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Disconcerting Threat to Confiscate
the Historic Sagan Castle and
Property Which the Duke de
Talleyrand Ingeniously Transferred
to His Little Son to Prevent His
Creditors Taking Them
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Snapshot
of the
Duke de
Talleyrand
Taken
When
He Wat
Courting
Madame
Anna
Gould
Furls, Deeeaber IT.
WILL the Germans confiscate th duchy
nd principality of Sagan, wtilch la
supposed to belong to Anna Gould's
lllttla son, who Is known as the Dnke de Sagan T
This ts one of the most curious complications
that has arisen from the great war. The present
Duke de Talleyrand, formerly known as Prince
de Sagan, inherited the German title and estates
on the death of his father, but In order to avoid
the seisure of the latter by bis creditors, be
turned both title and estatea over to hie son,
born of bis marriage to Anna Gould, after she
had divorced Count Bonl de Castellane.
Now the Breslauer Zeltung, a leading news
paper of the province In which Sagan is situa
ted, demands that the duchy shall be confiscated
by Germany, on the ground that the real owner,
the Duke de Talleyrand, Is a Frenchman, and
now serving with the French army. This action,
the newspaper urges, would be only a fair re
taliation for the confiscation of German property
In France.
There are many plausible reasons for urging
this step. The Ingenious manoeuvre by which
the Duke transferred bis rights to his son de
prived a large body of German creditors of the
chance to seize the very valuable Sagan estates.
They are situated In Silesia, which forms the
southeastern angle of Prussia, and of which the
chief city is Breslau. It was against Silesia that
the main Russian movement to invade Germany
was directed. Hence the feeling against the
allies Is particularly fierce In this region.
In reply to the suggestion that the Germans
should confiscate Sagan, the Duke de Talley
rand points out that his little son is a German
rubject, who assumed the title and estates with
the approval of the Kaiser, who la la a sense his
guardian.
Sagan is an entailed estate of a very feudal
character, a fief of the King of Prussia, who la
also German Emperor. It Includes upward of
60,000 acres of land, an Immense castle and
various incidental rights. It Is said to be rapidly
Increasing in value, owing to the presence 'of
minerals.
When the present Duke de Talleyrand suc
ceeded to the title, be found over 14,000,000 of
debts were held against the German estates by
German creditors. This accumulation of debts
was begun by the Duke's grandfather. It was
increased by his father, the Prince de Sagan,
long known as "the modern Alclblades," and the
most elegant figure in Parisian sooiety. When
this prince succeeded to the Sagan estates, he
was a paralytic and a aseotal wreck, and no
definite action was taken .by the creditors. His
son, Helie de Talleyrand-Perigord, .married Anna
Gould In U0I, and in 1110 be succeeded to his
father's titles.
A son had been born to Prince Helie In IMS.
He bears the Christian name Charles Maurice
Jason Howard, in memory of various famous an
cestors. The present Duke de Talleyrand painted a
pleasing picture to bis American wife of the
splendors of occupying a German feudal palace,
and being called "Serene Highness," a style of
address to which the holder of the Sagan duchy
Is entitled. She proposed to reside in the castle
when her little son was about to be born, but the
official who , administered the estates for the
German creditors coldly refused to allow her
to enter.
In the following year the Duchess Is under
stood to have offered to guarantee the payment
f the debts on reasonable terms. The Duke
then believed that he would certainly be allowed
to occupy his ancestral castle. He even Invited
a merry party to visit him there In the Autumn,
and sent new fBrnttBre and many cases of choice
wines from the collection formerly made by
Bonl de Castellane in the pink marble palace
built by Anna Gould in Paris. Once more the
creditors refused to let him enter
and basely seized the wines which be
had forwarded.
The Duke kept trp the struggle for
fats German estates with much In
genuity and persistence. A great
deal of complicated litigation oc
curred. He succeeded In having his
German relation, Count von HaUfeldt, re
moved as administrator of the estates on the
ground that be was hostile to blm. The Duke
wished to take charge of them himself, but the
Kaiser, to whom every measure had to be sub
mitted, barred the Parisian dandy on account
of bis stormy past.
Finally the Duke bit on the very ingenious
plan of. turning bis German titles and estates
over to bis son. So this little boy, with an
American mother and a French father, became,
quite unknown to himself, a German subject and
a German nobleman, with all the privileges that
that Implies. He is described In the Almanack
de Gotha as "His Serene Highness the Duke of
Sagan, Prince of Courland, SemlgaUen and
Sagan, etc." Presumably when he grows a little
older he will become a Prussian officer and wear
a spiked helmet, unless the angry Germans shall
have taken his property away.
The little Duke was formerly registered at the
Prussian court, and Count von Kanits, one of
the Kaiser's chamberlains, was appointed his
guardian In Germany. A certain sum is set aside
for the creditors yearly, and as the estates am
steadily Increasing In value, they can bear this.
It is said that when the Duke comes of ace he
will be very rich.
