History of the Kingdom of Croatia. Part IV. The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

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Austrian Empire, Dual Monarchy, Emperor Charles I-IV of Austria-Hungary and King of Croatia-Slavonia, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary and King of Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Croatia, Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia

The Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia was created in 1868, when the former kingdoms of Croatia and Slavonia were joined into one single kingdom (the full civil administration was introduced in the Kingdom of Slavonia in 1745 and it was, as one of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen, administratively included into both Kingdom of Croatia and Kingdom of Hungary, but it existed virtually until 1868).

The Croatian parliament, elected in a questionable manner, confirmed the subordination of Croatia–Slavonia to Hungary in 1868 with signing of Hungarian–Croatian union constitution called the Nagodba (Croatian–Hungarian Settlement, known also as Croatian–Hungarian Agreement or Hungarian–Croatian Compromise of 1868). This kingdom included parts of present-day Croatia and Serbia (eastern part of Syrmia).

After the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 the only remaining open question of the new state was the status of Croatia, which would be solved with the Hungarian–Croatian Compromise of 1868 when agreement was reached between the Parliament of Hungary on one hand and the Parliament of Croatia–Slavonia on the other hand, with regard to the composition by a joint enactment of the constitutional questions at issue between them.

Settlement reached between Hungary and Croatia was in Croatian version of the Settlement named “The Settlement between Kingdom of Hungary, united with Erdély on the one side and the Kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia”.

In the Hungarian version neither Hungary, nor Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia are styled kingdoms, and Erdély is not even mentioned, while Settlement is named as the Settlement between Parliament of Hungary and Parliament of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. Both versions received Royal sanction and both as such became fundamental laws of the state with constitutional importance, pursuant to article 69. and 70. of the Settlement.

Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, King of Croatia-Slavonia

With this compromise the parliament of personal union (in which Croatia–Slavonia had only twenty-nine, after 1881 – forty deputies) controlled the military, the financial system, Sea (Maritime) Law, Commercial Law, the law of Bills of Exchange and Mining Law, and generally matters of commerce, customs, telegraphs, Post Office, railways, harbours, shipping, and those roads and rivers which jointly concern Hungary and Croatia–Slavonia.

Similarly to these affairs, trade matters including hawking, likewise with regard to societies which do not exist for public gain, and also with regard to passports, frontier police, citizenship and naturalization, the legislation was joint, but the executive in respect of these affairs was reserved to Kingdom of Croatia–Slavonia.

The citizenship was named “Hungarian–Croatian citizenship” in Croatia–Slavonia. In the end, fifty-five per cent of the total income of Croatia–Slavonia were assigned to the Joint Treasury (“Joint Hungarian–Croatian Ministry of Finance”).

The kingdom used the formal title of the Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, thereby pressing its claim on the Kingdom of Dalmatia. But Dalmatia was a Kronland within the imperial Austrian part of Austria-Hungary (also known as Cisleithania).

The claim was, for most of the time, supported by the Hungarian government, which backed the Croatia–Slavonia in an effort to increase its share of the dual state.

The union between the two primarily Croatian lands of Austria-Hungary never took place, however. According to the Article 53 of the Croatian–Hungarian Agreement, governing Croatia’s political status in the Hungarian-ruled part of Austria-Hungary, the ban’s official title was “Ban of Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia”.

Emperor Charles I-IV of Austria-Hungary and King of Croatia-Slavonia

Not only would different parts of the Monarchy at the same time use different styles of the titles, but even the same institutions would at the same time use different naming standards for the same institution.

For instance, when the Imperial and Royal Court in Vienna would list the Croatian Ban as one of the Great Officers of State in the Kingdom of Hungary (Barones Regni), the style used would be Regnorum Croatiae, Dalmatiae et Slavoniae Banus, but when the Court would list the highest officials of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia, the title would be styled as “Ban of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia” (putting Slavonia before Dalmatia and omitting “Kingdom”). The laws passed in Croatia–Slavonia used the phrase “Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia”.

The kingdom existed until 1918 when it joined the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, which together with the Kingdom of Serbia formed the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The new Serb–Croat–Slovene Kingdom was divided into counties between 1918 and 1922 and into oblasts between 1922 and 1929. With the formation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, most of the territory of the former Kingdom of Croatia–Slavonia became a part of the Sava Banate and in 1939 autonomous Croatian Banate (Banovina of Croatia).

August 6, 1806: The Holy Roman Empire is Dissolved

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Abdication, Austrian Empire, Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Battle of Austerlitz, Confederation of the Rhine, Franz II-I, German Empire, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria, Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred de facto on August 6, 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor, Franz II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, abdicated his title and released all imperial states and princes from their oaths and obligations to the empire.

Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria

The empire was dissolved following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon at Austerlitz. Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite.

Emperor Franz survived the demise of the Holy Roman Empire by continuing to reign as the Emperor of Austria.

Holy Roman Empire in 1806

In 1804 Emperor Franz united his hereditary lands as Archduke of Austria and Kings of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia into The Austrian Empire. Prior to the creation of this empire the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperors ruled these lands in person union and not as a centralized state.

The Austrian Empire would last until the Habsburg empire’s final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.

German Empire & Austrian-Hungarian Empire

The Napoleonic Confederation of the Rhine was replaced by a new union, the German Confederation in 1815, following the end of the Napoleonic Wars. It lasted until 1866 when Prussia founded the North German Confederation, a forerunner of the German Empire which united the German-speaking territories outside of Austria and Switzerland under Prussian leadership in 1871. This state developed into modern Germany.

From the Emperor’s Desk: Starting Monday I will begin a series on an in-depth examination of the ending of the Holy Roman Empire.

Radbot of Klettgau, Habsburg Castle and the Origins of the House of Habsburg

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Archduchy of Austria, Austrian Empire, Duke Friedrich IV of Austria, Habsburg Castle, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, House of Habsburg, Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Croatia, Kingdom of Hungry, Radbot of Klettgau

Radbot, Count of Klettgau (c. 985 – 1045) was Graf (Count) of the county of Klettgau on the High Rhine in Swabia. Radbot was one of the progenitors of the Habsburg dynasty, and he chose to name his fortress Habsburg.

Radbot of Klettgau

Radbot was probably the second son of Lanzelin of Klettgau (son of Guntram, Count in Breisgau) and the younger brother of Bishop Werner I of Strasbourg. In 1010, he married Ida (before 979–1035), daughter of Duke Friedrich I of Upper Lorraine and Beatrice of the Franks, Beatrice was a daughter of Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris and Hedwig of Saxony, making her sister of Hugh Capét, King of the Franks and niece of Otto I the Great, Holy Roman Emperor.

Their son was named Werner I, Count of Habsburg.

Radbot built Habsburg Castle, and in 1027 established Muri Abbey, built up by Benedictine monks descending from Einsiedeln Abbey.

Radbot’s grandson, Otto II, was the first of the dynasty to take the fortress name as his own, adding “Count of Habsburg” to his title. In 1273, Count Radbot’s seventh-generation descendant Count Rudolph I of Habsburg was elected King of the Romans.

Taking advantage of the extinction of the Babenbergs and of his victory over King Ottokar II of Bohemia at the battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, he subsequently moved the family’s power base to Vienna, where the Habsburgs ruled until 1918.

Coat of arms of the Counts of Habsburg

The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs from 1440 until their extinction in the male line in 1740 and, after the death of Franz I, from 1765 the hyphenated House of Habsburg-Lorraine until its dissolution in 1806.

The House of Habsburg also produced kings of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Galicia-Lodomeria, with their respective colonies; rulers of several principalities in the Low Countries and Italy; and in the 19th century, emperors of Austria and of Austria-Hungary as well as one emperor of Mexico.

Habsburg Castle

Habsburg Castle is a medieval fortress located in what is now Habsburg, Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, near the Aar River. At the time of its construction, the location was part of the Duchy of Swabia. Habsburg Castle is the original seat of the House of Habsburg, which became one of the leading imperial and royal dynasties in Europe. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance.

Habsburg Castle

History

The castle was built around 1020 by Count Radbot, of the nearby county of Klettgau in the Duchy of Swabia, and Werner, Bishop of Strasbourg. They had the castle erected 35 km southwest of Klettgau, on the Aar, the largest tributary of the High Rhine. It is believed that he named the castle after a hawk (Hawks Castle) seen sitting on its walls. Some historians and linguists believe the name may come from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, as it is located near a ford of the Aar River.

Habsburg Castle’s importance diminished after Radbot’s seventh generation descendant Rudolph moved the family’s power base to Austria in 1276. Habsburg Castle remained property of the House of Habsburg until 1415, when Duke Friedrich IV of Austria lost the canton of Aargau to the Swiss Confederacy.

Charles I-IV, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Part IV.

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Armistace, Austrian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Charles I-IV of Austria-Hungary, Habsburg Law, World War I, Zita of Bourbon-Parma

On the day of the Armistice of November 11, 1918, Charles issued a carefully worded proclamation in which he recognized the Austrian people’s right to determine the form of the state and “relinquish[ed] every participation in the administration of the State.” He also released his officials from their oath of loyalty to him. On the same day, the Imperial Family left Schönbrunn Palace and moved to Castle Eckartsau, east of Vienna. On November 13, following a visit with Hungarian magnates, Charles issued a similar proclamation—the Eckartsau Proclamation—for Hungary.

