Secrets of Dethroned Royalty

Photograph, International, N. Y.

E

X

-E

MPEROR

K

ARL OF

A

USTRIA, AND

F

AMILY, IN

E

XILE

SECRETS

OF

DETHRONED ROYALTY

PRINCESS CATHERINE RADZIWILL

(COUNT PAUL VASSILI)

FOREWORD

The talented American woman writer, Rheta Childe Dorr, in her amusing book on Russia, relates a conversation which took place between her and the intimate friend of the unfortunate Czarina Alexandra, Anna Wyrubowa. The former asked what a Court was like, and the question drew forth the characteristic reply that the only word to describe it was rotten. The expression was certainly not elegant and the person who uttered it was perhaps the last one who ought to have done so, considering that she, more than anyone else, was responsible for the corruption of the one Court at which she had been received, and which she had ruled, in fact if not in name, for many years. But the expression was, in a certain sense, justified, because there is no doubt that the haunts and abodes of royalty in Europe were the centres of so many intrigues that the only wonder is they existed as long as they did. Royalty, in the three great countries where it is now abolished, certainly did not set any good example to the world. All, or nearly all, the scions of these royal houses, brought up as they were in the conviction that, thanks to their high position, everything was allowable for them, so abused their privileges that when the wave of revolution which overturned the Romanoffs, Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns swept over Europe, hardly one soul could be found to defend them, or even to take their part and try to shield them from the indignation of the mobs clamouring for their downfall. Most of these princes and princesses had had a story, and in the majority of cases it was not one calculated to do them honour or to raise them in the opinion of their contemporaries.

Royal love affairs and, if the truth be told, royal financial affairs could fill a volume of greater bulk than I intend to write; but I think it may amuse the public to read certain little stories connected with Russian, Austrian and German royal personages and Court life, which up to now have been known only to a small and select number of people. They may open the eyes of those who have heard nothing about the conditions under which these exalted personages spent their lives, and do away with the halo which surrounded them—no one knows why. They may also serve to ameliorate the pangs of future American travellers through Europe at missing the opportunity of being presented to the rulers of these different countries. All these kings and queens, emperors and empresses, whose favours were sought with such eagerness, and whose smiles made so many human creatures happy, have had their day—and a very good day it was for them while it lasted. Now the story is at an end and the curtain has fallen on the comedies and tragedies which gave rise to so much gossip and caused so many heartburnings in the select society circles of two continents. Let me give you a peep behind the scenes before the drama has quite faded from my memory and recall for you certain anecdotes and events—both amusing and serious—which appeared so supremely important to all who were connected, either directly or indirectly, with them. This may procure for my readers a few pleasant hours, and more than that I do not aspire or pretend to do in this present volume.

