Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1909-12-24
THRONE OF BELGIUM
SOUGHT FOR BY A fight IN
The COURTS.
Late King Leopold Had Mistress wbo
Bore Him Son, Now Claimant Of
Crown-His Daughters Will BRING
Suit to Break the Will of Father WIN
Gave Most All to Mistress.

Brussels, Dec. 20.-A fight to obtain
the throne of Belgium for her Swear.
old son Lucien, the offspring of her
morganatic marriage to the late KING
Leopold, is the threat that Brussels
believes will be held over the heads Of
the daughters of the king by Baroness
Vaughan to prevent their threatened
suit to break their father IS will. in
which he bequeathed the bulk of his
millions to the baroness. The capital
views the prospect with nervous fear.
One other motive, also, prompts the
baroness, and that is to clearly estab.
lish to the world her marriage to the
king, so that she may appear as royal
widow.
There is absolutely no fear of the
success of such suit, for the Belgian
law could not be palmer with respect
to the offspring of marriage wherein
the civil ceremony is lacking being in
eligible to the throne.
Wealth in Foreign Property.
The Belgian government is co-operat.
ing with the daughters of the king.
Princesses Louise, Stephanie and Glenn.
entine, in an effort to deprive her of
the legacy, but inasmuch as the greater
part of Leopold's wealth was in for.
eign property the government g chances
of recovering any considerable amount
are hardly worth considering.
Woman Of Low Origin.
There are conflicting stories regard.
ing the antecedents of Baroness
Vaughan, but all are agreed as to her
low origin, her surprising beauty, her
questionable life and the suddenness
with which the king fell a victim to
her lures.
Six years ago, when Leopold was
stopping at the Elysee hotel in Paris
he saw from the hotel window the
baroness, then Caroline Lacroix, pass.
ing on the sidewalk. She was then a
well-known character in Paris. Leo.
pOld was Immediately struck with her
great beauty and he ordered that the
girl be introduced to him. That even
ing the king shocked Paris and the
Belgium court by dining in public with
her. It was thought then that it was
only passing within of the king; that
he would treat her as he had treated
scores of others. But subsequent
events proved that Leopold was en-.
tangled beyond all power of escape
and that the affair, lightly entered
into, was destined to divide the kings
home, shock the royalty of all Europe,
make the name of Leopold bywOrd
among home-loving people and eventu-
ally cost the royal family the bulk of
his vast fortune.
One story says that the baroness was
the daughter of porter at the French
legation in Budapest; another that her
mother was barmaid, and still another
that her mother was a charwoman and
her father dissolute actor.
She is credited with having married
French officer who posed as Baron
Vaughan, from whom she was divorced
shortly before meeting Leopold. What
ever her early life may have been her
meeting with Leopold changed all, and
she ceased to be a public character,
except as her relations with the king
forced her into the Hmelight.
Shortly after the meeting between
the baroness and Leopold he took her
ON board his yacht on a cruise of the
Mediterranean. Leopold bought the
villa "The Palms," situated close to
the Laeken palace, and connected with
it by an underground passage. Here
she was installed as his royal mistress.
In the fitting up of the villa Leopold
spent several hundred thousand dol
lars, small part of the money he Law.
ished upon her.