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Show Ex-Queen Sophie, Wife of the Deposed Kinfe S , , ., r1 dm Constantine, Who Leads the Hostility jr fcjilsSN ' 7 to Her Son's Peasant Bride. j j iSII N A IT A Y IM X&P ' Multi-Millionairess, j i If Greece Accepts if p-' . - wnZTk'u. I I HF H l"lclV "The terrible ex-Quccn Soplue, sister ot the fallen (jcrman Katact , Marriage of ! ' ' rtwr mi control of herself when her son ashed her to receive his j J y-V. - e m peasant bride and drove 'ier from her presence with an umbrella. g-K-' wing Alexander j j a Queen Despised ' ivf f' ':- 'M I III IT1 ? f KiV ' L 1 5" 3 1 in His Present j ( by Luropes Z&mSL n - ,.: . 4 , . Ijj w r . fjsC ' . SJ ";' 5aro to faco me when 1 fl Royalties; If His C MijsWfttofO ( r,:: U ; order ou stripped J He Will Have a Legal jjjf. j'' I 1 U 1 PARIS, June 16 tER has a King been placed in a j more distressing predicament than young King Alexander of Greece I through his romantic marriage to a humbly born, non-royal but beautiful wife of peas-3 peas-3 ant origin Helen Manos jTB The marriage took place secretly In W)k Athens without the consent of the Greek Government or the presence of any representative repre-sentative of that Government Such connect con-nect and representation are necessary by law In order to give any woman marrying the Greek King the rank and position of Queen with all its privileges and dignities The same formalities are also needed to JH give any woman marrying Into the reign ing family the rank of a royal princess. But they are not necessary to make the Ifcifffw v. oman a legal wife. While the King omitted the formality of obtaining his Government's consent to I his marriage, he also made a match repug- nant to the ideas of his haughty mother, Mm'' ex Queen Sophie of Greece, sister of the . (alien German Kai.sc-r, of her husband ex- Wffix King Constantine and nearly all the royal caste. If the Greek Government decides to rec-J6W3 rec-J6W3 O.nize Alexander's wife as Queen, then be will have a Queen who will be despised by his fal hr nnd mother and all his royal kinsmen and practically all the royalties 9gm of Europe If. on the other hand, the Greek Gov-f& Gov-f& ernment refuses to accept his wife as Queen, then he will be legally married to )k J a woman who cannot share his rank. The marriage is otiictly legal from the Greek point of view and cannot be set aside for any cause whatever, according to the law, HH ' ",f the Greek Orthodox Church, to which tiVNji both parties belong Hflpv To be estranged from his royal re'atlons the fate that will befall King Alexander -j If his plebeian wife Is recognized as Queen I'l j would entail no small inconvenience to him. His relationship to the royal families fam-ilies of England, Denmark. Norway and ; Sweden Is one of his best claims to con- sideratlon by the Allies, and if ho should lose the favor of theso families his chances of holding on to the throne would be even worse than they were. It must also cause him no small distress to Incur the flerco j disapproval of his domineering mother, ex- I Queen Bonnie, and the somewhat less out spoken censure of his father, ex-King Con-1 Con-1 Btantlne, and his various brothers and if But then, his position with a legal wife F I 'Who is not a Queen would appear to be Still more painful and embarrassing. Ac 'ling to information furnished bv Greek i'iilomats, the King would not have the 1 right to keep his wife In the Royal Palace j at Athens or to permit her to make use H of the royal carriages, automobiles, Bflj a iwna, thrones, Jewels, furniture and other possessions of the reigning house All these ' m f-'MrMi '' , "rV things are paid for and maintained tiy the Greek Government Govern-ment for the use of the King and : I . , J - ' JPkwi the members of the royal family, fi ' ' , . y-H and the povern- 1 ment would have "J an undoubted right to say that they should not be used M by one who was nflHjBj not royal though I , 9 BBT HH It Is beyond ! question that If a Helen Manos is k not legally Queen f 6he cannot share in any of the pub- . . , g k' vif'? lie ceremonies and i social functions ::' 3 which form a large f. '; part of the lives of V . ' kings and queens. Th customs of 6 . fK monarchy give a Kl king'B royal wife ' a ver? Important i . SSt place in public af- S ' I fairs, an entirely 1 '- '' '-- different place Young King Alexander of Greece, While ' on His Runaway from that which Honeymoon in Paris, with His Peasant Bride Helen Manos, belongs to the wife Who Dare Not Stay in Greece for Fear of Exciting a Revolution. of a President, who has properly no public position at