Zita of Bourbon-Parma
Zita of Bourbon-Parma | |||||
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Queen consort of Hungary | |||||
Tenure | 21 November 1916 – 11 November 1918 | ||||
Coronation | 30 December 1916 | ||||
Born | Villa Borbone delle Pianore, Tuscany, Kingdom of Italy | 9 May 1892||||
Died | 14 March 1989 Zizers, Grisons, Switzerland | (aged 96)||||
Burial | 1 April 1989
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Spouse | |||||
Issue | |||||
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Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal | |||||
Religion | Catholic Church | ||||
Signature |
Zita of Bourbon-Parma (Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese; 9 May 1892 – 14 March 1989) was the wife of
Born as the seventeenth child of the dispossessed
After the end of
Early life
Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma was born at the Villa Pianore in the Italian Province of
Zita and her siblings were raised to speak Italian, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and English.[1]: 2 She recalled:
We grew up internationally. My father thought of himself first and foremost as a Frenchman, and spent a few weeks every year with the elder children at Chambord, his main property on the Loire. I once asked him how we should describe ourselves. He replied, "We are French princes who reigned in Italy." In fact, of the twenty-four children only three including me, were actually born in Italy.[1]: 2
At the age of ten, Zita was sent to a boarding school at Zanberg in Upper Bavaria, where there was a strict regime of study and religious instruction.[1]: 3 She was summoned home in the autumn of 1907 at the death of her father. Her maternal grandmother sent Zita and her sister Francesca to a convent on the Isle of Wight to complete their education.[2]: 19 Brought up as devout Catholics, the Parma children regularly undertook good works for the poor. In Schwarzau the family turned surplus cloth into clothes. Zita and Francesca personally distributed food, clothing, and medicines to the needy in Pianore.[3]: 7–8 Three of Zita's sisters became nuns and, for a time, she considered following the same path.[2]: 20 Zita went through a period of poor health and was sent for the traditional cure at a European spa for two years.[3]: 15
Marriage
In the close vicinity of Schwarzau castle was the
We were of course glad to meet again and became close friends. On my side feelings developed gradually over the next two years. He seemed to have made his mind up much more quickly, however, and became even more keen when, in the autumn of 1910, rumours spread about that I had got engaged to a distant Spanish relative,
Don Jaime, the Duke of Madrid. On hearing this, the Archduke came down post haste from his regiment at Brandýs and sought out his grandmother, Archduchess Maria Theresa, who was also my aunt and the natural confidante in such matters. He asked if the rumor was true and when told it was not, he replied, "Well, I had better hurry in any case or she will get engaged to someone else."[1]: 8
Archduke Charles traveled to Villa Pianore and asked for Zita's hand and, on 13 June 1911, their engagement was announced at the Austrian court. was born on 20 November 1912. Seven more children followed in the next decade.
Wife of the heir to Austrian throne
At this time, Archduke Charles was in his twenties and did not expect to become emperor for some time, especially while Franz Ferdinand remained in good health. This changed on 28 June 1914 when the heir and his wife
In the
At Franz Joseph's request, Zita and her children left their residence at Hetzendorf and moved into a suite of rooms at Schönbrunn Palace. Here, Zita spent many hours with the old Emperor on both formal and informal occasions, where Franz Joseph confided in her his fears for the future.[3]: 39 Emperor Franz Joseph died of bronchitis and pneumonia at the age of 86 on 21 November 1916. "I remember the dear plump figure of Prince Lobkowitz going up to my husband," Zita later recounted, "and, with tears in his eyes, making the sign of the cross on Charles's forehead. As he did so he said, 'May God bless Your Majesty.' It was the first time we had heard the Imperial title used to us."[3]: 41
Empress and queen
Charles and Zita were crowned in
Sixtus affair
By the spring of 1917, the War was dragging on towards its fourth year, and Zita's brother Sixtus, a serving officer in the Belgian Army, was a main mover behind a plan for Austria-Hungary to make a separate peace with France. Charles initiated contact with Sixtus through contacts in neutral Switzerland, and Zita wrote a letter inviting him to Vienna. Zita's mother, Maria Antonia, delivered the letter in person.[3]: 66
Sixtus arrived with conditions for talks which had been agreed with the French – the restoration to France of
: 74In April 1918, after the German-Russian
End of Empire
By this time, the war was closing in on the embattled Emperor. A Union of Czech Deputies had already sworn an oath to a new Czechoslovak state independent of the Habsburg Empire on 13 April 1918, the prestige of the German Army had taken a severe blow at the
Leaving behind their children at Gödöllő, Charles and Zita travelled to the Schönbrunn Palace. By this time ministers had been appointed by the new state of "German-Austria", and by 11 November, together with the Emperor's spokesmen, they prepared a manifesto for Charles to sign.[3]: 121–130 Zita, at first glance, mistook it for an abdication and made her famous statement:
A sovereign can never abdicate. He can be deposed... All right. That is force. But abdicate – never, never, never! I would rather fall here at your side. Then there would be Otto. And even if all of us here were killed, there would still be other Habsburgs![3]: 130
Charles gave his permission for the document to be published, and he, his family and the remnants of his Court departed for the Royal shooting lodge at Eckartsau, close to the borders with Hungary and Slovakia.[3]: 132 The Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed the next day.
