A ROYAL DIVORCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8844, 21 June 1907, Page 1

A ROYAL DIVORCE.

The romantic loye affair of an Austrian Archduke, which some four years;ago caused a great sensation, has a*t last ended unhappily. The bride proved too ardent a disciple of the simple life cult, and the once happy pair have agreed to separate. The nobleman in question is the Archduke Leopold Salvator, eldest son of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a near relative of the Imperial House of Austria. He suddenly cut himself loose from all his family ties at the same time as his sister, then Crown Princess of Saxony, abruptly left her home. The Archduke accompanied his sister in her flight to the south of Prance, and then went to Switzerland, whence he wrote to the Emperor Francis 'Joseph renouncing his position as Austrian Archduke, with all its rights and advantages and declaring his intention to assume the simple name of Leopold Wolfling. The Archduke, upon promising never to again cross the Austrian frontier, received an appanage of £2OOO a year. He then acquired rights as a Swiss burgher, settled down near Gepeva, and married Wilhelmine Adamovic, daughter of a provincial post office employee, with whom he had become acquainted. The Archduke some time ago instructed bis Geneva attorney, M. Lachcnal, to take steps to secure for him a divorce from his wife, and summoned his Vienna lawyer to Geneva to draw up terms with his wife.

Humours about the discomforts of his married life have been current for some time. On Christmas Eve Herr Wolfling packed all his personal belongings and left the villa, while his wife prepared to start with her sister for Austria. The reasons for the divorce were incompatibility of temperament and general intellectual disparity. Herr Wolfling did his best to raise his wife’s mental level, and with much difficulty he taught her how to write. She! obliged her husband to give up meat, and herself joined the colony of “Simple lifers J’ at Zugau, who live in winter in mud huts and in summer in the open air, only wear absolutely necessary clothing, and entirely neglect personal ablutions. 11l accordance with their tenetf, Frau Wolfling ceased brushing her hair, and never replaced her modern toilette. She wore a jibbah, took sunbaths, and would on no account employ a servant. Her endeavours to force her husband to adopt the manners of “ Simple lifers ” led to violent scenes, as Herr Wolfing peremptorily refused to be dragged down to their level. For some time the Archduke boro with Ids eccentric spouse, as he himself had compulsorily to lead the simple life when he became naturalised as a Swiss citizen, and served as a common soldier in n Swiss regiment at Geneva. There the ex-major-general in the Austrian army had to scrub the floors of the barracks and sweep the yard. Finding it impossible to withdraw his wife from the influence of the cult of “ Nature’s children,” he resolved upon a separation, .and tho wife has now agreed to that course.