CONTENTS

PART I

RUSSIA

   I. T

HE

R

USSIAN

I

MPERIAL

F

AMILY IN

O

LDEN

T

IMES

  II. R

ELATIVES OF

N

ICHOLAS

II

 III. T

HE

V

LADIMIR

F

AMILY

 IV. T

HE

Y

OUTHFUL

A

DVENTURES OF

S

OME

G

RAND

D

UKES

  V. S

OME

R

USSIAN

M

ORGANATIC

M

ARRIAGES

 VI. T

HE

E

MPRESS

A

LEXANDRA AND

H

ER

S

ISTER

VII. L

OVE

A

FFAIRS OF THE

G

RAND

D

UKE

M

ICHAEL

PART II

AUSTRIA

   I. T

HE

L

OVE

A

FFAIRS OF

F

RANCIS

J

OSEPH

  II. T

HE

I

DIOSYNCRASIES OF THE

H

APSBURGS

 III. I

MPERIAL

M

ORGANATIC

M

ARRIAGES

 IV. T

HE

C

ROWN

P

RINCESS

S

TEPHANIE AND

H

ER

D

AUGHTER

  V. T

HE

S

TORY OF THE

A

RCHDUCHESS

E

LIZABETH

 VI. T

HE

S

TORY OF THE

P

RINCESS

Z

ITA

VII. T

WO

R

OYAL

M

ADWOMEN

PART III

GERMANY

   I. A

N

O

LD

F

AMILY

S

CANDAL OF THE

H

OHENZOLLERNS

  II. T

HE

B

ERLIN

C

OURT

U

NDER

W

ILLIAM

I

 III. A S

ISTER-IN-LAW OF THE

K

AISER

 IV. T

HE

G

RAND

D

UCAL

F

AMILY OF

W

EIMAR

  V. T

HE

S

TORY OF

T

WO

L

ITTLE

M

ECKLENBERG

P

RINCESSES

 VI. T

HE

K

AISER’S

R

OMANCE

VII. T

HE

P

RINCESS

C

HARLOTTE OF

M

EININGEN AND

H

ER ADVENTURES

ILLUSTRATIONS

PART I—RUSSIA

Ex-EMPEROR KARL OF AUSTRIA, AND FAMILY, IN EXILE

EMPEROR NICHOLAS I AND EMPEROR ALEXANDER II

GRAND DUKE CONSTANTINE NICOLAIEWITCH AND GRAND DUKE MICHAEL NICOLAIEWITCH

EMPEROR ALEXANDER III AND EMPRESS MARIE FEODOROWNA

THE LATE CZAR NICHOLAS II OF Russia

GRAND DUKE VLADIMIR ALEXANDROWITCH

GRAND DUKE DIMITRI PAVLOWITCH, THE SON OF GRAND DUKE PAUL, UNCLE OF THE LATE CZAR OF RUSSIA

THE LATE CZARINA ALEXANDRIA OF RUSSIA

GRAND DUKE SERGIUS AND HIS WIFE, GRAND DUCHESS Elizabeth

GRAND DUKE MICHAEL

GRAND DUCHESS OLGA OF RUSSIA, SISTER OF THE FORMER CZAR

PART II—AUSTRIA

FRANCIS JOSEPH

ARCHDUKE FRANCIS FERDINAND AND HIS WIFE, THE COUNTESS SOPHY CHOTEK

ARCHDUKE FREDERICK

PRINCESS STEPHANIE OF BELGIUM

Ex-EMPEROR CHARLES FRANCIS JOSEPH AND Ex-EMPRESS ZITA OF AUSTRIA

PART III—GERMANY

EMPEROR WILLIAM I OF GERMANY, SIGNING AN OFFICIAL DOCUMENT ON HIS DEATHBED

GRAND DUCHESS THEODORA OF SAXE-WEIMAR, WIFE OF GERMANY’S WEALTHIEST REIGNING PRINCE

THE KAISERIN IN 1881 AND THE KAISER IN 1883

EMPRESS FREDERICK WITH HER DAUGHTER, PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF MEININGEN

PART I

RUSSIA

I

THE RUSSIAN IMPERIAL FAMILY IN OLDEN TIMES

The Court of Russia has always been famous for its immorality. Yet this reputation was only justified in so far as it concerned the Imperial family and the small number of people closely connected with it. Russian society itself was very moral in its views, manners and customs. The levity which existed in the fashionable circles of other countries was unknown in that of St. Petersburg, where an unspoken but very real indignation existed at the sayings and doings of those who occupied high places. At the same time it must be confessed that, as a general rule, the Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses of Russia were anything but moderate in their tastes and fancies, though they never exhibited their peculiarities in public and abroad in olden times with the same unconcern as during the reign of Nicholas II when anarchy showed itself in the bosom of his family long before it grasped the rest of his subjects. In former days the Czar was feared by his kindred more, perhaps, than by anyone else: no member of the Romanoff family would have dared to remain any length of time abroad without the express permission of the head of his house, and it behooved him to give the busy-bodies of St. Petersburg no opportunities of criticising his conduct, in so far as his public sayings and doings were concerned. His private life, no matter how irregular it may have been, was kept secret, and he would no more have tried to do what the younger generation of his race openly did during the last five and twenty years or so which preceded the Russian Revolution, than he would have attempted to fly. Sovereigns and Grand Dukes had their love affairs, but did not make them public property, and it was only during the reign of Alexander II that any scandal arose to shatter the Imperial prestige both at home and abroad.

