Monday, February 9, 2009

Luxembourg Grand Duchess a"voluntary prisoner"

February 9, 1915

Grand Duchess Marie Adelaide of Luxembourg, who "is young and pretty and has a will of her own," is refusing to leave her palace so she won't have to meet "German officers and men in the streets of the capital," according to a dispatch to the London Daily Chronicle and reported in the New York Times.
Luxembourg is now under German occupation. Kaiser Wilhelm II has visited the Grand Duchess on several occasions. Marie Adelaide has received him "courteously but coldly."
A Swiss lady connected with the Luxembourg court writes that a large automobile drove up to the palace on the morning of the Kaiser's birthday, and a high official explained to the Grand Duchess that the Kaiser requested that she visit him on his birthday."
"The Duchess refused the royal command, and when the surprised officer, asked for a verbatim message, the Duchess said she preferred to remain in her palace prison in Luxemburg. At the same time, she sent kind wishes to the Kaiser for his birthday."

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