New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-06-19
swEDEN's NOBILITY THE SMALLEST IN
EUROPE.


Nowhere does race suicide prevail to a greater
extent than among the nobility of Sweden, where
small families the rule instead of the exception
among those members thereof who we'd the num-
Der OF those who remain single being very large in
deed This is a characteristic of the Swedish arfs-
tocracy not only in present times also in bygone
days. and the result thereof is seen in the fact that
at the present moment there is but one single house
of the three thousand noble families constituting the
aristocracy Of Sweden that has been in existence
three hundred years, while there are but twenty
which have passed their second century. The present
dynasty, namely that of Berlsadotte which has
occupied the throne OF Sweden for less than hun
dred years. has only granted about hundred and
fifty titles Of nobility. Many of these three thou
sand houses of the Swedish nobility of foreign
origin that is say, of Scotch descent such
Counts Douglas and the Counts Hamilton or of
Finnish German, Danish or French ancestry
among the latter being the Duke of Otrante, who
Master of the Horse to the King of Sweden, and
whose son. the future duke. is to form part of the
household of Prince Gustavus Adolphus, whose mar
rage to Princess Margaret Of Connaught has Just
taken place at Windsor Castle in England The
first Duke of Otrante Fouche, the famous
Minister of Police OF the First Napoleon, who
covered himself with much obloquy during the
empire that his family found it preferable to leave
France after the overthrow of Napoleon. and TO
establish itself In Sweden
Although the Swedish mobiles have no political
power such, yet their social influence has been
ana remains very great, and until about ten years
ago it exercised to considerable degree against
the Bernadotte dynasty the aristocracy, spite of
its own modern origin, affecting to look down upon
the present reigning family parvenu owing to
its having been founded at the beginning OF the
nineteenth century by the Pyrenean peasants son,
Marshal Bernadotte Now however, they are draw
ing closer to their king reconciled TO his rule by
the matrimonial alliances which his family have
contracted, notably that of the Crown Prince, who
by marrying the daughter of the reigning grand
duke of Baden. has brought the strain of the old
Swedish Vasa dynasty into the new reigning house.
l may add that in all Norway there but five
noble families which goes far to explain the demo
cratic tendencies of it's people Indeed, there is
monarchy, or for the matter of that, republic
in the Old World, where the aristocracy is so in
fnitesimally small in Norway. For in France,
mobiles, authentic well as bogus, abound, and
titles extravagantly numerous, while even in
little Switzerland each canton has its patriciate the
members of which inordinately proud Of their
birth and ancestry, and terribly exclusive
What is more, the Norsemen show love for
titles of any kind and are altogether Indifferent
thereto. Indeed the Indifference to titular dstinc
tons is pretty general throughout Scandinavia and
In Denmark the greater part of the aristocracy is
untitled. Lineage and name held Of far greater
account than any nobiliary titles.