ROYAL LOVE SCANDALS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 150, 25 February 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROYAL LOVE SCANDALS.

INDISCRETIONS OF HAPSBFRGS. AMAZING AMOFRS. ".Most of the members of my house." Louse, ex-Crown Princess of Saxony, write- in her autobiography, "seem to be very unlucky in love. Indeed, in the ordinary affairs of life our family rarely doe, anyth'ng in the aeeoptou way, and we afford a fascinating study for those interested in heredity."

The taint in the Hapsburg blood, derived from the union of the dissolute Ferdinand 11. with "Joanna the Mad." has no doubt been largely responsible for the "flagrant indiscretions" of this Royal House, notably in the domain ol love, which have caused so much scandal in Europe. The chronicles of the Hapsburgs, indeed, are full of stories of mesalliances, of strange unions with maids and men of low degree, not the least romant'e of which is that of which the Archduke Joliann was the hero about a centurv ago.

Prince Joliann, so the story runs, was travelling from Italy to Vienna, when he stopopd at a small Styrian village for a change of horses and postilion. The horses were available, but as the rustic host of the inn apologctica'ly explained, there was no postilion for them. The Prince, anxious to continue It's journey w.thout delay, had begun to despair when, to his surprise and delight, a p-o-tilion was forthcoming, none other than the innkeeper* pretty daughter, who, determined tha' tin 1 handsome stranger should not be disappointed, had herself donned livery and volunteered to drive h.m to tlio next posting station.

MARRIED A DANCER. Here indeed, were all the (dements of a romance, a susceptible prince and a beautiful maid, whose charms were enhanced by the masculine garb she wore, and the romantic role she had assumed with srch courtesy. Ihe Archduke, powerless to resist su.. i a condonation of ; s. unit- on his heart promptly fell : n love with his fair pnstilion, and. as his wife and Countess of Meran, she had no reason to regret an adventure which, no doubt, she thoroughly enjoyed apart from its happy consequences.

Of a later Archduke Joliann, a stoiy no less dramatic is told. Joliann "n.!vator Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany, was, a generation ago, the most br lha.i: prince in Europe, accomplished sdioi.ir poet, and musician, and the finest strategist in Franz Josef's army, mi which he had, while in his early thirties, risen to Field Marshal's rank. One day, as fate would have it, he visited a Vienna theatre tamed lor it.s ballets, and among tin* fair dancers who posed and pirouetted on the stage was one whose radiant young beauty and grace of figure arrested his attention. and held him entranced. Such was the fascination of her virg'nal freshness and dainty charms that ■Joliann knew no peace until he had made the acquaintance of his bewitcher, who proved to he Emile Stubel, daughter of an obscure shopkeeper in a poor quarter of the city. In the character of a poor student lie sought and wooed the tradesman's daughter, and it was only when she had a wedding-ring on her fingei'"tlint she learned that her handsome student wiia none other than the Archduke Joliann Salvator, cous n oi the Emperor. But the princely lover had to pay a heavy price for his romance. He had already inclined Franz Josef's severe displeasure by rebelling again-t his authority, and this last flagrant defiance sealed his doom. Compelled to renounce his royal rank and titles and his vast estates, he fared forth with irs young wife to seek work, however menial. At one time, it is said, he earn >d a scanty living as a waiter: at another he was to ling as a labourer, and again he was doing reporter's work in New York. Dr fting to England, he studied for and secured a navigator : license, and one day in IS!H.) he sailed away across the Atlantic with his bourgeois wife, and from that d.ft) this all trace of the adventurous •0.q.1e has been lost.

WEDDED IN THE STRAND In the register of tho Strand Registry Office you may see the record ot a ma it 'ago which roca'ls a very strange romance of Royalty —that of "Marie Antoinette Louise, formerly Archduchess of Austria, and divorced wife of Frederick Augustus, Crown Prince, and now King of Saxony, to Enrico Toselli, professor of music." More than twenty years earlier the beautiful and gifted Hapsburg Pr ncess. daughter of Ferdinand IV., Grand Duke of Tuscany, had given her hand, in the chapel of tho Emperor's Palace at Vienna, to the heir to the throne of Saxony, with ever\ prospect of a happy wedded life as weil as a future quoondoni. "lly husband, sho says, "was young and handsome, and devoted to me. Ho ihltl many ixce.'lent qualities of heart and mind, and I felt sure that my marriage would be a hanpy one."

FOOD FOR SCANDAV

But it was not long before dis 1lusionment came. Frederick Augustus, indeed, proved himself a good husband: but tho Pr inoess's life was made <>o nrsorablp by the King's insults, the Queen's petty tyrannies, and the rigidity of the Court ot quetto, that all her dreams of happiness were soon dissipated. For eleven years she bore her burden of misery, until she could bear it no longer. Then one day in 1002 the world was shocked to learn that *vi:<oiiv's queen-to-be had eloped with ior children's tutor M. Giron, a handsome

young Relg an. " .M. Giron." si,,. >;,y"did not remain long w : th me in S; li

z. aland. .My reputation being the' ough'y compromised by his prosenei mv obieet was attained, and he there fore returned to lirussols."

Tiie Emperor of Austria, during h>s long life liar- beell shoeki (I by many shnilar indiscret oils within his family circle. It is but a few years since one of his granddaughter:-. the Priree-s Elizabeth of Bavaria, gave much food for scandal when she ran away wish a young infantry lieutenant named Scei':ied. coie- n of Vienna's chief executioner.

FASCINATING CINDERELLA*. For two veal's the Princes,-\ infatuation for ihe young officer had iau-c,l ■'.n-.iifty in royal circles, but all < li'to confro' the impervious \oung lady bad proVi d futile. One night she deep; re I from M unvh in her lowr'-! lompany, and nothing was hear I of the runaw ays nut I news came that th"V had boen made one by an - ill." oricst.

A Military I'lntmienl . Imw r\vr. w-o far from sati-t'ying Ann-lie. :i m 111 n - r Bavarian m im e-, of the Hap-denc iilond who ran away \i :tIT I'mir In\er> el low degree in f|i.n -in re s'on an , ample which her .Inn• ■ nti'r Fliv'"'. later followed when '! i' i •! i ■) >eil w it' i fount Vrona. llnr ' recent'v -1 i 1!. Prince Victor Salvator. -on el' tin- Au>-

trian Grand Duchess Marie Louise, and first cousin of the ex-C'rown Princess of Saxony played the role of bridegroom at the Nuriunburg registry office to l'Yaulein Anna Rolirer, daughter of a humble country doctor, whom he had successfully wooed under the very walls of his mother's castle in Bohemia. The Archduke Ferdinand Carl, younger brother of tile late Crown Prince of Austria, who himself made a morganatic marriage with a countess found a wife in l'Yaulein I.V.ubcr. daughter of a. master :it a Vienna school. The Archdukes Ernest and Henry each put a wedding-ring on the finger of a low-born Cinderella, while another Archduke Krnest mated with a ballet-dancer, whose son by him was n few years ago a waiter in a Budapest restaurant.