Exile
After a difficult few months at Eckartsau, the Imperial Family received aid from an unexpected source. Prince Sixtus had met
Several British Army officers were sent to help Charles, most notably Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Lisle Strutt, who was a grandson of Lord Belper and a former student at the University of Innsbruck.[3]: 139 On 19 March 1919, orders were received from the War Office to "get the Emperor out of Austria without delay". With some difficulty, Strutt managed to arrange a train to Switzerland, enabling the Emperor to leave the country with dignity without having to abdicate. Charles, Zita, their children and their household left Eckartsau on 24 March escorted by a detachment of British soldiers from the Honourable Artillery Company under the command of Strutt.[3]: 141–146
Hungary and exile in Madeira
The family's first home in exile was Wartegg Castle in
Charles and Zita temporarily resided at Castle Tata, the home of Count Esterházy,[3]: 195 until a suitable permanent exile could be found. Malta was mooted as a possibility, but was declined by Lord Curzon, and French territory was ruled out given the possibility of Zita's brothers intriguing on Charles's behalf.[3]: 199 Eventually, the Portuguese island of Madeira was chosen. On 31 October 1921, the former Imperial couple were taken by rail from Tihany to Baja, where the Royal Navy monitor HMS Glowworm was waiting. They finally arrived at Funchal on 19 November.[3]: 200–207 Their children were being looked after at Wartegg Castle in Switzerland by Charles's step-grandmother Maria Theresa, although Zita managed to see them in Zürich when her son Robert needed an operation for appendicitis.[3]: 210–211 The children joined their parents in Madeira in February 1922.[4]
Death of Charles
Charles had been in poor health for some time. After going shopping on a chilly day in Funchal to buy toys for Carl Ludwig, he was struck by an attack of bronchitis. This rapidly worsened into pneumonia, not helped by the inadequate medical care available. Several of the children and staff were also ill, and Zita (at the time eight months pregnant) helped nurse them all. Charles weakened and died on 1 April, his last words to his wife being "I love you so much."[3]: 214–215 Charles was 34 years old. After his funeral, a witness said of Zita "This woman really is to be admired. She did not, for one second, lose her composure... she greeted the people on all sides and then spoke to those who had helped out with the funeral. They were all under her charm."[3]: 216 Zita wore mourning black in Charles's memory throughout sixty-seven years of widowhood.[2]: 151
Widowhood
After Charles's death, the former Austrian imperial family were soon to move again.
Move to Belgium
By 1929, several of the children were approaching the age to attend university and the family moved to a castle in the Belgian village of
Flight to North America
With the Nazi invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940, Zita and her family became war refugees. They narrowly missed being killed by a direct hit on the castle by German bombers and fled to Prince Xavier's castle at Bostz in France.[3]: 271–272 The Habsburgs then fled to the Spanish border, reaching it on 18 May. On June 12 the Portuguese ruler António Salazar issued instructions to the Portuguese consulates in France to provide Infanta Maria Antónia of Portugal Duchess of Parma with Portuguese passports. With these Portuguese passports the family could get visas without creating problems for the neutrality of the Portuguese Government. This way the daughter of Maria Antónia, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, and her son Otto von Habsburg got their visas because they were descendants of a Portuguese citizen.[6] They moved on to Portugal and resided in Cascais. Not long after, the archduke was informed by Salazar that Hitler had demanded his extradition. The demand would be refused, the Portuguese ruler told him but hinted that his safety was precarious. On 9 July the United States government granted the family visas. After a perilous journey they arrived in New York City on 27 July, having family in Long Island and Newark, New Jersey;[3]: 277 at one point, Zita and several of her children lived, as long-term house-guests, in Tuxedo Park, New York.