His father, Nicholas I, had had a lady friend in the person of a maid-of-honour of his wife, the Empress Alexandra Feodorowna, but this friendship had been conducted in an extremely quiet and subdued manner, and though everyone in the capital knew about it, no one could have accused Mademoiselle Nelidoff (this was the lady’s name) of putting herself forward in any way. She did not go out into society, and no one, with the exception of a small circle of intimate friends, ever saw her except on official occasions when etiquette required of her to be in attendance on the Empress. The latter had a warm sympathy for this rival who, on her side, showed herself invariably submissive and respectful towards her Imperial mistress. The Emperor used to visit her in the apartments she occupied in the Winter Palace every afternoon when he was in town, and invariably consulted her on all important matters, and she often gave him very sound advice. She was a remarkably clever woman, extremely well read and well educated. But she had none of the ambitions of a Madame de Pompadour or de Maintenon, and after the death of the Emperor she withdrew into private life. Her death took place some forty odd years after that of Nicholas. She had really loved him, and he had truly loved her, but this had not prevented him from showing himself always an affectionate husband, and treating his wife with the utmost respect and the tenderest of care. The immorality of the situation was quite overlooked because of the dignified manner in which the affair was conducted.

E

MPEROR

N

ICHOLAS

I.

E

MPEROR

A

LEXANDER

II.

Alexander II was a very different man from his father. He had no delicacy of feeling, and he made no secret of the numerous liaisons and intrigues in which his life was spent. He married for love a Hessian princess who was considered un-marriageable on account of certain irregularities connected with her birth, which had been such a surprise to her father that he never wished to see her and had had her brought up away from him, in a solitary castle in Thuringia, where the then Czarewitsch had accidentally met her. He forthwith fell in love with her and insisted upon making her his wife, thus transforming her into so important a personage that the Grand Duke of Hesse was compelled to seek, in his turn, her favour and good graces. She was a very pretty woman, with lovely expressive eyes; and she was possessed of extreme dignity, which carried her through many an unpleasant and sad time, when her husband, having wearied of her, openly exhibited his admiration of other women. Alexander II was a great flirt, and might easily have rivalled Louis XIV by the multiplicity of his love affairs. When quite a young man he had entertained a real and sincere affection for one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, Mademoiselle Sophie Dachkoff, but had found himself confronted by high principles and a stout determination on her part to have nothing to do with him. The Grand Duke, as he was at the time, had tried his best to induce her to respond to his feelings in regard to her, but all his efforts had been in vain, and he had been forced to turn his attentions towards another quarter.

A Polish lady, Mademoiselle Kalinowska, endowed with remarkable beauty and all the propensity for intrigue which is one of the characteristics of the nation to which she belonged, was the next person to attract Alexander II. There he did not meet with the resistance which he had encountered in the case of Mademoiselle Dachkoff, but found his feelings fully reciprocated. The girl (she was nothing else at the time) was ultimately married, thanks to his help, to a Polish magnate, Prince Oginski, and endowed beyond the dreams of avarice by her Imperial admirer. She lived to a very old age, and became quite an important personage in St. Petersburg society, leaving, when she died, a fortune valued at several millions of roubles to the two sons she had borne to Prince Oginski. Her career had been an entirely successful one.

After Mademoiselle Kalinowska’s marriage the Emperor found himself again free to dispose of his affections, but for a long time the Imperial handkerchief was not thrown to anyone but remained in the pocket of its owner. Then one day St. Petersburg began to talk about its Sovereign, and when St. Petersburg talked it was as in the times of the Borgias when people used to say that the Pope had sent out invitations to supper.

The next romance of Alexander II was not quite what might have been expected even of so amorous a gentleman as he had always shown himself to be. It had this peculiarity: the heroine of it, Princess Mary Dolgorouky, was quite a young girl, almost a child, who, having been left at her father’s death to the care of the Emperor, had been placed by him, with her sister Catherine, in the Institute of Smolna, where the daughters of poor scions of the nobility were educated. Alexander was accustomed to visit this Institute, knew all the pupils, and often petted and caressed those who specially appealed to him. The little Mary, even as a mere baby, was his particular favourite; she continued to be so when