HOHENZOLLERN AND GUELPH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 287, 26 April 1913, Page 10

HOHENZOLLERN AND GUELPH

HOW AX OLD FEUD WAS PLACATED. ROMANTIC ■ STORY. ; The Berlin correspondent of the Xew York Post writes':' For forty-seven years the Guelph and Hohenzollern dynasties have been at bitter feud with eacli othci\ The Guelplis naturally look down upon the Hohenzolleriis. The first important Guelph—or, more correctly, Welf—is mentioned as a reigning count and father-in-law of an Emperor in 819 A.D. The earliest Hohenzollern of more than local importance was the first Elector of Brandenburg, who received that dignity from the Emperor Sigismund in 1415. The Guelplis were by that time an ancient dynasty; had, in fact, seen their best days, and naturally cannot look,upon the parvenu Prussian House as their equals. The Hohenzolleriis have been highly successful. Tliey have the parvenu's distressing trick pf getting on in life. But that does not make them more acceptable to people whose ancestors were fighting and treating -with the Hohenstauffen Kaisers on equal terms at a time when, if there were any Hohenzollerns at all, they did not know how to spell their names, and went around calling themselves Zolre, and had no idea who their grandfather was. In modern times the Guelplis, although their name has ceased to be terrible from the Appenines to Flanders, have done fairly well. The head of one branch occupies the British throne. Up till 1806 another branch were Kings of Hanover. Yet a third were sovereign dukes of Brunswick until 1884. In ISGG the Blind Guelph King of Hanover, George V., had to choose between Prussia and Austria. Bismarck offered to guarantee his possessions if he would side with Prussia. He and a week later was an exile. Prussia annexed his kingdom and Bismarck retained a large part of his private fortune and used the interest to, influence the German press in favor of his policy. It is only convinced monarchists, believing that kingship derives from God, who treat kings in this way. The inconsistency, however, is only apparent. One divinely appointed monarch may devour another, kingdom and all. It is only such subjects, having no divine mission, who may not, without sacrilege, diminish their rulers prerogatives.

OATH EXACTKI) BY BLIND MAN. [ Unfortunately, the blind Sing, who was uncommonly strong on the theological aspect of .kingship, could not be got to see things in this light. Before he died he exacted an oath from his son that he would never abandon his claim to be King of Hanover, and the son has kept his word. He was rich—even while the German Government kept the interest of the Guelph fund, as it was called, from him—and had a fortune of from ten to fifteen million dollars; and he set up his court at Gmunden, in Austria, whence for thirty years he has nourished the Guolphist party in Hanover with money and promises and kept up the fight against I'lUiMu The situation was complicated by the death of the last reigning Duke of Brunswick in 1884. The lieiv to the throne was undoubtedly the de jure King of Hanover, the irreconcilable of Gmunden. He could not bo. allowed to reign over a German State so long as he claimed the sovereignty of a Prussian province, and, accordingly, the Imperial Government and the Federal Council acknowledged his right and appointed a regent to rule for him in Brunswick. The rightful sovereign styles himself Duke of Cumberland, a title he derives from his grandfather, son of George 111. of England. To the outside world lie assumes the rank of prince of Great Britain, and uses the English royal liveries. Within the walls of his palace at Gmunden he is King of Hanover, maintains a court, being well able to pay for one, and receives missions from his faithful lieges in Hanover. In 1892 the Chancellor Caprivi. who had his own views on the subject of private property, commenced to hand over the interest on the Hanoverian estate of the Duke, amounting to about fifteen million dollars, to its owner, who has enjoyed his rights in this respect over since. So matters went on till last year. On the death of the first regent of' Brunswick, the Duke of Cumberland wrote to the Kaiser suggesting that his second son, Ernest August, should be allowed to ascend the throne of Brunswick, guaranteeing that the youth would take no part in the agitation in Hanover. Kaiser William replied that as long as any member of the family clung to the Hanoverian claim there could be no Guelpli duke in Brunswick.

