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.

Tags

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.

This date in History: August 6, 1806. Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

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Austrian Empire, Carlos III of Spain, Congress of Vienna, Emperorvof the French, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, Holy Roman Empire, Joseph II, Leopold II, Louis XIV, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte

Although I’m in the middle of a series of posts examining the origins of the Holy Roman Empire, I’d like to discuss the dissolution of the Empire on the 213th Anniversary of the ending of the Empire.

The dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire occurred de facto on August 6, 1806, when Emperor Franz II abdicated his Imperial title and released all imperial states and officials from their oaths and obligations to the empire. Although the abdication was considered legal, the dissolution of the imperial bonds was not and several states refused to recognise the end of the empire at the time.

Although today is the date the empire was dissolved, in many ways it was a mere formality as the empire had been deteriorating since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years War. The treaty gave the numerous states within the empire autonomy, ending the empire in all but name. The Swiss Confederation, which had already established quasi-independence in 1499, as well as the Northern Netherlands, also left the Empire at this juncture. The Habsburg Emperors then began to focus on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.

By the reign of Louis XIV of France in the mid 17th and early 18th centuries, France began to surpass the Holy Roman Empire as the dominant power in Europe. Also, the Habsburgs were chiefly dependent on their hereditary lands to counter the recent rise of Prussia; some of whose territories lay inside the Empire. Throughout the 18th century, the Habsburgs were embroiled in various European conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Polish Succession, and the War of the Austrian Succession. The German dualism between Austria and Prussia dominated the empire’s history in the 18th century as the two states vied for supremecy over the German lands.

From 1792 onwards, revolutionary France was at war with various parts of the Empire intermittently. 1792 was also the year Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II died and was succeeded by his son as Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor.

Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria.

Franz II (February 12, 1768 – March 2, 1835) born in Florence, the capital of Tuscany, where his father reigned as Grand Duke at the time. His parents were Emperor Leopold II (1747–1792) and his wife Maria Luisa of Spain (1745–1792), (daughter of King Carlos III of Spain, Naples and Sicily and Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, a daughter of the newly elected Polish king Augustus III and his (ironically) Austrian wife Maria Josepha of Austria.) Though Franz had a happy childhood surrounded by his many siblings, his family knew He was likely to be a future Emperor (his uncle Emperor Joseph II had no surviving issue from either of his two marriages), and so in 1784 the young Archduke Franz was sent to the Imperial Court in Vienna to educate and prepare him for his future role.

As Emperor and the leader of the large multi-ethnic Habsburg Empire, Franz II felt threatened by Napoleon’s social and political reforms, which were being exported throughout Europe with the expansion of the first French Empire. Franz had a fraught relationship with France. His aunt Marie Antoinette, the wife of Louis XVI and Queen consort of France, was guillotined by the revolutionaries in 1793, at the beginning of his reign. Franz, on the whole, was indifferent to her fate (she was not close to his father, Leopold II and although Franz had met her, he had been too young at the time to have any memory of his aunt). Georges Danton attempted to negotiate with the Emperor for Marie Antoinette’s release, but Franz was unwilling to make any concessions in return.

Napoleon, Emperor of the French.

In 1804, with the growing ambitions of Napoleon, who had himself proclaimed Emperor of France that year, Franz, knowing the end of the Holy Roman Empire was drawing nigh, established the Austrian Empire and became Franz I, the first Emperor of Austria, ruling from 1804 to 1835. This act made him the only Doppelkaiser (double emperor) in history.For the two years between 1804 and 1806, Franz used the title and style by the Grace of God elected Roman Emperor, ever Augustus, hereditary Emperor of Austria and he was called the Emperor of both the Holy Roman Empire and Austria. He was also Apostolic King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia as Franz I.

With Napoleon’s victory over Austria at the Battle of Austerlitz on December 2, 1805, the French Emperor “transformed himself from the guarantor of the Reich to the arbiter of its fate.” The subsequent Peace of Pressburg (December 26) created deliberate ambiguities in the imperial constitution. Bavaria, Baden and Württemberg were to have full sovereignty while remaining a part of the Germanic Confederation, a novel name for the Empire.

With the the signing of the Peace of Pressburg Emperor Franz II recognized the kingly titles assumed by the Electors of Bavaria and Württemberg, which foreshadowed the end of the Holy Roman Empire. At this point, he believed his position as Holy Roman Emperor to be untenable, so on August 6, 1806, he abdicated the throne, declaring the empire to be already dissolved in the same declaration. This was a political move to impair the legitimacy of the new entity, the Confederation of the Rhine, which had been created by Napoleon.

After the defeat of Napoleon the major European powers convened the Congress of Vienna. The objective of the Congress was to provide a long-term peace plan for Europe by settling critical issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was not simply to restore old boundaries but to resize the main powers so they could balance each other and remain at peace. The last Holy Roman Emperor Franz II, in his role as Emperor of Austria served as the first president of the German Confederation following its confirmation by the Congress in 1815.

Confederation of the Rhine

Survival of Monarchies

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20th Century, Absolute Monarchy, Austrian Empire, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, Emperor Nicholas II of Russia, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, German Empire, King Felipe VI of Spain, King of Hungary, King of Prussia, Kingdom of England, Monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark., Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, World War I, World War ii

This is an introduction to a new series.

Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, King of Hungary.
Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany, King of Prussia
Emperor Nicholas II of Russia
Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Queen Wilhelmina V of the Netherlands.
King Christian IX of Denmark
King Alfonso XIII of Spain
King Carlos I of Portugal and the Algarves
King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway
King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy
King Otto of Bavaria
King Albrecht of Saxony
King Wilhelm II of Württemberg
King George I of Greece
King Alexander I of Serbia
King Carol I of Romania

King Leopold II of Belgium
Grand Duke Friedrich of Baden
Grand Duke Friedrich Franz IV of Mechlenburg-Schwerin
Grand Duke Adolf Friedrich VI of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Grand Duke Ernst-Ludwig of Hesse and By Rhine
Grand Duke Adolphus of Luxembourg

Duke Carl-Eduard of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Prince Johann II of Liechtenstein
Prince Albert I of Monaco
Pope Leo XIII Sovereign of the Vatican City

Prince-Grand Master Giovanni Battista Ceschi a Santa Croce of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

 

This is a list of the monarchs who were on their throne on January 1, 1901 the day the 20th century began. By the end of the 20th century this list would be much shorter. The majority of thrones were lost after World War I and then again after World War II. This series is going to examine a hypothesis that I have. It seems the more autocratic and Conservative a monarchy was the more difficult it was for them to change and adapt to the changes within their nations. On the other hand, the more Liberal a state was, where the monarch ruled with a constitution, the more adaptable they were and willing to adjust to the changes within their nations and thus survive.

I will be examining the two more liberal monarchies, The United Kingdom and Denmark, to see how these more Liberal states survived, and I will examine the three large Empires of Europe, Germany, Austria and Russia to see how these Conservative regimes collapsed. I will start at a point in their histories where each state was more autocratic and conservative and how they each adapted or resisted the changing social and political movements that happened in European history.

Next Friday I will begin this series with England/The United Kingdom

I will leave you with a list of monarchies that thrive as of July, 2014.

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark
King Felipe VI of Spain
King Philippe of Belgium
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands
King Harald V of Norway
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg
Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein
Prince Albert II of Monaco
Pope Francis, Sovereign of the Vatican City

Prince-Grand Master Matthew Festing of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

Aftermath of the Assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand

Tags

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.