THE AFFLICTIONS OF EUROPEAN ROYAL FAMILIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2575, 12 January 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AFFLICTIONS OF EUROPEAN ROYAL FAMILIES.

Most of the reigning families of Europe have some hereditary ailments or defect. Forseveral generations past the Romanoffs have been sorely troubled by their livers. The Hapsburgs are afflicted with an inconvenient complaint, the name of which can scarcely be mentioned to ears polite. The Guelphs have hitherto made flesh too rapidly, though, judging by Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales, they purpose, in this respect, furnishing us with a new departure. The worst atlliction that reigning families have to contend against is insanity, the germs of which are widespread among the rulers of the civilised quarter of the globe. To quote but a fetv examples, such germs exist among the Romanoffs aforementioned, as proved by the excess of Paul 1., the hysteria of the "great" Catherine, and the hyphochondria of Alexandra 11. These germs exist among the Hapsburgs, who have married so repeatedly with Princesses of the Bavarian Royal family ; and the insanity of the latter has been strikingly exemplified by the tragic fate of the late, and the imbecile condition of the present, king of Bavaria. Nor are the Hoheuzollerns free from these fatal germs. The latent insanity observed in Frederick William 11. became open madness in Frederick William IV., the King Cliquot of anecdote and pasquinade ; and, may be, the near future has in store for us some fresh manifestation of mental derangement on the pprt of a descendant of the Great Elector. That insanity unhappily exists in the Dutch royal house has been exemplified by the last two Princes of Orange ; and, as regards our own reigning family, one need merely remember the historical example of the last two Georges—the Fourth being well nigh as mad as the Third was, though his insanity took a different turn. More recent examples bearing on the same point might be found in tiie late Duke of Brunswick, who led such a fantastic life, and in the Duchess of Cumberland, a tiuelph by marriage only, it is true, but the sister, be it remembered, of our Princess of Wales Madness and imbecility have conspicuously appeared among the Bourbons, and in t'>is instance have been mainly due to the intermarrying of that family during several generations. The Spanish, Italian and French descendants of Henry IV. constantly contracted matrimonial alliances with one another, and the results which might have been anticipated ensued. For many years, by the way, the Rothschild family jfollowed a like course, but of recent times they seem to have awakened to a sense of the I evils attending it. No wonder, then, that all scientists should condemn the marriage of the Duke of Aosta with Princess Letitia Bonaparte, such close consanguinity existing between them. The alliance is the more to be wondered at as it is contracted with the avowed object of providing an heir to the Italiau throne in the event of the demise of King Humbert's son and presumptive suceessor, who is of delicate health. King Humbert married his first cousin, and that even was too close an alliance to be advisable. The germs of insanity do not appear to havo crept as yet into the royal house of Savoy, but the latter, like other reigning families, has its hereditary affliction, ar.d a terrible one it is. From time to time a hunchback son or daughter is born to the Italian princes. In the sixteenth century there was a hunchbacked Duke of Savoy, of whom Brantome tells divers lively anecdotes ; the princess this duke married was a huuchback also, and their descendants have oftime been similarly deformed. By the bye, a natural son of the duke referred to, born crooked like Ivs father, is said to have boldly taken the name of Boesu (hunchback), and the same hereditary peculiarity was long observed among the Bossns, who, till our times, were one of the notable families of Savoy. As regards the Italian royal house, a late instance of the kind was the deceased Duke of Genoa (father of the beauty, Margherita,) who, however much he may have endeavoured to conceal his physical defects, was as true a hunchback as capricious nature ever moulded. This hereditary deformity manifests itself intermittently. One or two generations of well proportioned children were born into the world, and then, lo ! some poor hunchbacked little creature appears. Thus it will be understood the birth of a prince or princess of the royal house of Savoy is always a matter of great anxiety among the members of the family. — Health.