ACCIDENT CHANCED FOItTUXK. Last year an accident changed the fortunes of the Guelphs. The Duke of Cumberland's eldest son. a pledged irreconcilable like himself, while motoring through Brandenburg, the heart of the enemy's country, by night, steered his car at the speed of a mile a minute into a chimp of trees bv the roadside, and was instantly killed. The Kaiser was demonstratively sympathetic, and the Cumberlander sent his youngest, son. an officer in a Bavarian cavalry regiment, to Berlin to thank the Kaiser for his chivalrous courtesy to the enemies of his House. Possibly the young Princess Victoria Louise, only daughter of the Kaiser, and the apple of his eye, may have met Lite stalwart dragoon then. At any rate, it became clear that the feud, between llohen/.ollern and (luelph in the altered circumstances could last no longer than the life of the Duke of Cumberland, who is sixty-seven. The young Ernest August, now heir to all the (luelph dignities, veal and imaginary, had been kept aloof from the Hanoverian agitation. As an ollicer of the Vavarian army he could not openly a vowhostility to the King of Prussia, hi* Supreme War Lord. When the inexorable old Duke died he'would become Duke of Brunswick and peace would reign in the land.

Meanwhile still move attractive prospects opened for this fortunate young man. Ho is the heir to a. huge fortune in any ease. His sisters being well dowered are well married. One of them is Oand Duchess of MeeklenburgSchwerin. and sister-in-law of the future Herman Kmpress. Now he is heir to a duchy of :!(i72 kilometres, with a. population of ever half a million, and n delightful franchise which ensures a permanent conservative majority in the Diet. Obviously a parti. It seem* to have suggested itself to the Knipress soon after the motor disaster that here was a suitable partner for the Kmpress Victoria. Negotiation! with Gmuiuleii were begun through the intermediary of the Prince Krnest August's hrother-in-law. Prince Max ol Ku.rien. It must have cost the Kaise! an effort for the Cumberlander did not come to meet him, but waited for the Kaiser to offer the hand of reconciliation. Even then, although he consented to the marriage between his son and thx> daughter of his hereditary enemy, refuses to make things easy for the Kaiser by renouncing his claims to Hanover —doubtless he holds himself hound by the oath to his dethroned fa ther—Mid when the Kaiser with wife and daughter went down to Karlsruhe to ratify the engagement on neutral territory, t\,e Duke of Cumberland kept to hi? tent at Gmunrten.

• The Guelphists in Hanover issued manifestoes expressing high satisfaction at the arrangement as far as it went, but emphasising the firm intention of the Hanoverian party to remain faithful to the princely house which has ever j been faithful to Hanover. Every dynasty has its distinguishing quality. That of the Guelplis, according to their adherents, is unswerving fidelity. It apparently means that. they, never abandon their claim to anything which they imagine is theirs. This intransigence of the Cumberlander and his. men is a jarring note' in the marriage music, and affords the ultra-patriots occasion to blame the Kaiser for marrying his daughter to a husband who aims at re-building the throne at Hanover on the ruins of Prussia.

A LOVE MATCH. This, of course, is humbug. One has only to look at Prince Ernest August to see that he aims at nothing of the sort, but will be extremely happy as Duke of Brunswick, with a huge income and the charming and vivacious Hobenzollern princess as his consort. It is said to be a love match. Where the young couple found time and place to fall in love with each other is hard to say, for up till recently Guelph and Hohenzollern only met by accident in other peoples' bouses, once in five years or so. But that the Princess is pleased with the man of her parents' choice is pretty certain. A photograph of the two standing together in a park at Karlruhe ie to be seen in all the shop windows. The Princess holds her stalwart lover's arm, and is a delightful picture of happy girlhood. She must be a consummate actress if she can assume such a pose for the sake of illustrated journals. It is fairly well known that the Kaiser is far too fond of his daughter to sacrifice her for reasons of State, and it would almost seem as if in this case the Kaiserin and the Princess made the match for themselves. It is the destiny of the Prince to become Duke of Brunswick. When this will happen is not clear. The decision of the Federal Council debars him as long as. his father maintains the Han- : overian claim. Possibly the Kaiser may get this decision rescinded. In all probability things will remain as they are for some time. The young couple will marry and live in Berlin, and the Guelph parliamentary party will die of inanition. They have at present six members in the Reichstag. In any case the picturesque band of kings in exile will in a few years be reduced by one. They are a fairly numerous party, the French Bourbons in England, the Spanish Bourbons in Venice and Austria, the Braganza and Neapolitan Bourbons, the Buonapartes, Abdul Hamid, the ex-Shah, and the little Emperor of China. The Gmunden duke's claim will expire with himself. On the whole, they are probably better off in exile if they are rich than on their thrones. They live in much nicer places than -their ci-devant j capitals, enjoying all the privileges of royalty without its responsibilities, and have the supreme consolation of a wellfounded grievance.