KING GEORGE’S GUEST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3117, 10 December 1913, Page 39 (Supplement)

KING GEORGE’S GUEST.

ROYAL MARRIAGE ROMANCE. (From Ode Own Correspondent.) LONDON, October 10. It is officially stated that the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, accompanied by his wife, the ! Inches of Hohenberg, will be the guests of King George and Queen Mary at Windsor in November. Before returning

i bo Austria the royal couple will be enter ; tained at Welbeck by the Duke of Portland. The Archduke Francis Ferdinand is the nephew of the aged Emperor Francis Joseph, and in his fiftieth year. His wife was formerly Countess Sohpie Chotek, a lady-in-waiting to the household of the Archduchess Isabella. There were weighty State protests against this morganatic marriage, which took place in 1900, with ; the Emperor’s consent and with the bless-

ings of the majority of Austrians and Hungarians. Afterwards the Emperor conferred on the countess the title of the Duchess Hohenberg; but she may never share tin Austrian throne. Her husband, on his marriage, had to renounce all claims of his wife or children on the House of Hapsburg. The Archduke is a devoted husband, and his wife smoothed over the difficulties at the Austrian Court inseparable from the circumstances of her

marriage. Her intellectual gifts are bril liant, and she possesses a wonderful voice. Only a year after her marriage the Kaiser paid a high compliment to the Duchess by sending his eldest son to take luncheon with her, and he has allowed his brother-in-law to receive her as if j she were an archduchess. She has two ! sons. When the eldest was born the Go- | vernment refused to allow the Hungarian | Parliament to send congratulations to the 1 Archduke.

Archduke Francis Ferdinand is one of the richest men in the world. After his marriage he was in the background for a long time, but with the years creeping on the Emperor, who is now 83. he s coming into prominence as the future Sovereign who may be called upon any day to take the helm. He is already practically the Austrian War Lord, for last August the Emperor invested him with the office of Inspector-general of the Austro-Hungarian Army and Navy.