HIS ROYAL WAYS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 25, 30 January 1932, Page 23

HIS ROYAL WAYS

Bjiawa for years as tho greatest spendthrift m Europe, Prince Friednch -BedpoW ofcEius.sia,. ivhose.,,f,7wild:-sex-ploits staggered the former Inipenal Court of Germany, died at;Flatow;'His death anticipated bv'a foifcnight ,an| ignominious fate tha* was in store tor| him. A public auction k had been announced, at the instance of his creditors;, of, the., estfato 'on which-ho^passed away, as well as his castle in Lugano, hunting-boxes in:Brandenburg^ and all tho furniture and pictures" left over fiom previous auctions. This would have left the once,arrogant prince virtually a beggar, says an exchange. Prince TrieHrich' Leopold, who-**uc-cumbed to heart failure, following 1 a stroke, was 66.' As well as being'a cousin of the ex-Kaiser, he was also his brother-in-law, having married a sister of the late Kaiserm. At one time his fortune was estimated at £10,000,000, and smco the revolution he had received enormous sums from -tlie German Government, in partial settlement of his 'claims. ' His relations with his ex-Imperial kinsman -were notoriously stormy, and * His Court life seems to have been one long succession of "severe reprimands." His domestic life was scandalous, and whenever the< Kaiser heard a report that the Princess Friedrich Leopold, had been to a beating," he is said to' have ordered that the Prince be-confined to his room, with^an armed -sentry"outside tSe door. -<" -s " ! Oil one occasion the Kaiser boxed !hi;r brother-in-law ?8 ears, tore the decoi rations from- his uniform, ordered . his dumiesal from the German army, and banished him from tfce Empire. Later,, this sentence wag lightened on tho in* terventiou of tho Kaiseiin. '"'.' t . The Prince .?fs no more s ,pdpitlarj

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among the people nt Germany than, at Court. Hss motor cai w as alwaj s driven Rt'topSspced right through the palace gates, for fjiar of an attempt at assassination. Hts pride of birth was such that, on ono occasion, when1 ho met Countess DTohna, one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Empress, in1 his--park,'he stormed at ;her., '.'What'jdo you;; mean tvsitting there? Have I not said*a thousand times that these benches are not for thet'BomeßticsVhe said. ' Tales of his wanton extravagance and his eccentiiijities staggered the Reichstag in 1926' when an,investigation was made into the royal family's claim on the Geiman-, Government, Sworn affidavits were; io proyie that tji& Pnnce was'in the'hatftt of making ijik servants drunk on '^cocktails" composed of pepper, Worcester sauce, poit wine, and stem. This, for his amusement, i, On one occasicm, ho forced 'a 'footman to act 'as -a dog, to gambol on all fouis, barking and growling. Finally, the man was vcompelled to eat food from a dish en the floor. <

The Prince was fond of dogs. He had at one time 80 of them housed in luxurious quarters. tWhen the German food shortage was at its worst these pets were fed on pork chops, veal 'cutlets, End rice wjtth saucc v< r The revolution over,"the Prince! foisted the red";flag aver \ the palace at Klein Kleinecke, near Potsdam, and issued a manifesto calling on the Hohenzollern family- .to co-operate with, the new order. He was'satirically dubbed "The Red Prince" by German Conservatives. For a time, after the revolution, he lived m royal state in a villa at Lugano, in Switzeiland,jbut, latterly, he had resided quiet- , ly on'his Flatow estate.