A SECRET WEDDING SEQUEL.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 4 December 1912, Page 5

A SECRET WEDDING SEQUEL.

PRINCESS OBTAINS A DEGREE OF NULLITY. STORY OF THE MARRIAGE IN ' LONDON. ' Princess Jeanne Marie Louise de Bourbon, otherwise Delaports, was, in the Divorce Court, London, on October 18, granted an order declaring null and void tho ceremony of marriage which, on March 29, 1910, she ivent through in the French Protestant Clmrch, Soho, with Prince Charles Albert Edgar Serge Cesar de Bourbon. The case came before Mr. Justice Bargrave Deane, and was undefended. The Princess, a handsome lady, with masses of auburn hair, wore a tightly-fitting black silk jacket edged with fur and a black toque trimmed with black ostrich • feathers. Her costume was relieved with a white frilled ruffle. Mr. Ba.vford, who appeared for the petitioner, asked for the decree on the grounds that the marriage ceremony was performed without notice to the superintendent registrar, without a certificate of notice having been issued, without a license, in tlio absence of any registrar or superintendent registrar, and with closed doors, and that the ceremony of marriage had not been registered. Petitioner, said counsel, divorced her former husband in 1906. In 1910 she was introduced to the respondent at Milan, and when she had got back to Paris he called upon lier and proposed to her. Ho said lie would have to get the consent of Kaiser Francis Joseph to their wedding. Subsequently he suggested that the marriage ceremony should take place in England, and that they could get it registered afterwards in Austria. He came over to England to get the necessary residential qualifications, and she followed him. Later he told her he had seen the registrar, who would have to attend at the church. Tho marriage ceremony was fixed for March 29, and petitioner's nephew, who had also come over from Paris, went to the church in advance to give some details to the clergyman. When the petitioner arrived at the church she found that- the registrar- was not there, and when she questioned respondent she was rather put off by him not giving her much chance.of saying anything to anybody. Tlio clergyman eventually performed the ceremony, telling them that it was not a good ceremony, because the registrar was not present, and gave them .a certificate, which only showed that a ceremony had been performed. Respondent said they could take the certificate to Austria, and have it registered afterwards. , Respondent made some attempts to register the marriage at Arco, but never did' it, and in September, when they were back in Paris, a lady, who'called herself the Princess-do Bourbon, arrived at the house and alleged that she was the wife of the respondent. The Prince went away with, the lady, and had never been. back. Evidence was called and the judge granted' a decree of nullity of marriage with costs. Mr. Druchquer, on behalf of Prince Philippe de Bourbon de Braganza, the head of tho Austrian House of the Braganza branch of the Bourbon family, stated that the Prince de Bourbon in this case had no connection whatever' with tho family. In fact, said counsel, he was not a Prince de Bourbon, and had no claim to use the title.