MYSTERIOUS ROYAL BIRTHS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 79

MYSTERIOUS ROYAL BIRTHS.

CURIOUS CHARGES OP SUPPOSITION.

There are few sovereigns in Europe the authenticity of whose origin has not been called in question some tune or oth°r in the course of their family history. Most people w'll recall the extraordinary precautions adopted at Madrid in 1907 on the occasion of the birth of- the little Prince of Aaturias to avert any malevolent insinuations that might be circulated -by the foes of dynasty. It is not to bo ■wondered at that extreme measures are deemed adv 'sable to prove once for all that a royal child is not supposititious, ■when one remembers the turmoil which reasonable, and even unreasonable, doubts have occasioned in the past. In England, stories of this character -were partly responsible, for the overthrow of the Stuart dynasty, and for all tho«e Jacobite disturbances "to which the British Isles were subjected for more than 100 year* afterward. It may be remembered that Jamas II and his consort the Queen were ardent Roman Catholics, whereas the monarch's two elder daughters by a previous marriage, Princess tar/ and Princess Anne, were Protestants. The English people viewed with dread the prospect of the crown falling at Jvmes's death to a young Prince reared m the. Boman Catholic faith, who during hLs minority would be subject to the .agency of a Roman Catholic Queen. So it is hot astonishing that they should have turned a ready ear to the suspicions "ormulated •when the announcement was made tihat the Queen was about to become a mother ; while tfao extraordinary secrecy observed in all matters relating to .he birth of Prince James (whose son it was who afterwards became Charles Edward, the Youncf Pretender), and the many mysterious ciroumstanoes in connection .therewith tended to confirm the widespread popular impression that he was a supposititious child. In the same way, the late King Jerome Bonaparte and his eon, Prince Napoleon Jerome, uncle of a former Attorneygeneral of the United States, were among the loudest in declaring that Napoeon 111 had none of the blood of Bonaparte in his veins, atnd that- he was the son of Queen Borteaee and a Dutch Admiral. JThey based their assertions on declarations made by Qneeo Hortense's own husband, King .Louis Bonaparte of Holland, and there ifr evidence to show that he was jjuevented from publicly disclaiming his paternity only by peremptory orders of his brother, the great Emperor Napoleon, who pointed out that, as the child was not an elder eon, no dynastic interests tnere involved.

If there is doubt as to the parentage of Napoleon 111, a. atill greater mystery attaches itself to the origin of Empress Eugenic, and there are many who to this day -believe "that, instead of being the offspring of the old Countess of Montajo, she is in reality a daughter of the late Queen Christina of Spain, and a halfsister, therefore, of tine late Queen Isabella.

— A Czar's Romance. —

Considerable mystery also prevails with regard to the parentage of the late Empress of Russia, the consort of Alexander 11. The latter, while still Czarevitch, wae seat by his father, Nicholas I, to the Court of Karlsruhe, to present himself to Princess Alexandrine of Baden, whom the Czar and his Ministers had selected as a suitable bride for the heir to the Muscovite throne. It. was in the days of post-chaise; and when on Ida way tothe capital of Baden his carriage T..at with a mishap which compelled him U seek hospitality at a aitar-by chajbeau. He discovered it to be the home of a young 'Prince of the House of Hesse, Alexander by name, who lived there in retirement with his sister, Princess Marie. The latter was a girl of such beauty that the impressionable Czarevitch fell head over ears in lovt with her, lingered -on and on, and ere long discovered the history of the Prince and - Princess. They were children of the £hand Duchess of Hesse. But the Grand Duke had for some reason, or other conceived doubts as to their being his offspring, suspecting a' chamberlain of the Grand Duchess of being their father. Unwilling ! to go to the length of publicly repudiating them as long as he was not positive abftut the matter/ h© kept them aloof from his other children, declined to let them appear at Court, and subjected them to the moet severe ostracism. The story of the treatment of the young Princess only increased the ardour of the Czarevitch, and he determined to make her his wife. Instead of proceeding to Karlsruhe, he made his way to Darmstadt and asked the Grand Duke for the hand of Princess Marie. The prospect of a matrimonial alliance I with the reigning house of Russia, and

of becoming the father-in-law of a future Czar, vras not one that a petty and poverty-stricken German ruler such as i Grand Duke Louis could afford to let pass. He gladly gave hie assent, and at once summoned Marie and her brother \» Darmstadt. He had not seen the Princess since her earliest infancy, and it was

as fiancee to the heir to the throne of

all the Riiiasias that she was welcomed for the first time by him at hie Court as his daughter, the brilliant future in store for her having entirely dispelled all doubts as to her legitimacy. But the

childhood of the Princess and her brother had been so unhappy that she took the -letter U St. Petersburg in her train. As brother-in-law of the Czarevitch he enjoyed an altogether exceptional position in Russia, until he compromised all his prospects by making a runaway morganatic marriage with one of- the pupils of the Czarina's great school at St. Petersburg, which is maintained at the expense of the Empresses, where all the students rank as. nvaids-of-honour. ■ — Louis the " Jailer." —

While old Emperor Nicholas of Russia treated his son's wife with the utmost

affection until his death, the proud autocrat invariably referred to King Louis Philippe of France in the inost,oontftmptu cms fashion as the "Jailer," and absolutely declined to believe that he had any royal blood in hie veins. He Tefused to look upon him as a brother Sovereign, or even to accredit an Ambassador to his Court. The fact is that Louis Phihprae us

asserted by some of the -most eminent

genealogists of the Old World to have been the offspring of Chiappitri, jailer ot the city prison at Florence, whose wife

gave birth to a boy on the very &arr.e night that the Duchess of Orleans, wife ' of the regicide Duke E-galite d'Orleans, j brought a little girl into the world at ' Florence. Proofs of the txchange of the children are said to exist to this day in the Imperial archives at St. Petersburg, in those of the Kings of Prussia at Berlin, and at the Vatican. ,j The jailer's boy was reared as a Prince of Orleans, and, after teaching school in ■ exile in America, reigned for 18 years j over France as King Louis Philippe. The , daughter of the Duke and the Duchess j grew up as the jailer's daughter, became a famous ballerina under the name of Marie Stella, and married Tx>rd New borough. If {popular and widespread belief is ! web founded, the present King of Ita"y : 3 grandfather, Viotor Emmanuel 11, was not the eon of King Charles Albert of Sardinia and his consort, Archduchess The resa of Austria, but the offspring of a

peasant and his wife, the latter having j i been engaged as wet nurse to tiie young

Prince of Savoy. The story goes that thej royal Prince was accidentally burned to ' death in his cradle, and that the nurse's child was sirbstituted in his stead, either with or without the knowledge of the King and Queen. Certainly the appear- | ance,. bearing, and manners of Victor Em- ! manuel II served to corroborate the tale, ' while his tastes and appetites were those of a peasant, rather than of a Prince. He wps never so happy as when eating peasant dishes, in pea&aa' garb, at his shooting lodge. | Such are some of the strange stories ' cunrent about royal people ; but it should be borne in mind that all this is mere gossip.