Charles succeeded to the thrones in November 1916 following the death of his grand-uncle, Franz Joseph. He began secret negotiations with the Allies, hoping to peacefully end theFirst World War, but was unsuccessful. Despite Charles's efforts to preserve the empire by returning it tofederalism and by championingAustro-Slavism, Austria-Hungary hurtled into disintegration:Czechoslovakia and theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs were proclaimed, andHungary broke monarchic ties to Austria by the end of October 1918. Following theArmistice of 11 November 1918, Charles "renounced any participation" in government affairs, but did not abdicate. However, theRepublic of German-Austria was proclaimed the following day, and in April 1919 theNational Assembly formally dethroned the Habsburgs and banished Charles from German-Austria for life.
Archduke Charles was raised a devoutCatholic. He spent his early years wherever his father's regiment happened to be stationed; later on, he lived inVienna andReichenau an der Rax. He was privately educated, but, contrary to the custom ruling in the imperial family, he attended a publicgymnasium (theSchottengymnasium) for the sake of demonstrations in scientific subjects. On the conclusion of his studies at the gymnasium, he entered the army, spending the years from 1906 to 1908 as an officer chiefly inPrague, where he studiedLaw andPolitical Science concurrently with his military duties.[3]
In 1907, he was declared of age, andPrince Zdenko von Lobkowitz was appointed as hischamberlain. During the next few years, he carried out his military duties in variousBohemian garrison towns. Charles's relations with his great-uncle were not intimate, and those with his uncle Franz Ferdinand were not cordial, with the differences between their wives increasing the existing tension between them. For these reasons, Charles, up to the time of the assassination of his uncle in 1914, obtained no insight into affairs of state, but led the life of a prince not destined for a high political position.[3]
On 21 October 1911, Charles married PrincessZita of Bourbon-Parma. They had met as children but did not see one another for almost ten years, as each pursued their education. In 1909, hisdragoon regiment was stationed atBrandýs nad Labem in Bohemia, from where he visited his aunt atFranzensbad.[4]: 5
It was during one of these visits that Charles and Zita became reacquainted.[4]: 5 Due to Franz Ferdinand'smorganatic marriage in 1900, his children were excluded from the succession. As a result, the Emperor pressured Charles to marry. Zita not only shared Charles's devout Catholicism, but also an impeccable royal lineage.[5]: 16 Zita later recalled:
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,Jaime, Duke of Madrid.On hearing this, the Archduke came down post haste from his regiment at Brandeis and sought out his [step]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."[4]: 8
Archduke Charles traveled to Villa Pianore, the Italian winter residence of Zita's parents, and asked for her hand; on 13 June 1911, their engagement was announced at the Austrian court.[4]: 8 Charles and Zita were married at the Bourbon-Parma castle of Schwarzau in Austria on 21 October 1911. Charles's grand-uncle, the 81-year-old EmperorFranz Joseph, attended the wedding. He was relieved to see the second-in-line to the throne in a suitable marriage, and was in good spirits, even leading the toast at the wedding breakfast.[5]: 19 Archduchess Zita soon conceived a son, andOtto was born 20 November 1912. Seven more children followed in the next decade.
