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30 chapters
TO MY COUSIN, LENORE
TO MY COUSIN, LENORE
I. A COMEDY QUEEN II. THE "BONNIE PRINCE'S" BRIDE III. THE PEASANT AND THE EMPRESS IV. A CROWN THAT FAILED V. A QUEEN OF HEARTS VI. THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER VII. A PRINCESS OF MYSTERY VIII. THE KING AND THE "LITTLE DOVE" IX. THE ROMANCE OF THE BEAUTIFUL SWEDE X. THE SISTER OF AN EMPEROR XI. A SIREN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY XII. THE CORSICAN AND THE CREOLE XIII. THE ENSLAVER OF A KING XIV. AN EMPRESS AND HER FAVOURITES XV. A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CINDERELLA XVI. BIANCA, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY XVII.
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CHAPTER I A COMEDY QUEEN
CHAPTER I A COMEDY QUEEN
"It was to a noise like thunder, and close clasped in a soldier's embrace, that Catherine I. made her first appearance in Russian history." History, indeed, contains few chapters more strange, more seemingly impossible, than this which tells the story of the maid-of-all-work—the red-armed, illiterate peasant-girl who, without any dower of beauty or charm, won the idolatry of an Emperor and succeeded him on the greatest throne of Europe. So obscure was Catherine's origin that no records reveal ei
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CHAPTER II THE "BONNIE PRINCE'S" BRIDE
CHAPTER II THE "BONNIE PRINCE'S" BRIDE
In the pageant of our history there are few more attractive figures than that of "Bonnie Prince Charlie," the "yellow-haired laddie" whose blue eyes made a slave of every woman who came under their magic, and whose genial, unaffected manners turned the veriest coward into a hero, ready to follow him to the death in that year of ill-fated romance, "the forty-five." The very name of the "Bonnie Prince," the hope of the fallen Stuarts, the idol of Scotland—leading a forlorn hope with laughter on hi
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CHAPTER III THE PEASANT AND THE EMPRESS
CHAPTER III THE PEASANT AND THE EMPRESS
Many an autocrat of Russia has shown a truly sovereign contempt for convention in the choice of his or her favourites, the "playthings of an hour"; and at least three of them have carried this contempt to the altar itself. Peter, the first, as we have seen, offered a crown to Martha Skovronski, a Livonian scullery-maid, who succeeded him on the throne; the second Catherine gave her hand as well as her heart to Patiomkin, the gigantic, ill-favoured ex-sergeant of cavalry; and Elizabeth, daughter
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CHAPTER IV A CROWN THAT FAILED
CHAPTER IV A CROWN THAT FAILED
Henri of Navarre, hero of romance and probably the greatest King who ever sat on the throne of France, had a heart as weak in love as it was stout in war. To his last day he was a veritable coward before the battery of bright eyes; and before Ravaillac's dagger brought his career to a tragic end one May day in the year 1610 he had counted his mistresses to as many as the years he had lived. But of them all, fifty-seven of them—for the most part lightly coming and lightly going—only one ever real
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CHAPTER V A QUEEN OF HEARTS
CHAPTER V A QUEEN OF HEARTS
If ever woman was born for love and for empire over the hearts of men it was surely Jeanne Bécu, who first opened her eyes one August day in the year 1743, at dreary Vaucouleurs, in Joan of Arc's country, and who was fated to dance her light-hearted way through the palace of a King to the guillotine. Scarcely ever has woman, born to such beauty and witchery, been cradled less auspiciously. Her reputed father was a scullion, her mother a sempstress. For grandfather she had Fabien Bécu, who left h
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CHAPTER VI THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER
CHAPTER VI THE REGENT'S DAUGHTER
Many unwomanly women have played their parts in the drama of Royal Courts, but scarcely one, not even those Messalinas, Catherine II. of Russia and Christina of Sweden, conducted herself with such a shameless disregard of conventionality as Marie Louise Elizabeth d'Orléans, known to fame as the Duchesse de Berry, who probably crowded within the brief space of her years more wickedness than any woman who was ever cradled in a palace. It is said that this libertine Duchesse was mad; and certainly
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CHAPTER VII A PRINCESS OF MYSTERY
CHAPTER VII A PRINCESS OF MYSTERY
In the spring of the year 1772 the fashionable world of Paris was full of speculation and gossip about a stranger, as mysterious as she was beautiful, who had appeared from no one knew where, in its midst, and who called herself the Princess Aly Émettée de Vlodimir. That she was a woman of rank and distinction admitted of no question. Her queenly carriage and the graciousness and dignity of her deportment were in keeping with the Royal character she assumed; but more remarkable than these eviden
