September 2, 1883: Birth of Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria. Part II.

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Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Concentration Camp, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Leopold Petznek, Marriage, Princess Stephanie of Belgium, Social Democrat

The Red Archduchess

Throughout their marriage both Elisabeth and Otto were open in having affairs, most notably the former’s liaison with Egon Lerch, an Austrian submarine captain during World War I.

Only after the death of Franz Joseph in 1916 and the end of the monarchy in 1918 did the couple officially separate. In 1921 Elisabeth joined the Social Democratic Party, where she met Leopold Petznek from Bruck an der Leitha, then president of the audit office, at one of the election meetings.

A teacher and a committed Social Democratic politician who became president of the Lower Austrian Landtag (state parliament) after the war, Petznek came from a modest background, but was highly cultivated. He was also married; his wife, with whom he had a son, was institutionalized at a psychiatric hospital in Mauer-Ohling, where she died on June 9, 1935.

Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria

The lengthy legal process dragged on, and it was not until March 1924 that Elisabeth was able to obtain a judicial separation. A sensational custody battle for their four children ensued. Originally the court granted Elisabeth custody of the two elder sons, while their younger son and daughter were to live with Otto.

She is supposed to have prevented this either by presenting Otto with a house full of armed Socialists when he came to remove them, or else by threatening him with suicide should she have to give them up. In any event, Elisabeth ultimately retained custody of all four children. Elisabeth doted on her children when they were young, but her relationship with them deteriorated as they grew older.

Rudolf, in accordance with her socialist views, was reportedly taken out of school and put to work in a factory. Elisabeth and her daughter Stephanie did not have a good relationship; she reportedly stated that she married her first husband based on the fact that her mother did not like him.

Elisabeth moved to the Hütteldorf district of Vienna and bought a villa in 1929, where she lived with Petznek for the next twenty years. She was at his side at Social Democratic marches and meetings, where she was accepted and accorded great respect. Leopold, however, due to his “haughty” character, was not welcome in aristocratic circles.

In 1934 her husband and son made a legal motion to place her under a conservatorship on the grounds that she had squandered profits from the sale of the couple’s property in numerous donations, made in order to join the Social Democrats. The motion was later dropped. Although divorce became legal in 1938, when Austria became part of Germany and adopted German law after the Anschluss, Elisabeth was not able to divorce her husband until after the end of the war.

Second marriage

In late 1933 Petznek was arrested and imprisoned by the Austrian government until July 1934. In 1944, he was arrested by the Nazis and sent to Dachau concentration camp until the camp was liberated by the Americans in March 1945. After the war he became the first President of the Austrian Federal Court of Audit. As Elisabeth had renounced her official title of Archduchess to the House of Habsburg at the time of her first marriage, the new Habsburg Laws did not apply to her; she was allowed to stay in Austria and retain her personal possessions. She formally divorced Prince Otto in early 1948, and on 4 May 1948 she and Leopold married in a registry office in Vienna.

When Vienna was occupied by the Red Army, Elisabeth’s villa was commandeered and then ransacked by Soviet soldiers. When Hütteldorf became part of the French occupied zone, the villa was occupied by General Bethouart; Elisabeth and Leopold were not allowed to return until 1955, when the Allied occupation ended. By then both were in poor health: Petznek died in July 1956 from a heart attack, while Elisabeth—who was confined to a wheelchair due to gout—bred German Shepherds, but became reclusive until her death in 1963.

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.

Announcing a new series: A History of Styles & Titles

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Charles II of England and Scotland, Constitutional Monarchy, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, German Emperor, German Empire, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Empire, Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Kings of france, Monarchy, styles, titles

After doing my post on the styles of the Dutch monarch I’ve decided to do a history of titles and styles for the following monarchies.

The United Kingdom
(England, Scotland & Ireland)
France
Germany
(Holy Roman Empire, German Empire)

Before I commence with the histories of the titles and styles for each country I’d like to distinguish between a styles and a title.

His Majesty King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland.