Charles, whose father had died in 1906, became heir presumptive after theassassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, his uncle, inSarajevo in 1914, the event which precipitatedWorld War I. The old Emperor took steps to initiate Charles in affairs of state, but the outbreak of World War I interfered with this political education. Charles spent the first phase of the war at headquarters atTeschen, but exercised no military influence.[3]
Charles succeeded to the thrones on 21 November 1916 upon the death of his grand-uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph. On 2 December 1916, he assumed the title of Supreme Commander of theAustro-Hungarian Army, succeedingArchduke Friedrich. His coronation as King of Hungary occurred on 30 December. In 1917, Charles secretly entered into peace negotiations withFrance. He employed his brother-in-law,Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, an officer in theBelgian Army, as intermediary. However, the Allies insisted on Austrian recognition of Italian claims to territory and Charles refused, so no progress was made.[6] Foreign ministerGraf 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 what became known as theSixtus Affair leaked in April 1918, Charles denied involvement until French Prime MinisterGeorges Clemenceau published letters signed by him. This led to Czernin's resignation, forcing Austria-Hungary to give Berlin full control of its armed forces, factories, and railways.[7][8]
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was wracked by inner turmoil in the final years of the war, with escalating tension between ethnic groups. As part of hisFourteen Points, U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson demanded that the Empire allow for autonomy andself-determination of its peoples. In response, Charles agreed to reconvene theImperial 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.[citation needed]
The new foreign minister BaronIstvan Burián asked for an armistice on 14 October 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 what was to become theSecond Polish Republic. 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, andTrieste was to have a special status. However, U.S. Secretary of StateRobert Lansing replied four days later that the Allies were committed to the political independence of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs, and that autonomy inside the Empire was no longer enough. In fact, aCzechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October, and the South Slav national council declared anindependent South Slav state on 29 October 1918.[citation needed]
From the beginning of his reign, Charles I favored the creation of a third, Croatian, political entity in the Empire, in addition to Austria and Hungary. In his Croatian coronation oath in 1916, he recognized the union of theTriune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia withRijeka[9] and during his short reign supportedtrialist suggestions from theCroatian Sabor andBan; however, the suggestions were always vetoed by theHungarian Parliament, which did not want to share power with other nations. After Emperor Charles's manifesto of 14 October 1918 was rejected by the declaration of theNational Council in Zagreb,[10] President of the Croatian pro-monarchy political partyPure Party of Rights Dr.Aleksandar Horvat [hr] withIvo Frank and other parliament members and generals went to visit the emperor on 21 October 1918 inBad Ischl,[11][12] where the emperor agreed and signed the trialist manifesto under the proposed terms set by the delegation, on the condition that the Hungarian part does the same since he swore an oath on the integrity of the Hungarian crown.[13][14][15] The delegation went the next day to Budapest where it presented the manifesto to Hungarian officials and Council of Ministers who signed the manifesto and released the king from his oath, creating a third Croatian political entity (Zvonimir's kingdom).[14][16][17][18] After the signing, two parades were held in Zagreb, one for the ending of theK.u.K. monarchy, which was held in front of theCroatian National Theater, and another one for saving the trialist monarchy.[16] The last vote for the support of the trialist reorganization of the empire was, however, too late. On 29 October 1918, the Croatian Sabor (parliament) ended the union and all ties with Hungary and Austria, proclaimed the unification of all Croatian lands and entered theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs.[19]
The Lansing note effectively ended any efforts to keep the Empire together. One by one, the nationalities proclaimed their independence; even before the note the national councils had been acting more like provisional governments. Charles's political future became uncertain. On 31 October, Hungary officially ended thepersonal union between Austria and Hungary. Nothing remained of Charles's realm except the predominantly German-speaking Danubian and Alpine provinces, and he was challenged even there by theGerman Austrian State Council. His last Austrian prime minister,Heinrich Lammasch, advised him that he was in an impossible situation, and his best course was to temporarily give up his right to exercise sovereign power.[citation needed]
On the day of theArmistice of 11 November 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."[20] He also released his officials from their oath of loyalty to him. On the same day, the Imperial Family leftSchönbrunn Palace and moved toSchloss Eckartsau [de], east of Vienna. On 13 November, following a visit with Hungarian magnates, Charles issued a similar proclamation—the Eckartsau Proclamation—for Hungary.
Although it has widely been cited as an "abdication", the word itself was never used in either proclamation.[21] Indeed, he deliberately avoided using the wordabdication 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 toFriedrich Gustav Cardinal Piffl, theArchbishop of Vienna:
I did not abdicate, and never will [...] I see my manifesto of 11 November 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."[22]
Proclamation of 13 November 1918
Instead, on 12 November, the day after he issued his proclamation, the independentRepublic of German-Austria was proclaimed, followed by the proclamation of theFirst Hungarian Republic on 16 November. An uneasy truce-like situation ensued and persisted until 23 to 24 March 1919, when Charles left for Switzerland, escorted by the commander of the small British guard detachment at Eckartsau, Lieutenant ColonelEdward Lisle Strutt.
As the imperial train left Austria on 24 March, Charles issued another proclamation in which he confirmed his claim of sovereignty, declaring that:
[W]hatever the national assembly of German Austria has resolved with respect to these matters since 11 November is null and void for me and my House.[23]
The newly established republican government of Austria was not aware of this "Manifesto ofFeldkirch" at this time—it had been dispatched only to KingAlfonso XIII of Spain and toPope Benedict XV through diplomatic channels—and politicians in power were irritated by the Emperor's departure without explicit abdication.
