BIG FORTUNE AT STAKE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 281, 28 November 1932, Page 8

BIG FORTUNE AT STAKE

(FISHMONGER SEEKS £1,200,000 I "AN EMPEROR’S SON’’ i TREASURE SHIP'S RICHES. I ~ ; Kvinance, mystery and drama that out-rival anything a fiction writer could devise, lie behind a claim of £1,200,900 now being made by a London fishmonger. This man, Mr. AVilliain Brightwell, living at Islington, says the Sunday Dispatch, claims to be •‘His Imperial Highness Franz Rudolph Maximilian, son of the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.” If jewels and bullion, at present lying in the wreck of the Merida,, which was sunk in 1911 in 200 ft. of water,, are found —a salvage ship is on ' its way at the moment to try to raise the treasure—and Mr. Brightwell’s claim comeu before the courts, one of the most a.stonishing legal actions ever heard iu Britain will be fought. The legal notice sent out by Mr. Brightwell’s solicitors to Captain H. L. Bowdoin, of the Salvor, who is on h’s way to try to retrieve the treasure, reads—- “ Please take notice that our client, Franz Rudolph Maximilian, who claims to be the son and heir of the late Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, hereby formally gives you notice that he claims and will claim all or any of the estate of his father as may be found in the wreck of the Merida, should this be salved. Our client is prepared to prove his title when the occasion arises, but you must not deal with or dispose of such property in disregard of his claim.” Over Thirty Fathoms Deep. The jewels and bullion are at present lying in 200 ft. of water off the Virginian Capes, United States. Recently an expedition was formed by Captain Harry L. Bowdoin and Mr. Charles McCambridge and others, of Cushendall, County Antrim. Ireland. They have chartered, the Salvor and are engaged iu preparations to salve this enormous treasure which belonged to tho, Emperor Maximilian, of Mexico. The unfortunate Emperor Maximil ian and his still more woe-ridden wife, Carlotta, left no children. But Mr. Brightwell’s story, amazing as it may sound, has many contacts with historic, truth, and. tells of an heir (himself) smuggled away and secreted for reasons of State. Maximilian, brother of the Emperor Franz Joseph, became Emperor of Mexico with the assistance of Napoleon 111. of France. Later, after the revolution of 1867, he was shot by courtmartial in a barrack square. Jewel with a Curse. When Maxmilian took on his unhappy emperorship he took with him from Austria a marvellous collection of rubies, sapphires and diamonds which one of the ancestors of “Tho Unhappy Hapsburgs,” Count Hermann, in the 16th. century, had looted from the temple of Rama in Burma. These jewels were said to have been cursed by their custodian, the Priest of Rama, and certainly the history of the Hapsburgs teems with death, disaster and misfortune. When the Empress Carlotta arrived in Mexico, she acquired a number of emeralds from the old-time Aztec temple of Quetzacoytl, which were said to be priceless. It was also said that a curse had been laid upon these, should they ever pass out of the hands of Montezume’s descendants. The Empress Carlotta made her escape to Europe; her jewels and her husband’s were confiscated and placed in the Mexican Treasury. There they remained until 1911. Then came another insurrection, and President Diaz wns forced to resign. He collected the State jewels and bullion that had once belonged to Maximilian and had them sent to Europe in the doomed Merida. Wife Tries to Save Husband. Although Maximilian and Carlotta are believed to have been childless, yet for nearly 50 years the man known as William Brightwell, who supplies fish and vegetables to small public-houses iu tho City of London and. who lives in. humble circumstances, has claimed lo be the legitimate son of Maximilian and Carlotta, and heir to their vast treasure. It is a matter of history that Carlotta hurried to Napoleon 111. and besought him to intervene to save her husband’s life from the Mexican Revolutionists. Napoleon was powerless to act. She then went to Rome and interviewed Pope Pius IX. at the Vatican, where she broke down, became violently mad. and assaulted his Holiness. So ill did she become that she was allowed to stay in Hie Vatican for a week. When she was removed she was hopelessly insane, and was sent to her relative, the King of the Belgians. Carlotta, was later placed in a convent near Brussels, where she lived until her death, four years ago, forgotten by the world. Mr. Brightwell’s contention is that he is her and the Emperor’s son. He declares that he 1 was smuggled into England, where he was found at Christmas time, dressed I in very expensive baby linen, on the steps of a Roman Catholic Church in Kingsland Road, Hackney. i Mysterious Foreign Woman. • The claimant, according to hi.s story. was taken to a home and, a few days later, a Mr. William Brightwell, a greengrocer, was visited by a mysterious foreign woman dressed in black. ' From her he received a very large sum ’ to adopt the baby. When Mr. Brightwell, was a young 1 man he was visited by the Archduke. ! John Salvador (John Orth), who re- 1 nounced his title to the Austrian Crown ( and became the master and owner of a sailing ship in which he was drowned. John Orth told Mr. Brightwell that he was smuggled out of the way be- < cause of the, insanity of the Empress; ( a scandal and a political crisis might j have risen had his birth been recog- , In appearance Mr. Brightwell bears a striking resemblance to the late .Emperor Francis Joseph when Francis . Joseph was 65, which is Bright well’s . age now.