PRIVILEGED BIGAMY.

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1911, Page 7

PRIVILEGED BIGAMY.

THE MORGANATIC MARRIAGES. CONCERNING ROYALTY. World-wide interest in the subject of morganatic marriage lias been revived by the wedding of Prince Victor Napoleon, the Bonapartist pretender to the throne of France, and Princess Clementine of Belgium, and' by the revival of the rumors of an approaching marriage between the Duke of Abruzzi, who might some day become heir to the throne of Italy, and Miss Elkins (writes John S. Steele, in the New Orleans 'Times-Democrat';. Victor Napoleon already has a morganatic wife. The Duke of the Abruzzi cannot make Miss Elkins his wife in any other way without the consent of his cousin, the King of Italy. Morganatic marriage has been defined by Sir Edward Clarke, one of the greatest of living English lawyers, as "privileged bigamy," and, like a good many other privileges, it is confined to royalty. It had its origin in Germany i but it soon became popular in other countries, and there is hardly a royal family in Europe that has not experienced it in the person of one at least of its members. The institution is based on the theory held by the lawyers of most European countries that "royalty can only mate with royalty." An alliance, therefore, contracted between a royal person and one of lower birth would not have the binding force of an alliance between equals. In order to overcome the scruples of royal lovers who wished to make the objects of their adoration their wives, the morganatic marriage was invented. Rules of Morganic Unions. This is a marriage which is perfectly regular as far as the religious side is concerned, and for that matter as far as the legal side is concerned, too, but its offspring cannot inherit the father's royal honors, and in the event of its becoming necessary for the royal husband at some future time to contract for dynastic reasons a marriage with a royal bride the morganatic marriage must not be allowed to stand in the way. This is the case of the Victor Napoleon affair. A royalty who is already married to a royalty, however, cannot contract a morganatic marriage while his royal wife is alive. As a matter of fact, morganatic marriages usually turn out uncommonly well. A royal lover who is willing to go to all the trouble and put ,up with all .the gossip and scandal that usually accompany such a marriage is usually .willing to stick to the woman of his choice. Indeed, he often relinquishes all claim to his royal inheritance before contracting the marriage. Such was the case of the Grand Duke Michael of Russia and Oountess Torby, who are among the most popular and respected couples in English society. Such was also the case of Prince Oscar of Sweden, who renounced his r ( mk to marry Miss Ebba Monck, one of nis mother's ladies in waiting. He to.>k the title of Count of Wisborg, and the pair are working as Salvation Army officers in Lapland. May Become Morganatic Queen. Another famous case of fidelity between a couple morganatically married is that of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the dual throne of Austria and Hungary and the Countess Sophie Chotefe. He has been urged by his relatives time and again to contract a j royal marriage, but he refuses, and 'le-1 clares that his wife shall reign with him as Empress of Austria. She will reign in any case as Queen of Hungary, for Hungary knows only one kind of marriage, and it is a safe bet that the Austrian law on the subject will be I changed: before the old Emperor Franz Joseph is cold in his grave. English royalties have had their' share of morganatic marriages, but it! is my duty here to explode a persistent scandal which has been circulated' about King George.' That was the 1 story that he was married as a young man when he had no hope of becoming lieir to the throne, to the daughter of a commoner, and that he abandoned

her to marry the present Queen when his elder brother's _ death made him heir. To begin with, no such marriage could have taken place, for under the English law any ceremony would have been void by which any member of the royal family was married to anyone royal or not —without the consent of the King in Council. King George's i£arsy Love Affairs. The favorite story is that the lady was the daughter of an admiral, and that Prince George married her when he was a young sailor stationed at Malta. 1 have the authority of a close friend of the late Princess Mary oi Teck, mother of the present Queen, who made a thorough investigation of all the stories before her daughter's marriage, for the following version of what really happened. One of the most serious of his boyish love affairs occurred when lie was at Malta. The girl was the daughter, not of an admiral, but of the Army doctor stationed there, and the Princess was informed the affair went so far the young Prince declared that if it were in Iris power he would marry the girl. It wasn't in his power, however, and there never was any kind of ceremony. Many Such Marriages in England. If King George were not morganatically married, however, a good many of his predecessors were, as well as a good many of his forbears who never sat on the throne. William 111. of England —William of Orange—married the Countess Auguste von Borroch morganatically after his wife's death. George I. went through a marriage ceremony with the Duchess of Kendall. George IV. married Mrs Fitzherbert, an actress, and William IV. married Mrs Jordan, their children being known by the name of Fitzclarence. One of the best-known cases of morganatic marriage in England during comparatively recent years was that of the late Duke of Cambridge, Queen Victoria's cousin, to Miss Farebrother, a beautiful and talented actress. They lived happily together for a lifetime, and their children, who are known by the name of Fitzgeorge, won high rank and honors in the Army and 1 Navy. So opposed was Queen Victoria to this match, however, that she never received her cousin's wife, and, although the Duke of Cambridge' was at Court constantly, never mentioned her name to him, or in any way allowed him to know that she was aware of her cousin-in-law's existence. Only when the faithful morganatic wife died did the stern old Queen unbend. She wrote a letter excusing him from attendance at a Court function and expressing her sympathy with him in the "severance of so intimate a relationship, which had continued for so many years." It has ever been said that the wife of that greatest of all sticklers for caste and regularity, the Kaiser, is only his niorganatic wife after all, and the German Law Courts will be called on before long to rule on the question, which arose recently when the Kaiserin's brother claimed exemption from certain taxation on account of his royalty. The lower court, to which the matter was referred, ruled tliat he wasn't royal at all, but only an ordinary German nobleman. If the higher courts sustain this view then the Kaiserin i.s only the Emperor's morganatic wife. Runs in Belgian Blood. Morganatic marriage seems to run in the blood of the Royal Family of Belgium. Of course, everyone knows about the late King Leopold's mar-1 riage to Baroness Vaughan shortly be-! fore his death, but it is not so generally known that his father, when a Prince of Saxe Coburg and Gotha, married an actress morganatically and lived with her for a number of years. This marriage took place after the death of his j first wife, who was the daughter ofj George IV. of England. When he was chosen to fill the throne of Belgium, however, he divorced his low-born consort. Then there is the notorious case of Leopold's daughter, the Princess Stephanie, who, after the death of her husband, the Archduke Rudolph of Austria, married a petty nobleman .called Count Lonyay. There are signs that with the advance of democratic sentiment this mediaeval privilege of Kings will disappear, and if it does the Kings themselves will take the initiative in abolishing i-t. One can imagine the rage of the Kaiser, who is above all a good family man, if he finds out that under the present German law his wife is only a lefthanded wife, and his children not entitled to succeed him on the throne. That law won't last long once the courts declare this state of things to [ exist. In Austria, as I have already pointed out, the law's life is already limited to that of the aged Emperor who now sits on the throne. In England it may be said that it has disappeared already, for public sentiment would not tolerate "privileged bigamy" in these days, even in the case of royalty.