Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-12


than is generally known, and there are few of the
reignng houses of Europe in which alliances of this
kind do not figure.
The reasons for envelopng them with veil of
mystery are of manifold Character. Sometimes
they due to dynastic and political considera-
tons In other instances it is the knowledge that
the admission of the existence of marriage would
entail not only the forfeiture of the prerogatives of
birth the steps of the throne, but likewise the
loss of fortune. For Princes and Processes of the
Blood are not allowed to contract even morganatic
marriages without the consent of the sovereign,
who, in the event of his wishes being dsregarded,
has the power to impose all sorts of penalties,
to the extent of banShment cOnfSCatiOn of property
and incarceration in a lunatic asylum.
Then too royal personages live much of their
existence in the fierce glare of publicity that beats
upon every throne that they often develop an al
most wild craving for the joys of privacy especially
where their affections concerned and ready
to proceed to any length in order to avert the
less public discussion of their affairs of the heart
When one reflects upon the pages of print that
devoted by the popular press on both sides of the
Atlantic to every morganatic alliance, which by it's
very character as such indicates that it is love
match he readily understand why there are so
many personages among the sovereign houses of
Europe who shrink from being held up to the world
the hero or the heroine of royal romance.
Queen Elizabeth's Mourning
THUS, Queen Elizabeth of Rumania is privately,
though not officially mourning for the death
not long ago of an old German statesman who, I'M
known to the world at large, her stepfather.
Her mother Princess Hermann of WED, after losing
secret marriage with Baron Francis Roggenbach
who had been Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Grand Duchy of Baden. He was intimate friend
of Emperor Fredericks, who would have appointed
him Governor of Alsace- Lorraine had it not been for
the enmity of the late Prince Bismarck In fact the
animosty of the Iron Chancellor which actually led
him after the death of Emperor Frederick to cause
search of the Baron's chateau of Wiesenthal for
compromising papers, was probably one of the
sons why Roggenbach and the Princess of WED
found it preferable to keep their marriage secret.
Of the failure to admit the existence of any
lawful union between the Princess and the Baron
gave rise to some apprehension among those whose
attention attracted to the preference that the
Princess manifested for her Chamberlain and Chief
of her Household, and also lent color to those cal
umnies concerning the Princess contained in novel
dealing with the Court of Rumania, entitled Royal
Misery" published in Paris by Queen Elzabeth's
Asatian secretary, after his summary dismissal by
King Charles and his expulsion from Rumania
These calumnes were preposterous since the
Princess was one of the most sanity and pious of
women devoting all her energies and her wealth to
religious and phianthropic enterprises She died
five years ago, and is now being followed to the
grave by her aged husband none of whose lengthy
obituaries in the German papers and in The Lon
don Times" contained any reference to his secret
marriage.
Another secret marriage of which no record will