MONARCHS WHO LIVE IN EXILE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2762, 20 February 1907, Page 70

MONARCHS WHO LIVE IN EXILE.

' There nre enough exiled monnrchs in Europe v ithout my being added to the number," King George of Greece is reported to have said, when he refused to allow the advice of certain counsellors to adopt a policy counter to the wishes of his people. The statement seems startling (says Pearson's Weekly), but a little injury shows that there is considerable truth in the remark, for exiled Kings and Queens are more numerous in Europe than most people would imagine. At the present moment, for example, one of tlve most important of German problems is the status of the Duke of Cumberland. Students of history know th.it when Queen Victoria succeeded William IV, the German possessions of the Royal Family pasoed to her uncle, the Duke of Curnber-

• land, who thereupon became known a£ ! King of Hanover. As luck would have it, { the Cumberland family chose the losing ! side in the wars with which Bismarck coni vulsed mid-Europe during last century, andl ! were driven from their German kingdom by, the conquering Prussians. With the recent death of the Regent of Brunswick, the question of the Hanoverian Succession has been once more opened, with the result that the Kaiser has made the momentous announcement that nothing j less than complete submission to Prussian j rule must be made by the present Duke of Cumberland, ere h-e can be restored to a. responsible post in Germany. — Men Who Want to Rule France. — • France, republic though it may be, has 1 monarchical problems, too. | On the one hand are the Royalists, who contend that only the restoration of the J old line of kings in the person oiThe Duke j of Orleans, not unknown to Englishmen, , will bring fhe millennium to the nation. , On the other hand, are. the Imperialists, j who dream of a revival of the glories of j the First Empire, by the enthronement of ; some member of the Napoleon family, such* j as Prince Victor, or Prince Louis, who are ' descended from Jerome, youngest brother ■ of the Man of Destiny. ! Fortunately, for the peace of mind o£ I our neighbours, the present Republic, I though the changes in the Ministry have. , been exceptionally numerous, seems to be , more firmly established than former Gol vernments, and the immediate chances of a coup d'etat, by either Royalist or Imperialist are extremely small. Talking of France, the lady in Europe who in these days excites probably more I interest and sympathy than any other is she who not so very long ago was Empress of the French. Since then the ex-Empress Eugenic has witnessed many changes in life. She has seen her husband, the ill-fated Napoleon 111, sink beneath the disasters that over■whelmed his empires, and her last great sorrow was the death of her only son, the Prince Imperial, who was slain "by a Zulu assegai in South Africa almost 30 years ago. — A Lonely Queen. — A similar lonely figure in Europe, who once occupied a throne, is Natalie, exQueen of Servia. Time was when she, a Russian colonel's daughter, was the bride of the gay King Milan. But the marriage proved unhappy. She and her husbandl parted, and only the other year she suffered the severe shock of learning of the j brutal assassination of her only son, Alexander I, by insurgents, who thus opened 1 the way for the enthronement of the present King Peter. The neighbouring kingdom of Bulgaria) has also been in trouble over its rulers. t For a. time th-e outlook seemed prosperous j for the nation under the able administraj tion of Alexander I, Prince of Battenberg. 1 But intriguers were at work, and Alexan1 der, like many another sagacious monarch, ' was compelled to abdicate. His successor was the present King Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, who, it is curioua to note, accepted the throne in opposition! to the wishes of the Powers of Europe. The internecine wars waged in Italy during last century, which resulted in al united kingdom with Victor Emmanuel as sovereign, saw not a few of the petty, princelings dethroned or deprived of territory which they had misgoverned. j To the people of this country the most ! acceptable of these changes was that whereby Francis 11, King of the two . Sicilies, and son. of Ferdinand 11, the notorious "Bomba," was banished. It was the i atrocities in this kingdom that led Gladstone to pen his celebrated Italian letters, I which roused not only Britain, but Europe, , with indignation. The doyen of exiled monarchs, or royal pretenders, it need hardly be said, is Don. Carlos of Spain. His history as a pretender is now a very long one, for it was in 1872 that he first fought for the Spanish, throne. The previous monarch had been ; his granduncle, Ferdinand VII, and as the deceased King's only child was a maiden, Don Carlos made a bold bid for the throne. j However, the supporters of the young 1 Queen Isabella, proved too many for him, and ultimately drove him beyond the Pyrenees. In spite of the fact that the country for a time was under feminine rule, andi that t] ore was an exceptionally long regency, while the present King Alphonso was a minor, Don Carlos has been able to make practically no progress with his claims, from which it may be gathered! that his cause is now more hopeless tham ever. Talking of the Spaniards introduces us to Mexico, and to the terrible revolution which marked the annals of that country some 40 years ago. An empire had beern founded there, and young Maxirmllian, brother of the present Emperor of Austria, was induced to take up the reins of government. All seemed to go well for a time, when suddenly revolution burst - upon the land, and Maximilian was captured and shot. — Worried Into Madness. — Meantime, his poor wife had rushed off to Europe to procure assistance from the Powers, but the trials and worries she was called upon to endure proved too much for her mental faculties. Her reason gave way and of all the melancholy spectacles of modern Europe there ia surely none more sad than that of the imbecile ex-Empress Charlotte of Mexico. Brazil, too, has known and dispensed with empire ; and to-day in the French army is a gallant officer who may yet be able to style himself Emperor of Brazil. The history of empire in this South American country is rather unique. When the French overran the Peninsula, 100 years ago, the King of Portugal and his household sought and found a refuge in the nation's South American colonies. After the expulsion of the French by Wellington, his Majesty returned" to Lisbon, but left the Crown Prince behind as viceroy, so to speak. The Brajdlians. who

srere jde&ghted with the yousg man, per-Buaded*-Sun-to break off allegiance with •his father, and 'he thenceforward became known to the world as Dom Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil. His reign could scarcely be called a ihappv one, for in the end he was compelled to abdicate, and his son, Dom Pedro H, reigned in bis stead. —A Soldier Who May Rule Brazil.— Nor was the latter more successful that bis father, for in 1889 he was swept aside by revolution, and the present republic was formed. Dom Pedro II is now no more, and it is his grandson, who >"s an officer in France. Though Brazil has now been republican for some years, it is certain that there is a goodly proportion of the population who would not object to a restoration of the empire, so that the future may have interesting events in store for that young soldier. Such are some of the exiled monarchs or pretenders to thrones who are to be found in Europe; and were the list extended to include the dusky potentates in British and foreign colonies who have been deposed, it would be a formidable one indeed. However, io conclude, it may be news to many to learn that Britain has also her exiled monarch, in the person of a lady, .to whom ultra-Jacobites pay homage at times as Queen Mary. In Continental circles she is Maria Theresa, wife of H.R.H. Prince Louis of Bavaria, and 6he is also an Archduchess of Austria in her own right. King Edward is associated with the old House of Stuai*t through a, daughter of James I, but the Princess Louis of Bavaria stands nearer the main line, in that sh« is descended from a daughter of Charles I. Be that as it may, the Princess is effectually barred from the succession by the celebrated Act of Settlement, by which the present popular reigning family are confirmed on the throne.