[706] See Rivier, I. p. 421, and Bluntschli, § 154; but, according to Bluntschli, exterritoriality need not in strict law be granted even to the wife of a Sovereign.
However, exterritoriality is in the case of a foreign Sovereign, as in any other case, a fiction only, which is kept up for certain purposes within certain limits. Should a Sovereign during his stay within a foreign State abuse his privileges, such State is not obliged to bear such abuse tacitly and quietly, but can request him to leave the country. And when a foreign Sovereign commits acts of violence or such acts as endanger the internal or external safety of the State, the latter can put him under restraint to prevent further acts of the same kind, but must at the same time bring him as speedily as possible to the frontier.
The Retinue of Monarchs abroad.
§ 349. The position of individuals who accompany a monarch during his stay abroad is a matter of some dispute. Several publicists maintain that the home State can claim the privilege of exterritoriality as well for members of his suite as for the Sovereign himself, but others deny this.[707] I believe that the opinion of the former is correct, since I cannot see any reason why a Sovereign abroad should as regards the members of his suite be in an inferior position to a diplomatic envoy.[708]
[707] See Bluntschli, § 154, and Hall, § 49, in contradistinction to Martens, I. § 83.
[708] See below, §§ [401]-405.
Monarchs travelling incognito.
§ 350. Hitherto only the case where a monarch is staying in a foreign country with the official knowledge of the latter's Government has been discussed. Such knowledge may be held in the case of a monarch travelling incognito, and he enjoys then the same privileges as if travelling not incognito. The only difference is that many ceremonial observances, which are due to a monarch, are not rendered to him when travelling incognito. But the case may happen that a monarch is travelling in a foreign country incognito without the latter's Government having the slightest knowledge thereof. Such monarch cannot then of course be treated otherwise than as any other foreign individual; but he can at any time make known his real character and assume the privileges due to him. Thus the late King William of Holland, when travelling incognito in Switzerland in 1873, was condemned to a fine for some slight contravention, but the sentence was not carried out, as he gave up his incognito.
Deposed and Abdicated Monarchs.
§ 351. All privileges mentioned must be granted to a monarch only as long as he is really the head of a State. As soon as he is deposed or has abdicated, he is no longer a Sovereign. Therefore in 1870 and 1872 the French Courts permitted, because she was deposed, a civil action against Queen Isabella of Spain, then living in Paris, for money due to the plaintiffs. Nothing, of course, prevents the Municipal Law of a State from granting the same privileges to a foreign deposed or abdicated monarch as to a foreign Sovereign, but the Law of Nations does not exact any such courtesy.