Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1921-03-18

Lusignan died in poverty at Milan leaving an only
son named Michael Michael earned precarous
living as waiter at Milan and at Florence ana
repeatedly endeavored to ameliorate his lot by
marrying rich woman About ten years ago
he addressed to the head of the marriage-license
bureau at the New York city hall, remarKaDle
letter inviting the assistance Of that oHcal 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, ID the
Oboukofsky hospital, in the utmost poverty ana
obscurity and without leaving any heir
With him there disappeared the sole and only per-
son who in modern times has ever been otclaily
If enormously, recognized by any foreign govern
ment entitled to bear the name OF Luslgnan
More than questionable was his own status ne
was never tired of denouncing the soi-disant
Prince Guy de Lusignan of Paris, and the latter
son Leon, as utter frauds
With regard to this Prince Guy de Lusignan
who persuaded a number of credulous Engllsn
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. He was
the son of an Armenian stone mason, and was cd
ucated by public charity at the Armenian mon
astery of San Lazzaro, at Venice.
In Paris he first gave out that he was grandson
of the great Napoeon's 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 arr
dealers. After her death, he married rich Eng
lishwoman named Broadley; and it was on the
strength of the money thus acquired that ne
adopted his royal titles and founded his ridicu-
Ions orders of knighthood. These last were the
Order of Melusine 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-Style0
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 mention of the dethroned halsefs extra
ordinary pretensions to the title. lie boldly as
sumed it on the occasion of his theatrical entry
into Jerusalem in 1898, when he rode into the Holy
City arrayed in the white mantle of the crusader
sovereigns, and carrying their emblem, cross.
In the almost basphemOus sermons that he
preached on the Mount of Olives and in the
Lutheran church at Jerusalem, he emphasized his
claim to the kingly title once held by Frederick
II of the old German empire. AT home how
ever, he never included 1t in the offclal list OF
his multifarious honOrs as German halser ana
autocrat of Prussia.
The former Kaiser was not content to ascribe
bis rights in the matter to descent from of
the medieval rulers of Jerusalem. He goes back
To an epoch much more remOte-tO King David
of the Old Testament, whom he claims as an
cnstor Hanging in a conspicuous position in his
worlxroom in the Neues Palais at Potsdam is,
was huge and beautifully framed genealogical
+raa showing the name of King David at the root
and that of the Emperor William at the top. Ac-
cording TO this tree, the dethroned Kaiser is de-
scended from King David through the eldest
daughter of Zedekiah, who, with her sister, fled
to ireland in charge Of the Prophet jeremiah, to
10 married to Heremon, King of Ulster.
This genealogical tree is the work of clergy
man of the Church of England, named Glover,
-. devoted most of his life to the study Of gene
a,a1 In 1869 he wrote to Queen Victoria inform
~. hor that he had discovered her to be descended
-, an unhroken line from King David. The queen
Govt for him to come to Windsor, and to his
oToovoment informed him that what he thought
bo had been the first to discover had been known
- herself and to her late husband, the Prince
Consort for many years.
II is quite natural that victoria's grandson the
former Kaiser, with his Intense if somewhat Curl
GUS. religious ideas, should have been deeply In
terested in this family tree. Soon after his
cession to the throne of Germany he requested
his grandmother to let him have copy. which
was sent to him handsomely engrossed and gorge
ously framed It's contemplation naturally tended
to increase his belief in the divine origin of his
sovereignty.