THE WHITE LADY OF THE HOHENZOLLERNS. (From the "Cornhiil Magazine.")

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 208, 25 June 1887, Page 2

THE WHITE LADY OF THE HOHENZOLLERNS. (From the " Cornhiil Magazine. ")

Tina" 1'":1 '": distinct persons are said to bo the ouginals of the While Lady, in addition to the old widow of whom Pollniu speaks. These three arc A<yic?. Countess of Orlamundo. Beitha of Ivoscnbjrg, and tho Princess Ivunigund, who married, tirst, Ottocar 11., of Bohemia, and, secondly, a "Baron of 3\osenber£ Agnes, Countess of Orhunmule, was of the ducal family of 3Vlerun.'" She was married fii'Mi to Count Otto of Oiiamunde, and bore him two children. He died in T2O-1, when she fell madly in love with All 'Oi t Burgrave, of Number", a llohonzollorn, whe died 1361. Albeit, who goes by the name of <l the Handsome," was much younger than herself. "When she made advances to him, he is said to have replied that four eyes stood in the way. Ho meant his parents. She understood that he referred to her childien, whereupon she murdered them. Albert visited her in the Plessenburg, near Kuhiibach, but when ho discovered whau she had. done he shrank from her in horror, and afterwards maiiied (134-8; Sophia, daughter of Henry, Count of Hennebcig. Agnes of Orlamuudft went on a pilgrimage to Homo to expiate her crime, and on her return founded the convent of Himmekkron, near JJemeck, in Upper Franconi.i ; theic she was buried beside the children !-he had murdered, and there also All^ei t- the Handsome was laid. TniVu Innately for the story, history does rot suh^Un'iate it. It is quite true that the wife of Otto of Orlamunde was of «Meum, but her name va- Bcitiix, not Agnes. Moreover, she could uoc be the mistress of Albert the iUndbome, because «he was his great aunt, i.< , the sister of his grand- : inotlier accoiding to one account, accounting to anothci the E-istei of his grandfather's first wife, he being descended from the second wife, Helena, dau&»tcr of Albeit of Saxony. ~P>e that V it may, she must ha\e been a vei\ ol'l woman when Albert was a handsome blade. It the j \\hil* Lady weie Beatrix, she ropy 'have been kunigund Landgravine v>f Leaiditenberg, who married Otto Y. of Oilnmunde, and this countess did cive nn endowment to Himmelvkron in ir> 42, }>ut did not found it. It had, In fact, been founded halt a centuiy befoie. She died without family. IE there be any truth in the legend, she mu-t be the guilt) woman, but histoiy sa>* no thin ef about the murder. Ceitalnly according to one version of the the White Lady is ca'led Knni-irifl. There was a thiid Counter of Orlanrnnde living at the same time a« Albeit, but she was a widow ■with children who survived. Pm tlu was the daughter of Hindi yon Knsenbeig, head of the Catholic aim\ Wied against the Hussites, and Biu-iiwe of Bohemia. Bertha was bom between H'2o and 1430. She mt.rrif(l John of JLichtenstein, a fStyrian Biron, who treated her with gieat }>ar^arity On his death she re turned to Bohemia, to her brother Henry of Ko^enheig, and devoted her days to care for orphans. She always wore the then customary white mourning habit of a widow. She superintended the building of the castle of Neuh?ns. Great structural diificullies attended the erection, but Bertha cncouiagod the workmen by her kind void.-, and by the iuteie&t .she took in tho undfji taking. When it was ended , c he ';jivp a great feast to the masons, and fornderl a charity for the annual provision of a similar banquet. In accordance with this tradition, f he White Lady is represented as loving children, and to have been seen b} nioiheis and nurses who have neglected their babes sitting by the cradle rocking and caressing the wailing ini.inK On one occasion a nurse came inlo the children's room, and, peeinc a woman .soothing the children, asko'i her aliarply who she was and what iij;lit she had there. The White Lad} replied. (l I am not a stranger in the c.i^rle like you; and these little one-; ar<j not yours, but my children's children ' 7V third pei^on who is said to walk fis White Lady is Kunigund yon Halicz, second wife of Ottocar 11. of Bohemia ; his in st wife was Margaret, daughter of Leopold VI. of Austria. He was divorced from her in 1261. and maniod Kunigund immediately ; by the lattoi he had a son, Wcnceslas 11., who succeeded him, and two daughters — Agnes, who married Rudolph 11. of Austria, and Kunigund, who died an abbess afc Prague. Ottocar died in 1267, and then~shc married the Baron of Ko>enberg. She certainly did not murder her children. We are therefore driven back on Kunigund of Orlamiinde, and it is worthy to note that the earliest printed account of the White Lady calls hotKunigund, and not Agnes. She is said fco have killed her children — boy and a girl — by running a silver Jiairpm into their brains. The story forms the subject of a popular ballad. The elder branch of the at one time "powerful Orlamiinde family were also Margraves oi Meissen and Landgraves of Thuringia; it became extinct in 1095, whereupon the Orlamiinde estates passed to Count Siegfried of Ballensfcedt, a descendant of the Orlamiiude

