"_Ah, Monsieur, c"est que je ne me suis peinte qu"en buste!_" replied her ladyship.]
[Footnote 3: The Prince of Wales" revenue is derived from the Duchy of Cornwall, amounting to about half a million dollars per year.]
KITH AND KIN OF THE EX-CROWN PRINCESS OF SAXONY
_Louise"s Own Family_
The royal woman whose life"s history is recorded in this volume was born Louise Antoinette, Daughter of the late Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany (died January 17, 1908) and the Dowager Grand d.u.c.h.ess Alice, _nee_ Princess Bourbon of Parma.
Louise has four brothers, among them the present head of the Tuscany family, Joseph Ferdinand, who dropped the obsolete t.i.tle of Grand Duke and is officially known as Archduke of Austria-Hungary.
He is a brigadier general, commanding the Fifth Austrian Infantry, and unmarried.
Better known is Louise"s older brother, the former Archduke Leopold, who dropped his t.i.tle and dignities, and, as a Swiss citizen, adopted the name of Leopold Wulfling. This Leopold is generally regarded as a black sheep.
Louise more often refers to him in the present volume than to any other member of her family.
He is now a commoner by his own, more or less enforced, abdication, as Louise is a commoner by decree of her chief-of-family, the Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph, dated Vienna, January 27, 1903.
A month before above date the Saxon court had conferred on Louise the t.i.tle of Countess Montiguoso, while, on her own part, she adopted the fanciful cognomen of Louise of Tuscany.
Of Louise"s two remaining brothers, one, Archduke Peter, serves in the Austrian army as Colonel of the Thirty-second Infantry, while Archduke Henry is Master of Horse in the Sixth Bavarian Dragoons.
Only one of Louise"s four sisters is married, the oldest, Anna, now Princess Johannes of Hohenlohe-Bartenstein.
The unmarried sisters are Archd.u.c.h.esses Margareta (31 years old), Germana (28 years old), Agnes (22 years old).
_Mother Comes of Mentally Tainted Stock_
Louise"s mother, _nee_ Princess Alice of Parma, is the only surviving sister of the late Duke Robert, who left twenty children, all living, and of whom eighteen or nineteen are either imbeciles or raving lunatics, the present head of the house, Duke Henry, belonging to the first category of mentally unsound.
Louise"s first cousin, Prince Elias of Parma, the seventh son, is accounted sound, but Elias"s sister, Zita (the twelfth child), developed maniacal tendencies since her marriage to Archduke Karl Francis Joseph, heir-presumptive to the crown of Austria-Hungary.
_Francis Joseph"s Autocratic Rule_
_Louise Formerly in Line of Austrian Succession_
Louise was in the line of the Austrian succession until, upon her marriage to the Crown Prince of Saxony (1891), she officially renounced her birthrights.
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary is Louise"s grand-uncle as well as chief of the imperial family of Austria, the royal family of Hungary, the Grand-ducal family of Tuscany (now extinct as far as the t.i.tle goes), and of the Estes, which is the Ducal Line of Modena, extinct in the male line. Finally he is recognized as chief by the ducal family of Parma, descendants of the Spanish Hapsburgs.
Emperor Francis Joseph rules all the Hapsburgers, Austrian, Hungarian, and those of Tuscany, of Este, of Modena and Parma, autocratically, his word being law in the family. Even t.i.tles conferred by birth can be taken away by him, as exemplified in the case of Louise and her brother Leopold.
_Royal Saxons_
As a member of the Austrian imperial family, the Hapsburgers, founded in 883, Louise ranked higher than her husband, the Crown Prince of the petty Kingdom of Saxony, whose claim to the royal t.i.tle dates from 1806,--a gift of the Emperor Napoleon.
She married Frederick Augustus November 21, 1891, while the latter"s uncle reigned as King Albert of Saxony (1873 to 1902).
Louise"s father-in-law, up to then known as Prince George, succeeded his brother June 19, 1902. He was then a widower and his family consisted of:
Princess Mathilde, unmarried,
The Crown Prince Frederick Augustus, husband of Louise,
Princess Marie-Josepha, wife of Archduke Otho of Austria,
Prince Johann George, at that time married to Isabelle of Wurttemberg, and
Prince Max. The latter subsequently shelved his t.i.tle and entered the Church July 26, 1896. He is a professor of canonical law and slated for a German bishopric.
At the time of Prince George"s ascension, there was also living the late King Albert"s widow, Queen Caroline, _nee_ Princess of Wasa, since dead.
The Marchesa Rapallo, _nee_ Princess Elizabeth of Saxony, is a sister of the late King George.
_Louise and Her Father-in-Law_
During King George"s short reign, Louise ran away from the Saxon court, end of November, 1902.
On February 11, 1903, divorce was p.r.o.nounced against her by a special court a.s.sembled by King George.
Louise was adjudged the guilty party and deprived of the name and style of Crown Princess of Saxony. As previously (January 27) the Austrian Emperor had forbidden her to use the name and t.i.tle of Austrian Archd.u.c.h.ess and Imperial and royal Princess, Louise would have been nameless but for the rank and t.i.tle of Countess Montiguoso, conferred upon her by King George.
_Louise"s Alimony Conditional_
At the same time Louise accepted from the court of Saxony a considerable monthly allowance on condition that "she undertake nothing liable to compromise the reigning family, either by criticism or story, either by word, deed or in writing."