COSTLY TROUSSEAU.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3776, 26 October 1907, Page 3

COSTLY TROUSSEAU.

The engagement of Queen Alexandra’s nephew, Prince Geo. of Greece, second son of the King of Greece, to Princess Marie Bonaparte (says the London correspondent of the Age), caused some astonishment among those who consider such alliances from the stand-point of relative rank. The prospective bride, though a Princess, and a descendant of a brother of the great Napoleon, is also the granddaughter of a Savoyard waiter, who amassed enormous wealth as tbe proprietor of a gambling hell at Monte Carlo. The personal history of a 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 Bonaparte was treated by the latter’s family as a morganatic one, and never secured their approval—the million sterling notwithstanding. Prince Roland himself was the issue of a morganatic marriage between his father, Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, and a younggirl of humble origin. But for the remarriage of his parents at Brussels after a lapse of several years, in order to secure his legitimisation, Prince Roland would have been left a person age of small account socially, at least in the eyes of tbe French aristocracy. His daughter is und ers to°d to be by far the richest heiress of her rank in Europe. 014 “ Monte Carlo Blanc’s” vast wealth passed to her through her mother, who died about twenty years ago. According to one account, it then amounted to about and it has been increasing at interest ever since. The Princess may bring her husband an additional fortune, as she will probably inherit a large sum from her unple, Edmond plane, fhe millionaire racehorse owner.

Prince George, born in 1869, was High Commissioner °f Crete from 1898 to 1906, when he resigned, on the ground that he did not like tire new system of control decided on by the Powers.