SPECTACULAR WEDDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20880, 23 May 1931, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPECTACULAR WEDDING.

TWO " SHADOW " ROYALTIES. PRETENDER TO FRENCH THRONE MARRIAGE TO DISTANT COUSIN. A crown Prince who in all human probability will never be a king and a royal princess who will never be a queen were married in the Cathedral at Palermo, in Sicily, on April 8. It was pathetically appropriate that this wedding of shadow royalties should have been celebrated in Sicily, the scene of the legendary adventures of the " throneless monarch," Iftng Robert- of Sicily, says the correspondent of the Daily Express. Yet if the prince and his bride had been assured of a throne the wedding could not have been more brilliant, the guests more distinguished, tho ceremony more imposing. The bridegroom was the young Prince Henri, Comte de Paris, son of the Due do Guise, Pretender to tho throne of France, and the bride Princess Isabelle d'Oiloans-Braganza, a distant cousin of her hustiand. Brilliant Procession. The guests included European princes and princosscs; Sir Ronald Graham, the British Ambassador to Italy, represented King George, and no fewer than 800 French Royalists arrived in a specially chartered liner. By special permission of tho Pope, Cardinal Luvitrano, CardinalArchbishop of Palermo, celebrated the wedding. .

Crowds lined the Via Matteo Bonello and the approaches to the cathedral square to watch the brilliant wedding procession walk over carpets from the magnificent Palace d'Aumale, for centuries the Palermo home of the Orleans family, to the ancient cathedral. , Cardinal Lavitrano, in full vestments and accompanied by the assisting clergy, met the head of tho procession at the entrance to the cathedral, which was cordoned off by'troops and Fascist militia in full uniform. Inside the entrance a especially augumented choir, accompanied by an orchestra, chanted hymns. The interior of tho cathedral had been beautifully decorated with groat masses of flowers. All the women present wero in high-necked dresses, while tho men were either in full-dress uniform or evening dross. • The witnesses for tho bridegroom wero the Duko of Pughie and Prince Don Carlos de Bourbon—who represented the King of Spain—and for tho bride, Prince Pierro d'Orleans-Braganza and Prince Adam Czartoriski. Seven Hundred at Luncheon, Following the wedding ceromony luncheon for 700 guests was served in the grounds of the Palace d'Aumalo, where immense pavilions had been erected. Tho first part of the honeymoon was at Palermo, and later the bride and bridegroom left for a yachting cruise along the coast of Northern Africa. Prince Henri is only twenty-two, and, like his father, has been obliged by circumstances to live away from his native land. He is tall and slender, with clear blue eyes and brown hair. He has studied .at the University of Brussels, and has taken up agriculture as a profession. Princess who is twenty, and very beautiful, is descended from King Louis Philippe's son, the Due do Nemours. She is the granddaughter of the late Princess Isabelle of Braganza, Princess Imporial of Brazil. She was educated in a convent in Brazil.