PHILIPPINA WELSER

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 3

PHILIPPINA WELSER

MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER

WHO MARRIED A KING'S SON

Three hundred and eighty years ago the old Bavarian City of Augsburg was a great centre of European trade. The ships, of Augsburg, with a green pine cone stitched on their sails, were on all tho seas, and in the broad Maximilian Strasse, still considered by some the finest street in Europe, rose the lordly palaces of rich merchants. Ono day the streets were decorated. Costly stuffs were hung from the windows; the clang of trumpets was in the air. Emperor Charles V. with his brother, Ferdinand of Hungary, and his nephew Archduke Ferdinand, were riding in state to open the Reichstag. Archduke Ferdinand was only 33, but I already the hero of a successful campaign. His favourite sport was the tournament and his feats of strength were renowned. He could overtake a post-chase and pair in full gallop and bring the horses to a standstill; he could crush two silver thalers out of shape in ono hand. This young paladin rode next his father on a white horse, and as he passed the windows of the Welser palace, a girl looking out from a bower of flowers threw him a rose. It was Philippina Welser, 19 years old, the only child of Franz Welser, merchant. This royal visit, filled with tournaments, dancing and festivities, gave the two opportunities for meeting. It was not long before Archduke Ferdinand had confessed his passion and begged hig father's permission to marry the merchant's daughter. But Ferdinand of Hungary would have none of it. There never was a royal family more devoted to tradition and precedent than He Hapsburgs, and a bride had already been selected for young Ferdinand—a French Princess. The Archduke, however, remained obstinate. Old Fran/. AVclser was quite as angry as the King. He wanted to marry his daughter to tho sou of a Cologno merchant whose riches and influence were scarcely second to his own, and not to a young man whose royal father was always coming with empty pockets to the rich traders of Augsburg.. In the matter of family pride old Welser could hold his own even with tho Hapsburgs; for his family claimed to be descended from "Blind Belisarius,".thc famous Roman General. Franz Welser packed his daughter off to-Bohemia to the castle'of her Aunt Katherina of Loxan in Bresnitz, but Aunt Katherina seems to have been in- | dulgent, for Philippina and the Arch- j duke continued to meet and became secretly engaged. Both fathers stubbonly refused to consent to the match, j Politics may once more, have had a word in the matter. For. though the Welsers and the Fugers some time before had lent the kingly brothers, Charles and Ferdinand, 143,000 gulden to promote the election of the former as Emperor (for which they were received into the nobility—quite as titles are usually acquired to: this day), Welser a year or two later had • lent 50,000 livres to the King of France, to enable him to fight against Charles. It was only a matter of business, but it is possible that the royal brother-in-law got wind of the transaction and resented it. The marriage ff Ferd-land and Philippina was not officially permitted for nine years. Emperor Charles died. Ferdinand's father succeeded him, and at last consented to.the mar- j riage. Having once given in, ho gave in handsomely, creating Philippiua Marchioness in her own right and presenting the pair with a castle. So the romance came to a-fortunate end, for the, Arehdake and his wife wore famously happy and had four children. The stately house of the Welsers, with fine ceilings and other traces of ancient grandeur, but now divided into flats and offices, still stands in a sunny street of the romantic and beautiful old town of Augsburg. Tho street has been called after the "heroine —Philippina Welser Strasse. j