Some Royal Divorces.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 218, 15 September 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

Some Royal Divorces.

The case of the unfortunate Queen Nathalie "oes not sfcand alona in, the history of Royal ladies. In our own century there' have been three Royal divorces, bu.t perhaps the lot of none of them was so painful as that of the young Queen of Servia. . :' '•; ;' ■' .■ ' ' ::";:'; " ::-:

iTlie first Sovereign who was divorced from his wife was Napoleon I. He abandoned Josephine Beauharnais in order to marry the Archduchess Maria liouisa of Austria. As there was no real cause for the divorce*, ifc was put forward on behalf of the Emperor that the marriage was celebrated by a Republican priest only, and therefore it was not valid according to the laws of the Gburch of Rome. The excuse was a, very weak one, and indeed quite absurd, as the Pope, on the conclusion of the Concordat, had given a 'dispensatip a rad;ce' to, all marriages celebrated since 1789; but the Emperor's wish was at the time the supreme law for theepiscopal consistory in Parie, and the divorce was granted on/ payment of a certain fine ' according to the means' of the partk*. . The most, nptpripus Royal divorce case in recent English history is, of course, that of George IV. of England, who wanted to get rid of his wife,' the poor Princess Caroline, from whom he haft lived separated for many years. A Bill was introduced tio Parliamen.t; ior that purpose, and was strenuously opposed on behalf of the Queen by Henry Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, and ] Vaux, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, and I Thomas Denman, afterwards Lord Denman, Lord Chief Justice of England. What these! two counsel said aga.in.tt the King would I be enough to get three hundred counsel into prison on* the Continent or make, judges faint. The Bill was allowed, by a small majority, to be read a second time, but public opinion was so much against: it tha.t the Government thought dt better to withdraw it after the third reading. So the King's wish, wa^l ,n,o.t carried out, and the whole scandal was in vain. The'pOpr Queen died a few weeks after her accession, but the King never married again. ' ",,--, Crown Prince William of Wtirtemberg, the,* father of the present King Charles, of Wtirtemberg, was compelled, in JBQB, by Napoleon L, to marry the Princessi Caroline Augusta of Bavari». . The marriage was celebrated on June Bth, but the young coijple separated the very same d&y» an" have never aga^n seen ieach other: In 1814 thqy were divorced, and the Princess two years afterwards married FranQi^ I.» ■ E?iaperor of Austria, and in 1825 was crowned Queen of Hungary,; : .