* That is how she comes to haunt the Hansburgs as well.

race on the female si'^e. In IHO they fell to Albert the Bear, Duke of Saxony, whose descendants bra uohed off. , His son Hermann became Count of OrlamiiiKlo; the family died cut in 147 G. It is not diiHcult to see that the two stories are quite distinct, ami it is only the accident of an intermarriage between the Holienzollorn and Bosenbcrg families which brought the stories togcthei and confused them. T^ie real VVhito Lady of the latter is most; certainly the much-suffering, pious Beitha, and 'the Whito Lady of the former is the murderess Kunigund of Orlamiinde, and nob Agnes at all. The name of the Rosenberg White Lady carries us at once to the real origin of the legend. Bertha is the medieval f oim of Perchta, and Perchta* is the old Teutonic Goddess of the Moon, called also Hulda the Gentle, and Horscl, whom the Christian Kipuarian Franks changed to a virgin martyr, Ursula. This goddess was represented as the guardian of souls, and travels about with a train of children's spirits. These spirits are the stars over which the moon reigns. Sometimes she lives in a mountain, and is represented as calling childien to her. She has a gieat love for children, but when they hear her call and obey they die. So she is at once the lover of children and their murderess. Then, again, she is the Goddess of Love, and she it was., living in the Venusbcrg, or Horwlberg, who lured the Tannhauser into it, and held him enthralled in unlawful love for many years. Exactly so does the Countess of Orhunmide lure Albert the Handsome to the Plessenlmrg, and hold him theie enthralled till he discovers her crime. The Albeit story and the Tannhauser story are based on the sanio myth, only in the former we havo the children killed, which fails in the latter. Perchta is not only the moon, but the Goddess of Nature, and she calls her children, the flowers of of the Reid, to life, and destroys them with the advent of winter. She is represented as a widov:,-weeping absence of her lost husband, the Sun. Her .silver hah pin, with which she slays her cbikben, is the frost crystal or icicle. Her day, Perclitentag, Doc. 30, was kept as a feast, at which a special dish was always present. This feature of the myth comes to the surface in the story of Bertha of Rosenberg. Perchta always goes in white, wearing a loag veil, and with keys at her waist ; the same is the description given of both the Lady of Rosenberg and her of Orlamundc, More or less apparently well-authen-ticated cases of tho apparition of the White Lady at Berlin have occurred in 1840, before the death of Frederick William 111 , and again in ISGI, previous to the death of Frederick William IV. Whenever there occurs a death in j the royal and imperial family, there is 1 sure to bo a statement in some of the German papers that the sentinels on guard in the palace at Berlin or Potsdam saw the apparition, and were nearly frighted out of their wits, but these announcements are generally destitute of foundation. The Vicomted d'Ailincourt, in his curious ( Palerin/ says : ' The Prince of Montfort (son of Jerome Napoleon, former King oi Westphalia) conducted, me to the old castle oi the Dukes of Wurtemberg. A broad aud not steep way, without steps, which can be , ascended on horseback, even in carriages, leads to the upper storey, consisting of galleries and balls, into which open the State apartments. « Here,' said the young prince to me, 'this is where the White Lady appeared.' 'White Lady!' I repeated, ' what White Lady I— that of Vienna ?' ' No, she is of Berlin, and she is not at all alarming.' • Oh, there Is something of the kind, they say, in all the German courts.' ' And the same belief in her. The likeness of the White Lady of Stuttgardt is in one of the so-called imperial apartments. I do not believe in her a bit,' continued the Prince of Montfort ; ' nevertheless there is a circumstance which has made a lively impression on me. My mother, a sister of the king (Katherine, daughter of Frederick I. of Wurtemberg), lay ill at Lausanne, but, as the doctor said, not in any danger ; consequently we j were not at all anxious about ; her. One night— l was then living in this old castle in which we are — I heard a great sound as of something stirring. What was it ? The White Lady had come along this gallery, passing the sentinels, who were frozen with terror, and knocked at my door. When tho King of Wurleuborg heard my story next morning, he bade me be off as quick as I could for Switzerland. ' I fear for the life of my sister,' said he. I at once stai ted, reached Lausanne, and received my mother's last sight (she died November 23, 1835). Now I will tell you something more/ Prince Jerome continued, ' and you may beliove what you like of it. One very dark night, when overyone was asleep in Stuttgardt, a carriage with six horses rattled over the pavement, and drew up before tho palace. The steps were let down in the sight of the sentinels, who looked down from the galleries ; the White Lady - seemed out. The gxtes did not open before her, yot she appeared within, passing through the doors as though they were nothing but' a veil pf fog. She paced with stately bearing along the great gallery. The sentinels did not dare to

•Perohta, or Bertha, signifios the "Bright One."

