KING DISINHERITS HIS DAUGHTER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

KING DISINHERITS HIS DAUGHTER.

PRINCESS' EVENTFUL LIFE. King Leopold of Belgium has decided to disinherit Princess Louise, his eldest daughter, with whom he has been on terms of bitter enmity for years.

This decision has inspired the sensational sales of pictures,, furniture,: tapestry, and other rare objects of ait in the King's private collection, which have taken place during the past two months.'

It is the King's intention to liquidate all his property, and then dispose of the fortune acquired thereby before his death. In this way he , hopes to prevent , Princess Louise from receiving the J share due to her under Belgian law. ,

Her lawyer declares, however, that if King Leopold persist!?, in his determination, lawsuits will be instituted to recover the princess' portion of . the proceeds due from the sale of certain estates and personal property.

His Majesty owned valuable properties in France, which he purchased under the names of certain personal friends, and recently sold in the same indirect manner. Princess Louise will bring actions against the purchasers of these estates.

Ihe. princess has an income of £2000 a year, although , she spends over £20,000. tier lawyer declares that the latter sum is more in keeping with her Royal dignity, and that if King Leopold gave his daughter an adequate allowance she would not always be in debt.

It is said that King Leopold recently offered Princess Louise ±120,000 a year on condition that she abandoned certain friends whom His Majesty considered objectionable. The princess promptly refused. The princess' lawyer states that owing to the generosity of. her creditors Her Royal Highness' jewels will not be sold. Princess Louise has had an eventful life. She was married at Brussels in 1875 to Prince Philip of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, but the marriage was dissolved by divorce at Gotha three years ago, the princess being ordered to pay the costs. In 1895' the princess met Lieutenant Mat-tachich-Keglevitch, a Hungarian cavalry officer, at a ball given in Vienna by her sister, the Crown Princess Stephanie. They afterwards eloped. Her lover was arrested on a concocted charge of forging the Crown Princess Stephanie's name to a cheque, and within an hour of his arrest Princess Louise was conveyed to a private lunatic asylum near Vienna, at the instigation of Prince Philip, her husband. Lieutenant Mattachich-Keglevitch was sentenced to a term of penal servitude, and Princess Louise was removed to an asylum near Coswig, Saxony, after several Austrian institutions refused to certify her as insane. The princess escaped with the aid of Lieutenant Mattachich-Keglevitch after six years' captivity, and her sanity was then officially established. •