The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-04-22

Who Gave Up United States Citizen
ship-French Courts Deny Right tt
French Citizenship and to Owner
ship of Magnificent Estate in North
i, ern France.
The recent decision of the French
courts denying the right to French citi
zenship and to ownership of a magnif
cent estate id northern France makes
the duchess Of Croy, the former Miss
Nancy Leishman and one Of the most
notable of the rich and beautiful Amer
lean heiresses who have become the
wives of foreign noblemen, a woman
without a country, according to the
Milwaukee Journal.
Her plight is singularly like that of
the character of Edward Everett
Hale's story, "The Man Without a
Country" But the former Nancy
Leishman is even worse off than this
| character of fiction
| Besides declaring that it does not
want her or her husband or any of his
brothers as citizens, the French gov
| eminent condemns her to poverty
! through it's refusal to surrender the
valuable estate which it seized shortly
after the war began.
The difficulties in which the former
Miss Leishman finds herself are due
to the fact that the family into which
she married is one that has branches
in several European Countries
France, Germany, Belgium, Hungary
and Spain. It has the blood of at
least five nations flowing in it's veins
as a result of generations of intermar
.rying.
In the German Army.
When the war broke out the duchess
husband, Charles Rudolphe of Croy,
and his two brothers were living in
Germany. They entered the German
army. This led the French govern
ment to regard them as alien enemies.
princes declared they had been forced
to enter the German army under pen
atty of death, and insisted they had
always been loyal to France. But
suits to establish their claims have
failed.
The duchess lost her American citi-
zenship when she was married to a
foreigner France has declared that 1t
naants nothing of her, and Germany
will doubtless be equally unwilling
to accept her as a citizen since her
husband and his brothers have de
clared their loyalty to France and
sworn that they fought under the Ger
man flag against their will.
But depriving her of any country
she can cali her own is only part of
the cruel blow which the recent deci-
sion of French courts has dealt this
American heiress. The great estate
which France refuses to surrender to
the mongrel Croy family is one on
whose rehabilitation the duchess has
spent a large share of her personal
fortune.
The duchess is the daughter of John |
G.. Leshman, Pittsburgh millionaire, |
who served first as minister to Switz-
erland and later as ambassador to |
Turkey, Italy and Germany. While he
was representing the United States
In Germany and his daughter was liv
fng with him in Berlin she fell In
love with the dashing young duke.
Influential members of the dukes
family were bitterly opposed to his
marrying outside the circles of roy
atty, and SO was the kaiser. But the
duke was too deeply in love. He took
matters into his own hands by resign
ing from the army and showed his
seorn for the kaiser's opposition by
absenting himself from all the func-
lions of the court season and going to
join Miss Leishman and her family at
their winter home in Switzerland
The Marriage i'm Geneva.
The duke was eager for an imme-
dfate wedding, but the bitter opposi-
ton of his family made this impos-
sible. He was obliged to wait until he
his full majority and came
into possession of his large family es.
tates in Westphalia. This: happened on
his twenty-fourth birthday, and on
that very day he and Miss Leishman
were married in Geneva.
L
made Nancy Leishman his bride the
to his marriage would fade
away and its validity be recognized,
but in this he was sadly disappointed
He was given to understand that In
Germany and Austria at any rate, his
wife had no right to the title of duch-
ess and that any sons she might have
would be debarred from inheriting
any of their fathers honors, titles
and entailed property.
Because the validity of their marri-
age was not admitted. she was denied
at the court of Berlin
and at all other monarchical courts in
Germany. She also was refused the
honor of being presented at the courts
Of Belgium, Austria and Hungary.