Ferdinand I of the Kingdom of the Two-Sicilies. Part II.

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Austria, Congress of Vienna, France, Joachim Murat, King Ferdinand IV-III of Naples and Sicily, King Ferdinand of the Two-Sicilies, Napoleon Bonaparte, Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia-Piedmont

King Ferdinand IV-III of Naples and Sicily returned to Naples soon after the wars with France and ordered a few hundred who had collaborated with the French executed. This stopped only when the French successes forced him to agree to a treaty which included amnesty for members of the French party.

When war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, Ferdinand signed a treaty of neutrality with the former, but a few days later he allied himself with Austria and allowed an Anglo-Russian force to land at Naples.

The French victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, enabled Napoleon to dispatch an army to southern Italy. Ferdinand fled to Palermo (January 23, 1806), followed soon after by his wife and son, and on February 14, 1806 the French again entered Naples.

Napoleon declared that the Bourbon dynasty had forfeited the crown, and proclaimed his brother Joseph King of Naples and Sicily. But Ferdinand continued to reign over Sicily (becoming the first King of Sicily in centuries to actually reside there) under British protection.

Parliamentary institutions of a feudal type had long existed in the island, and Lord William Bentinck, the British minister, insisted on a reform of the constitution on English and French lines. The king indeed practically abdicated his power, appointing his son Francis as regent, and the queen, at Bentinck’s insistence, was exiled to Austria, where she died in 1814.

Restoration

The Restoration of Naples and Sicily were part of the workings of the Congress of Vienna.

The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was an international diplomatic conference to reconstitute the European political order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon I. It was a meeting of ambassadors of European states chaired by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich, and held in Vienna from November 1814 to June 1815

The Congress restored the Papal States to Pope Pius VII. King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia was restored to Piedmont, its mainland possession, and also gained control of the Republic of Genoa. In Southern Italy, Napoleon’s brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, was originally allowed to retain the Kingdom of Naples, but his support for Napoleon in the Hundred Days led to the restoration of the Bourbon Ferdinand IV to the throne.

January 10, 1430: Founding of the Order of the Golden Fleece

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Austria, Duke of Burgundy. War of the Spanish Succession, Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Kingdom of Spain, Order of the Gold Fleece, Philip the Good

The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece is a Catholic Order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philippe III the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to Isabella of Portugal. Today, two branches of the order exist, namely the Spanish Fleece and the Austrian Fleece; the current grand masters are Felipe VI, King of Spain and Archduke Charles von Habsburg, head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, respectively. The Grand Chaplain of the Austrian branch is Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna.

The Order of the Golden Fleece was established on January 10, 1430, by Philippe III the Good, Duke of Burgundy (on the occasion of his wedding to Isabella of Portugal), in celebration of the prosperous and wealthy domains united in his person that ran from Flanders to Switzerland.

This was Philippe’s third marriage. His bride was Isabella of Portugal, a daughter of King João I of Portugal and Philippa of Lancaster, the daughter of the English Prince, John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Blanche of Lancaster. The wedding actually took place in Bruges on January 7, 1430, after a proxy marriage the year before.

The Order is restricted to a limited number of knights, initially 24 but increased to 30 in 1433, and 50 in 1516, plus the sovereign. The order’s first king of arms was Jean Le Fèvre de Saint-Remy.

It received further privileges unusual to any order of knighthood: the sovereign undertook to consult the order before going to war; all disputes between the knights were to be settled by the order; at each chapter the deeds of each knight were held in review, and punishments and admonitions were dealt out to offenders, and to this the sovereign was expressly subject; the knights could claim as of right to be tried by their fellows on charges of rebellion, heresy and treason, and Charles V conferred on the order exclusive jurisdiction over all crimes committed by the knights; the arrest of the offender had to be by warrant signed by at least six knights, and during the process of charge and trial he remained not in prison but in the gentle custody of his fellow knights.

The separation of the two existing branches took place as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. The grand master of the order, Carlos II of Spain (a Habsburg) had died childless in 1700, and so the succession to the throne of Spain and the Golden Fleece initiated a global conflict.

Philippe III the Good. Duke of Burgundy

On one hand, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, claimed the Imperial Crown as an agnatic member of the House of Habsburg, which had held the throne for almost two centuries.

However, the late King Carlos II had named Philippe of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou who was his sister (Infanta Marie Theresa’s) grandchild, as his successor in his will. Marie Theresa was the wife of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre.

Both the Habsburgs from the Habsburg lands and the Bourbons, as the new Kings of Spain, claimed sovereignty of the order. Both noble houses basically invoked their claims regarding the Spanish crown.

The House of Habsburg’s claim relied on Article 65 of the Statutes. Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI was able to claim sovereignty of the Netherlands, the Burgundian heartland, during the War of the Spanish Succession and thus he could celebrate the order’s festival in Vienna in 1713.

After the defeat of the Habsburgs in 1714, Philippe was recognized as King Felipe V of Spain and the fate of the order was never clearly decided. The two dynasties, namely the Kings of Spain and Habsburgs of Austria, have ever since continued granting the Golden Fleece in relative peace.

