COSTLY TROUSSEAU.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 26, 25 October 1907, Page 5

COSTLY TROUSSEAU.

— ROYAL HEIRESS TO MONTE CARLO "•' ■ MILLIONS. ■ DT TELEGRAPH —I'ItESS ASSOCIATION —COPTItIGHT. Paris, October 23. Prince RolandNßonaparte has orderbel in Paris for his, 1 daughter, Princess Mario, whoso botrothal to Prince Georgo of Grcoce was recently announced, a wedding troussinii costing £00,000.

Tlio engagement of. Queen Alexandra's nephew, Prince George of Greece, second soii of tho King of Greece, to Princess Mario- Bonaparto (says tho London correspondent of' Hie •"Age"), caused somo astonishment among those who consider l such alliances from tho standpoint of relative rank. The/prospectivo bride, though a Princess, and a descendant of. a brother of tho'great Napoleon, is also .tlio granddaughter of a ■ Savoyard waiter, who amassed enormous wealth as tho'proprietor of a gambling heir at Monte Carlo. ' The persorial history of the notorious " Monte Carlo Blanc" is well remembered in England, and '.harmonises. ill with 'the traditions of royalty. . The marriage of his daughter (who received a million sterling as a wedding present) to Prince Roland Bonaparto was treated by the.latter's family as a morganatic one, and never, secured, their approval—the million sterling notwithstanding. i • -Pi-inco Roland - himself was the issuo of a morganatic marriage between his father; Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparto, and li young girl of humblo Origin. But'for/the remarriage of his parents at Brussols'after a lapso : of severalyears, in order to secm-o his' legitimization. Prince Roland would have been left a person age of small account socially, at least in tln> eyes of. the ]?renpli aristocracy. ' His davighter is understood to be ljy far tho richest .heiress of her rank in Europe. Old "Monte-Carlo Blanc's" vast : wealth passed to' her. through her mother,, who died, about twenty- years:ago.''. A<v cording to ono" account, it then amounted lo about .£10,000,000, and it has, been increasin* at interest 1 "ever innce. ' Tho- Princess mav bring her husband an ndditidnnl "fortune." as she will probably inherit a largo sum from her uncle, Edmond Blanc, tho millionaire ra-e----horse owner.

Prince George, born in 18G9. was Hio-li fnm. raipsioner of Crete from ISDS to 1006, when lie resigned, on the ground that ho did not Mo tho new system of control decided on bv the Powers. , • •; \