The Decadence of Grand Dukes
Once a Grand Duke. By the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia. (Cassell. its.) "
THERE is a room in the Riccardi Palace in Florence where the
• Portmits of all the Medici are gathered together from Cosimo Pater Patrice to Ginn Gastone. It is an astonishing spectacle, that degeneration of a great race, the gradual weakening of the chin, the narrowing of the forehead, the increasing flabbi- ness of the cheeks, the growing sensuality of the mouth. What is theme is here for the eugenist or the historian ! In the past the historians have concentrated their attention upon the earlier Medici, in particular upon Lorenzo, and it has been left for Mr. Harold Acton to wind up the story with his account of the last scions of the house. Let it be said at once that he has performed his task extraordinarily well.
. It may possibly be objected that he has paid too much attention to mere personal idiosyncrasies, given too much space to the description of fetes and pageants, but this is to Misunderstand his problem. As the life inside flickers out so do the markings of the empty shell become more important. And what a gorgeous shell it was, for Florence, during the seventeenth century, had by no means exhausted its force as a cultural influence. No less a thing than opera was born in a festa at the Tuscan Court, and the wide developments of expe- iimental science are foreshadowed and to some extent deter- Mined by the hobbies of-Ferdinand II.
f. Mr. Acton has devoted much of his book to the marriage negotiations of the Medici house, and with justice, for royal Marriage is the thread on which seventeenth-century diplo- Macy hung. But the later Medici were mducky in their choice of spouses, and the problem of the Tuscan Succession was finally settled in the most cynical manner possible by France Swapping the country, which wasn't hers, for the Duchy of Lorraine. All that poor Gian Gastone could obtain was the Imperial promise that Tuscany should not be ruled by the reigning Habsburg, but by a younger member of the same house. The Electress Anna Maria lingered for a few years after the death of Gian Gastone, and with her the Howse of the Medici passes into the shadows, having left an indelible Mark on the history of Europe and of mankind. Mr. Harold Acton is to be congratulated on his admirable tillage of a neglected field.
If the Habsburgs swamped the Medici they devoured the Bonapartes, or rather the poor solitary Bonaparte of the main line who was hithself half a Habsburg by birth. Napoleon II became an Austrian prince. Soon " he had lost completely the language of the land that had given him birth. When he wanted to turn his attention to the literature concerning his father's campaigns, he had to apply himself to the study pf French, and he did not, for all that he had spoken no
other tongue in babyhood, find it so easy to acquire." Even as a youth of seventeen, discussing Wagram, he could say, " we were here—the enemy there " quite naturally, though the enemy was his own father.
But in France the Napoleonic legend was growing, and the poem by Barthelemy entitled " Fils she l'Homme " created an enormous sensation. The poem was suppressed by the French Government, and was read under the noses of the police in Vienna: The young Due de Reichstadt was recognized
over Europe as an important pawn in the political game. Indeed, there was a moment, in 1830, when the throne of Charles X became vacant by the flight of that monarch, when Napoleon II might well have been installed in the Tuileries. But Metternich did not wish it, and, although the shops in Paris were full of Napoleonic emblems, and the theatres were presenting Napoleonic plays, it was Loids. Philippe who actually ascended the throne.
The person least disturbed by all this enthusiasm for Napoleon's son seemed to be the young-man -himself. When Napoleone Camerata forced her way into his presence and begged him to take up his awn' cause he seems to have been more puzzled than excited by the lady's eloquence. The truth is that he was already doomed, for the seeds of cog- sumption had taken firm root in his frail body and he had only two more years to live.
The book has some interesting illuitrations, a bibliography, and an excellent series of genealogical tables carrying the history of the Bonaparte family down to our own day. it provides a well-balanced account of a young man " whom the imagination of a poet and -the genius of a great actress have conspired to present to posterity as a stoutish woman in a white uniform with a queer-haunting voice."
Once a Grand Duke is one of the most readable of recen books on Russia. The writer—the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia—makes no secret of his prejudices and even of his own failings, but lie emerges as a man of powerful intelligence, industry and good will. His prejudice against England is probably due to our aetion in supporting the Japanese in 1900, but he has some shrewd things to say about English
policy at the beginning and end of the Great War. He still
thinks that the " White " generals, if properly supported. might have driven out the Bolsheviks, but he accuses the Allies, especially France, of trying to drive too hard a bargain with them. His account of the end of Admiral Kolehak makes very ugly reading. With regard to the internal administration of Russia the Grand Duke is scarcely an impartial witness. He accuses almost everybody of importance in 1917 of treachery. But a whole nation is not disloyal to a regime sinless that regime is incurably corrupt and inefficient. The book is to be strongly recommended to all thoie interested in the last fearful days of the Russian Empire.
JAMES LAVER.
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