The Golden Fleece, and particularly the Spanish branch of the order, has been referred to as the most prestigious and historic order of chivalry in the world. De Bourgoing wrote in 1789 that “the number of knights of the Golden Fleece is very limited in Spain, and this is the order, which of all those in Europe, has best preserved its ancient splendour”.

Each collar is fully coated in gold, and is estimated to be worth around €50,000 as of 2018, making it the most expensive chivalrous order.

Current knights of the order include Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Emperor Akihito of Japan, former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria, and Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, amongst 13 others. Knights of the Austrian branch include 33 noblemen and princes of small territories in Central Europe, most of them of German or Austrian origin.

The tragic death of Archduchess Mathilde of Austria (1849-1867)

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Archduchess Maria Theresia, Archduchess Mathilde of Austria, Archduchess of Austria, Archduke Albert of Austria, Austria, Austrian Empire, Duke of Teschen, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Ludwig I of Bavaria, Ludwig III of Bavaria, Princess Hildegard of Bavaria, Umberto I of Italy

From the Emperor’s desk: in my post about King Umberto I of Italy I mentioned the short life and tragic death of Archduchess Mathilde of Austria. Here is her biography.

Archduchess Mathilde of Austria (Mathilde Marie Adelgunde Alexandra; January 25, 1849 – June 6, 1867) was an Austrian noblewoman. She was the second daughter of Archduke Albrecht of Austria, Duke of Teschen and Princess Hildegard of Bavaria.

Archduchess Mathilde of Austria

Family

Her father, Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen (1817 – 1895) a grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, was the eldest son of Archduke Charles of Austria, (who defeated French Emperor Napoleon I at Aspern, 1809), and Princess Henrietta of Nassau-Weilburg. Archduke Albrecht was the nephew of the Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, and first cousin to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria’s father, Archduke Franz Charles of Austria, and he also served under Emperor Franz Joseph.

Archduke Albrecht of Austria, Duke of Teschen

Her mother, Princess Hildegard of Bavaria (1825–1864) was the seventh child and fourth daughter of King Ludwig I of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. On May 1, 1844 in Munich, Hildegard married Archduke Albert of Austria, Duke of Teschen. She thereafter became known as Archduchess Hildegard. She and her husband had 3 children.

Princess Hildegard of Bavaria

Archduchess Mathilde‘s forenames were derived from her mother’s sisters, Princess Mathilde Caroline of Bavaria, Grand Duchess of Hesse (1813–1862), Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria Duchess of Modena (1823–1914) and Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (1826–1875), with whom Hildegard had a very close relationship.

Archduchess Mathilde had two elder siblings: Archduchess Maria Theresia (1845–1927), who married Duke Philipp of Württemberg (1838–1917) in 1865 and her only brother Archduke Charles Albrecht died of smallpox at the age of 18 months.

Archduchess Mathilde (right) and her sister Archduchess Maria Theresia (left)

Life

In 1847 after the death of his father, Archduke Albrecht inherited the Weilburg Palace in Baden bei Wien, that Archduke Charles had built for his wife Princess Henrietta of Weilburg (1797–1829). Albrecht and his family usually spent summers there, Archduchess Hildegard being especially fond of its renowned public baths. Because of his charity, he was popularly named Engelsherz (Angel’s Heart). During the winter, the family lived in Vienna. Archduchess Mathilde‘s family was very close to the Austrian imperial family, and Empress Elisabeth of Austria greatly enjoyed the company of her cousin Archduchess Hildegard.

Among Mathilde’s circle of friends was the Archduchess Marie Therese (1849–1919), later Queen of Bavaria, (wife of King Ludwig III of Bavaria) who was of the same age and also the stepdaughter of Karl Ferdinand (1818–1874), Mathilde’s uncle.

A distant cousin, Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria (1847–1915), of the Italian Habsburg line, fell in love with Mathilde and sought to marry her, but they never became engaged. Mathilde was intended to become Queen of Italy as the wife of Umberto of Savoy (1844–1900) in order to improve the already tense relations between Austria-Hungary and Italy.

During her stay in Munich for the funeral of her brother King Maximilian II (1811–1864) in March 1864, Mathilde’s mother became ill with a lung inflammation and pleurisy, and died; Mathilde was then 15 years old.

Death

Mathilde died at the age of 18 in Schloss Hetzendorf, the Viennese home of Empress Elisabeth, on June 6, 1867. The archduchess had put on a gauze dress to go to the theatre. Before leaving for the theatre, she wanted to smoke a cigarette but shortly thereafter her father, who had forbidden smoking, approached her, and she hid the cigarette behind her dress, immediately setting light to its very flammable material and giving her second and third-degree burns. Her death was witnessed by her whole family.

Archduchess Mathilde was buried in the imperial vault in the Imperial Crypt beside her mother and her brother Charles Albrecht.

In doing research on Archduchess Mathilde I learned she was a great-great granddaughter of King Carlos III of Spain (1734-1759) and through him a descendant King Louis XIV of France and Navarre (1743-1715).

December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz-Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany.

