THE MARRIAGE OF PRINCE ROLAND BONAPARTE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1506, 14 March 1887, Page 2

THE MARRIAGE OF PRINCE ROLAND BONAPARTE

(PBOM OUB PAEIS COBREBPONDBNT.)

None of the groat marrugai whfoh have yet taken plaoe, or are thas far annoanoed for the future, equal m po'ittoal and aooial Importance the one ia which Prlnco Roland Bonaparte and hit second cousin, Laetltta, are to. be the happy couple. The precise date of the oareraony m not yet known, but it ?« oeK" tain the wedding will ba solemalstd In the Chateau Monoalieri, near Turin.

Prince Roland is a grandnepiiew, and Princess LaetitU v grandnieoe, of the great Napoleon. He comes of the Luoien branch, and Luoien was third-born of thirteen children, five of whom wore destined to wear croons. Luolen's second wife bore him nine ohlldren, th« e'dest of whom weddsd his cousin, Zanaide, daughter of Joseph, sometime King of Spaui and Rome— he who married Mile. Clary, of Maraeilles. The seoohd-born of Lucion, Mile. Laatitia, married au Jrlehman, Sir Thomaa Wyae, of Waterford. The onion turned out unhappy/ and they separated. Of all the others, I need only. mention Pierre, who waa born at Rome m 1815. - He was a mtn of extremely violent passions, and the hero of more than one sanguinary adventure. During the second Empire, and to the great annoyance of Napoleon 111 , he took .for wife a seamps tress namod Biffin. The Emperor did all he could to prevent this unioD , but the couple finally got awaj from France, and were wedded m the neutral country of Luxemburg. The marriage, how* ever, was not a legal one, and it wasnot until after the downfall of the Second Empire that they coald find someone to marry them properly. In the meantime they were so hard pushed for the necessaries of life that Mnae. Pierre opened a milliner's shop m London. Ihe eldest son of Prinoe Pierre w«i chriitened Roland, and it is he who will coon marry the Princess Laetltia. Novem« ber 17, 1880, he was joined m holy m»trimoDy to th« daughter of the late M, Blana of Monte Oarlo. Another Mile. Blano wedded Prince Radalvil, and their brother M. Edmond Blano, member of the famous olub "Mirl'tons," it one of the most popular owners and breeders on the ! French turf; ' The Princess Roland B maparte nh Blano, died about three years ago, leaving an only ohil<?, who ii now one of the wealthiest heiresses m Eu ope. Prinoe Rolaud Is a tall eftstingub. looking man, who loves to travel and to study, and who never got* out into society when be can help it The Prince is ten years the senior of bis bride. She was born m Paris twenty years ago ; but ever since she was five years of age she has been living ¥ith her mother, Princess Olotllde, at the chateau near Turio. Princess Olotllde Napoleon is a daughter of the late Viotor Emmanuel, aud is therefore titter to the present King of Italy. Indeed, her husband is the only one of alt the grand* children of Charles and Laetitla Bonaparte that tver made a royal marriage. It was his father who married Miss. Betsy Patterson, of Baltimore ; but Napoleon annulled the union on a most arbitrary manner, and during her life compelled hi) brother Jerome to wed Princess Frederick*, of Wurtomburg, of whom we& horning sons aud a daughter— Prinoe Jerome, who died at Florence m 1847 without issue ; Prinoe Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul, who assumed the D*me of Jerome on his brother's death, and who, as Prince Napoleon was - exiled last summer, and Princess Mathilde, who married Prince Demidoff In 1840, separated from. him five years later, and, subsequently took a well known painter to herself as husband . , '

Mi as Laetitia is a charming young Udy, and 1b at accomplished a prinpeis as yon will find Id a day's walk ' Like tier {nothef,ghe is of a serlonij iarn oi mind, and is very pious. Her brother YiotorU the hope of the Oarragnao Bonapartlsti, aud her ctbur brother,' Lows, has JQst finished a voyage rouud, the world. ''""■ " The Chateau Monoajlerl, where the wedding is to fake place, is on bank of the river Fo, at the foot of loma piptqreiqae moanfalos, 'Oloae to "the Ohateau t la a Carmelite convent, which Princess Ololtilde visits every day. The pea pan to down there are veiy fond of princess Laetitia, and wb«a she it out; horseback- riding they often ory tf^f hfi