Death of Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta, Archduchess of Austria-Este (January 10, 2022)

Tags

Archduchess of Austria, Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este, Archduke Robert of Austria-Este, Emperor Charles I of Austria, Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta, Umberto II of Italy

Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta, Archduchess of Austria-Este ( 7 April 1930 – 10 January 2022) was an Italian princess who was the first-born child of the late Amedeo, 3rd Duke of Aosta, and Princess Anne d’Orléans.

Margherita’s family announced her engagement to Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este on 20 October 1953. They married on 28 December 1953 in Bourg-en-Bresse, Ain, France (civilly) and 29 December 1953 (religiously), in Brou, France. He was the second son of former Emperor Charles I of Austria and Zita of Bourbon-Parma.

Robert was 38, and Margherita was 23. As the royal couple arrived for the first ceremony, hundreds of Austrians and Italians stood outside the town hall where the marriage was held. The wedding was also attended by former King Umberto II of Italy and Robert’s older brother Archduke Otto of Habsburg, the claimant to the Austrian throne. At six feet tall, Margherita was, according to some witnesses, an impressive sight. She wore an ivory gown made out of satin with a long train hung from a diamond tiara.

The couple took up residence in Paris, where Robert was a bank clerk. They had five children:

Archduchess Maria Beatrice Anna Felicitas Zita Charlotte Adelheid Christina Elisabeth Gennara (11 December 1954). Married Count Riprand of Arco-Zinneberg, a great-grandson of the last Bavarian king, Ludwig III, and has issue.

They have six daughters, including Olympia von und zu Arco-Zinneberg, who is married to Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon.

Archduke Lorenz Otto Carl Amadeus Thadeus Maria Pius Andreas Marcus d’Aviano (16 December 1955), created Prince of Belgium on 10 November 1995. Married 22 September 1984 at Brussels, Princess Astrid of Belgium (b. 1962). They have five children.

Archduke Gerhard Thaddäus Anton Marcus d’Aviano Maria Umberto Otto Carl Amadeus (30 October 1957) who wed in 2015 Iris Jandrasits (1961);

Archduke Martin Carl Amadeo Maria (21 December 1959). Married Princess Katharina of Isenburg-Birstein. They have four children.

Archduchess Isabella Maria Laura Helena Antonia Zita Anna Gennara (2 March 1963). Married Andrea Czarnocki-Lucheschi. They have five children.

August 17, 1887: Birth of Charles I-IV, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Part II.

Tags

Baron Istvan Burián, Czechs, Emperor Charles I of Austria, Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria, Imperial Parliament, King Charles IV of Hungary, Slavs, Slovaks, Zita of Bourbon-Parma

Charles succeeded to the thrones of the Austrian Empire on November 21, 1916 after the death of his grand-uncle, Emperor Franz-Joseph. On December 2, 1916, he assumed the title of Supreme Commander of the whole army, succeeding Archduke Friedrich. His coronation as King of Hungary occurred on December 30.

In 1917, Charles secretly entered into peace negotiations with France. He employed his brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, an officer in the Belgian Army, as intermediary. However, the Allies insisted on Austrian recognition of Italian claims to territory and Charles refused, so no progress was made.

Foreign minister Graf Czernin was only interested in negotiating a general peace which would include Germany, Charles himself went much further in suggesting his willingness to make a separate peace. When news of the overture leaked in April 1918, Charles denied involvement until French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau published letters signed by him. This led to Czernin’s resignation, forcing Austria-Hungary into an even more dependent position with respect to its seemingly wronged German ally.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was wracked by inner turmoil in the final years of the war, with much tension between ethnic groups. As part of his Fourteen Points, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson demanded that the Empire allow for autonomy and self-determination of its peoples. In response, Charles agreed to reconvene the Imperial Parliament and allow for the creation of a confederation with each national group exercising self-governance. However, the ethnic groups fought for full autonomy as separate nations, as they were now determined to become independent from Vienna at the earliest possible moment.

The new foreign minister Baron Istvan Burián asked for an armistice October 14, based on the Fourteen Points, and two days later Charles issued a proclamation that radically changed the nature of the Austrian state. The Poles were granted full independence with the purpose of joining their ethnic brethren in Russia and Germany in a Polish state.

The rest of the Austrian lands were transformed into a federal union composed of four parts: German, Czech, South Slav, and Ukrainian. Each of the four parts was to be governed by a federal council, and Trieste was to have a special status.

However, United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing replied four days later that the Allies were now committed to the causes of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs. Therefore, autonomy inside the Empire for the nationalities was no longer enough. In fact, a Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies October 14, and the South Slav national council declared an independent South Slav state October 29, 1918.