ROYAL IMBECILES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 143648, 16 November 1911, Page 8

ROYAL IMBECILES.

MARRIAGE BETWEEN TWO MAD FAMILIES. A marriage .has been planned between the young Archduke Charles Francis Joseph of Austria and the Princess Zita, of Bourfaon-Parma, the possible results of which are terrible to contemplate. The young Archduke in the son or the half insane madcap Archduke Otto, who died five years ago. He in turn was the son of the old Emperor Francis Joseph’s brother. Archduke Charles Louis, who was .declared “mentally irresponsible” by the Vienna courts. The Princess Zita is the twelfth of the-20 children of tho late Duke Robert of Bourhon-Parma, 18 of whom aro imbecile. . . , The contemplated marriage is ot groat public importance because the bridegroom, Archduke .Charles, is tpe prospective heir to tho throne of Aus-tria-Hungary. His uncle, the .actual heir, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, nas made a morganatic marriage, the. children of which cannot inherit the throne. And so, after him, tho succession passes to his nephew, to the young Archduke Charles. , , _ Tho Princess'Zita of Bourbon-Parma i belongs to a branch of the Spanish Bourbon dwnasty that intermarried with tho Hapsburgs, tho _ imperial family of Austria, m the eighteenth century, and acquired the Italian dnrhys" of Parma. The Bourbon-Parmas wore" turned out of their Italian possessions by the United Italy move-. : ment,- 1 and now make their home m Austria. , „ , It 'seems that the unhappy BourbonParmas have united in tho picscnv gen oration all the notorious mental dciccts of the ancient Hapsburg and Bourbon families, from whom tney are descended through centuries of intermarriage. According to all the teachings or medical science, tho union ot two persons closelv related for many generations and liaving in their immediate and remote anccstrv many cases of insanity, is verv likely to result m insane or mentally defective offspring. , ~ It has been planned to celebrate the marriage early in uctober, and the scene of the ceremony—of nil placesis to be Schwarzau, the castle of the Bourbon-Parmas, in Austria. Never in the world, probably, has there been a more pitiful, yet ludicrous, tragedy than tho interior of Schvvarzan presents. It is an unpretentious though verv extensive country house, some two hours by rail from Vienna, the residence for tho last 15 years or more of tho ducal family of Parma. Four years ago the last sane Duke of Parma, Robert by name, died there. At the'head of the unhappy procession of IS imbecile royal princes conies Henry, head of the family, designated in official language as “His Royal Highness the Duke of Parma.” Henry is 38 vears of ago, and do vein [led i n sanity so early in life that none of his relatives, Emperors, Kings, and Archdukes, invested him with a military title, or even a royal decoration. He is the eldest of the eight children borne by the Duke’s first wife, Princess Maria Pia of Bourhon-Sicily, a cousin. After Henry the taint ot insanity made victims of the six next children of the Royal couple, five girls and a bov. Thou it allowed the birth ot a child perfect in mind and body, the present Prince Helie of Parma, who married the Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. The union was a happy one. Prince Helie is captain ot the Sixth Dragoons in tho Austrian army. They have four children, Princes Carl and Robert and Princesses Elizabeth and Maria, healthy boys and girls. With Prince Helie terminated the Duchess Maria Pin’s career as a mother. She died in 1882, happy to have blessed he.r husband with one perfect child. But the curse of insanity appeared again when Robert took his second wife, the present Dowager Duchess of Parma, Maria Antonia, the younest of the six famous Braganza Princesses, and aunt to Miguel Braganza. The first daughter she bore to her cousin and husband, the Princess Adelaide, was insane at her birth. At the age of .20 she enjoyed a short period of sanity, and realising tile terrible affliction her brothers and sisters wore suffering from she entered holy orders. Two bovs, Sixtus and Xavier, and a daughter," Franciska, who, in the catalogue of Duke Robert’s offspring, bear the numbers nine, ten, and eleven, wore likewise born insane. Then occurred a second happy interval of sanity. On Mav 9, 1892, Princess Zita saw the light at tho Royal villa of Pianoro, Italy. Zita proved as healthy in mind and' bodv as her step-brother Helie. She is a fine girl physically. There were seven children after Zita, three girls and four ooys. None oi them, it is assorted, evbr enjoyed a moment’s perfect sanity. i The fact that of nine princes of the house of Parma only one holds a- military commission, and that of the 1.1 princcssep not one has been-honoured by the customary decorations by their Royal relatives, shows the deplorable condition into which the family has sunk in the estimation of the other Royal families. But these poor princes and princesses have helped themselves to titles. Duke Henry has assumed the dignity of ‘Grand Prince of Storks,” and h.s oldest sister, Princess Louise, calls herself “Empress Theodora.” Princess Maria Immaculata imagines herself to be Queen Mono Antoinette, and is not happy unless allowed to hug a cabbage which she thinks is her own head, cut off by her subjects. On the cabbage sbo lavishes all the affection aho is'capable of feeling, cuddling and decorating it, and talking tor hours to it. Every one of the crazed princes and princesses has some special foible or abnormality. It would be impossible to chronicle all the madmen of the Hapsburg and Beurbon families. Among tho distant a--o'-try of this couple are Pedro the r'niel of Spain; King Pedro I. of Portugal, who resurrected his murdered wife, Inez do Castro, and sat her beside him on the .throne; mad Queen Joanna and a score of others. The family marks of degeneracy aro to bo traced in tho peculiar facial formation of King Alfonso of Spain, and in tho defect of throat and ears which lias caused his second son, Prince Jaime, to grow up speechless.