AN AUSTRIAN ROMANCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2002, 1 February 1890, Page 2

AN AUSTRIAN ROMANCE.

Daring his stay of several hours in Bozen the Emperor Francis Joseph

paid a visit to the Archduke Henry, on which occasion the archduke’s consort, Baroness Waideck, and their daughter, Baroness Marie, were intro-

duced to his Majesty. This announceraeat, short as it is, possesses much.

interest for those who are acquainted with the romance of the archduke’s life. In his marriage that Prince had committed such a breach of the

traditional rules and usages of the Hapsburg family that for 21 years he has lived estranged from the head of

the Imperial house. On February 4, 1868, Archduke Henry married Fraulein Leopoldine Hofmann. She

was the daughter of a very humble official employed in the Assessment

office at Krems, in Upper Austria. In all princely families it is a strict and invariable rule that the sanction of the head of the house must be

previously obtained to any proposed matrimonial alliance; but to the

marriage of the Archduke Henry not only was the Emperor’s approval hot obtained, but the prohibition of the

nuptials issued by his Majesty was disobeyed, with the result that the

archduke was for many years expatriated. He forfeited his appoint-

1 raent as general in command of a division of infantry, and bis name was

struck out of the list of honorary

colonels of Austrian regiments. Moreover his appange from the Imperial

Civil list was stopped, and the disgrace he had fallen into was marked in many

other ways.

Archduke Henry felt deeply the loss of his military' rant, and still more his exile, bat otherwise his marriage brought him unalloyed happiness. At length the Emperor’s displeasure began to disappear, and the archduke was allowed to take up his permanent residence in a Tyrolese town. With his wife, who had meanwhile been raised to noble rank under the title of Baroness Waideck, and with the only child of their marriage, a daughter who is now 18 years old, the “ civilian ” Archduke Henry for some time lived the quiet, contented life of a landed proprietor. His chief anxiety now arose from the fact that his estates, which are situated near the River Adige, frequently suffered from inundations, thus often reducing his slender income below the modest requirements of a household in which charity on a liberal scale formed the chief item on the budget. The repatriation of the archducal family was permitted in 1873, and ever since that time the home of Archduke Henry in Bozen has been a centre of intellectual life fer a wide district in the Tyrol. Authors and musicians, actors, journalists, and painters, former military comrades of the archduke, or friends of the baroness, whatever their position in life, have at all times been welcome guests. The archduke has been in the habit of visiting Vienna only once a year privately. He has never set foot in the Hofburg. His last appearance there was on the A melancholy occasion of Crown Prince Rudolph’s funeral. Even then he kept away from the rest of the family, °aly joining them in the mortuary chapel of the Capuchines. The last thing he expected was that the Emperor would ever pay him a visit; but that event having taken place, and his family having been introduced to his Majesty, the doors of the Hofburg are at length open to them. Ere long, therefore, the daughter of the tax office clerk will be received bv the Empress in the palace, and welcomed as a relative, as she has long been by Archduke and Archduchess Rainer, Archduke Henry was the youngest son of the late Archduke Rainer, Viceory of Lombardy. He was born in Milan on May 9, 1828, and is, therefore, 61 years old. When a youth of 20, he committed a yery foolish act, by writing a private letter to a friend, in which he spoke in disrespectful terms of the young Emperor Francis Joseph, who had just ascended the throne. The friend was not discreet; the letter was published in a Turin newspaper, and the archduke* was summoned to Vienna to he censured, as he deserved, by Archduchess bopbie, the young Emperor’s mother, who for a time was the virtual ruler of Austria. 'Jhe punishment of Archduke Henry was to be, that he must enter holy orders and abandon the military career to which he was devotedly attached. Eventually, however, the archduke was allowed to £ r , atollls regiment. In course of time he was promoted to the rank of general and was stationed at Graz. of Fraulem Hofmann, a singer at the heatre, with the monthly salary of 50 florins, bhe was by no means a great singer. Her best role was that of Pamela in Era Diavolo”; but she Was pretty, quick-witted, the very iS*n° f \ V u? DneSe girl > and a bove all reproachable m her conduct and maimers. the acquaintance, which one Ver h C ad a3e a ? to l be f m ° St honora ble one, had already lasted some time welU^tt 116 S? “ the « had to fu SO J an d the archduke , . to be the field in Italy Before ST* \ e f ave bis word of honor to her if l. 10 T 4 that he wou W marry £ LtH '‘lSbSnKoccasioned also offers iSiJ ed * and money to the 2 " hr « e Ba ™ of J girl trom persons whose

ntmn it was to make themselves greeable to the Court. She was to s persuaded either to marry someone else or to leave Europe and to hide her .from her lover; but she did neither, and went to reside with her sis er in Hutteldorf, near Vienna, where the archduke, on his return worn Italy, found her. Shortly afterwards they were legally married in ,P arish church at Bozen.— standard.