ROYAL ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVIII, Issue 81914, 8 January 1907, Page 4

ROYAL ROMANCE.

Another royal romance lias canned quite a flutter in the highest circles of German society- (says the Berlin correspondent of the Londuii (Stand-

ard). Tin- hero is the Hereditary Prince Ebcnvyn of Bentheim-Stein-fiivt, and the heroine. Fraiilicn Fanny Koch, the daughter of the Mayor of a, German provincial (own. Iler father, llerr Koch, before attaining to Hie eminence of the Mayoralty, was a

adcsnian who kept a general ntorc

The family of the tientheiiu-Hteiu furt is one of those mediatised royal dynasties whose members possess, for ail time, abolnte equality of birth with members of the reigning royal houses. The members of ;he princely house of Bcnthoim-Slciimirt. are governed by so called house laws, which, among other things, prohibit them marrying persons beneath them in rank. Those princes or princesses of the lientheim dynasty who transgress this family statute forfeit all their royal privileges and lese their royal rank.

The Hereditary Prince Ebcnvyn has

expressed his determination to make this great sacrifice in order to marry a girl of humble birth whom he loves. Fraulien Koch, as soon as she became engaged, informed her father of the Prince's determination to marry her. The Prince's father and all his relatives and friends did their utmost to persuade him from this step, but their entreaties, their warnings, and their arguments alike failed to shake his resolution.

Finally, Prince Alexis informed his son that he must renounce his birthright before marrying a tradesman's daughter. Prince Ebcnvyn thereupon formally renounced his birthright in the presence of a general family council, and took a solemn oath never to dispute the right of his younger brother, Prince Victor Adolphus, to take bis place as Hereditary Prince, and ultimately as head of the family. Simultaneously Prince Ebcnvyn was compelled to leave the army. Prince Ebcnvyn has been hitherto the oilieer of a crack regiment of cavalry. Apart from the loss of his birth-right and military rank, he sacrifices the right of succession to property comprising many thousands of acres, and an. annual income estimated at a quarter of a million sterling. The wedding takes place next week. The Prince is 24 years of age, and Fraulien Koch, for whom he is sacrificing so much is a year older.