lay hands on her. What followed 1 Duke Ferdinand of Wurteiflftei'g, the king's uncle, died January 2fy 1831 At the time > when ray father was king of Westphalia/ pursued tilta Prince of Montfort, ' hte minister at' the Court of Berlin wrote to him? f a± letter, which I have kept as a curiosity,No news/ he said, 'at Berlin, except that the palace is in commotion because the White Lady has been seen. However, I think nothing oi that, as every member of felw royal family is now in the enjoyment of rude 1 health.' However, not long; after, in came a. despatch with different Sidings. Tho beautiful Queen Louise of Prussia- wits dead (July 19, 181*!)).. She did not die at Berlin ; she fell 1 ill suddenly on a visit to her father, ©tike Charles- of Mecklenlmrg, at his villa at Zierifcz, 'That was the end of the Pyznce of Montfort's tale ; later, 1 heaid! the following. Katharine, the wife 1 of King William of • Wuttemberg, a- »is*er of the Emperor* Nicholasj. was ill in bed. The door of her room* flew ©pen, as if driven open by a blast of wind. 1 Shut my door Y. said the %ieen. Her companion, who was reading ts> her stood up to obey- When she had »hu>t the door and turned to go ])aok to- Bar, place;, she saw the Wliite liady m her seat Two clays later tha-Queen. was dead (January 9, 1819).' The Vicomte d'Arlingcourt telDs- us further that he visited thesArchdueftess Maria Louse, the widow of Napoleon, ami from her lips heard tftafc the White Lady never fails to appear in ths* miperial' palace of Vienna before the death, of one of the House of Austria. She told him : "My granclniotbe* was the Queen of the Sicilies,, and after the death of my father's first wife (dSlizaheth Wilhslmma, daughter of Duke Frederick Eugene o£ Wiirtomburg, died' Febraary 18th, 1790), be- asked for the hand of her daughter <[Maria Theresa, daughter of Ferdinand I. of Sicily). My grandmother, anxious about her daughter's, welfare, consulted a pious nun, to whom it was. allowed at 'times to see through tha veil of the future. Her answer was as follows : * Your daughter will bo happy ; but after she has passed her thirty - fifth year God will call her to Himself.' This was clear enough. Tho new empress ascended the throne (she was married in 1790 at the age of eighteen) m the expectation of having a short but happy life. She often spoke to hoi young children about it, but never complained that the term was short. Thirty-five years ! Sho had a long time yet. Alas ! time fiies very fast. The nearer the ominous term drew, the more did the empress endeavour to banish the thought of it from her mind. She ceased to speak of it. In the year that preceded her death, a heavy sickness brought her into great peril. 'Be at ease/ said her majesty to those who surrounded her, 'my hour is not yet come. If heaven calls me, it will be next year.' < Her five-and-thirtieth year arrived. One day my sister, the late Empress of Brazil, exclaimed in terror to her mother, ' Behind your elbow chair I see 1 see ' < What, child 1 Speak !' < The White Lady.' 'She has not come for you, my clcur,' answered the empress calmly, 1 but for me. My hour has now como.' * Next day she was dead (August 13th, 1807).'" The story is also told of the Arch- ■ duke Rudolf, Prince Bishop of Olmfitz, who died on July 23rd, 1831, that ! he was dangerously ill in the palace of \ Vienna ; the physicians, however, had not the slightest apprehensions. An official in the night saw the White ] Lady ; he ran towards her, thinking to stay her, and hardly suspecting her to be "a ghost, when he fell as though I struck with sudden terror, and when he was picked up he was unconscious. ! Next morning the Archduke Rudolf was dead. His brother, the Archduke Anthony, who died April 2, 1835, was dangerously ill, and had received the last sacraments. Then he asked, ' Who is that white woman yonder on her knees V He had seen the White Lady. He died immediately after. These are the only cases we know of the White Lady appearing in the Hapsburg family. The appearances in that of "Hohenzollern that has been recoided are more numerous, and ancient as well as recent. She appeared before the death of the Elector John George, in 1598 ; also before that of John Sigismund, in 1619 ; in 167S she was seen, as we have already related, before the fatal accident at Bayreuth to Erdmann Phillip ; I also in Berlin in 1628. when she was | heard to exclaim, ' Come aud judge the living and the dead!" In 1659 she was met in the gallery at Berlin, before the death of Anna Sophia Duchess of Brunswick, sister of G eorge William Elector of Brandenburg; again in 1667, when she foretold the death of Louise Henriette, wife of the Elector Frederick William. Again, she was seen by the court chaplain Brunsenius in 1683, before the decease of the Great Elector. Borne later appearances we have mentioned. Whether she showed the recent death of the Red Prince we have not heard. In 1859 a certain D. Hornung, in Berlin, took on him to communicate with the White Lady by a medium. He published a full account of the reve lations thus obtained, which, of course, are disproved by history. He or his medium asserted that the spirit was that of Agnes of Orlamunde, and not , Kunigund" We know better.