DIVORCE DISCLOSURES

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 1207, 12 November 1919, Page 2

DIVORCE DISCLOSURES

EKAILTTES OF PRINCESSES. CULMINATING TIUGEDY OE THE HABSBURGS. [A " chronique scandaleuse" of the House of Habsburg could not be published in English. Far less could it bo offered to readers of the family journal. Here, however, are a few facte made public recently by the Chicago ' Tribune.'] The loveliest of the Habsburgs, Princess Otto Von Windisch-Graets:—selected by the Kaiser four years ago to be. Queen- (if Belgium—has been divorced in common public court at Vienna by her Royal husband, who was to have' succeeded King Albert o_t Belgium, in the first democratic action of the kind which has occurred to the Austrian Royal Family in its history and the culminating tragedy of the Habsburgs. Picked by Germany to succeed the noble Queen Elizabeth when the Germans invaded Belgium, the Princess Von Win-disch-Graetz. when the Habsburg monarchy first showed signs of toppling, yielded herself to a wild career of carefree love, and finally her husband has been forced to disown her. Her downfall was the last of the series of amV.ing tragedies of the Habsburgs—the ill-fated proud Royal Family of Austria, which has Hnally lost its last struggle for existence in the ruin of the Austrian Empire. No more sinister fate ever hung upon the destinies of a reigning house than that which has dogged the failing Mouse of Habsburg to its decay. The only comparison history otters approaching the dire misfortune of the Austrian Royal Family is that of the Scottish House'of Stuarts, many of whose reigning members died violent deaths. But, while warm romance surrounds* the memory of tile Stuart Hue. throwing a pathetic glamor around the assassin's knife and the headsman's axe. no such afterglow will commemorate the descent of the members of former Austrian reigning family into the quagmire of scandal. ILL-OMENED START. A merciless fate seemed to bang over the head of the last real ruler of Austria. Fraud's Joseph, and over all his kith and kin, from the beginning of his reign. The boy ruler began his course amid sorrows and ill-omen, and amid tragic cares yielded up his life. His predecessor ended in idiocy. His wife. Elizabeth, was struck down by an assassin. Archduke Maximilian was executed after the ill-fated Mexican expedition. The wife of .Maximilian, still \b iiig. is insane. The Archduke Johaun. who assumed the name of John Hi til. disappeared without leaving trace. The sister of Empress Elizabeth, the Duchess of Aligoulemc, was burned to death at a Paris (ire. The Emperor's only son and heir was assassinated under mysterious circumstances at his hunting lodge. the Castle of Myerling. The later heir to the throne was assassinated at Sarajevo, precipitating the European War. P.lit the latest mishap of this ancient house has descended from the higher plane of tragedy lo that of sheer tragic farce. And the pathetic drama of the Habsburg family seems to be closing with a last chapter of buffoonery, more Viennese even than Vienna's " Merrv Widow."

Amid the poverty, starvation, and-other miseries of Vienna to-day sounds the frivolous laughter of franc-is .Joseph's granddaughter. Elizabeth Marie, the daughter of Crown Prince Rudolph. This is the Austrian Archduchess, wife of Prime Otto Windisch-Graet/.. The testimony given in her hnshand's case was of such a nature that many parts of it never will be made public. LOVED OUTSIDE lIElt GIJJpLE. Like her moteier. the widow of the Crown Prince Itudolph the Archduchess Stephanie, who a few years ago married a simple Hungarian, the Huron Lonyay—and like her aunt, the Princess Louise de Cubing, who brought scandal to the Courts of Europe by her daring love adventures and uncontrollable flights of fancy, the Archduchess Elizabeth Marie loved and married outside her circle.

Members of reigning houses, having in n>ii:d the temperament of the Crown Princess Lnui.se of .Saxony, also an Austrian Archduchess, who finally ran away with her teacher, looked with misgiving upon the love affair of the Archduchess Elizabeth .Marie. But the old Emperor, who was very fond of her. decreed, after her passionate attachment to the young Win* disch-( iractz iiad become known to all. that she marry this Prince of her choice, then a first lieutenant in the Austrian army. Young Windisch-Graetz was very young, very blond, and very ordinary. He was poor, as princes go. not quite stupid, and lie had nothing to say in the matter of his marriage. It was enough that the young Archduchess loved the blond youth. But the passion of the young Circe wa.s as short-lived as it was tempestuous. Windisch-Graetz was forced to give up lii.s military career after his marriage and devote himself entirely to the service of the capricious Princess. It was noticed that while the young Princess became more and more gay and effervescent her young husband wore a deeper and deeper air of depression. SECRET SCANDALS.

Now, after tne -breaking down of Austria, and the disappearance of the dynasty, and the consequent sweeping away of all the old conventions, a divorce action against the Princess reveals unexpected secret chapters ill the life of this fascinating Cine of Kurope's once proudest house. Vienna is shocked over the disclosures of the private life led by the lovely granddaughter of the old Emperor—the "lovely Princess," she was called by the admiring Viennese, who always crowded to see her when she drove through the streets of the capital. The revelations of the trial surpass anything that has ever been revealed in o[>e:i court of the frailties of princesses. Testimony developed that the Princess had a special weakness for sailors, devoting muc'j of her time throughout the war toward their entertainment and in their society. One scene described al length by the Prince in his complaint had the Princess at a wild party at 'a bar in the naval city -of Pola, where she was the only woman in a gathering of young naval lieutenants, and, where the testimony ran, proceedings were of a most.vivacious' kind. A young U boat commander, Lieutenant Egon Lerch, became the particular object of the attentions of the Princess,! and, as Circe kept Odysseus in her enchanted land, so this Princess kept the 17 boat commander enthralled upon her beautiful estate, the Villa Otto, on Brioni, ■ a lovely islet washed by the blue Adriatic. The only difference in this comparison is that - the Princess, unlike Circe, had no other companions. She spent many months on this estate, an abode of dolce far niente. Elizabeth Marie was also seen with her young cavalier at Fiume and Budapest. At Budapest the grand-! daughter of Francis Joseph* Jived in the : midst of war and revolution with the

young and handsome sailor at one of the 1 fashionable hotels. She became, so the testimony ran, utterly regardless of appearances. TRINCESS FINDS CONSOLATION. J After the lieutenant bad found a tragic end in his U boat somewhere in the Medi- I terranean Sea she found consolation with ! another naval officer, who happened to be j the cousin of her husband, Alfred Win- | disch-Graetz. Though war burned v itli its dread fury all around them, "these two, in a paradise apart, lived an idylbo life in the heart of famishing, grief-stricken j Vienna. There were late gay suppers | and prolonged parties at the apartments > of the Princess. And the war went on j unheeded by the Princess. 1 The husband of the Princess was finally ! exasperated by happening to overhear his j second son Ernest pray for his mother's , lost sweetheart. Lieutenant-commander Lerch. This, more than all else, decided the Prince to bring the action for divorce, j A year ago such action on his part would' have been impossible, no matter what the provocation. Then matrimonial troubles of members of the Imperial family were handled with all secrecy and discretion bv the Imperial and Royal Court Marshal. Times have changed, and the new order has even sought oi\ old Vienna. There is no more Austrian Imperial family, no Court .Marshal's office, and there are no more royal privileges. This wayward, lovely tempestuous Archduchess has experienced to the startling full the new regime in her answer before ihe common bar of justice. j