The Washington herald., 1911-07-06
FAMILY ROW IN AUSTRIA.

tent to be called "fuertIiche gnaden."
But she succeeded In getting the title
changed into the more important
"durchlaucht' five years after marriage,
and obtained the title of duchess and
the address of ''highness'' four years
later.
Thus equipped. she went to court func-
posed that as a morganatic wife she
would keep aloof though no one dis
puted her right to appear as Francis
Ferdinand's wife at the family gather
ings. The archduchesses enjoyed watch
ing her, with proud bearing. walk in the
imperial procession behind the very last
archduchess.
the date of. the court ball the archduke
went to the Emperor and declared that
his wife had found the court ceremonial
intolerable. She did not ask for the first
place as the wife of the heir to the
throne. she would allow the married
archduchesses to have precedence, but
she would not walk behind the unmar-
ried ones.
But in her anger at thus being snubbed
the duchess also had dropped some hints
about her intentions and the arch
duchesses had POSTED the Emperor be-
combine against her. When Franz
Ferdinand made his request he met with
an emphatic refusal and returned to his
palace, Belvidere. in a rage, declaring
that "as an archduke' he would never
again enter the Hofburg. The first re-
suit of that interview was that Franz
Ferdinand declined to go to London as
the representative of Emperor Franz
Josef, at the coronation of King George,
because his wife would not rank with
the princesses of imperial and royal
blood.
Archduke and Emperor meet now mere
ly to transact necessary business Of the
monarchy. Recently the Emperor wished
Archduke Franz Ferdinand TO visit the
Belgian court as his representative. The
archduke asked II his wife was to be
raised to his rank so that she might be
received at the court in Brussels. En-
peror Franz Joseph answered that she
was not. ThereupOn, the archduke de-
clined to go to Belgium also.
1t is the annual custom for the i'm
perial family to attend the races on the
Austrian Derby Day, but this year only
two archduchesses were present. 1t is
said at Vienna that all the others re-
mained away for fear of meeting the
morganatic wife of the future Emperor.
But he Is careful to save her the annoy
ance of meeting them as they are to
meet her. At any rate instead of taking
his wife to the races he went with her
to her Hungarian castle.
The young Archduchess Ella, who has
thus been deprived OF the chance Of once
becoming empress, is only nineteen years
old. The heir presumptive, Karl Franz
Josef, is twenty-four. The match be-
tween those two young people had been
nicely engineered by their mothers,
Archduchess Marie Valerie and Arch
duchess Marie Josefa. But It appears
as certain that the heir to the throne
is a good husband and father, and that
he is a man of iron will, who may yet
surprise slow, easy-going Austria
Emperor William is very fond OF him,
and it seems assured that he is upholding
the Hapsburger in his efforts to break
the law of succession in Austria, Just as
the father of Empress Marie Theresa
broke the Salic law. One thing is GER
tain. The Hungarians have no such re-
strictions as to their kings wives, and
whatever may happen at Vienna, the
wife of the heir will be received with full
queenly honors at the court Of Budapest
despite all the Hapsburg archduchesses
that ever plotted. Besides, the Austrian
heirs wife is a native Hungarian and
sure OF undivided support on the part of
the proud Magyars. FLANEUR.
Copyrighted. 1911. by Court Gossip syDdicate.)