Los Angeles herald., 1907-03-10

! n
countries of Europe royal
prince who marries commoner
sacrifices all of his rights to the sue
cession, such marriages are by no
means rare.
one such union was contracted years
ego by the late Duke of Cambridge
Queen Victoria's brother. At a time
when enterprising statesmen we're
seeking a bride for the duke among
the pretty princesses of the continent
his royal highness had already met and
fallen in love with Miss Louisa Fair
brother, an actress of great beauty,
who sixty-four years ago was appear
ing as Columbine In a London panto-
mime. In spite Of strenuous opposition
the duke determined to make Miss
Fairbrother his wife, and the memoirs
of his royal highness, which have re-
Gently been published, tell us how hap
py their fifty years of married life
were
Not since the days when George w
married Mrs. Fitzherbert and William
Nv led Mrs. Jordan to the altar had
royal marriage created such a sensa-
tion as the romance of the duke of
Cambridge. Unlike the courts of Ger
many, Austria and Russia, English roy
atty has not startled the country with
many mesalliances. It is a fact not
generally known, however, that the
present Princess of Wales, If the Ger
man court rule of equality of birth be-
tween husband and wife being essential
to a proper marriage were strictly adj
hered to, would be merely the morgan
attic wife of the prince and her children
would be excluded from the succession,
as her father, the duke of Teck, was the
son of a morganatic alliance.
Then, again, the marriage in 1851 Of
Prince Alexander of Hesse to the Coun-
tess Julia Won Hauke, from which
sprang the Battenberg family, was a
morganatic one. Princess Beatrice's
marriage to Prince Henry of -Batten-
berg was only saved from being NOR
ganatic By the granting to him on the
day before their wedding of the title of
royal highness.
morganatic marriage which occa-
stoned great interest was that of Prince
Oscar II of Sweden, who in 1888 mar
ried Miss Ebba Munk, lady-in-waiting
to the Swedish crown princess. Miss
Munk was a guest of Lady Cairns at
Barnemouth in England at the time,
and the wedding took place from her
house,, The result was that Prince Os-
car had to resign all rights of success
sion to the Swedish throne for himself
and his descendants, although the five
children of this romantic marriage have
been granted patent of nobility as
counts and countesseS.
When the Crown Princess Stephanie
of Belgium married Count Lonyay two
or three years ago she made a great
sacrifice of riches and title on the altar
Of love. AS the eldest daughter of the
king of the Belgians and daughter-in-
law of the king of Austria-having been
first married to Prince Rudolf heir to
the Austrian crown, in 1SS1-the prin-
cess was the second lady in the empire,
bearing the title of imperial highness
and enjoying an income of $200,000 a
year.
The crown princess also possessed
two of the finest palaces in Belgium
and. of course, had claim on the Aus
trian succession. In consequence of her
marriage with the count, however. she
not only lost the title of imperial high
ness but was also deprived of her pal
aces and would have had to sacrifice
the whole of her yearly income had not
the Emperor Francis Joseph granted
her a dowry of $50,0OO year.
Among the morganatic marriages
which have taken place in Russia of re-
cent years the most sensational and ro-
mantle was that of the Grand Duke
Michael Mchailovitch, who in 1891 con-
LracCeQ mOrgandt1c marriage WITH the
then Countess Sophia de Nuremberg.
This marriage so enraged the late czar,
Alexander III, the grand duke being
his cousin, that he gave orders that the |
latter should be expelled from the Rus
sian army and deprived of his rank and
privileges and. Furthermore, condemned |
him to perpetual exile from his native |
country. The consequence was that the
grand duke went to England, took up |
the title of Count Torby, and firmly es-
tablished himself as popular member |
of English society.
The sacrifice which the grand duke |
had to make in order to marry the |
woman whom he loved had it's reward |
Some time ago the present czar grant |
ed him free pardon and restored him |
to his former rank and position. More |
over, what the grand duke appreciated |
probably more than anything else, the |
czar recognized the right of the lady |
who had been the cause of his Danish |
ment to bear the title Of grand duchess. |
The recent romance of the Prince of
Bentheim-Steinfurt. who married the
daughter of a Cologne tradesman,