Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1914-10-26
WOMEN WHO MARRY
ROYALTY OFTEN FIND
LOTADTFFTCULT ONE
Wife of Ferdinand of Sake
Coburg Suffered Indigni-
ties at Hands of Members
of Court.

The marriage Of Prince Oscar, son of
the Kaiser, to a lady in waiting, set
many talking about morganatlc mar
rIages-an expression which is often used
loosely in England and in America be-
cause the institution is unknown to Eng
lish law, remarks a correspondent of the
Kansas City Star.
Persons have sometimes supposed that
the Duke Of Cambridge was morga-
natically married to Miss Fairbrother,
but in strict fact he was not married to
her at all. His and her status we're de-
tel mined by the English royal marriage
act of t772, whereby 1t Is provided that no
member of the royal family, within the
meaning of the act" shall pe capable OF
contracting marriage without the pre-
vious consent of his Majesty, his heirs or
successors, signifed under the great seal
and declared in council"
That consent was not given in their
case, and their union was, therefore. in
the words of the act, null and void to
all intents and purposes whatever" So
far as the law of the land went 1t was
open to the Duke at any moment to dis
miss his wife and with the royal consent
marry another woman. Morganatic mar
rage Is something quite different from
that
Broadly speaking, 1t may be put in this
way: In England the sovereign can for
bid or prevent royal marriage but II he
permits 1t the wife becomes wife, what
ever her original social status, In the
fullest sense of the word. II, that is to
say. King Cophetua marries the beggar
maid, the beggar maid becomes his queen,
and II he is not prepared to make her his
queen he canont marry her. Similarly,
II King Cophetua's heir apparent or heir
presumptive marries her, she forfeits and
can be deprived of no privilege on the
ground that she Is not of equal birth"
EQUALITY IN GERMANY.
In Germany, on the other hand, and
indeed, in most Continental countries.
those fateful words, "of equal BIRTH"
control the situation. The woman not of
royal birth" whom a royal Prince or an
imperial Archduke marries does indeed
become his wife in the sense that only
death or divorce can dissolve the union,
but most of the other privileges of n wife
are denied to her. She leaves one family
without acquiring any status in another.
She does not become a princess or an
archduchess, but has to be content with
such title and precedence as the SOW
erelgn may choose in his good nature to
bestow upon her.
Her children, though technically legiti-
mate, not only do not but cannot inherit
titles, dignites or lands-they take their
mothers, not their fathers name. Those
in outline are the disabilities which await
Prince Oscars bride
case In which there was not only
scandal. but a shocking scene, was that |
of Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, cousin of
the Prince consort, King consort of Maria !
da Gloria of Portugal and grandfather of
the late Dom Carlos. He married NOR |
gantically, en- secondes noces, Mile. Elise |
Frederick Hensler, the daughter of a pro- |
fesslonal pianist, and herself an opera |
artist of no particular remark, who had |
excited his admiration in the part of the |
page, Oscar, in Verdis "Un Ballo In Mas
chera" at one of the Lisbon theatres. She !
made him an admirable-a most domes-
tlcated-wife.
She used to make her own tea cakes,
and the skill with which she made them
aroused the enthusiasm of Mrs. Grant.
the wife of the President of the United
States. Her husbands cousin, Duke
Ernest, created her Countess of Edia in
the SaXe-Coburg peerage But that was
not enough. Ferdinand insisted upon
taking her to ceremonial functions at the
court of his son. Dom Luis, and there she
had to face an organized conspiracy to
make her realize her position as a base
born person.
Queen Maria Pia set the example by
speaking of her as that person" and
turning her back whenever she saw her;
and the Portuguese courtiers took their
cue from the Queen. So 1t happened that
one day when the doors of the ante
a HnF lad
diplomatsts. were thrown open there
was no one to offer King Ferdnands
wife an arm. The Spanish Ambassador
came to the rescue and led her into the
hal but that was only the beginning of
her embarrassments.
According to instructions issued the
night before, all the seats We're occupied,
and all the Portuguese courtiers sat tight
In their places and grlnned. Once again
the Spanish Ambassador saved the stu
alton by beckoning TO his own wife. who
at once rose and yielded her own chair