all. For instance, we may suppose that the King of England, prompted by the British Government, wished to demonstrate England's Eng-land's friendship for Greece The very nicest way to do this would bo for the King and Queen of EnRland to pay a formal for-mal visit to the King of Greece. Tho Enp-llsh Enp-llsh King and Queen would tie entprtnlned at a state banquet, and after the meal the King of Greece would, according to custom, cus-tom, drink to "the health of our Illustrious guests, the Klnp and Queen of England, and the Rrent British Empire " The Klnc of England In reply would propose the health of the King and Queen of Greece lf there were a Queen and the gr. at Greek nation If there were no Queen, the Kini; of Enilnnd could not drink to her health, clthough he and everybody else might know that the King of Greece had a perfectly legal wife not far from that spot. If the Kind's legal but non-royal wife received such privileges as may bo accorded ac-corded to commoners kuc might look on pathetically at this banquet from a separate sep-arate table at the other end of the room, or shn might look down from a gallery or peep in through a doorway. Perhaps, lf debarred from her natural place at her husband's side, she might prefer to absent bert-elf from such ceremonies. In that case It might very well happen that she would find herself in the street, while police and soldiers were keeping the mob back from some interesting ceremony in which her husband was the central figure. Life for a King with a legal but uncrowned un-crowned wife would be full of such Incongruities. Incon-gruities. The other kings might find it better not to embarrass him by paying him formal visits, "but then that courae would tend to Injure him by diminishing his public importance. How embarrassing the King's matrimonial matri-monial position Is at the present moment may be Judged from the fact thut his wlto cannot even live in Greece. She has been Ihiug in Paris "incognito" under the nnmo of "Madame Alexandre" since a few weeks after the King's secret marriage seven months ago. She was forced to flee by the notoriety to which ehe was then subjected sub-jected and the persecution with which she was threatened. That persecution might very easily have gone to fatal extremes. The cable dispatches have already told you how King Alexander came to Paris for a hasty visit to his bride, but there uro many extraordinary detallH about his romance ro-mance which cannot yet bo familiar to tho American public. ') lOHO InlTiHittom! future Service Inc. ej urrfW rresAj- King Alexander left Greece with the ap proval of Prime Minister Minis-ter Eleuthcrlos Venize-los, Venize-los, who wished time In order to decide whether It woull bo possible to recognize recog-nize Helen Manos as Queen of Greece. The Prime Minister is a liberal and humane mau and personally he would doubtless be pleased to vecognlze the lovely, humbly born girl as queen But ho cannot run the risk of a revolution revo-lution or the defeat of his policies at a critical moment of national existence. A tremendous agitation agi-tation has been started In Greece against the King's wife by members of King Constantino's Con-stantino's old pro-German party, most of them army officers, who pretend that sho Is the tool of a group that Is trying to gain control of the kingdom. As a matter of fact, her enemies arc merely using the prejudices they can excito against her to further their own nefarious schemes Before Be-fore this appears the problem may have been solved violently. King Alexander greeted his beautiful young bride in Paris as U he were an ordinary ordi-nary loving newly-wed husband and as If royal marriage laws and international politics had never entered his mind Sho la a very lovely and attractive young woman with an exquisitely graceful, slim, girlish figure. Many persons have described de-scribed her as a reincarnation of an ancient an-cient Greek goddess. Tho young couple have been seen walking walk-ing arm in arm about the boulevards of Paris and lunching together simply In tho restaurants without any attendants. The King is an exceptionally stalwart and athletic ath-letic young man, a lit companion for his exquisite bride. When they were seen strolling through tho leafy pathways of tho Bols do Boulogne their conduct was Great Brit iln Rich' Hrwrvcd. I j m I 8 v all that could be expected of the most ardent honeymooning couple. So thoroughly was the King carried away by love's young dream that he felt that his truculent mother could not resist the charm of his young bride He determined deter-mined to make a surprise lsit to