Charles I-IV

Charles I-IV

Although it has widely been cited as an “abdication”, the word itself was never used in either proclamation. Indeed, he deliberately avoided using the word abdication in the hope that the people of either Austria or Hungary would vote to recall him. Privately, Charles left no doubt that he believed himself to be the rightful emperor. He wrote to Friedrich Gustav Piffl, the Archbishop of Vienna: “I did not abdicate, and never will […] I see my manifesto of November 11, as the equivalent to a cheque which a street thug has forced me to issue at gunpoint […] I do not feel bound by it in any way whatsoever.”

Instead, on November 12, the day after he issued his proclamation, the independent Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed, followed by the proclamation of the First Hungarian Republic on November 16. An uneasy truce-like situation ensued and persisted until March, 23 to 24, 1919, when Charles left for Switzerland, escorted by the commander of the small British guard detachment at Eckartsau, Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt.

As the imperial train left Austria on March 24, 1919, Charles issued another proclamation in which he confirmed his claim of sovereignty, declaring that “whatever the national assembly of German Austria has resolved with respect to these matters since November 11, 1918 is null and void for me and my House.” The newly established republican government of Austria was not aware of this “Manifesto of Feldkirch” at this time—it had been dispatched only to King Alfonso XIII of Spain and to Pope Benedict XV through diplomatic channels—and politicians in power were irritated by the Emperor’s departure without explicit abdication.

The Austrian Parliament responded on April 3, with the Habsburg Law, which dethroned and banished the Habsburgs. Charles was barred from ever returning to Austria. Other male Habsburgs could only return if they renounced all intentions of reclaiming the throne and accepted the status of ordinary citizens. Another law passed on the same day abolished all nobility in Austria. In Switzerland, Charles and his family briefly took residence at Castle Wartegg near Rorschach at Lake Constance, and later moved to Château de Prangins at Lake Geneva on May 20.

Attempts to reclaim throne of Hungary

Charles sought twice in 1921 to reclaim the throne of Hungary, but failed largely because Hungary’s regent, Admiral Miklós Horthy (the last commander of the Imperial and Royal Navy), refused to support Charles’ restoration. Horthy’s action was declared “treasonous” by royalists. Critics suggest that Horthy’s actions were more firmly grounded in political reality than those of Charles and his supporters. Indeed, neighbouring countries had threatened to invade Hungary if Charles tried to regain the throne. Later in 1921, the Hungarian parliament formally nullified the Pragmatic Sanction, an act that effectively dethroned the Habsburgs.

After the second failed attempt at restoration in Hungary, Charles and his pregnant wife Zita were arrested and quarantined at Tihany Abbey. On November 1, 1921 they were taken to the Hungarian Danube harbour city of Baja, were taken onboard the monitor HMS Glowworm, and there removed to the Black Sea where they were transferred to the light cruiser HMS Cardiff.

On November 19, 1921 they arrived at their final exile, the Portuguese island of Madeira. Determined to prevent a third restoration attempt, the Council of Allied Powers had agreed on Madeira because it was isolated in the Atlantic Ocean and easily guarded.

The couple and their children, who joined them on February 2, 1922, lived first at Funchal at the Villa Vittoria, next to Reid’s Hotel, and later moved to Quinta do Monte. Compared to the imperial glory in Vienna and even at Eckartsau, conditions there were certainly impoverished.

Charles did not leave Madeira. On March 9, 1922 he had caught a cold in town, which developed into bronchitis and subsequently progressed to severe pneumonia. Having suffered two heart attacks, he died of respiratory failure on April 1, in the presence of his wife (who was pregnant with their eighth child) and nine-year-old former Crown Prince Otto, remaining conscious almost until his last moments.

His last words to his wife were “I love you so much.” His remains except for his heart are still on the island, resting in state in a chapel devoted to the Emperor in the Church of Our Lady of The Hill (Igreja de Nossa Senhora do Monte), in spite of several attempts to move them to the Habsburg Crypt in Vienna. His heart and the heart of his wife are entombed in Muri Abbey, Switzerland.

Favorite Crown # 4: The Imperial Crown of Austria.

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Austria-Hungary, Austrian Empire, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, Holy Roman Empire, Imperial Crown of Austria, Imperial Crown of Rudolf II, Regalia

The Imperial Crown of Austria was made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen as the personal crown of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II, and therefore is also known as the Crown of Emperor Rudolf II. The crown was used as a private crown of the Holy Roman Emperors and Kings of Hungary and Bohemia from the House of Habsburg. In 1804 it became the official crown of the newly constituted Austrian Empire. After 1867 it remained the imperial crown of the Cisleithanian part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918.

