PRINCESS WHO ELOPED

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12394, 13 March 1926, Page 11

PRINCESS WHO ELOPED

Royal Divorce : From health to Poverty

THE death, which has taken place in a Florence hospital, of Maestro Enrico Toselli, the • Italian pianist and composer, at the age of 42, recalls a romance in which one of the German Royal Houses figured some years ago. Toselli was the .third husband of the woman who would'have; been Queen of Saxony had she not left her - husband and eloped with a Belgian tutor. To tell Toselli’s story is ,to tell that of Louise, who was born, an Austrian archduchess in 1870 and married, iu 1890, the Crown Prince (afterwards king) of Saxony. In December, 1902, she fled with M. Giron,. the Belgian tutor of her elder children, her relations with him having been discovered by t}io Grand Mistress of the Court. There followed p. bitter fight for possession of the Princess’ youngest child, {Tie Princess 'Pin Monica. who was horn three months after the rovnl divoreq was pronounced in February, 1003.

The association of M. Giron and the Princess did riot last. She fell in love with Florentine compo,ser and pianist, then unknown, named ' Enrico Toselli, and they were married at the Strand register office, London, in 1907. Five years later the ex-Prin-cess sued Toselli for divorce in the Italian courts, alleging, among other things, that he had spent money set aside for the upbrirnging of their son, The courts granted the separation,

Toselli’s parents being given the custody of the child.

In the meantime the King of. Saxony had, on his former wife’s marriage to the composer, succeeded in having the little Princess Pia Monica —who was afterwards known as Princess Anna' of Saxony—restored to his care. . In 1911 the ex-Princess created a sensation by the publication of “My Own Story,” a volume of memoirs which contained pungent criticisms of the late Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. , Both the ex-Princess and Toselli Were, little heard of for some time, but in 1924 it was disclosed that the ex-Princess was living in Brussels in poverty. •% She earned, she said, a little money as a teacher of languages a,lid by selling embroidery from ‘ door to door and did all her own /housework. She added: . “German kings and princes who lost their thrones and titles in , 1918 took good care to transform their money into snfe securities, and it is not upon marks that they are all living nowadays in luxury, like the ex-Kaiser and my former husband (the ex-King of Saxony), who has a large castle, with 60 servants at his heck and call.” The ex-Princess had adopted the name of the Countess of Y se tte and was wearing a -plain dress and woollen shawl of the type worn by the mill girls.