MORGANATIC ALLIANCES OF ROYAL PRINCES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2529, 3 September 1902, Page 66

MORGANATIC ALLIANCES OF ROYAL PRINCES.

Your interesting notes about the irregular or morgonati i alliances of Princes of the Blooel in recent timed remind me (writes a correspondent in* Modern Society) of a curious and little-known chapter in the history of the King's grandfather, the Duke of Kent, on which an interesting light has been thrown b a recent discovery in Canada. It relates to an amiable and accomplished lady known as Madame de St. Laurent, Baroness de Fortisson, who presided over the Duke's household for more than a quarter of a century, accompanied him to Canada, fiom Malta in 1791, and only left him to retire into a convent when. State reasons — viz., th? fear of the failure of the English royal line — practically compelled him to marry the mother of the future Queen Victoria. A little piece of evidence has come to light, in the shape of a baptismal entry in a church near Quebec," which goes far to demonstrate that Madame de St. Laurent was without doubt the Duke's wedded wife, although under the R<yi>l Marnige Act she could not b«j legally recognised as fjch in Ergland. [ The" biptiVmal entry in question is that of one of the children of Colonel de Salabeiry, and the register records that the Duke of Kent and Madame de St. Laurent were godfather and godmother to the'infant. The christening ceremony was -performed by Monseigneur de Bailly, coadjutor to the Bishop of Quebec ; and it may be taken as certain that the officiating prelate had satisfied himself that the lady was lawfully married, for it would be quite impossible, ac-cording to the discipline of the Rrnnin Catholic Church, to accept as sponsors in baptism a woman living -in open concubinage. The ecclesiastical authorities would, of

course, have judged the matter without re-. ; ffrence to the English Royal Marriage Acty wliich made George ll' s male descendant* incapable of marriage without the consent of the King in Council — an enactment/ which many eminent- juutsts have not hesitated to declaie invalid, as repugnant to the L>i\ me law

Hie Duke and Madame de St. Laurenfc lived, while he commanded a battalion of Fumlicis at Quebec, at Haldimand House, the pa'atial i essence which still overlooks t lie Falls of Montmoieiiey. On their _ return to England they resided at Kensington Palace. M;mv of the letters of the Duke and of "Madame," a« he always styled he-i to then- Canadian friends 1 , have been preserved, and evince the deep affection that united them. A- aheady mentioned, the lady retiied into a convent in 1818, a tew months befoie the Duke's mar-* l'tige to the. l'rinces.s of Leiningen. His Royal Highness di^d when his little (Tau^litei Victoiui was only a few months old." hm Madame de St. Lnutent suivived him f«'i some time, and enjoyed till her ue,itli .' pension from the Frei.eh Government, in acknowledgment of her kindness to Fiench refugees in England. A Cana-< than histoiian sent, some years ago, a nar-« irttive of the Dj&e of Kent's .fjoioum in

Canada to Sir Arthur Helps, for Queen victoria's acceptance, but the gift was never acknowledged.