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Austria, Bavaria, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Empire, Maria Therea of Austria, War of the Austrian Succession

Franz I (December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife Maria Theresa effectively executed the real powers of those positions. They were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. From 1728 until 1737 he was Duke of Lorraine.

Franz-Stephen was born in Nancy, Lorraine (now in France), the oldest surviving son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, daughter of Carl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Franz-Stephen was connected by blood to the with the Habsburgs through his grandmother Eleonore, who was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. He was very close to his brother Carl-Alexander and sister Anne Charlotte.

Franz I Stephen, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany

Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the House of Habsburg with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz-Stephen’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Emperor Karl adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law. Franz-Stephen was brought up in Vienna with Maria Theresa with the understanding that they were to be married, and a real affection arose between them.

When the War of the Polish Succession broke out in 1733, France used it as an opportunity to seize Lorraine, since France’s prime minister, Cardinal Fleury, was concerned that, as a Habsburg possession, it would bring Austrian power too close to France.

A preliminary peace was concluded in October 1735 and ratified in the Treaty of Vienna in November 1738. Under its terms, Stanisław I, the father-in-law of King Louis XV of France and the losing claimant to the Polish throne, received Lorraine, while Franz-Stephen, in compensation for his loss, was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which he would inherit in 1737.

On January 31, 1736 Franz-Stephen agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Carl-Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine. On February 1, Maria Theresa sent Franz-Stephen a letter: she would withdraw from her future reign, when a male successor for her father appeared.

They married on February 12, 1736, in the Augustinian Church, Vienna. The (secret) treaty between the Emperor Carl VI and Franz-Stephen was signed on May 4, 1736. In January 1737, the Spanish troops withdrew from Tuscany, and were replaced by 6,000 Austrians. On January 24, 1737 Franz-Stephen received the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from his father-in-law. Until then, Maria Theresa was Duchess of Lorraine. In 1744 Franz-Stephen’s brother Carl-Alexander married the younger sister of Maria Theresa, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. In 1744 Carl became governor of the Austrian Netherlands, a post he held until his death in 1780.

Carl VII Albert of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor

As son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, Carl-Albert of Bavaria rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty after the death of emperor Carl VI in 1740. After the two year War of the Austrian Succession he was elected as Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745. As a member of the House of Wittelsbach, Carl VII was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become emperor in three centuries, though he was connected to that house both by blood and by marriage. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II was his great-great grandfather.

Since a woman could not be elected Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa wanted to secure the imperial office for her husband, but Franz-Stephen did not possess enough land or rank within the Holy Roman Empire. In order to make him eligible for the imperial throne and to enable him to vote in the imperial elections as elector of Bohemia (which she could not do because of her sex), Maria Theresa made Franz-Stephen co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands on November 21, 1740.

Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria, Empress Consort of the Holy Roman Empire

It took more than a year for the Diet of Hungary to accept Franz-Stephen as co-ruler, since they asserted that the sovereignty of Hungary could not be shared. Despite her love for him and his position as co-ruler, Maria Theresa never allowed her husband to decide matters of state and often dismissed him from council meetings when they disagreed.

The Treaty of Breslau of June 1742 ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia. With the First Silesian War at an end, the Queen Maria Theresa soon made the recovery of Bohemia her priority. French troops fled Bohemia in the winter of the same year. On May 12, 1743, Maria Theresa had herself crowned Queen of Bohemia in St. Vitus Cathedral.

Prussia became anxious at Austrian advances on the Rhine frontier, and Friedrich II of Prussia again invaded Bohemia, beginning a Second Silesian War; Prussian troops sacked Prague in August 1744. The French plans for the war fell apart when Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII Albert died in January 1745.

Franz-Stephen was elected Holy Roman Emperor on September 13, 1745 as Franz I. Prussia recognised Francis as emperor, and Maria Theresa once again recognised the loss of Silesia by the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, ending the Second Silesian War.

Although Franz was the Holy Roman Emperor, his wife Maria Theresa was the sovereign in her own right in the Habsburg hereditary lands of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

Franz was well content to leave the wielding of power to his able wife. He had a natural fund of good sense and brilliant business capacity and was a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing the complicated Austrian dominions, but he was not active in politics or diplomacy. However, his wife left him in charge of the financial affairs, which he managed well until his death. Heavily indebted and on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of the Seven Years’ War, the Austrian Empire was in a better financial condition than France or England in the 1780s. He also took a great interest in the natural sciences. He was a member of the Freemasons.

Franz was a serial adulterer, many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Maria Wilhelmina, Princess of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on 18 August 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Maria Theresa and Franz I had sixteen children, amongst them the last pre-revolutionary queen consort of France, their youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), who married King Louis XVI of France and Navarre. Franz was succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions as their sovereign until her own death in 1780.

On this date in History: May 16, 1770. Marriage of Louis XVI of France and Navarre to Marie Antoinette of Austria.

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Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Empire, King Louis XV of France, King Louis XVI of France, Kings of france, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette, Marriage, Seven Years War, Versaille

The future King Louis XVI of France and Navarre was born on August 23, 1754 in the Palace of Versailles. Christened Louis-Auguste and created Duc de Berry he was one of seven children, and the third surviving son, of Louis, the Dauphin of France, and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, (daughter of Prince-Elector Friedrich-August II of Saxony, King of Poland).

King Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Louis-Auguste’s two elder brothers died young, they were: Louis-Joseph of France, Duke of Burgundy (September 13, 1751 – March 22, 1761). Xavier of France, Duke of Aquitaine (September 8, 1753 – February 22, 1754), died in infancy. Louis-Auguste was the grandson of Louis XV of France and Navarre and his consort, Maria Leszczyńska of Poland (daughter of King Stanislaw I of Poland [later Duke of Lorraine] and Catherine Opalińska).

Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on December 20, 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband and died on March 13, 1767, also from tuberculosis.

Maria-Antonia of Austria was born on November 2, 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and his wife, the Empress Maria Theresa (Queen of Hungry and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria in her own right). Her godparents were King Joseph I and Queen Mariana Victoria (born an Infanta of Spain) of Portugal; Archduke Joseph of Austria and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria acted as proxies for their newborn sister.

Archduchess Maria-Antonia of Austria

During the Seven Years’ War* Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, King Louis XV of France and Navarre. Their common desire was to destroy the ambitions of Prussia and Great Britain and to secure a definitive peace between their respective countries. This common goal led them to seal their alliance with a marriage: on February 7, 1770, Louis XV formally requested the hand of Maria Antonia for his eldest surviving grandson and heir, Louis-Auguste, Duke of Berry and Dauphin of France.

Maria-Antonia formally renounced her rights to the Habsburg domains, and on April 19, 1770 she was married by proxy to the Dauphin of France at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, with her brother Archduke Ferdinand standing in for the Dauphin. On May 14, she met her husband (and her second cousin once removed) in person at the edge of the forest of Compiègne. Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name: Marie Antoinette. A further ceremonial wedding took place on May 16, 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, after the festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding for the fifteen-year-old, Louis-Auguste and the fourteen-year-old Marie-Antoinette.

The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste was mixed. On the one hand, the Dauphine was beautiful, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first official appearance in Paris on June 8, 1773 was a resounding success.

Marie-Antoinette, Dauphine of France

However, because of France’s alliance with Austria which had pulled the country into the disastrous Seven Years’ War, in which France was defeated by the British and the Prussians, both in Europe and in North America; the French people generally disliked the Austrian alliance, and Marie-Antoinette was seen as an unwelcome foreigner.

For the young couple themselves the marriage was initially amiable but distant. Louis-Auguste’s shyness and, among other factors, the young age and inexperience of the newlyweds, coupled with the fact, as mentioned earlier, that they were were nearly total strangers to each other: having met only two days before their wedding, meant that the 15-year-old bridegroom failed to consummate the union with his 14-year-old bride. His fear of being manipulated by her for imperial purposes caused him to behave coldly towards her in public. Over time, the couple became closer, though while their marriage was reportedly consummated in July 1773, it did not actually happen until 1777.

Marie-Antoinette ‘s brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, came to France incognito, using the name Comte de Falkenstein, for a six-week visit during which he toured Paris extensively and was a guest at Versailles. He met his sister and her husband on April 18, 1777 at the château de la Muette, and spoke frankly to his brother-in-law, curious as to why the royal marriage had not been consummated, arriving at the conclusion that no obstacle to the couple’s conjugal relations existed save the queen’s lack of interest and the king’s unwillingness to exert himself. In a letter to his brother Leopold, Joseph described them as “a couple of complete blunderers.”

His Imperial Majesty The Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, King of Germany, Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Archduke of Austria, etc.

Suggestions that Louis suffered from phimosis, which was relieved by circumcision, have been discredited. Nevertheless, following Joseph’s intervention, the marriage was finally consummated in August 1777. Eight months later, in April 1778, it was suspected that the queen was pregnant, which was officially announced on May 16, 1778 (the couple’s eight Wedding Anniversary). Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born at Versailles on December 19, 1778.

* The Seven Years Warrior was a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, South Asia, and the Philippines. For this reason the Seven Years War is often called World War 0 by some historians.

Accession of Ferdinand III as Holy Roman Emperor.

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Archduke of Austria, Austria, Carl X Gustav of Sweden, Ferdinand III, France, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Sweden

Ferdinand III (July 13, 1608 – April 2, 1657) was Holy Roman Emperor from February 15, 1637 until his death, as well as King of Hungary and Croatia, King of Bohemia and Archduke of Austria. He was the last emperor to have real power over the Holy Roman Empire.

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Ferdinand was born in Graz, the eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand II of the House of Habsburg and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria. Educated by the Jesuits, he became Archduke of Austria in 1621, King of Hungary in 1625, and King of Bohemia in 1627.

In 1627 Ferdinand enhanced his authority and set an important legal and military precedent by issuing a Revised Land Ordinance that deprived the Bohemian estates of their right to raise soldiers, reserving this power solely for the monarch.

Having been elected King of the Romans in 1636, he succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1637. He hoped to make peace soon with France and Sweden, but the war dragged on, finally ending in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia (Treaty of Münster with France, Treaty of Osnabrück with Sweden), negotiated by his envoy Maximilian von und zu Trauttmansdorff, a diplomat who had been made a count in 1623 by his father Ferdinand II.

During the last period of the war, in 1644 Ferdinand III gave all rulers of German states the right to conduct their own foreign policy (ius belli ac pacis) – the emperor hoped to gain more allies in the negotiations with France and Sweden. This edict, however, contributed to the gradual erosion of the imperial authority in the Holy Roman Empire.
After 1648 the emperor was engaged in carrying out the terms of the treaty and ridding Germany of the foreign soldiery. In 1656 he sent an army into Italy to assist Spain in her struggle with France, and he had just concluded an alliance with Poland to check the aggressions of Carl X Gustav of Sweden when he died on April 2, 1657. He was succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his second surviving son, Leopold I (1640-1705).

Marriages and children

On February 20, 1631 Ferdinand III married his first wife Archduchess Maria Anna of Spain (1606–1646). She was the youngest daughter of Felipe III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. They were first cousins as Maria Anna’s mother was a sister of Ferdinand’s father. They were parents to six children:
* Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans (8 September 1633 – 9 July 1654)
* Maria Anna “Mariana”, Archduchess of Austria (22 December 1634 – 16 May 1696). Married her maternal uncle Felipe IV of Spain.
* Philip August, Archduke of Austria (15 July 1637 – 22 June 1639)
* Maximilian Thomas, Archduke of Austria (21 December 1638 – 29 June 1639)
* Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor (9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705)
* Maria, Archduchess of Austria (13 May 1646)

In 1648, Ferdinand III married his second wife, Archduchess Maria Leopoldine of Austria (1632–1649). She was a daughter of Leopold V, Archduke of Austria, and Claudia de’ Medici. They were first cousins as male-line grandchildren of Karl II, Archduke of Austria, and Maria Anna of Bavaria. They had a single son:
* Karl Josef, Archduke of Austria (7 August 1649 – 27 January 1664). He was Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights from 1662 to his death.

In 1651, Ferdinand III married his 3rd wife Eleonora Gonzaga (1630–1686). She was a daughter of Charles IV Gonzaga, Duke of Rethel. They were parents to four children:
* Theresia Maria Josefa, Archduchess of Austria (27 March 1652 – 26 July 1653)
* Eleonora Maria of Austria (21 May 1653 – 17 December 1697), who married first Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki, King of Poland, and then Charles Léopold, Duke of Lorraine.
* Maria Anna Josepha of Austria (30 December 1654 – 4 April 1689), who married Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine.
* Ferdinand Josef Alois, Archduke of Austria (11 February 1657 – 16 June 1658)

Anne of Brittany: Part II

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Anne of Brittany, Austria, Ferdinand and Isabella, Ferdinand II of Aragon, Habsburg, Holy Roman Empire, Isabella I of Castile, King Charles VIII of France, Kingdom of France, Louis XI of France, Maximilian I of Austria, Spain

(Recreation of the Marriage of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII of France)

Anne was crowned Duchess of Brittany in Rennes on February 10, 1489, five months after the death of her father Francis II, Duke of Brittany. Although the semi-salic law allowed for female succession her marriage was a matter of great state importance because, despite her being a sovereign in her own right, women’s liberation was centuries away therefore any husband would have a hand in ruling the duchy. This made Anne not only a sought after bride, many European states were eager to add Brittany to their domains.

Anne was married three times. Prior to her first marriage to Archduke Maximilian I of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) Anne was betrothed numerous times. Here is a list of the Royal suitors to whom she had been promised.

* In 1480 she was officially promised in marriage to Edward, Prince of Wales, son of Edward IV of England; however, (future Edward V) soon after the death of Edward IV in 1483 the boy disappeared, presumed to have been killed – some say on the orders of his regent, Richard III.
* Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduke of Austria, widower of Mary of Burgundy, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
* Alain I of Albret, son of Catherine of Rohan and Jean I of Albret. Through his mother, he was a great-grandson of Duke Jean V of Brittany, and thus a possible heir. Although he was an ally of Duke Francis II, Anne refused to marry him because she found him repulsive.
* Louis, Duke of Orléans, cousin of King Charles VIII of France and in turn future King, was another aspirant for her hand, despite being already married to the King’s sister Joan.
* John IV of Chalon-Arlay, Prince of Orange. A grandson of Richard, Count of Étampes, and nephew of Francis II, he was in line to the throne after Anne and Isabelle.
* Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. In 1488 Henry VII had suggested a marriage between Buckingham and Anne, but in December 1489 the executors of Henry Percy, 4th Earl of Northumberland, paid the King £4000 for Buckingham’s marriage to Percy’s eldest daughter Eleanor.

At the tender age of thirteen, on December 19, 1490, Anne married Archduke Maximilian I of Austria (future Holy Roman Emperor) at Rennes Cathedral by proxy, which conferred upon her the title Queen of the Romans. The French regarded this union as a serious provocation. First, it was a violation not of the Treaty of Sablé which required any marriage to Duchess Anne to be sanctioned by the King of France who did not personally consent to the marriage. The larger, and more important political issue, was this marriage reintroduced the Habsburgs in general and the Holy Roman Empire specifically, an enemy of the French, as a ruler of Brittany, and this was a position the French had been avoiding during the 14th and 15th centuries.

Things were not to be between Anne and Maximillian as the politics of the day prevented this marriage from going any further than a proxy ceremony. King Louis XI of France had his eyes set on Anne to marry the Dauphin of France, Charles of Valois, and Louis XI had his heart on ruling Brittany. However, the betrothal between Charles of Valois and Archduchess Margaret of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Maximilian of Austria (later Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I) and Mary, Duchess of Burgundy. (Mary was the Duchess of Burgundy in her own right and in a similar situation to Anne of Brittany)had to be addressed before and arrangement could be made between Charles of Valois and Anne of Brittany.

The 13 year old Charles of Valois had been formally betrothed on July 22, 1483 to the 3-year-old Archduchess Margaret of Austria. It would be a difficult betrothal to break. The marriage had been arranged by Louis XI, Maximilian I, and the Estates of the Low Countries as part of the 1482 Peace of Arras between France and the Duchy of Burgundy. Margaret brought a wealthy dowry with her, the Counties of Artois and Burgundy to France and she was raised in the French court as a prospective Queen consort of France. Giving up the Counties of Artois and Burgundy in exchange for the duchy of Brittany seemed to be a worthwhile risk to take.

In 1488, however, Francis II, Duke of Brittany, having died in a riding accident leaving his 11-year-old daughter Anne as the new reigning duchess speeded up the desire to incorporate Brittany into the French crown. Anne, strongly desired that Brittany remained an independent duchy and was against the ambitions of France and King Louis XI. Therefore an arranged marriage was conducted in 1490 between herself and the widower Maximilian, thus making Anne a stepmother to Margaret of Austria, the perspective bride of Charles of Valois. This marriage would place the Habsburg lead Holy Roman Empire, long the enemy of France, as the protectorate of the duchy’s independence.

A month after the betrothal of between Charles of Valois and Archduchess Margaret of Austria in 1483, King louis XI of France died and his 13 year old son, Charles of Valois, succeed to the throne as King Charles VIII of France. The elder sister of Louis XI, Anne of France, had been appointed regent jointly with her husband Peter II, Duke of Bourbon until 1491 when the young king turned 21 years of age. When learning of the prospective union between Anne of Brittany and Archduke Maximilian I, the regent Anne of France and her husband Peter refused to sanction the marriage (her marriage had to be approved of by the king of France per the treaty of Treaty of Sablé) because it placed the Habsburgs on two French borders.

In response to the marriage the French army invaded Brittany, taking advantage of the preoccupation of Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich III and his son (Maximilian) with the disputed succession of Mathias Corvinus to the Kingship of Hungary, another domain which the family ruled. With Brittany now an occupied territory of France, Anne of Brittany was forced to renounce Maximilian (whom she had only married by proxy) and reluctantly agreed to be married to Charles VIII instead.

Marriage to Anne of Brittany at the Château de Langeais.

In December of 1491, Charles VIII of France and Anne of Brittany were married in an elaborate ceremony at the Château de Langeais. The 14-year-old Duchess Anne, entered this marriage under protest and was unhappy about the arrangement. When she arrived for the wedding ceremony with her entourage they were carrying two beds sending the king a clear message this would be a union of political convenience and nothing more. For Charles VIII the marriage brought him freedom and independence from his aunt, Regent Anne of France, Duchess of Bourbon and thereafter was allowed to rule on his own. Anne, Duchess of Brittany was now Queen Anne of France and she lived at the Clos Lucé in Amboise separate from her husband the king.

However, there still remained the matter of Charles’ first betrothed, the young Archduchess Margaret of Austria. Although the cancellation of her betrothal meant that she by rights should have been returned to the Habsburg family, Charles did not initially do so, intending to marry her usefully elsewhere in France. This placed the young Margaret in a difficult situation. Desperate, Margaret informed her father in her letters that she was so determined to escape that she would even flee Paris in her nightgown if it gave her her freedom. Eventually, in 1493, she was returned to her family, together with her dowry – though the Duchy of Burgundy was kept in the Treaty of Senlis.

Upon her return to Austria, Margaret was betrothed to Juan, Prince of the Asturias and heir to the newly united Spanish throne. The Prince of the Asturias was the only son of Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Fernando II of Aragon. In order to completely solidify this Spanish alliance Maximilian started negotiating the marriage of his son, Archduke Philipp of Austria, to the Spanish royal couple’s daughter, Infanta Juanna.

Margaret left the Netherlands for Spain late in 1496. The marriage took place in 1497. Juan, Prince of the Asturias died after only six months, on October 4, 1497, widowed Margaret, now Dowager Princess of the Austirias was left pregnant, and sadly on April 2, 1498 she gave birth to a premature stillborn daughter. The Dowager Princess of Asturias then returned to the Netherlands early in 1500, when her brother and sister-in-law (Philipp and Juanna) invited her to be godmother to their newborn son, Charles of Austria, the future powerful Holy Roman Emperor Karl V who was also Carlos I of Spain.

The limits of power of monarchs in exile: Part II

Tags

Austria, Austria-Hungary, Constitutional Monarchy, Karl von Habburg, King Michael of Romania, Otto von Habsburg, Romania, SalicLaw

 Last week I wrote of the controversy surrounding the disputed successor to the Headship of the Royal House of Saxony. This raises the question of does the head of these former ruling houses have the power to change centuries old house laws? With so many disputes after the head of the house dies, I guess the consensus is that they do not have that power or right. I think what may be closer to the truth is that the heads of these former ruling dynasties is that they have no power to make their new laws or ruling stick past their tenure as head of the house.

The Imperial House of Austria has been somewhat more successful in changing their house laws. They had had very rigid marital laws and when the now head of the house, Archduke Karl (Emperor Karl II to his supporters) married in 1993 to Baroness Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza. The marriage received the dynastic authorization of Karl’s father, Archduke Otto who was then head of the House of Habsburg, despite objections from some members of the dynasty because the brides family was not aristocratic enough. Baroness Francesca is the only daughter of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kászon, a European industrialist, and his third wife, Fiona Campbell-Walter. The Thyssen-Bornemisza family is of the nobility of pre-republican Hungary and Transylvania, but since they did not descend in the canonically legitimate male line from a family of dynastic, mediatised or alter Adel status, many former Habsburg family members protested the marriage. Since that time Otto amended the rigid marriage rules to allow marriages into noble families that would not have been deemed acceptable during the times when the dynasty ruled.

Romania is another case. King Michael was ousted in 1946 (many say illegally) and he leaves no male heir. His eldest daughter is Princess Margarita and in 2007 the king designated her as his heir with the titles of “Crown Princess of Romania” and “Custodian of the Romanian Crown.” This is technically against the Romanian kingdom’s last democratically approved constitution of 1923 which was in effect while the monarchy was extant. That constitution stated that upon the death of King Michael, and should he have no sons, the claim to the Crown devolves once again upon the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen family from which the Romanian royal family descends.

The Constitution of 1923 provides for an agnatic primogeniture (basically the “Salic law”) which means males only may inherit the throne, barring females, and females may not pass succession rights to their children. However, the 1923 Constitution is no longer in affect but many feel that the traditions behind those ancient laws still carry the rule of the day. Under the old constitution the next in line to the Romanian throne are the descendants of Friedrich Wilhelm, Prince of Hohenzollern (1924-2010).

These are the Hohenzollern members in line to the throne under the old Constitution.

1. Karl Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern (b. 1952)
2. Alexander, Hereditary Prince of Hohenzollern (b. 1987)
3. Prince Albrecht of Hohenzollern (b. 1954)

4. Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern (b. 1960)
5. Prince Aloys of Hohenzollern (b. 1999)
6. Prince Fidelis of Hohenzollern (b. 2001)

The Romanian situation is complex and so I will continue with this next week and then give my overall opinion on if a former monarch or head of a former ruling dynasty does have the right to change their house laws.

Aftermath of the Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

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Austria, Austria-Hungary, Austrian Empire, Franz-Ferdinand, Franz-Josef, Gavrilo Princip, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany

Aftermath of the Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

One of the sad things for me is that even in death the insults and snubs to the Archduke’s wife Sofie continued. Alfred, 2nd Prince of Montenuovo, Emperor Franz Joseph’s Chamberlain, hated Franz Ferdinand and Sophie passionately and decided to turn the funeral into a massive and vicious snub. Foreign royalty had been invited to the funeral and planned to attend. Generally when an heir to the throne had passed away there were would be a large funeral attended by many royal heads of state. However, on this occasion they were pointedly dis-invited and a much smaller funeral planned with just the immediate imperial family, with the dead couple’s three children excluded from the few public ceremonies. The officer corps was forbidden to salute the funeral train, and this led to a minor revolt led by Archduke Karl, the new heir to the throne. The public viewing of the coffins was curtailed severely and even more scandalously, Montenuovo tried unsuccessfully to make the children foot the bill. Also during the viewing the Archduke’s coffin was set higher than Sofie’s to remind all that she was not an equal to her husband. The Archduke and Duchess were interred at Artstetten Castle because his wife could not be buried at the Imperial Crypt.

Of course the largest aftermath was War. However, I wanted to share what happened to the assassin, Gavrilo Princip. Like his fellow assassin Čabrinović who tried to swallow the cyanide pill but vomited instead, Princip had the same experience with his cyanide pill. It seems they had purchased stale cyanide that was out of date. Princeip was arrested and in October of 1914 was convicted of his part in the murder of the Archduke and his wife. Princip was too young to receive the death penalty, being only twenty-seven days short of the 20-year age limit required by Habsburg law for the death sentence. Instead, he received the maximum sentence of twenty years in prison. He was held in harsh conditions and squalor which were worsened by the war as supplies went to the war effort. While in prison he contracted tuberculosis. He died on April 28, 1918 at Terezín 3 years and 10 months after he assassinated the Archduke and Duchess. At the time of his death, Princip, weakened by malnutrition and disease, weighed around 40 kilograms (88 lb; 6 st 4 lb). His body had become racked by skeletal tuberculosis that ate away his bones so badly that his right arm had to be amputated. Now I am not happy that this man assassinated the Archduke and Duchess, but his treatment in prison was inhumane.

