ROMANCE OF KAISER'S SON.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 43, 11 July 1914, Page 7

ROMANCE OF KAISER'S SON.

TO WEI) A MAID OF HONOR. A MORGANATIC ALLIANCE. London, May -V.l. The announcement in Berlin of the engagement of Prince Oscar, the Kaiser's fifth son, to Countess Ina Marie von Basscwitz, caused very great surprise! owing to Uie Kaigivr's well-known gbjcvt'OTlK to morganatic marriages ami tl'.e .strict family code of the 110-henzollorn* in this respect. Prince Oscar, who is a captain in the Potsdam Foot Guards, will he 20 Years of age in .Inly. His fiancee is six months older. Their marriage will be what Is known in Herman nobility as a lefthanded union, or a mesalliance. The. prince's determination to marry the girl of his choice has a romantic histoiy, He first became acquainted with tlio countess while she was among tlie Kaiserin's ladies-in-waiting. The Emperor noticed the affection between the couple, and shortly afterwards the coum tess withdrew from the Imperial entourage to return to her parents' home, Castle Bristov, in Mecklenburg. The comradeship contiued, and the prince left his parents in no doubt as to liis intention to overcome all "o!d----fogeyish'' dynastic objections, and led the countess to the altar, lie found an ardent supporter for his cause, in his mother, and it was she who finally induced the Emperor to give his consent. Xo marriage of a Prussian Prince is valid without the approval of the Emperor as head of the family, and every prince on attaining his majority, has to agree- in writing to respect this provision in the Holienzollcrn family's ''house laws." 'The countess will bring Iter ii -i -.- band a rich dowry. The Kaiser has repeatedly shown hi* dislike of unequal marriages in cases of other reigning German families. The reception of the wife of the Austrian heir-apparent,'the Archduke Fran/. Ferdinand, was the first breach in the Prussian rule of precedence applying to morganatic wives. Holienzollcrn history itself is. however, not free from similar marriages. Thus Frederic William 111. married the Conntess Ilsrrach after the death of Queen Luise, but the countess subsequently had great difficulty in establishing her position at Court. The first Hohenzollern naval prince, Adalbert, married an Austrian actress, Mile. Thcrese, Elsler, in ISSO. Another instance is the morganatic marriage in 1873 of the present Duke of Saciiseii Meinengen. As now customary, the conntess, who cannot take the title of Princess Oscar of Prussia, will doubtless be granted ] some special title, probably the rank I of duchess, by the Kaiser. The countess has four brothers, one of whom is a lieutenant in a cuirassier regiment. The prospective marriage of Prince Oscar leaves only two other children of the Kaiser —Prince Adalbert, an elder, and Prince Joachim, a younger brother—unmarried. A morgana-tic manage, of course, does not involve the loss of any rights in the case of a prince, but his consort is debarred from sharing either his title or his rights of succession.