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CHAPTER VIII THE KING AND THE "LITTLE DOVE"
CHAPTER VIII THE KING AND THE "LITTLE DOVE"
A savage murmur ran through the market-place of Bergen, one summer morning in the year 1507, as Chancellor Valkendorf made his pompous way along the avenues of stalls laden with their country produce, his passage followed by scowling eyes and low-spoken maledictions. There could not have been a more unwelcome visitor than this cold-eyed, supercilious Chancellor, unless it were his master, Christian, the Danish Prince who had come to rule Norway with the iron hand, and to stamp out the fires of r
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CHAPTER IX THE ROMANCE OF THE BEAUTIFUL SWEDE
CHAPTER IX THE ROMANCE OF THE BEAUTIFUL SWEDE
Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, owes his place in the world's memory to his brawny muscles and to his conquest of women. Like the third Alexander of Russia of later years, he could, with his powerful arms, convert a thick iron bar into a necklace, crush a pewter tankard by the pressure of a mighty hand, toss a heavy anvil into the air and catch it as another man would catch a ball, or with a wrench straighten out the stoutest horse-shoe ever forged. And his strength of
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CHAPTER X THE SISTER OF AN EMPEROR
CHAPTER X THE SISTER OF AN EMPEROR
When Napoleon Bonaparte, the shabby, sallow-faced, out-of-work captain of artillery, was kicking his heels in morose idleness at Marseilles, and whiling away the dull hours in making love to Desirée Clary, the pretty daughter of the silk-merchant in the Rue des Phocéens, his sisters were living with their mother, the Signora Letizia, in a sordid fourth-floor apartment in a slum near the Cannebiere, and running wild in the Marseilles streets. Strange tales are told of those early years of the sis
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CHAPTER XI A SIREN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER XI A SIREN OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
When Wilhelmine Encke first opened her eyes on the world one day in the year 1754, he would have been a bold prophet who would have predicted that she would one day be the uncrowned Queen of the Court of Russia, plus Reine que la Reine , and that her children would have in their veins the proudest blood in Europe. Such a prophecy might well have been laughed to scorn, for little Wilhelmine had as obscure a cradle as almost any infant in all Prussia. Her father was an army bugler, who wore privat
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CHAPTER XII THE CORSICAN AND THE CREOLE
CHAPTER XII THE CORSICAN AND THE CREOLE
Of the many women who succeeded one another with such bewildering rapidity in the favour of the first Napoleon, from Desirée Clary, daughter of the Marseilles silk-merchant, the "little wife" of his days of obscurity, to Madame Walewska, the beautiful Pole, who so fruitlessly bartered her charms for her country's salvation, only one really captured his fickle heart—Josephine de Beauharnais, the woman whom he raised to the splendour of an Imperial crown, only to fling her aside when she no longer
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CHAPTER XIII THE ENSLAVER OF A KING
CHAPTER XIII THE ENSLAVER OF A KING
More than fifty years have gone since the penitent soul of Lola Montez took flight to its Creator; but there must be some still living whose pulses quicken at the very mention of a name which recalls so much mystery and romance and bewildering fascination of the days when, for them, as for her, "all the world was young." Who was she, this woman whose beauty dazzled the eyes and whose witchery turned the heads of men in the forties and fifties of last century? A dozen countries, from Spain to Ind
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CHAPTER XIV AN EMPRESS AND HER FAVOURITES
CHAPTER XIV AN EMPRESS AND HER FAVOURITES
When Sophie Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst was romping on the ramparts or in the streets of Stettin with burghers' children for playmates, he would have been a bold prophet who would have predicted that one day she would be the most splendid figure among Europe's sovereigns, "the only great man in Europe," according to Voltaire, "an angel before whom all men should be silent"; and that, while dazzling Europe by her statesmanship and learning, she would afford more material for scandal than a
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CHAPTER XV A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CINDERELLA