The Austrian imperial refugees eventually settled in
Later life
After a period of rest and recovery, Zita found herself regularly going back to Europe for the weddings of her children. She decided to move back to the continent full-time in 1952 to Luxembourg to look after her aging mother. Maria Antonia died at the age of 96 in 1959. The bishop of
Zita occupied herself in her final years with her family. Although the restrictions on the Habsburgs entering Austria had been lifted, that applied only to those born after 10 April 1919. That meant that Zita could not attend the funeral of her daughter Adelheid in 1972, which was painful for her.
Death
After a memorable 90th birthday, at which she was surrounded by her now vast family, Zita's habitually-robust health began to fail. She developed inoperable cataracts in both eyes.[3]: 326 Her last major family gathering took place at Zizers, in 1987, when her children and grandchildren joined in celebrating her 95th birthday.[1]: 24 While visiting her daughter, in summer 1988, she developed pneumonia and spent most of the autumn and winter bedridden. Finally, she called Otto in early March 1989 and told him she was dying. He and the rest of the family travelled to her bedside and took turns keeping her company until she died in the early hours of 14 March 1989.[3]: 327–328 She was 96 years old,[8] and was the last surviving child of Robert, Duke of Parma from both his marriages.
Her funeral was held in Vienna on 1 April. The government allowed it to take place on Austrian soil if the cost was borne by the Habsburgs themselves.
When the procession of mourners arrived at the gates of the Imperial Crypt, the herald who knocked on the door during the traditional "admission ceremony" introduced her as Zita, Her Majesty the Empress and Queen.[4][10]
Cause of beatification and canonization
Zita of Austria-Hungary | |
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Venerated in | Catholic Church |
Feast | 21 October |
On 10 December 2009, Mgr Yves Le Saux, Bishop of Le Mans, France, opened the diocesan process for the beatification of Zita.[11] Zita was in the habit of spending several months each year in the diocese of Le Mans at St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes, where three of her sisters were nuns.[12]
The actor is the French Association pour la Béatification de l'Impératrice Zita.[13] The postulator for the cause is Alexander Leonhardt. Vice postulator for Hungary is Catholic theologian Norbert Nagy. The judge of the tribunal is Bruno Bonnet. The promoter of justice is François Scrive.[11]
With the opening of her cause, the late Empress has been named Servant of God.[14][15]
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Styles of Zita, Empress of Austria & Queen of Hungary | ||
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Reference style Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty | | |
Spoken style | Your Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty |
Titles and styles
- 9 May 1892 – 21 October 1911: Her Royal Highness Zita, Royal Princess of Bourbon, Princess of Parma[16]
- 21 October 1911 – 28 June 1914: Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Zita, Archduchess Karl of Austria, Princess of Parma
- 28 June 1914 – 21 November 1916: Her Imperial and Royal Highness The Archduchess of Austria-Este[17]
- 21 November 1916 – 3 April 1919: Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty The Empress of Austria, Apostolic Queen of Hungary and Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia[18]
Honours
- Austria-Hungary:[19]
- Grand Mistress Dame of the Order of the Starry Cross[20]
- Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Elisabeth, 1913[20]
- Knight Grand Officer of the Order of the Red Cross, with War Decoration
- SMOM: Bailiff Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint John[19]
Children
Charles and Zita had eight children and thirty three grandchildren:
Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
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Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg | 20 November 1912 | 4 July 2011 | married (1951) Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen (6 January 1925 – 3 February 2010) and had seven children, twenty-two grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
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Archduchess Adelheid | 3 January 1914 | 2 October 1971 | never married, no issue |
Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este | 8 February 1915 | 7 February 1996 | married (1953) Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta (7 April 1930 - 10 January 2022) and had five children, nineteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. |
Archduke Felix of Austria | 31 May 1916 | 6 September 2011 | married (1952) Princess Anna Eugenie von Arenberg (5 July 1925 - 9 June 1997) and had seven children and twenty-two grandchildren. |
Archduke Carl Ludwig | 10 March 1918 | 11 December 2007 | married (1950) Princess Yolanda of Ligne (6 May 1923 – 13 September 2023) and had four children, nineteen grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren. |
Archduke Rudolf | 5 September 1919 | 15 May 2010 | married (1953) Countess Xenia Tschernyschev-Besobrasoff (11 June 1929 - 20 September 1968) and had four children, thirteen grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Married (secondly) (1971) Princess Anna Gabriele of Wrede (born 11 September 1940) and had one daughter and three grandsons. |
Archduchess Charlotte | 1 March 1921 | 23 July 1989 | married (1956) Duke Georg of Mecklenburg (5 October [O.S. 22 September] 1899 – 6 July 1963). |
Archduchess Elisabeth | 31 May 1922 | 6 January 1993 | married (1949) Prince Heinrich of Liechtenstein (5 August 1916 – 17 April 1991) and had five children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. |
Ancestry
Ancestors of Zita of Bourbon-Parma | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Beeche.