Sagan ts a possession that came to the present
family through the prudent arrangements of the
famous Talleyrand, perhaps the most adroit and
versatile diplomat In all history. The Emperor
Ferdinand II. of Austria gave Sagan to his great
general, Wallensteln, Duke of Friedland, who led
his army during the Thirty Years' War. This
was in 1(37, and Wallensteln proceeded to erect
the present palace. The space that suited blm
was part of the city of Sagan, but this did not
binder the terrible warrior. He simply gave
orders that the inhabitants ef the houses he de
cided to remove must leave within twenty-four
hours, and at the expiration of that time the
torch was applied and 490 houses were burned
to the ground. Upon the ruins Wallensteln built
the castle, which stands to-day, surrounded by
one of the finest parks in all Germany.
Sagan In 1717 came Into the hands of Prince.
Peter of Kurland, or Courland, a son of Ernst
Johann, Prince of Biron, Duke of Kurland, the
notorious favorite of the Russian Empress Anna.
Peter died in 1800 and left Sagan to bis daugh
ter, Princess Katherlne of Biron-Sagan, at whose
de'ath. In 1845, her sister, Dorothea, Duchess of
Talleyrand-Perigord, Inherited the estates. 8be
was a very remarkable woman, who had mar
ried the nephew and heir of the great diplomat,
Talleyrand. The Duchess Dorothea held court at
Sagan for many years, and even when old and
infirm, gave several receptions every Winter, to
which the officers of the small garrison, the
landed proprietors of the neighborhood and the
town officials were Invited with their wives and
daughters.
The Little
Son of the
Duke de
Talleyrand
and
Anna Gould,
to Whom tl..
Duke
Transferred
His German
Title and
Estates Whk
the Germa.--Threaten
tc
Confiscate
Long after Sagan was con
nected with the outer world
by a railroad she used to
travel by coach -with six
gaily caparisoned horses and
outriders, and whenever she
passed through a Tillage the
schools were closed to per
mit the children to admire
the unusual speetaole. The
cltlsens of Sagan put up with
her whims and bowed to her,
not only because she .was a
duoaess, but because the
ducal household brought
much money Into the town.
When the Duchess Dorothea died In 1142, her
son, already Duke of Valencay, Talleyrand and
Perlgord, became also Duke of Sagan. Although
a Frenchman by birth and education, be tool:
sp his residence at Sagan, and embellished th.
park by the construction of magnificent foun
tains, after the styls of Versailles. The burgher
of Sagan were happy, because they expected
thSt the new Duke would spend all his money
In the town. The Franco-German war dispelled
this hope. The Duke returned to Parts, where
he spent all the revenue front his German poa
sesslons, and much more. His eon and heir
"the modern Alclblades," followed blm, and then
i came the present Duke, the husband of Anna
Gould.
The eastls ef Sagan ts a vast structure la the
Italian Renaissance style, with a courtyard be
tween two wings fronting on a terrace, under
which a large orangery extends. It contains
more than a hundred rooms, most of them richly
furnished in modern taste by the Duke's grand
father. Some of the rooms are of historical in
terest, having been left In the condition In
which they wew used by former proprietors,
among them the Loebkowlte room and the Wal
' lensteln room.
A large picture gallery contains many valuable
paintings. One room is used as a museum, where
many objects of local interest are preserved,
together with large collections of butterflies,
stuffed animals and minerals. The park Is laid
out In the English styls, and in front of the
castle Is a garden where thousands upon thou
sands of roes trees of all kinds are planted.
Not far from the entrance la a smaller build
ing, almost a castle la itself, called the "Cavalier
House," now the residence of ths manager of
the estate. It has rooms for guests who cannot
be placed la ths palacs proper. Several square
miles of forest surround ths park on three
sides. Game abounds there pheasants, deer
and bares. Hers Is also ens of the few spots
left In Oermany where ths sportsman finds ths
1 capercalUle. All the Kings of Prussia la Us last
century have shot over these preserves.
The city of Sagan Is on ths Bober, a river
hardly more than a good sised creek in the
Summer, but a turbulent and often dangerous
stream In ths Spring. The town has about
12,000 Inhabitants and consists, like most of ths
smaller German cities, of two sections, entirely
different from each other. Ths older city has
preserved muoh of the architecture of the mid
dle ages, the narrow houses with high gables,
and the market place, surrounded by arcades.
The newer quarter Is entirely modern and pretty.
There are manufactures of cloth, linen and
sotton.
The entire duchy of Sagan covers a territory
of 1,211 square kilometres, 607 square miles, and
has a population of 65,000.
The property is said to yield an Income of
nearly 1,000,000 marks per annum, which is
enormous for Germany, being one-slxteerth part
of the Kaiser's own.
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The Duchess de Talleyrand, Formerly i
Anna Gould, Divorced Wife of Count
de Castellane
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The Great Castle of Sagan, Long Held by the Duke's Creditors,
but Which He Hoped to Leave to His Son
"The Count Lobkowitz Study," One of the Rooms in the
Castle of Sagan
Cef jrrlgUt, 1813, by ths SU Company. Urtat Britain Rights Rastrved ,
View in the Beautiful Park of Sagan Cattle, Showing the
Orangery