CHAPTER XV A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CINDERELLA
It was to all seeming a strange whim that caused Cardinal Mazarin, one day in the year 1653, to summon his nieces, daughters of his sister, Hieronyme Mancini, from their obscurity in Italy to bask in the sunshine of his splendours in Paris. At the time of this odd caprice, Richelieu's crafty successor had reached the zenith of his power. His was the most potent and splendid figure in all Europe that did not wear a crown. He was the avowed favourite and lover of Anne of Austria, Queen of France,
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CHAPTER XVI BIANCA, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY
CHAPTER XVI BIANCA, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY
More than three centuries have gone since Florence made merry over the death of her Grand Duchess, Bianca. It was an occasion for rejoicing; her name was bandied from lips to lips—"La Pessima Bianca"; jeers and laughter followed her to her unmarked grave in the Church of San Lorenzo. But through the ages her picture has come down to us as she strutted on the world's stage in all her pride and beauty, with a vividness which few better women of her time retain. It was in the year 1548, when our bo
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CHAPTER XVII RICHELIEU, THE ROUÉ
CHAPTER XVII RICHELIEU, THE ROUÉ
In the drama of the French Court many a fine-feathered villain "struts his brief hour" on the stage, dazzling eyes by his splendour, and shocking a world none too easily shocked in those days of easy morals by his profligacy; but it would be difficult among all these gilded rakes to find a match for the Duc de Richelieu, who carried his villainies through little less than a century of life. Born in 1696, when Louis XIV. had still nearly twenty years of his long reign before him, Louis François A
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CHAPTER XVIII THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS
CHAPTER XVIII THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS
It was an ill fate that brought Caroline, Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel to England to be the bride of George, Prince of Wales, one April day in the year 1795; although probably no woman has ever set forth on her bridal journey with a lighter or prouder heart, for, as she said, "Am I not going to be the wife of the handsomest Prince in the world?" If she had any momentary doubt of this, a glance at the miniature she carried in her bosom reassured her; for the pictured face that smiled at her
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CHAPTER XIX THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS—continued
CHAPTER XIX THE INDISCRETIONS OF A PRINCESS—continued
When Caroline, Princess of Wales, shook the dust of England off her feet one August day in the year 1814, it was only natural that her steps should first turn towards the Brunswick home which held for her at least a few happy memories, and where she hoped to find in sympathy and old associations some salve for her wounded heart. But the fever of restlessness was in her blood—the restlessness which was to make her a wanderer over the face of the earth for half a dozen years. The peace and solace
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CHAPTER XX THE LOVE-AFFAIRS OF A REGENT
CHAPTER XX THE LOVE-AFFAIRS OF A REGENT
When Louis XIV. laid down, one September day in the year 1715, the crown which he had worn with such splendour for more than seventy years, his sceptre fell into the hands of his nephew Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, who for eight years ruled France as Regent, and as guardian of the child-King, the fifteenth Louis. Seldom in the world's history has a reign, so splendid as that of the Sun-King, closed in such darkness and tragedy. The disastrous war of the Spanish Succession had drained France of her s
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CHAPTER XXI A DELILAH OF THE COURT OF FRANCE
CHAPTER XXI A DELILAH OF THE COURT OF FRANCE
It was a cruel fate that snatched Gabrielle d'Estrées from the arms of Henri IV., King of France and Navarre, at the moment when her long devotion to her hero-lover was on the eve of being crowned by the bridal veil; and for many a week there was no more stricken man in Europe than the disconsolate King as he wailed in his black-draped chamber, "The root of my love is dead, and will never blossom again." No doubt Henri's grief was as sincere as it was deep, for he had loved his golden-haired Gab
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CHAPTER XXII THE "SUN-KING" AND THE WIDOW
CHAPTER XXII THE "SUN-KING" AND THE WIDOW