Rudolf II (July 18, 1552 – January 20, 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg.

He was the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, and King of Hungary and Croatia; his mother was Infanta Maria of Spain, a daughter of Charles V (Carlos I of Spain) and Infante Isabella of Portugal. He was the elder brother of Matthias who was to succeed him as king of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor.

Since the Imperial Regalia of the Holy Roman Empire, including the Crown, were kept in Nuremberg and could only leave the city for a coronation, some rulers had their own personal crowns made. For example, when they attended a session of the Imperial Diet (Reichstag), they attended with their own crowns. The oldest depiction of such a private crown is an etching by the artist Albrecht Dürer of Emperor Maximilian I, where a depiction of a crown is seen that might have later influenced the appearance of the crown of Rudolf II.

Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor.

The Imperial Crown of the Habsburg Empire of Austria was never used for a coronation, since, unlike the Holy Roman Empire, it was a hereditary monarchy and such an act of legitimization was not seen as necessary. The ceremony held was an act of investiture to mark the monarch’s official ascension to the throne rather than a coronation.

The crown of Rudolf II was made in 1602 in Prague by Jan Vermeyen, one of the most outstanding goldsmiths of his time, who was called specially from Antwerp. The crown is made out of three parts: the circlet (Kronreif), the high arch (Kronbügel), and a mitre (Mitra).

In the earlier forms of the Western mitre the peaks or ‘horns’ were over the ears, rather than over the face and back of the head. The form of mitre used in the imperial mitral crown preserved this earlier form. This form of the imperial mitre-crown can be seen in the extant portraits of such emperors as Friedrich III and Maximilian I, The bronze effigy of Maximilian I found on his monumental cenotaph in the court church in Innsbruck has a crown with two arches which cross over the top of the mitre and the unique form of the imperial crown adopted by Maximilian as Emperor of Mexico appears to have been modeled on this form, but with the half-arches and the eagles on the circlet on the front, back and sides.

In the later 17th century Baroque form of mitral crown of Leopold I the peaks of the mitre have been rounded into the hemispherical form Peter the Great would adopt as the Imperial Crown of Russia when he took the title emperor as Russian sovereign.

Although it is often assumed that the Imperial Crown made for Otto I with its single arch over its inner red cap was the original prototype for the western imperial crown, it is also possible that the Byzantine imperial crown, which in the twelfth century also became closed with two arches, inspired the western emperors to follow their example and also close their crowns with such a pair of arches.

The Imperial Crown is associated with the Imperial Orb and Sceptre, and they are displayed together in the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. The Imperial Orb was commissioned in 1612 by Rudolf’s brother and successor, Holy Roman Emperor Matthias, and was created by Andreas Ochsenbruck. The shape takes its inspiration from the crown, especially the enamel-work which is in the same style.

It is topped by a large sapphire. A peculiarity of the Sceptre is that it was said to be made from unicorn horn, but in fact it was made from the horn of a narwhal. The Imperial Orb and Sceptre were already in use before the proclamation of the Austrian Empire, as Bohemian royal regalia and for the hereditary private estates (Erbhuldigung) of the Archduchy of Austria.

10. The Crown of Bavaria.

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Austrian Empire, Crown of Bavaria, Elector of Bavaria, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, Emperor of the French, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, Kingdom of Bavaria, Maximilian IV Joseph of Bavaria, Maximilian of Bavaria, Napoleon Bonaparte

The Crown of the King of Bavaria is a part of the Bavarian Crown Jewels and was ordered and designed between 1804–1807 for Maximilian I after Napoleon had raised Bavaria to kingdom status.

The Crown of Bavaria

Maximilian I Joseph (May 27, 1756 – October 13, 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, Prince-Elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) from 1806 to 1825. He was a member of the House of Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken, a branch of the House of Wittelsbach.

On April 1, 1795, Maximilian succeeded his brother Duke Charles II August as Duke of Zweibrücken, however his duchy was entirely occupied by revolutionary France at the time.

Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria, Elector of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine

On February 16, 1799, he became Elector of Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine, Arch-Steward of the Empire, and Duke of Berg upon the extinction of the Palatinate-Sulzbach line at the death of Elector Charles IV Theodore of Bavaria.

The new elector Maximilian IV Joseph found the Bavarian army in abject condition on his accession to the throne: Hardly any of the units were at full strength, the Rumford uniforms were unpopular and impractical, and the troops were badly-trained. The young Prince-Elector, who had served under the Ancien Régime in France as a colonel in the Royal Deux-Ponts regiment, made the reconstruction of the army a priority.