her with the guileless expectation that she would take her lovely daughter-in-law to her arms. Accompanied by his wife he trav oiled secretly to Switzerland and hurried to tho beautiful villa occupied by ex-Qucen Sophie and ex-King Constantine. King Alexander was naturally admitted to the house without question, and he silenced sil-enced any objections to his wife's presence. pres-ence. What followed ha3 been revealed by a member of Constnntlne's household Ex-Queen Sophie advanced to meet her son with a sour expression, for his con duct had already angered her. After a fev affectionate greetings and inquiries by the King ho hastened to the object of his visit by saying: "Mother, let me present my wife your new daughter to you Shy loves you and wishes to assort you of her deep respect and affection." "What"' shrieked the terrible Sophie to the trembling girl. "You base-born child of a clodhopper! You shameless minx. You have stolen my son and turned hlni against me' You have seduced and fooled him for your own low and selfish purpose and to help ihe scoundrels who are in league with you! And now you have tho audacity to enter my house! Leave my presence at once 'both of you and never dare to come near me again." "But, mother," urged the young King, "do not let your prejudices blind you. limes have changed, and Helen is the best wife I can havo now. I shall be the first Greek King with a Greek wife. We shall bo popular, und our family will recover from our recent terriblo difficulties." Tho young wife, encouraged by her husband's hus-band's attitude, bravely stood her ground. Seeing this. ex-Queon Sophie became enraged en-raged beyond control. "Low-born creature," she yelled. "You the girl's hat sideways. ( The young couple then j r hastened from the villa, cruelly humiliated and disillusioned. King Alexander fell in love with Helen Manos several years before he j unexpectedly acquired the trone. Her family live near Salcnikl. A marriage in Greece was out of the question for him, as long as Queen Sophie and Constantine were on the throne When the Allies decided to dethrone these two for their pro-Germanism in 1917 it becamo a great problem to determine the future government oC I Greeco. After much discussion It was decided to j place Alexander, Constantine's second son, on the throne He was popular with the Greeks and enjoyed the esteem of the vie torious statesman-, Veniselos. His older brother, Crown Prince Ccprge, was dis-carded dis-carded because he had become identified I with the policies of his father and mother. One of King Alexander's earliest uses of his comparative freedom was to realize JH his dream to marry Helen Manos. Tho ceremony, though partially secret, was In every way honorable and legal. It was I celebrated by three well-known priests In a house belonging to a friend of the King j In Athena Seeral friends of the King and his bride were present. At l(?ast one distinguished American is deeply concerned in the King's romance. That Is the beautiful American society woman, formerly Mrs. William B. Leeds, 'H Who recently married the King's youngest uncle. Prince Christopher of Greece. It will bo recalled that Mrs. Leeds's marriage took place recently in Swltzer 1 land In spite of the violent opposition of ex-Queeh Sophie, who is 'he slster-ln-law I of Prince Christopher. The American woman's status as a mem ber of the royal caste is at present In jj doubt, as high authorities assert that be-cause be-cause the Greek Government was not rep- c resented it her wedding she cannot rank aa a rnyal princess of Greece. The beautl- fl ful American Is now using her tact and her man millions in having this matter settled to her satisfaction. Those who know the American Princess I say that she Is not pleased that the titular j head of her husband s family should marry 8 glil of no rank. This marriage de- II tracted from the Importance of thfl American'! own position and made her a j tlon of peasants! and although some of I the royal family were trying to keep her from enjoying royal rank, she was not dl posed f" belp an obscure, uncultivated I girl to oocupy a throne. In this connection connec-tion ir should be recalled that Mrs. Leeds t 1 1 ; i 1 1" extraordinary' efforts to placate the uup' -Uve ex-Queen iu spite of her un- J friendly attitude. The American wishes ? to bo a princess with the approval of the j entire royal caste of Europe. Many circumstances, in fact, appear to complicate tho cruelly embarrassing posl-tion posl-tion of the Idealistic young monarch and i his lovely bride, the first commonor who I has married a king in modern times. j 3 |