TheAustrian Parliament responded on 3 April with theHabsburg 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 defunct 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 nearRorschach atLake Constance, and later moved to Château dePrangins atLake Geneva on 20 May.
Following the restoration of theKingdom of Hungary, encouraged by Hungarian royalists ("legitimists"), Charles sought twice in 1921 to reclaim the throne of Hungary, but failed largely because Hungary'sregent,AdmiralMiklós Horthy (the last commander of theImperial and Royal Navy), refused to support Charles's 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. Princess Zita however, claimed that Charles had come to a verbal agreement with the French prime minister and foreign ministerAristide Briand (who had supported Charles' peace efforts in 1917) regarding a Habsburg restoration in Hungary, which meant it would receive French recognition and military backing if successful.[24] In the event of the attempt failing, Briand would deny all involvement, which he indeed did during both attempts. Later in 1921, the Hungarian parliament formally nullified thePragmatic Sanction, an act that effectively dethroned the Habsburgs in Hungary.
After the second failed attempt at restoration in Hungary, Charles and his pregnant wife Zita were arrested by the Hungarian authorities and imprisoned inTihany Abbey. On 1 November 1921 they were transported down the Danube aboard thegunboatHMSGlowworm and across theBlack Sea on the cruiserHMS Cardiff.[25][26]
Charles received a military escort into exile by order ofKing George V of theUnited Kingdom. They were provided escorts into exile because socialist regimes were taking over Vienna, Austria after WWI and there was fear of a potential assassination. The first military escort wasSir Thomas Montgomery-Cuninghame, 10th Baronet. He was followed byJohn Orlando Summerhayes in Ekartsau.[27] Summerhayes was assigned to his role after leading prisoners-of-war out of Germany and Austria. Emperor Charles I wrote a letter to King George thanking him for sending Colonel Summerhayes for his protection. He wrote that Summerhayes was charming and fulfills his duty as a virtuous and clever man. Furthermore, Summerhayes' cheerful character was able to brighten the mood of the royal family during their stay inEckartsau, providing emotional and medical support. Summerhayes was replaced byEdward Lisle Strutt, another British Army Colonel, as protector to emperor. It has been said that the emperor developed a particularly close relationship with Strutt and looked upon him with favor.[28]
Summerhayes was later sent to accompanyArchduke Felix, the fourth child of Charles I, toSwitzerland to monitor his health.[29]
On 19 November 1921 Charles and his wife arrived at their final exile, the isolated, heavily guarded Portuguese island ofMadeira.[30]
The couple and their children, who joined them on 2 February 1922, lived first atFunchal at the Villa Vittoria, next toReid's Hotel, and later moved to a modest residence in Quinta doMonte.[31]
Charles never left Madeira. On 9 March 1922 he caught a cold in town, which developed into bronchitis and progressed to severepneumonia. Having suffered two heart attacks, he died ofrespiratory failure on 1 April, in the presence of his wife (who was pregnant with their eighth child) and nine-year-old formerCrown Prince Otto, remaining conscious almost until his last moments. His last words to his wife were "I love you so much."[32] He was 34 years old. His remains except for his heart are still on the island, resting in state in a chapel devoted to the Emperor in the PortugueseChurch of Our Lady of the Mount, in spite of several attempts to move them to theHabsburg Crypt in Vienna. His heart and the heart of his wife are entombed inMuri Abbey, Switzerland.
Historians have been mixed in their evaluations of Charles and his reign. In theinterwar period, he was celebrated in Austria as a military hero. WhenNazi Germany took over it made his memory into that of a traitor. For decades after 1945, both popular and academic interest practically disappeared, but attention has slowly returned.[33]
Helmut Rumpler, the head of the Habsburg commission of theAustrian Academy of Sciences, described Charles as "a dilettante, far too weak for the challenges facing him, out of his depth, and not really a politician."[34] Others have seen Charles as a brave and honourable figure who tried to stop the war in which his Empire was drowning.Anatole France, the French novelist, stated:
This war without end is criminal. What is abominable is that they do not want to end it. No, they do not want. Do not try to tell me that there was no way to end it. Emperor Charles offered peace; he is the only decent man to have appeared in this war, and he was not listened to. There was, through him, a chance that could have been seized... Clemenceau called the emperor a "rotten conscience", it's ignoble. Emperor Charles sincerely wanted peace, and therefore was despised by the whole world. [...] A king of France, yes a king, would have had pity on our poor, exhausted, bloodlet nation. However democracy is without a heart and without entrails. When serving the powers of money, it is pitiless and inhuman.[35]
Paul von Hindenburg, the German commander in chief, commented in his memoirs 1920:
He tried to compensate for the evaporation of the ethical power which emperor Franz Joseph had represented by offeringvölkisch reconciliation. Even as he dealt with elements who were sworn to the goal of destroying his empire he believed that his acts of political grace would affect their conscience. These attempts were totally futile; those people had long ago lined up with our common enemies, and were far from being deterred.[36]
Catholic Church leaders have praised Charles for putting his Christian faith first in making political decisions, and for his role as a peacemaker during the war, especially after 1917.
Thecause or campaign for his canonization began in Vienna in 1949. On 25 April 1951, the cause was transferred to Rome, and Charles was declared "servant of God", the first step in the process.[37] At the beginning of the cause for canonization in 1972 his tomb was opened and his body was discovered to beincorrupt.[38]
On 14 April 2003, theVatican'sCongregation for the Causes of Saints, in the presence ofPope John Paul II, promulgated Charles of Austria's "heroic virtues". Charles thereby acquired the title "venerable". On 21 December 2003, the Congregation certified, on the basis of three expert medical opinions, that a miracle in 1960 occurred through theintercession of Charles. The miracle attributed to Charles was the scientifically inexplicable healing of the Polish-born Brazilian Sister Maria Zita Gradowska of theDaughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Sister Maria Zita had suffered from pains in her legs since her youth, and later on would suffer from problems with her venous circulation and swellings, for which she was repeatedly treated over the years, but her health issues would not go away for good. In 1957 she became the Mother Superior of Santa Cruz Hospital inCanoinhas, but the pains in her right leg also gradually became worse. By the end of 1960 she was unable to leave her bed. Despite wanting to resign her position as Mother Superior because of this, she was unable to, as there was an insufficient number of sisters.[39]
Around this time, another sister, who was an assistant of Sister Maria Zita, received printed leaflets about the life of Emperor Karl, which included prayers for hisbeatification. Naturally, Sister Maria Zita was also informed, however, as she did not care much for the Habsburg dynasty, she did not do anything with this information. She told the other sisters that her bedridden state and the coming absence of another sister worried her, and she was again advised to ask for the intercession of the Emperor, but she did not plan on doing so. That evening however, when lying in bed, she was unable to sleep because of the excruciating pain in her right leg. It is then that she decided to say a prayer of intercession and promised to start the next day with a novena to beg for the grace of beatification for the Servant of God. After praying, she did not feel the pain anymore and was able to easily fall asleep. From then on she was able to resume her duties as Mother Superior and would not suffer from any health problems with her legs for the rest of her life.[39]
Pope John Paul II declared Charles "Blessed" in a beatification ceremony inSt. Peter's Square on 3 October 2004. The Pope also declared 21 October, the date of Charles's marriage in 1911 to Princess Zita, to be Charles'sfeast day.[40] At the ceremony, the Pope stated:
The decisive task of Christians consists in seeking, recognizing and following God's will in all things. The Christian statesman, Charles of Austria, confronted this challenge every day. To his eyes, war appeared as "something appalling". Amid the tumult of the First World War, he strove to promote the peace initiative of my Predecessor,Benedict XV.[41]
The main points ofPope Benedict XV's peace plan were: (1) the moral force of right ... be substituted for the material force of arms, (2) there must be simultaneous and reciprocal diminution of armaments, (3) a mechanism for international arbitration must be established, (4) true liberty and common rights over the sea should exist, (5) there should be a renunciation of war indemnities, (6) occupied territories should be evacuated, and (7) there should be an examination of rival claims.[42] The best outcome to the war, according to Pope Benedict XV, was an immediate restoration of the status quo without reparations or any form of forced demands. Although the plan seemed unattainable due to the severity of the war thus far, it appealed to Charles, perhaps as a way to fulfill and preserve his role as Catholic Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary.[citation needed] The beatification nevertheless raised controversy over the mistaken claim that Charles authorised the use ofpoison gas by theAustro-Hungarian Army duringWorld War I.[43][44] The Emperor actually forbade its use.[45][46]
Pope John Paul II, who was born Karol Józef Wojtyła inWadowice (then part ofAustrian Poland), was named after Karl. During a private audience withArchduke Rudolf (Karl's son), his sons and their families and Empress Zita (whom the Pope addressed as "his Empress" and bowed his head before) he told them the following:
Do you know why I was named Charles at baptism? Because myfather had great admiration for Emperor Charles I, of whom he was a soldier.[47]
From the beginning, Emperor Charles conceived of his office as a holy service to his people. His chief concern was to follow the Christian vocation to holiness also in his political actions. For this reason, his thoughts turned to social assistance.[48]
On 31 January 2008, after a 16-month investigation, a Church tribunal recognized a second miracle attributed to Charles I. A "devoutBaptist" fromOrlando, Florida was allegedly cured after several recent converts to Roman Catholicism inLouisiana prayed for Charles's intercession.[49][50][51][52]
17 August 1887 – 28 June 1914:His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Charles of Austria, Royal Prince of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia[56]
28 June 1914 – 21 November 1916:His Imperial and Royal Highness The Archduke of Austria-Este[57]
21 November 1916 – 3 April 1919:His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty The Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary and Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia[58]
married (1953)Countess Xenia Czernichev-Besobrasov (11 June 1929 – 20 September 1968); four children. Second marriage (1971) Princess Anna Gabriele ofWrede (born 11 September 1940); one daughter.
^abcdPribram, Alfred Francis (1922)."Charles" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company.
^abBrook-Shepherd, G. (1991).The Last Empress: The Life and Times of Zita of Austria-Hungary, 1892–1989. New York: HarperCollins.ISBN9780002158619.
^David Stevenson, "The failure of peace by negotiation in 1917."Historical Journal 34#1 (1991): 65–86.
^Edward P. Keleher, "Emperor Karl and the Sixtus Affair: Politico-Nationalist Repercussions in the Reich German and Austro-German Camps, and the Disintegration of Habsburg Austria, 1916–1918."East European Quarterly 26.2 (1992): 163+.
^Geoffrey Wawro,A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire (2015) p. 371.
^(Hrvatska) Krunidbena zavjernica Karla IV. hrvatskom Saboru 28. prosinca 1916. (sa grbom Dalmacije, Hrvatske, Slavonije i Rijeke iznad teksta), str. 1.-4. Hrvatski Državni Arhiv./ENG. (Croatian) Coronation oath of Karl IV to Croatian Sabor (parliament), 28 December 1916. (with coat of arms of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Rijeka above the text), pp. 1–4 Croatian State Archives
^abDr. Aleksandar HorvatPovodom njegove pedesetgodišnjice rodjenja, Hrvatsko pravo, Zagreb, 17/1925., no. 5031
^Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau, Die Katastrophe. Die Zertrümmerung Österreich-Ungarns und das Werden der Nachfolgestaaten, Zürich – Leipzig – Wien 1929, pp. 302–303.
^abBudisavljević Srđan,Stvaranje Države SHS, (Creation of the state of SHS), Zagreb, 1958, pp. 132–133.
^F. MilobarSlava dr. Aleksandru Horvatu!, Hrvatsko pravo, 20/1928., no. 5160
^S. Matković, "Tko je bio Ivo Frank?", Politički zatvorenik, Zagreb, 17/2007., no. 187, 23.
^Hrvatska Država, newspaperPublic proclamation of the Sabor. Issued 29.10.1918. no. 299. p. 1.
^Horne, C. F., ed. (1923).Source Records of the Great War: 1918, the Year of Victory. Vol. VI. New York: National Alumni. p. 385.OCLC793458451.
^Gombás, I. (2002).Kings and Queens of Hungary, Princes of Transylvania. Budapest: Corvina.ISBN9789631347593.
^Hannes Leidinger, " Historiography 1918–Today (Austria-Hungary)"International encyclopedia of the First World War (Freie Universität Berlin, 2017)doi:10.15463/ie1418.10326
^Kaiser Joseph II. harmonische Wahlkapitulation mit allen den vorhergehenden Wahlkapitulationen der vorigen Kaiser und Könige. Since 1780 official title used for princes ("zu Ungarn, Böhmen, Dalmatien, Kroatien, Slawonien, Königlicher Erbprinz")
Bogle, James and Joanna (2005).A Heart for Europe: The Lives of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary. Gracewing Publishing.ISBN978-0852441732.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from the first archdukes. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished in 1919.
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