Maximilian’s sympathy with France and the ideas of enlightenment at once manifested itself when he acceded to the throne of Bavaria. In the newly organized ministry, Count Max Josef von Montgelas, who, after falling into disfavour with Charles IV Theodore, had acted for a time as Maximilian IV Joseph’s private secretary, was the most potent influence, wholly “enlightened” and French.

Elector Charles IV Theodore of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine

Creation of the Kingdom of Bavaria

On December 30, 1777, the main line of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs became extinct, and the succession to the Electorate of Bavaria passed to Charles IV Theodore, the Elector Palatine of the Rhine. After a separation of four and a half centuries, the Palatinate, to which the duchies of Jülich and Berg had been added, was thus reunited with Bavaria.

Upon the succession of Charles IV Theodore, now both the Electorate of Bavaria and the Palatine of the Rhine, the title and authority of the two Electorates were combined, with Charles IV Theodore and his heirs retaining only the one vote and precedence as the Bavarian elector, although subsequent monarchs continued to use the title ‘Count Palatine of the Rhine.’

In 1792, French revolutionary armies overran the Palatinate; in 1795, the French, under Moreau, invaded Bavaria itself, advanced to Munich—where they were received with joy by the long-suppressed Liberals—and laid siege to Ingolstadt.

Charles IV Theodore, who had done nothing to prevent wars or to resist the invasion, fled to Saxony, leaving a regency, the members of which signed a convention with Moreau, by which he granted an armistice in return for a heavy contribution on September 7, 1796. Between the French and the Austrians, Bavaria was now in a bad situation. Before the death of Charles IV Theodore (16 February 1799), the Austrians had again occupied the country, in preparation for renewing the war with France.

Maximilian IV Joseph, the new elector, succeeded to a difficult inheritance. Though his own sympathies, and those of his all-powerful minister, Maximilian von Montgelas, were, if anything, French rather than Austrian, the state of the Bavarian finances, and the fact that the Bavarian troops were scattered and disorganized, placed him helpless in the hands of Austria.

Maximilian I Joseph, King of Bavaria

On December 2, 1800, the Bavarian armies were involved in the Austrian defeat at Hohenlinden, and Moreau once more occupied Munich. By the Treaty of Lunéville (February 9 1801), Bavaria lost the Palatinate and the duchies of Zweibrücken and Jülich. In view of the scarcely disguised ambitions and intrigues of the Austrian court, Montgelas now believed that the interests of Bavaria lay in a frank alliance with the French Republic; he succeeded in overcoming the reluctance of Maximilian IV Joseph; and, on August 24, a separate treaty of peace and alliance with France was signed at Paris.

In foreign affairs, Maximilian IV Joseph’s attitude was, from the German point of view, less commendable. He never had any sympathy with the growing sentiment of German nationality, and his attitude was dictated by wholly dynastic, or at least Bavarian, considerations. His reward came with the Treaty of Pressburg (26 December 1805), by the terms of which he was to receive the royal title and important territorial acquisitions in Swabia and Franconia to round off his kingdom. He assumed the title of king on 1 January 1806. On March 15, he ceded the Duchy of Berg to Napoleon’s brother-in-law Joachim Murat.

The King still served as an Elector until Bavaria seceded from the Holy Roman Empire on August 1, 1806. The Duchy of Berg was ceded to Napoleon only in 1806. The new kingdom faced challenges from the outset of its creation, relying on the support of Napoleonic France.

Until 1813, he was the most faithful of Napoleon’s German allies, the relationship cemented by the marriage of his eldest daughter, Princess Augusta of Bavaria, to Eugène de Beauharnais, Napoleon’s stepson.

The new King of Bavaria was the most important of the princes belonging to the Confederation of the Rhine, and remained Napoleon’s ally until the eve of the Battle of Leipzig, when by the Treaty of Ried (October 8, 1813) he made the guarantee of the integrity of his kingdom the price of his joining the Allies. On 14 October, Bavaria made a formal declaration of war against Napoleonic France.

Crown of Bavaria

The Crown of Bavaria was commissioned to the French goldsmith Jean-Baptiste de Lasne, who drew inspiration from the crown of Louis XV of France. Maximilian’s alliance with Emperor Napoleon earned him the royal title and vast territorial increases at the Treaty of Pressburg (1805). This made him one of the chief members of the Confederation of the Rhine.

Maximilian I ordered the regalia which can be seen today in the Treasury at the Residenz in Munich. Made by Biennais, the most famous French goldsmith of the day, the Royal Crown of Bavaria is set with rubies, diamonds, emeralds, sapphires and pearls. The Wittelsbach Diamond was removed and sold in 1931 by the Wittelsbach family.

Like other royal insignia, the crown was not worn by the sovereign. It was placed on a cushion during official ceremonies.