- ^ a b c d e f Bogle.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn Brook-Shepherd.
- ^ a b Howe, Malcolm (2020). "Zita, the last Empress of Austria, grand-daughter of a King of Portugal". British Historical Society of Portugal Annual Report. 47. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
- ^ a b Harding.
- ^ Madeira, Lina A. (2013). O Mecanismo de (Des)Promoções do MNE: O Caso Paradigmático de Aristides de Sousa Mendes (PhD). Coimbra University. p. 458.
- ^ Bernier Arcand, Philippe, « Les Bourbon-Parme dans les institutions d’enseignement du Québec », Histoire Québec, 202, p. 24-28 (lire en ligne [archive])
- ^ New York Times. 2 April 1989. Archivedfrom the original on 19 December 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2007.
Old Vienna dusted off its imperial finery today to lay to rest Austria's last Empress, paying a regal tribute to a woman who remained quietly true to her lost crown and to the late Emperor through seven decades of exile. For the first time since the 600-year Austro-Hungarian monarchy was dissolved in 1919, the ornate black imperial catafalque – borrowed from the Museum at Schonbrunn Palace –rolled past the old palaces and baroque temples of central Vienna to the Imperial burial vault. There, under the Capuchin Church, Zita, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, was laid to rest among the richly-decorated caskets of the Habsburgs.
- ^ Der Spiegel magazine, no.13, 27 March 1989
- ^ "DerStandard.at". Archived from the original on 7 May 2020. Retrieved 10 July 2011.
- ^ a b Ouverture du Proces de Beatification de l'Imperatrice Zita Archived 10 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Gregor Kollmorgen, "Cause of Beatification of Empress Zita Opened"". Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "associationimperatricezita.com". Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ Stevens, Beverly (28 February 2014), "Zita, Catholic Empress in Exile, Servant of God", REGINA Magazine, archived from the original on 8 February 2021, retrieved 7 February 2021
- ^ "Association pour la béatification de l'Impératrice Zita – Home". Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved 7 February 2021.
- ^ "ÖNB-ALEX - Staatshandbuch". alex.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 28 October 2023.
- ^ Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie (1915), Genealogy p. 2
- ^ "ÖNB-ALEX - Staatshandbuch". alex.onb.ac.at. Retrieved 31 July 2023.
- ^ a b "Genealogie des Allerhöchsten Herrscherhauses", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1916, p. 3
- ^ a b "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1916, pp. 251, 262
- ^ a b Mateos Sainz de Medrano. Ricardo. "Changing Thrones: Duke Carlo II of Parma". Published in Royalty History Digest, Vol 3, N 1. July 1993, p. 99
- ^ Stubbs, Alan R. "Assassination in Parma: The Life and Death of Duke Carlo III". Royalty Digest.
- ^ a b c John VI, King of Portugal at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ "Portugal und Algarbien, Donna Adelheid Infantin von". Hessian Biography. Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen. 3 April 2017. Record #3713. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, duchesse de Berry at the Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ "Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, Constantin Joseph Nikolaus Alfred Wneslaus Erbprinz zu". Hessian Biography. Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen. 27 June 2017. Record #3719. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
- ^ "Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg, Marie Agnes Henriette Erbprinzessin zu". Hessian Biography. Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen. 9 September 2013. Record #3674. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
Bibliography
- Beeche, Arturo & McIntosh, David. (2005). Empress Zita of Austria, Queen of Hungary (1892–1989) Eurohistory. ASIN: B000F1PHOI
- Bogle, James and Joanna. (1990). A Heart for Europe: The Lives of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary, Fowler Wright, 1990, ISBN 0-85244-173-8
- ISBN 0-00-215861-2
- Harding, Bertita. (1939). Imperial Twilight: The Story of Karl and Zita of Hungary. Bobbs-Merrill Company Publishers. ASIN: B000J0DDQO
- (in German) ISBN 978-3-9540-0076-0
- (in French) Debris, Cyrille. (2013). Zita, Portrait intime d'une imperatrice. Cerf, Paris, 2013, ISBN 978-2-204-10085-4
External links
Media related to Zita of Bourbon-Parma at Wikimedia Commons
- Film of Zita of Bourbon-Parma's funeral
- Newspaper clippings about Zita of Bourbon-Parma in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW