The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-14
Rich Relatives Come To Princess Marys Financial Aid

genie It is, of course. known that the
Queen of Spain is the prospective heiress
of the bulk of the empress fortune.
which is fixed at $5.0O0,000. The empress.
however. is certain to bequeath substan-
tial legacy to the head Of the reignins
house which stood by her so steadfastiv
through many years of trouble and dis.
aster when other reigning families were
not eonspieuously friendly to her.
Shortly after King George came to the
throne he paid a visit to the empress at
her English home, and it is known that
his majesty then informed the empress
that he would desire that any money the
empress intended to leave to any member
Of the English royal family should be be-
queathed TO the Princess Mary
The Duchess of Argyll has now promised
the Princess Mary $4,000. which she prob
ably will receive on her twenty-first birth
day. From Queen Alexandra the Prin-
cess Mary is also certain to inherit some
money, though the extent of her majesty's
legacy to her favorite granddaughter Is
row doubtful. Queen Alexandra, since
King Edwards death. is known to have
been living somewhat beyond her means
and only quite recently her majesty had
to realize someSof her invested money 10
meet some pressing liabilities; but us
Queen Alexandra's private fortune is GER
tainly not less than 81, $4,000, the Princess
Mary will probably benefit to the extent
of at least $4,000 under her grand
mothers will
From her father the princess will have
$4,000 when she is q. but from her rela-
tions on her mothers side the. princess
has, of course, no expectations, for the
Tecks are, among the poorest Of Euro
pean royalties.
One way and another it will be seen
that the Princess Mary will very likely in
herit, under present arrangements sums
of money amounting to 1926, 900, which with
the 100000 left to her by King Edward
and the money that is being saved for
her out of her annuity from the state will
bring her fortune up to over $500,000 The
princess total income, then, including
her state annuity, would amount to about
$4,000 per annum, and there are certainly
not more than half dozen princesses OF
regning houses with larger incomes.
If the Princess Mary should marry the
heir to any of the great thrones of Eu-
rope which at the moment does not seem
a likely event, it would not make much
difference to her whether her private in
come was $40 or 100000 a year. In such
an event. the princess, as the bride of the
heir apparent, would be voted an allow
ance varying from $150,00O to s50000O per
annum, according to the wealth of the
kingdom to the sovereignty of which her
husband was heir. Queen Alexandra had
a fortune of only $4,000 when she married
the late King, and Queen Marys private
fortune only amounted to s35,OO0
If, however. the Princess Mary marres
q minor German prince, which is much
more likely, she would require a larger
income than $4,000 per annum. In such
an event, and in the absence of amy
further assistance from relatives, King
George would have to ask parliament To
grant a sufficient allowance to his daugh-
ter to enable her to maintain her position
with beftting dignity. But this is just
what the King does not want to do. In
days gone by, Parliament did not hesitate
to grant large allowances to the younger
sons and daughters of the sovereign on
their marriage, but in the past 10 or Is
years there has been growing up a feel
ing in England that these marriage allow
ances to the younger children of the reign
ing houses should be curtaied, and
though Parliament might grant mar
riage allowance to the Princess Mary.