Styles

A style of office, honorific or manner/form of address, is an official or legally recognized form of address, and may often be used in conjunction with a title. A style, by tradition or law, precedes a reference to a person who holds a post or political office, and is sometimes used to refer to the office itself. An honorificcan also be awarded to an individual in a personal capacity. Such styles are particularly associated with monarchies, where they may be used by a wife of an office holder or of a prince of the blood, for the duration of their marriage. They are also almost universally used for presidents in republics and in many countries for members of legislative bodies, higher-ranking judges and senior constitutional office holders. Leading religious figures also have styles.

His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, Franz-Joseph I, The Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary and Bohemia, King of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria and Illyria; King of Jerusalem etc., Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and of Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania; Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Oświęcim, Zator and Ćeszyn, Friuli, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) and Zara (Zadar); Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trent (Trento) and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, etc.; Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro (Kotor), and over the Windic march; Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia.”

Titles

Title
Prefix or suffix added to someone’s name in certain contexts

A title is one or more words used before or after a person’s name, in certain contexts. It may signify either veneration, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the first and last name (for example, Graf in German, Cardinal in Catholic usage (Richard Cardinal Cushing) or clerical titles such as Archbishop). Some titles are hereditary.
For other uses, see Title (disambiguation).

Types

Titles include:
* Honorific titles or styles of address, a phrase used to convey respect to the recipient of a communication, or to recognize an attribute such as:
* Imperial, royal and noble ranks
* Academic degree
* Other accomplishment, as with a title of honor
* Title of authority, an identifier that specifies the office or position held by an official

Traditional rank amongst European royalty, peers, and nobility is rooted in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Although they vary over time and among geographic regions(for example, one region’s prince might be equal to another’s grand duke), the following is a reasonably comprehensive list that provides information on both general ranks and specific differences.

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.

Royal Numbering ~ France Part II

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Benito Juárez, France, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, Henri V, House of Bourbon, Kingdom of France, Louis Napoleon, Louis XIX, Louis XVI, Louis XVII, Louis XVIII, Maximilian of Mexico, Napoleon Bonaparte

Although the name Charles is the only name which is off by one, as mentioned in yesterday’s blog, it is interesting to see how ordinal numbers have been handled in other situations.

There were 18 kings of France named Louis, beginning with Louis I, the Pious, in 814 who was the only surviving son of Charlemagne and ended with Louis XVIII in 1824. Louis XVII, son of the ill-fated Louis XVI, never reigned but is numbered among the kings of France and his reign is said to be nominal. In 1830 the last bourbon king, Charles X, abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Louis Antoine, Duc d’Angoulême who is said to have been King Louis XIX of France and Navarre for 30 minutes until he, in turn, abdicated his claim to the throne to his nephew Henri of Artois, Count of Chambord. The Count of Chambord claimed the throne of France as Henri V until the National Assembly declared his distant cousin, Louis Philippe, Duc d’Orléans King of the French on August 9, 1830.

There is a similar situation with the Napoleonic line of French Emperors. Napoleon Bonaparte ruled as Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 to 1814/1815. France was again under the rule of a Bonaparte when Napoleon’s nephew, Louis Napoleon, President of the Second French Republic had himself proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III in 1852. Louis Napoleon chose to reign as Napoleon III because he recognized the nominal rule of Napoleon II. Napoleon II was the ill-fated son of Napoleon I and his second wife Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. Napoleon II never ruled but held the title King of Rome during his father’s reign and he was considered titular Emperor for two weeks after his father’s final defeat. Napoleon II moved to Austria after his father’s exile and assumed the name Franz (after his grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Franz II), and was granted the title of Duke of Reichstadt. Known to French history as “the Eaglet” the Duke of Reichstadt died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna on July 22, 1832. Although he never married some historians conjecture he had an affair with his cousin, Princess Sophie of Bavaria, mother of Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary (1848-1916) and was the father of her son, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, who became Emperor of Mexico until his assassination via a firing squad at the hands of Benito Juárez in 1867.