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).

November 21, 1916: Death of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary.

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Archduke Franz Karl, Archduke of Austria, Austrian Empire, Charles I of Austria, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Schönbrunn Palace, Sisi, Sophia of Bavaria, World War I

Franz Joseph I (August 18, 1830 – November 21, 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and monarch of many other states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from December 2, 1848 to his death. From May 1, 1850 to August 24, 1866 he was also President of the German Confederation, the successor state to the Holy Roman Empire. He was the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, as well as the third-longest-reigning monarch of any country in European history, after Louis XIV of France and Johann II of Liechtenstein.

Franz Joseph was born in the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna (on the 65th anniversary of the death his great-great grandfather Holy Roman Emperor Franz I of Lorraine) as the eldest son of Archduke Franz Karl (the younger son of Holy Roman Emperor Franz II), and his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria. Because his uncle, reigning from 1835 as the Emperor Ferdinand, was weak-minded, and his father unambitious and retiring, his mother of the young Archduke Franz Joseph brought him up as a future Emperor, with emphasis on devotion, responsibility and diligence.

During the Revolutions of 1848 the Austrian Chancellor Prince Metternich resigned (March-April 1848). The young Archduke, who (it was widely expected) would soon succeed his uncle on the throne, was appointed Governor of Bohemia on April 6, 1848, but never took up the post. As the revolutionaries of 1848 were marching on the palace, Emperor Ferdinand is supposed to have asked Metternich for an explanation. When Metternich answered that they were making a revolution, Ferdinand is supposed to have said “But are they allowed to do that?”

Emperor Ferdinand was convinced by Felix zu Schwarzenberg to abdicate in favour of his nephew, Franz Joseph (the next in line was Ferdinand’s younger brother Franz Karl, but he was persuaded to waive his succession rights in favour of his son). Therefore, with the abdication of his uncle Ferdinand and the renunciation of his father (the mild-mannered Franz Karl) Franz Joseph succeeded as Emperor of Austria at Olomouc on December 2. At first Franz Joseph wanted to reign as Franz II but given that his grandfather Franz I was also known as Franz II as the last Holy Roman Emperor he decided to avoid any confusion and became known by his second as well as his first Christian name.

Franz Joseph was troubled by nationalism during his entire reign. He concluded the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, which granted greater autonomy to Hungary and transformed the Austrian Empire into the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. He ruled peacefully for the next 45 years, but personally suffered the tragedies of the execution of his brother, the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico in 1867, the suicide of his only son and heir-apparent, Crown Prince Rudolf, in 1889, the assassination of his wife, Empress Elisabeth, in 1898, and the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in 1914.

After the Austro-Prussian War, Austria-Hungary turned its attention to the Balkans, which was a hotspot of international tension because of conflicting interests with the Russian Empire. The Bosnian Crisis was a result of Franz Joseph’s annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908, which had been occupied by his troops since the Congress of Berlin (1878).

On June 28, 1914, the assassination of his nephew and heir-presumptive, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in Sarajevo resulted in Austria-Hungary’s declaration of war against the Kingdom of Serbia, which was an ally of the Russian Empire. That activated a system of alliances which resulted in World War I.

Franz Joseph died in the Schönbrunn Palace on the evening of November 21, 1916, at the age of 86. His death was a result of developing pneumonia of the right lung several days after catching a coldwhile walking in Schönbrunn Park with King Ludwig III of Bavaria. He was succeeded by his grandnephew Karl I, who reigned until the collapse of the Empire following its defeat in 1918.

He is buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, where flowers are still left by monarchists.

The full list of title held by Franz Joseph (after the loss of the Lombardy in 1859 and Venetia in 1866):

Emperor of Austria, 
Apostolic King of Hungary,
 King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, and of Illyria, 
King of Jerusalem, and so forth,
 Archduke of Austria,
 Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Cracow,
 Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia, of Carniola and of the Bukovina,
 Grand Prince of Transylvania,
 Margrave in Moravia,
 Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara,
Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca,
 Prince of Trent and Brixen,
 Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria,
 Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, and so forth, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and of the Windic March, Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, and so forth, Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

This date in History: September 10, 1898. Assassination of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

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Austrian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Elisabeth of Austria, Emperor Franz Joseph, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Geneva Switzerland, Kingdom of Hungary, Luigi Lucheni

Elisabeth of Bavaria (December 24, 1837 – September 10, 1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria.

Born Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Munich, Bavaria, she was the fourth child of Duke Maximilian Joseph in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria, the half-sister of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. Nicknamed Sisi, she enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867.

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria

The death of her only son, Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and travelled widely, unaccompanied by her family. In 1890, she had a palace built on the Greek Island of Corfu that she visited often. The palace Achilleion, featuring an elaborate mythological motif, served as a refuge. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. At 172 cm (5 feet 8 inches), Elisabeth was unusually tall. Even after four pregnancies she maintained her weight at approximately 50 kg (110 pounds, 7 st 12 lbs) for the rest of her life. She achieved this through fasting and exercise, such as gymnastics and riding.

Assassination

Elisabeth spent little time in Vienna with her husband. Their correspondence increased during their last years, however, and their relationship became a warm friendship. On her imperial steamer, Miramar, Empress Elisabeth travelled through the Mediterranean. Her favourite places were Cape Martin on the French Riviera, and also Sanremo on the Ligurian Riviera, where tourism had started only in the second half of the nineteenth century; Lake Geneva in Switzerland; Bad Ischl in Austria, where the imperial couple would spend the summer; and Corfu Greece.

In 1898, despite warnings of possible assassination attempts, the 60-year-old Elisabeth traveled incognito to Geneva, Switzerland. However, someone from the Hôtel Beau-Ravage revealed that the Empress of Austria was their guest.

At 1:35 p.m. on Saturday September 10, 1898, Elisabeth and Countess Irma Sztáray de Sztára et Nagymihály, her lady-in-waiting, left the hotel on the shore of Lake Geneva on foot to catch the steamship Genève for Montreux. Since the empress despised processions, she insisted that they walk without the other members of her entourage, including her bodyguards.

They were walking along the promenade when the 25-year-old Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni approached them, attempting to peer underneath the empress’s parasol. According to Sztáray, as the ship’s bell announced the departure, Lucheni seemed to stumble and made a movement with his hand as if he wanted to maintain his balance. In reality, in an act of “propaganda of the deed”, he had stabbed Elisabeth with a sharpened needle file that was 4 inches (100 mm) long (used to file the eyes of industrial needles) that he had inserted into a wooden handle.

Lucheni originally planned to kill Prince Philippe, Duke of Orléans (1869–1926); but the Pretender to throne of France had left Geneva earlier for the Valais. Failing to find him, the assassin selected Elisabeth when a Geneva newspaper revealed that the elegant woman traveling under the pseudonym of “Countess of Hohenembs” was in fact the Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

After Lucheni struck her, the empress collapsed. A coach driver helped her to her feet and alerted the Austrian concierge of the Beau-Rivage, a man named Planner, who had been watching the empress’s progress toward the Genève. The two women walked roughly 100 yards (91 m) to the gangway and boarded, at which point Sztáray relaxed her hold on Elisabeth’s arm. The empress then lost consciousness and collapsed next to her.

Sztáray called for a doctor, but only a former nurse, a fellow passenger, was available. The boat’s captain, Captain Roux, was ignorant of Elisabeth’s identity and since it was very hot on deck, advised the countess to disembark and take her companion back to her hotel. Meanwhile, the boat was already sailing out of the harbor. Three men carried Elisabeth to the top deck and laid her on a bench. Sztáray opened her dress, cut Elisabeth’s corset laces so she could breathe. Elisabeth revived somewhat and Sztáray asked her if she was in pain, and she replied, “No”. She then asked, “What has happened?”and lost consciousness again.

Countess Sztáray noticed a small brown stain above the empress’s left breast. Alarmed that Elisabeth had not recovered consciousness, she informed the captain of her identity, and the boat turned back to Geneva. Elisabeth was carried back to the Hotel Beau-Rivage by six sailors on a stretcher improvised from a sail, cushions and two oars.

Fanny Mayer, the wife of the hotel director, a visiting nurse, and the countess undressed Elisabeth and removed her shoes, when Sztáray noticed a few small drops of blood and a small wound. When they then removed her from the stretcher to the bed she was clearly dead; Frau Mayer believed the two audible breaths she heard the Empress take as she was brought into the room were her last. Two doctors, Dr. Golay and Dr. Mayer arrived, along with a priest, who was too late to grant her absolution. Mayer incised the artery of her left arm to ascertain death, and found no blood. She was pronounced dead at 2:10 p.m. Everyone knelt down and prayed for the repose of her soul, and Countess Sztáray closed Elisabeth’s eyes and joined her hands.

No matter how reluctant or resentful she was of the title, Elisabeth had been the Empress of Austria for 44 years.

When Franz Joseph received the telegram informing him of Elisabeth’s death, his first fear was that she had committed suicide. It was only when a later message arrived, detailing the assassination, that he was relieved of that notion. The telegram asked permission to perform an autopsy, and the answer was that whatever procedures were prescribed by Swiss Law should be adhered to.

