The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1902-05-17

connection Of John Shorb. the son of Johann
| Tor Jacob shorb and his royal wife, with
| Emperor William / is not as clearly defined
| in the story as could be desired.
PROOF OF KINsHIP.
To prove his first cousnship with Emperos
| William, as the tradition claims, through hir
mother, it would be necessary for his mother
to have been sister of either the father of
William-that is, Frederick William III.
King of Prussia-or of his mother, Queen
Louise, or possibly of some one of the wives
of Frederick's younger brothers, Of whom he
had three, as well as three sisters.
Queen Louise had one brother, three sisters.
and one-half brother. Her two elder sisters
married German noblemen, while the younger.
the gay Frederick, married Prince Lewis, a
younger son of the King. He died, however,
after few years, and his widow married sew
eral times afterward.
If the relationship comes through the
Queen, it should prove doubly interesting, for
the charming personality of Queen Louise of
Prussia is one of the most agreeable studies in
the royal line of the Hohenzollerns. Left
motherless at tender age, Louise of Meek
lenburgh was brought up, with her sisters and
brother, by her grandmother, the Landgra-
vine Marie, at Darmstadt. Their life was full
ofthe simple, innocent gayety of healthy child
uOOu, VI Inc pidiHcSb anu Qulet6St
character. Money was scarce and economy
reigned with an iron hand. Louisa is said to
have proudly related in after life how she
fitted and sewed her own silken shoes during
a special ebb in the finances.
At sixteen she made her debut at Frankfort
and was at once the censer of admiration, both
for her girish loyeliness and the sweetness of
her character. Here, little later, she, to-
gether with her sister Fredericka met the
crown prince and his brother Lewis. 1t was
love at sight with both couples, and the double
wedding followed within the year.
-Four years later, upon the death of his
father, the crown prince became Frederick
William Ill of Prussia, being twenty seven
years of age, while the young Queen was but
twenty-one. Coming after the disgustingly
prohigate and dishonorable reign of Frederick
William II, the domestic happiness and high
ideals of the young sovereigns won the hearts
of the simple, honest German people, who
still revere the memory of this NOBLE lovable
woman above all the Queens of Prussia
After the early and lamented death of
Queen Louise, who died of cancer in 1871,
leaving seven children, the King contracted
morganatic marriage with his cousin, Augusta
of Hohenzollern, and it is possible that il was
through her line that the connection of the
American branch may come, though that
would make the kinship more distant than is
claimed in the tradition.
THE MoRGANATIC MARRIAGE.
One point, however, that would seem to
make this theory tenabe is the fact of the
marriage being morganatic one, though the
King was widower and eligible to matri-
mony. This seems strange when her birth
was equal to his own, but would be readily
explained if Augusta of Hohenzollern was a
Catholic.
There are two family lines of the Hohen-
zollerns distinguished as the ''royal line"
which is necessarily Protestant, and the
''princely line," which, though descended
from the same ancestor, Rudolph Graf Won
Zolern, forfeited the right to the throne by
remaining true to the Catholic faith. The
royal line has not for some generations been
allowed to intermarry with the princely line
for state reasons, so if the KING desired to
wed his cousin Augusta, and she belonged to
the princely or Catholic line, morganatic
marriage, would be legal and sanctioned by
religion, but would carry no right of success
sion with it, would seem to be the only pos
sible solution.
call each other cousins by courtesy, and
there is a strong family tie between them.
Moreover, if Augusta was Catholic Hohen-
zollern that fact would seem to closely con-
meet her with the American branch, for the
wife of Johann Tor Jacob) Shorb was evil
IDENTIFY of strong Catholic faith. as is shown by
her bringing up her numerous family therein,
and by the steadfastness with which the ma
jority of their descendants have adhered to its
doctrines ever since.
The royal family tree WILL however, it is to
be hoped, clear up all these vague points and
enable the interested to fill in the missing
branches of their own vines and fig trees,
which in these days of genealogical fever, or
fervor, will be deemed "a consummation de-
voutly to be wished"
The Hohenzolerns take their name from
the heights of Zolern, the old ancestral seat
in the Suabian Alp5-Hohen-Z olern; but the
history of the dark streak running through
the hair, the mark of the Hohenzollerns, or
of the legend attached thereto, cannot be
definitely ascertained at present, interesting
though it would doubtless prove.