A ROYAL BETROTHAL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 80, 25 August 1914, Page 7

A ROYAL BETROTHAL.

TWO ROMANTIC ALLIANCES RECALLED. The report from London, although yot unconfirmed, that Prince Alexander of Battcnberg is to marry Countess Zia Torby, recalls the romantic loves of their parents, Grand Duko Michael JLie'i.ticlov.iitch and the Coimte.-s Torby and Priuoe Henry of Pattenkurg and Princess Beatrice of England. The son of one Emperor and uncle of another were sent into exile and a petty German princeling married the daughter of Europe's most, powerful sovereign. Curiously enough, s. morganatic marriage, which was the cause of the' Grand Duke Michael's loss of favor, was the. foundation of the rise of the. And still more interesting, tte marriage of Prince Alexander and 'tlhe Countess Zia, if it takes place, will nuike the i:;suc of the Grand Duke's morganatic marriage the sister-in-law of the Queen of Spain. For the past twenty years the accounts of the fashionable folk at the various winter and summer resorts on the Continent, in London during the season, and in the Shires at hunting time .have included the names of the Gland Duke Michael of Russia and the l.'ountess Torby. No function was complete without the presence of the. tail, slender, silent, black-bearded man, and the radiant, beautiful, iblonde woman, for love of -.vhom he becamie an expatriate. Their villa at Nice was the centre of that semi-royal life that is found along the Riviera' in January and February. Hamburg saw them when the late King Edward paid his annual visits. Trouville and Deauville welcomed them after they had finished the Paris reason with tile Grande Senia.ino. In the London season they were to he seen at the opera, and attended ail the smart balls and dinners. At the;-, country house the week end parries were the gayest and most fashionable. But tlie.y never went to Russia. The punishment meted out to the Grand Duke Michael by the Czar for defying the head of the Romanoll's and [Harrying the beautiful woman he loved viio did not happen to be of royal birth was expatriation. In life case love brought exile. But wit'hi the father of young Prince Alexander of Baltcnberg love was more kind. Prince Henry was of a far more retiring nature than liis .brother. Prince Louis, the popular sailor, and inclined to studious pursuit*. Princess l!< 'ir. 'ce youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, and iier constant companion, fell in love with the blonde young Genua British public, did not r J 'l l -i tie ' L '''" liance, and there were in civ ; tliic audacity of a German , ..needing aspiring to the hand of a young lOugli.-h royai princess. Even the Government of that day did not regard the marriage favorably, but Queen Victoria had her way and overcaniie all opposition to make her daughter happy. The Princes of Ba 1 teniicrg also owed their title to a morganatic marriage. Thv original counts c! llattenlKrg were a German family, whose scat was the CatJlle of Kellorbcrg, near the town of Battcnberg, in the now Prussian province of Hchse-Nassau. The title, Count of Battcnberg, became extinct in KIM. Alexander, a younger son of Louis il, Grand Duke of Hcskc, fell madly in love with a Polish beauty, the Co-untcsfc J-ilia Theresa von llanke, whom he married morganatically in ISfil. The bride was created Countess of Battcnburg by the Grand Duke, who in 1838 raised tier rank to that of Princess, and gave to her and her children the rij?ht to style themselves Princes and Princesses of liattenberg, with the prefix ot Sersns II ignetis. Prince Henry Maurice, their third son, left three pons, the eldest of wlilom is Prince Alexander. His one daughter, Victcria«Eugenie, named for her gruulmothcr and the Empress Eugenie, is now the Queen of Spain.