The autopsy was performed the next day by Golay, who discovered that the weapon, which had not yet been found, had penetrated 3.33 inches (85 mm) into Elisabeth’s thorax, fractured the fourth rib, pierced the lung and pericardium, and penetrated the heart from the top before coming out the base of the left ventricle.

On Wednesday morning, Elisabeth’s body was carried back to Vienna aboard a funeral train. The inscription on her coffin read, “Elisabeth, Empress of Austria”. The Hungarians were outraged and the words, “and Queen of Hungary” were hastily added. The entire Austro-Hungarian Empire was in deep mourning; 82 sovereigns and high-ranking nobles followed her funeral cortege on the morning of September 17, to the tomb in the Capuchin Church.

The Assassin

Lucheni was apprehended upon fleeing the scene and his file was found the next day. He told the authorities that he was an anarchist who came to Geneva with the intention of killing any sovereign as an example for others. Lucheni used the file because he didn’t have enough money for a stiletto.

His trial began the next month, in October. He was furious to find that capital punishment had been abolished in Geneva, and wrote a letter demanding that he be tried in another canton, such that he could be martyred. He received the sentence of life imprisonment.

Lucheni wrote his childhood memoirs while in Geneva’s Évêché prison. He was harassed in prison and his notebooks were stolen. He was found hanged in his cell on October 19, 1910. His head was preserved in formaldehyde and transferred to Vienna in 1986.

This date in History: August 11, 1804, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II assumes the title Emperor of Austria.

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Archduke Archduchess, Austria-Hungary, Austrian Empire, Emperor of the French, Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Marie Theresa, Napoleon Bonaparte

On August 6 I posted about the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire under Franz II in 1806. Two years prior to that he assumed the title “Emperor of Austria” and consolidated Habsburg hereditary lands.

In the face of aggressions by Napoleon I, who had been proclaimed “Emperor of the French” by the French constitution on May 18, 1804, Holy Roman Franz II feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family’s Imperial status in the event that the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved.

Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, Emperor of Austria.

Therefore, on August 11, 1804 he created the new title of “Emperor of Austria” for himself and his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. For two years, Franz carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Franz II and “by the Grace of God” Emperor Franz I of Austria. This made Franz the only double Emperor in History.

Therefore the title Emperor of Austria (German: Kaiser von Österreich) was the title for ruler of the Austrian Empire which later became the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 when the emperor, who was also King of Hungary raised that Kingdom to equal political status with Austria. The title was an hereditary imperial title invested in a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Carl I relinquished power in 1918.

Although Austria was now an Empire the emperors and the imperial family retained the title of Archduke of Austria. The wives of the emperors held the title empress, while other members of the family maintained the title archduke or archduchess of Austria.

Imperial Crown of Austria

Predecessors

Prior to the creation of the Austrian Empire members of the House of Austria, the Habsburg dynasty, (later Habsburg-Lorraine) had for centuries been elected to be Holy Roman Emperors and mostly resided in Vienna. Thus the term “Austrian emperor” may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, even though no Austrian Empire existed. In these cases the word Austria means the composite monarchy ruled by the dynasty, not the country. A special case was Maria Theresa; daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI, she bore the imperial title as the consort of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I (r. 1745–1765), but she herself was the monarch by hereditary right of the Austrian Hereditary Lands including Austria, Bohemia and Hungary.

From 1806 onwards, after the ancient Holy Roman Empire was dissolved, Franz was Emperor of Austria only. He had three successors—Ferdinand I, Franz Joseph I and Carl I before the Empire broke apart in 1918.

A coronation ceremony was never established; the heir to the throne became emperor the moment his predecessor died or abdicated. The symbol of the Austrian Emperor was the dynasty’s private crown dating back to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (r. 1576–1612), (called Rudolfinische Hauskrone by the experts), which should convey the dignity and myth of the Habsburgs.

Titles of the Emperor

The Austrian Emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. The grand title of the Emperor of Austria had been changed several times: by a patent of August 11, 1804, by a court office decree from August 22 1836, by an Imperial court ministry decree of January 6, 1867 and finally by a letter of December 12, 1867. Shorter versions were recommended for official documents and international treaties: “Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc. and Apostolic King of Hungary”, “Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary”, “His Majesty the Emperor and King” and “His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty”.

The full list (after the loss of the Lombardy in 1859 and Venetia in 1866):

Emperor of Austria,
Apostolic King of Hungary,
King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, and of Illyria,
King of Jerusalem, and so forth,
Archduke of Austria,
Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Cracow,
Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia, of Carniola and of the Bukovina,
Grand Prince of Transylvania,
Margrave in Moravia,
Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara,
Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca,
Prince of Trent and Brixen,
Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria,
Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, and so forth, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and of the Windic March,Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, and so forth, Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.