mo; you will be the morganatic
wife Of the king" whereupon the ENJOYS
were dismissed, and the husband of the
American girl did not become the king OF
Spain.
Morganatic marriages, the New York
Press says, are based upon the idea that
husband and wife should be of equal
birth. In Austria, about half century
ago, Prince Schwarzensburg, who was
prime minister at that time, said: HUI
mainly began at the barons." 1t is the
custom now to ennoble a woman who is
to marry a member Of a reigning house,
though that house may be a very small
one.
The woman who recently was made the
Countess Marie Chotec. in order that she
might marry the heir of the Caesars Is
a pretty girl, with a bright and sympa-
HInf4 zoo EIa v,of har CT cd
beautiful. but she has always had the fac
ulty of attraction. Not more attractive
woman graced the Austrian court. This
mOrganauc marriage of the pretty So
phie' differs in some ways from the or
binary marriage Of the kind. 1t took
place with the approval of the emperor,
who has followed, in this respect, the
''dictum" of the queen, that marriage
is a marriage, whether 1t is between peas
ant and prince or not.
To go back to the old idea of morganat-
s. marriages, the remuneration of the
Archduke Ferdinand for the heirs Of his
body" does not signify. They could not
have inherited anyway. So much of the
old law does obtain in the realm of the
house of Hapsburg. According to the old
law regarding morganatic marriages, the
ceremony which took place in the Hof-
burg, in Vienna, does not debar either of
the contracting parties from making an
other match If they feel $50 disposed"
The status of children Of morganatic mar
riages was tested in the days of the
second empire, when the Bonaparte boys
from Baltimore went over to Paris and
entered suit to find legal conclusion re-
garding their legitimacy. In SPITE of the
fact that the first emperor, by imperial
edict, declared that no descendant of Bet
sey Patterson and his brother, Jerome
BOnaparte, should ascend the throne
{,t,
were obliged to declare Jerome Napoleon
and his brother Charles now a success
full lawyer in Baltimore) legitimate de-
scendants of the first emperor's brother,
and, by inference, the subsequent mar
riage Of old Jerome with the Princess of
Wurtemburg was invalid and the Off
spring were illegitimate.
The first emperor tried his best to get
the bishop of Rome to declare the mar
rage between Betsey Patterson and Je-
rome Bonaparta null and void but receiv-
ed In reply only a mon posimus." Je-
rome 2onaparte, granddaughter of the
great emperC- was made minister of
the palace" after this decision of the
courts, and. with the West India rela-
tives Of the second emperor, was kept
slightly in the background" He was
a graduate of West Point, and is still re-
membeTed there in the song of Benny
Havens." He was killed at Pride's Cross
ing, in Massachusetts, while fox hunt
ing.
All this seems complicated, but is in
reality very simple 1t is remnant OF
the divine right Of kings which lifted the
successful soldier above the common
herd, although he might have been the
rankest kind of a plebeian. In the me-
dieval ages it was not only the reigning
princes who had the right of morgan
attic marriage: "Legalized bigamy,' as
a witty republican once called such al
nances were allowed to many of the
minor ruling houses.
At Liebfrauenkirche lie the ashes of the
Count Won Gleichen, and his body Tor
what is left of it, is attended on either
side by his two wives. The old house of
Won Gletchen is extinct, though there is
a nephew of the queen of England who
bears the same title
The castle of Gleichen is still In ex-
istence. Count Gleichen, like many no
bles OF his time, Joined the Crusades,
was made a prisoner and employed In
the gardens of the sultan, by whose
daughter he was noticed on account of
his noble bearing and handsome face.
Naturally she fell in love with him and
pitied him for his sufferings. 1t is not
Stated how the pity was expressed and
how the noble captive responded to It
one does not even get a chance of ex-
planning 1t by the hackneyed quotation
of Drink to me only with thine eyes,
for the juice of the grape and fermented
liquors were not obtainable among the
followers of Islam at that time but can
be had now.
1t is, nevertheless, certain that an I'M
Outstanding was established, between
prompted her to inquire about the par
ticulars of the Christian knights faith,
which had impelled him so far from
home and caused all his troubles Low
ers must have been different in the mid
die ages from what they are now IN
stead of spending the stolen hours in
sweet dafliance, Count Gleichen talked
theology or religion to his inamorata and
converted her to Christianity 1t Is the
story of THE Sign Of tAe Cross of
Christian dramas with the Moi reversnd