As the saying goes “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”? He’s their freedom fighter. Well in Serbia Princip is still regarded as a national hero and on the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Archduke and Duchess Bosnian Serbs erected a statue of Gavrilo Princip.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/27/gavrilo-princip-statue_n_5538356.html

War broke out on July 28th, 1914 when Austria fired the first shots in its invasion of Serbia. Russia mobilized against Germany, while Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, causing Britain to declare war on Germany. Closer to July 28th I will focus on what the three emperors, Franz-Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Nicholas II of Russia and Wilhelm II of Germany, did to either prevent or encourage the war.

The Fall of Louis XVI of France and Navarre: Part V

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Austria, Emperor Leopold II, Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, Holy Roman Empire, Leopold II, Louis XIV of France, Louis XVI of France, Marie Antoinette, Tuileries Palace

Part V

Despite the Kings flight from the Palace the Legislative Assembly still favored a constitutional monarchy. After a new Constitution was written and Louis agreed to swear an oath to uphold it, there was still a chance the monarchy could survive. What most people often think is that that the Enlightenment ideals were against a monarchy because the French Revolution came so quickly on the heels of the American Revolution where the former British Colonies said “No” to being ruled by a king. That is not the case. The Enlightenment ideals supported many types of government as long as it was the will of the people and that they had a say in the process of government. While an absolute monarchy, which was the type Louis XVI inherited, was not congenial to Enlightenment principles but a constitutional or limited monarchy was favorable because it limited the powers of the monarch and allowed for elected officials that represented the populace.

However, it seems with what transpired next, it wasn’t so much that a constitutional monarchy was against the Enlightenment or the Revolution, it seems that those in the French government grew tired of Louis. One of the events that lead to the toppling of Louis and his crown was the war between France and the Holy Roman Empire in April of 1792. At this time Marie-Antoinette’s brother, was Leopold II, the Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold, along with King Friedrich-Wilhelm III of Prussia and French Émigrés issued the Declaration of Pillnitz, which declared that in the interest of the all European monarchs of Europe that the well-being of Louis and his family was essential, and threatened vague but severe consequences if anything should befall them. Shortly after this deceleration the Legislative Assembly, with the support of Louis, ironically, declared war on the Holy Roman Empire.

This war solidified many factions within the Revolution. To these revolutionaries this war was not about the protection of the Royal Family but against French sovereignty itself. When the leader of the Prussian-Austrian army Prince Carl-Wilhelm-Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick issued a proclamation called the Brunswick Manifesto on July 25, 1792, written by Louis’s émigré cousin, Louis Joseph de Bourbon the Prince de Condé, declaring the intent of the Austrians and Prussians to restore the king to his full powers and to treat any person or town who opposed them as rebels to be condemned to death by martial law, this was the final blow for Louis.

Paris mobs had reached their boiling point. With foreign powers threatening to give Louis his full absolute powers and threatening French sovereignty, Paris mobs marched on the Tuileries Palace where both the Royal Family and the monarchist members of the Legislative Assembly had taken refuge. On August 13, 1792 Louis XVI and his family were formally arrested. The Legislative Assembly was replaced by a National Assembly which formally abolished the Monarchy on September 21, 1792.

It is difficult to evaluate Louis’ actions and figure where did he go wrong? One of Louis’ problems was that he was a kind man yet indecisive. If he had been a powerful presence would the outcome have been the same? I really don’t know. It seems even with a powerful ruler the Revolution was larger than one man. In the light of the revolution many of Louis’ actions are understandable.

As a prisoner in the Tuileries Palace he had but little choice but to go along with the revolutionary government. I don’t think all of his actions with the government were insincere. While he was an absolute monarch at heart he did show some level of willingness to work with the government. I do not really think Louis would have objected to a role as a Constitutional monarch. I do see the radical nature of the Revolutionary assemblies as having much to do with Louis’ downfall. It was not all of his fault.

He did, however, play a role. The two largest issues seem to be his flight from the Tuileries Palace and his plotting with foreign powers to end the revolution and to be restored to his full powers. I do think those were the two major points that brought Louis down. However, I can have empathy for him. I do not blame him for trying to regain power. Who wouldn’t have under those circumstances? Plus after a couple of years being a prisoner in his own palace, I can’t blame him for trying to flee that condition.

For myself, I think the larger problem was the absolute monarchy itself. The seeds were sown and the threads for its downfall were laid in the times of Louis XIV. His hunger for power, territory and war was something his successor Louis XV strived for. In some lesser extent so did Louis XVI. Another key ingredient was by placing the court at Versailles and isolating the King from his people, the monarchy lost touch with the common man and his sufferings. That was the true issue that brought down the monarchy.