ATTEMPT TO KILL PRINCESS

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1929, Page 3

ATTEMPT TO KILL PRINCESS

SENSATION IN JUGO-SLAVIA. AMAZING LIFE RECALLED. An unsuccessful attempt to murder Princess Elisabeth Windischgraetz, granddaughter of the late Emperor' Franz Joseph, is reported from Laibach (Ljubliana, in Jugo-Slavia). - It is stated, that when; the princess was returning to her castle at Littai, near Laibach, a shot was fired at her motor-car, - The windows were smashed And the princess was slightly injured about the face. , : The Hapsburg Archduchess Elisabeth,' who is the daughter of the late, unhappy Crown Prince Rudolph and the Belgian Princess Stephanie, lias led an amazing life. "■ ■When the princess ihet and fell in love with Prince Windischgraetz in 1901, the Emperor . Joseph insisted that they should neither meet nor write each other, for a.’ year.' '. • ■ The condition was kept and the Royal couple married, despite the Emperor’s ■ belief that it was-a mesalliance. • Soon remarkablebstpries. of’ love; intrigues were afoot, and later the ’prince asked for a divorce, alleging that his wife’s affection had turned to hatred. After a trial lasting four years the ; prince won his suit and was given custody of the two children. ’ ‘ At Schoenau Castle'there were lively scenes when an attempt was made to force the mother to give up the children. . ' ' ' ' ; ■ ' Twenty gendarmes with fixed bayonets, went to the castle, but the. estate workers . protested and a fight seemed, imminent, when the Mayor obtained the postponement of the putting into execution of the court's order. ’ . - She once wrote ■ of her husbandr--“The class of aristocrat who is riciculed both by the stage and the Press; in short, a uveak-minded, morally undeveloped,'cowardly fop.”