The gaping world is told that the Princess Ena, of the Royal House of Great Britain, is about to marry Alfonso, the decadent lad who is King of Spain. The Royal House of Great Britain holds the throne upon the Parliamentary Condition that it shall be Protestant. The Act which recognized the Hanoverian succession reads: “The Princess Sophia and the heirs of her body being Protestants.”
But the crown of Spain would not be allowed to rest upon the head of a heretic. No, indeed! The King and Queen of Spain must be Catholics.
But King Alfonso wants the fair Princess Ena, and the ambitious Ena wants to become Queen of Spain.
Is there any way out? Oh, yes. The Princess Ena, of the Royal House whose Protestant faith is a matter of Parliamentary measure, being determined to marry a King whose crown depends upon his being a rigid Catholic, happily solves the problem by “turning” Catholic.
Very well. If to Henry of Navarre “Paris was well worth a mass,” why shouldn’t the throne of Spain be worth as much to the fair Princess Ena?
And, by the way, the Princess Ena has had some illustrious examples set her in the matter of changing one’s creed.
Did not unhappy little Anna Gould “turn” Catholic to ease the conscience of her precious Castellane?
And did not the daughter of the American “house” of Mackay “turn” Catholic when she became an Italian princess?
Human motives are pretty much the same everywhere, and to many people religion is a mere matter of respectable conformity to the manners and customs of those who make up the environment.