Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-09-20
BELGIAN QUEEN DEAD
MARIE HENRIETTE SEIZED WITH
FATAL ATTACK AT DINNER.
Husband and Family Absent-End OF
q Life Clouded With
Sorrows.

dispatch from Spa, Belgium, yesterday
| says: Marie Henriette, Queen OF the Bel
| sians, died here suddenly at 80 o'clock to-
| night She had long suffered from heart
| disease and asthma.
! Neither her husband, members OF har
| family nor her doctors were present at the
| time of her DEATH She was seated at
| table eating light dinner, when she was
| seized with an attack of fainting. Dr.
Guillaume who in the course of the day,
| had remarked upon disQuieting symptoms
| in the queens condition. was summoned
Immediately. but she was dead before he
| arrived Two members Of her suite were
with her during her last moments.
As soon as the news of the queens death
became known large crowd gathered OUT
side the palace.
King Leopold has left Bagneres-de-
Luchon. France, for Spa, and other mem
bers Of the royal family have been tele-
graphed for. NJ. de Smet de Mayer, the
Belgian premier, will arrive tomorrow.
"World's Unhappiest Queen"
One Of the most pathetic pictures Of re-
cent days has been that of Queen Marie
Henriette struggling with a will power ex-
traordinary against the universal enemy
and her many sorrows in her chateau at
Spa.
Imbued with the pride of the Austrian
| royal house. unbending. perhaps inspired by
that superstition which leads so many Of
the blood royal to repose their faith in the
so-called divine right Of kings she never
fully understood the freedom of the dem0c-
racy Of Belgium, the country she adopted
as the bride Of Prince Leopold. Duke OF
Brabant At Twenty-Five she became queen,
| but not the queen she had dreamed of in
her home among the Hapsburgs, where
such personages were surrounded by bar
rier Of etiquette bordering almost on fanati-
cfsm. In Belgium the court has maintained
a far more wholesome relationship with the
people, its usages and etiquette being less
| ostentatious, thanks to that spirit of equal
ity and to the adherence of class distinc-
tlonS that have characterized the nation.
Born in the famous chateau Of Schon-
brunn, where the Inflated Duke Of Reich
stadt breathed his last. she attracted much
attention a the Austrian court at an early
age by her quiet dignified beauty and
queenly bearing. When she was only sew
enteen King Leopold Of Belgium sought an
alliance for his eldest son, the Duke of Bra
bant. and preferred to all others union
with either the Hapsburgs the Hohen-
zollerns. The duke was a strikingly hand
some lad Of eighteen and willing to wed the
beautiful archduchess, so a marriage was
arranged. Marie Henriette left her home
and became the Duchess Of Brabant, 1E
Brussels. on her seventeenth birthday.
AAOoO1o III S1IC1o.
Her first trouble was in the family circle,
where her severe father-in-law, 1t is said.
did much toward embittering her life by a
mania for discipline She had been brought
up as dauntless horsewo oman. and shortly
after her arrival in Brussels the king ex-
pressed himself as shocked at her feats Of
horsemanshp. AS head of the family, he
took it upon himself upon more than one
sion II Is said 70 Cd ipts {a ,ist,
ment by shutting the young princess in her
apartments, despite the protestations Of
her husband.
In 1865 she and her husband made their
entry Into Brussels as king and queen
When once upon the throne the queens
highest ambitions were, first, to find suita-
Bile mates for her children-and for her
daughters she dreamed of steps to other
thrones-and. second. to please her adopted
people. But her hopes regarding her chill
dren were never realized.
In 1863, four years after Leopold II as
cended the throne, their only son, the Count
de Hainaut, only ten years old died, and
this death struck a blow from which his
mother never recovered. The Salic law pre-
walls in Belgium, and thus excludes the
princesses from the succession, which
passes to the kings brother the Count Of
Flanders, who. owing to extreme deafness
and desire for an transformations life. in
tends to pass the succession on to his son,
Prince Albert.
Three years after the death of the Count
de Hainaut another child was born and the
whole country hoped that it might be a
son. but again the queen met with disap-
pointment, for this child the Princess
Clementine. In 1878 Princess Louise, the
eldest child. married Prince Philip of Sake
Coburg, and the unfortunate woman later
went mad after clipping with Lieut. Malta
s:ch She is now in a German insane asy-
lum.
Princess Stephanie's Wedding.
Six years later Princess Stephanie was
united amid great patriotic enthusiasm and
under the brightest of auspices to the I'M
fortunate Rudolph of Austria, the EN-
peror Franz Joseph returning the compli-
ment Leopold 1 paid his country by accept
ing in return Belgian princess as consort
for the future Emperor of Austria. All the
world knows of the tragedy of Meyerling,
in which Prince Rudolph died mysteriousy
after a debauch. and the romance of the
widowed Stephanie, who for years has
never seen her mother, and who for love Of
the man whom she chose herself the second
time-Count Lonyay-has lost her royal pre-
negatives in Belgium.
AS for Princess Clementine, she has ever
before her the experience of her two sis
ters, which suffices to persuade her to re-
main in what she considers single blessed
ness.
Dsappoin tment and sorrow were thus the
keynotes of Queen Marie Henriette's life.
She survived to the age of sixty-six years.
In late years her sorrows Were increased
attentive to her. She was often called the
worlds unhappiest queer"
Tor