The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1921-03-17

LuSignan died in poverty at Milan, leaving an only
son named Michael. Michael earned precarlouS
living as a waiter at Milan and at Florence, ana
repeatedly endeavored to amellorate his lot by
marrying some rich woman. About ten years ago
he addressed TO the head of the marrage-lcehse
bureau at the New York city hall, remarkable
letter inviting the assistance of that Official III
securing a rich American wife for "a prince OF
royal blood, Prince Michael de Lusignan, Prince
OF Armenia, Cyprus, and Jerusalem; Comte de Ia
Marche ffty-seyen years of age, and without
fortune His matrimonial designs were as fruit'
less in America as they were abroad however
and he died in October, 1912, at Petrograd In the
OboukOfSky hospital, in the utmost poverty anu
obscurty and without leaving any heir.
With him there disappeared the sole and only per-
son who in modern times has ever been OhlcaIiy'
if enormously, recognized by any foreign govern
ment as entitled to bear the name of Lusignan'
More than questionable as was his own status, ne
was never tired of denouncing the soi-dlsant
Prince Guy de Lusignan Of Paris, and the Iatters
son Leon, as utter frauds.
With regard to this Prince Guy de LuSignan'
who persuaded a number of credulous English
and Americans into belief in the authenticity
of his claims and induced them to accept the
bogus orders Of knighthood which he conferred
upon them, his real name was kalfajan lie was
the son Of an Armenian stone mason, and was ed
ucated by public charity at the Armenian mon
astery of San Lazzaro, at Venice.
In Paris he first gave out that he was a grandson
of the great Napoeons famous Mameluke,
Roustan and subsequently blossOmed forth as Guy
de Lusgnan, King of Jerusalem, Cyprus and Ar
menia 1t was previous to this that he had sue
Ceeded in winning the hand and fortune OF the
wealthy widow Of one of the great French art
dealers After her death, he married rich Eng
llshwoman named Broudley; and 1t was on the
strength Of the money thus acquired that he
odoDted his royal titles and founded his ridicu-
Ious orders of knighthood, These last were the
Order of Melusne, named after the legendary
ancestress of the real Lusignan family, and the
Order Of St Catherine of Mount Sinai which was
restricted to women, and which this self-styed
King Of Jerusalem had the impudence to confer
upon Miss Clara Barton, then head of the Ameri.
can Red Cross.
No sketch Of the Kings Of Jerusalem, past and
present bogus and authentic, would be complete
without a mention of the dethroned Kaisers extra
ordinary pretensons to the title. He boldly as
sumed it on the occasion of his theatrical entry
into Jerusalem in 1893, when he rode into the Holy
CITY arrayed in the white mantle of the crusader
sovereigns, and carrying their emblem, cross
In the almost blasphemOus sermons that he
preoched on the Mount of Olives and in the
Lutheran church at Jerusalem, he emphasized his
claim to the kngly title once held by Frederick
III of the old German empire Al nome, now
ever. he never included it in the official list of
his mulufarious honors as German Kaiser and
autocrat Of Prussia
The former Kaiser not content to ascribe
his rights in the matter to descent from one OF
tha medieval rulers Of Jerusalem. He goes back
IN an epoch much more remOte-tO King David
~ tha Old Testament, whom he claims an
cestOr Hanging in conspicuous position in his
y,orl;room in the Neues Palais at Potsdam is, or
was a huge and beautifully framed genealogical
tree showing the name of King David at the root
and that Of the Emperor William at the top. Ac
c,rdInr TO this tree the dethrOned Kaiser is de
seconded from King David through the eldest
douohter of Zedekiah, who with her sister, fled
10 ireland In charge of the Prophet jeremiah &c
no married to Heremon King Of Ulster
This genealogical tree is the work Of a clergy.
nan ~ the Church of England, named Glover
,ho devoted most of his life to the study OF gene
t,v In 1869 he wrote to Queen Victoria, inform.
, her that he had discovered her to be descended
e., an unbroken line from King David. The queen
cont for him to come to Windsor, and to hs
,o1ement Informed him that what he thought
~ had been the first to discover had been known
90 herself ind to her late husband, the Prince
Consert for many years.
r. is quite natural that Victorlas grandson the
former Kaiser with his intense, If somewhat curl
oua religious ideas, should have been deeply In
terested In this family tree Soon after his &C
cessIon to the throne Of Germany he requested
his grandmother to let him have a copy which
was sent to him handsomely engrossed and gorge
ously framed. Its contemplation naturally tended
TO increase his belief In the divine origin of hh
sovereignty.