Search where you will in the record of Kings, you will find nowhere a figure more splendid and more impressive than that of the fourteenth Louis, who for more then seventy years ruled over France, and for more than fifty eclipsed in glory his fellow-sovereigns as the sun pales the stars. Nearly two centuries have gone since he closed his weary and disillusioned eyes on the world he had so long dominated; but to-day he shines in history in the galaxy of monarchs with a lustre almost as great as w
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CHAPTER XXIII A THRONED BARBARIAN
CHAPTER XXIII A THRONED BARBARIAN
The dawn of the eighteenth century saw the thrones of France and Russia occupied by two of the most remarkable sovereigns who ever wore a crown—Louis XIV., the "Sun-King," whose splendours dazzled Europe, and whose power held it in awe; and Peter I. of Russia, whose destructive sword swept Europe from Sweden to the Dardenelles, and whose clever brain laid sure the foundation of his country's greatness. Each of these Royal rivals dwarfed all other fellow-monarchs as the sun pales the stars; and y
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CHAPTER XXIV A FRIEND OF MARIE ANTOINETTE
CHAPTER XXIV A FRIEND OF MARIE ANTOINETTE
There is scarcely a spectacle in the whole drama of history more pathetic than that of Marie Antoinette, dancing her light-hearted way through life to the guillotine, seemingly unconscious of the eyes of jealousy and hate that watched her every step; or, if she noticed at all, returning a gay smile for a frown. Wedded when but a child, full of the joy of youth, with laughter bubbling on her pretty lips and gaiety dancing in her eyes, to a dull-witted clown to whom her fresh young beauty made no
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CHAPTER XXV THE RIVAL SISTERS
CHAPTER XXV THE RIVAL SISTERS
It was an unkind fate that linked the lives of the fifteenth Louis of France and Marie Leczinska, Princess of Lorraine, and daughter of Stanislas, the dethroned King of Poland; for there was probably no Princess in Europe less equipped by nature to hold the fickle allegiance of the young French King, and no Royal husband less likely to bring happiness into the life of such a consort. When Princess Marie was called to the throne of France, she found herself transported from one of the most penuri
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CHAPTER XXVI THE RIVAL SISTERS—continued
CHAPTER XXVI THE RIVAL SISTERS—continued
Louis XV.'s involuntary exclamation when he first set eyes on the loveliness of Madame de la Tournelle, "Heavens! how beautiful she is!" becomes intelligible when we look on Nattier's picture of this fairest of the de Nesle sisters in his "Allegory of the Daybreak," and read the contemporary descriptions of her charms. "She ravished the eye," we are told, "with her skin of dazzling whiteness, her elegant carriage, her free gestures, the enchanting glance of her big blue eyes—a gaze of which the
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CHAPTER XXVII A MISTRESS OF INTRIGUE
CHAPTER XXVII A MISTRESS OF INTRIGUE
"On 11th September," Madame de Motteville says, "we saw arrive from Italy three nieces of Cardinal Mazarin and a nephew. Two Mancini sisters and the nephew were the children of the youngest sister of his Eminence; and of the sisters Laure, the elder, was a pleasing brunette with a handsome face, about twelve or thirteen years of age; the second (Olympe), also a brunette, had a long face and pointed chin. Her eyes were small, but lively; and it might be expected that, when fifteen years of age, s
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CHAPTER XXVIII AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE
CHAPTER XXVIII AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE
Few Kings have come to their thrones under such brilliant auspices as Milan I. of Servia; few have abandoned their crowns to the greater relief of their subjects, or have been followed to their exile by so much hatred. But a fortnight before Milan's accession, his cousin and predecessor, Prince Michael, had been foully done to death by hired assassins as he was walking in the park of Topfschider, with three ladies of his Court; and the murdered man had been placed in a carriage, sitting upright
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CHAPTER XXIX AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE—continued
CHAPTER XXIX AN ILL-FATED MARRIAGE—continued
If anything could have restored happiness to Milan of Servia and his Princess, Natalie, it should surely have been the birth of the baby-Prince, Alexander, whom both equally adored and equally spoiled. But, instead of linking his parents in a new bond of affection "Sacha" was from his cradle the innocent cause of widening the breach that severed them. For a time, fortunately, Milan had little opportunity of continuing the feud of recrimination with his high-spirited and hot-tempered spouse. More
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