| Prince Sixtus | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 1926Autochrome by Georges Chevalier | |||||
| Born | (1886-08-01)1 August 1886 Schloss Wartegg,Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland | ||||
| Died | 14 March 1934(1934-03-14) (aged 47) Paris,France | ||||
| Burial | Souvigny Abbey | ||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue | Princess Isabelle | ||||
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| House | House of Bourbon-Parma | ||||
| Father | Robert I, Duke of Parma | ||||
| Mother | Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal | ||||
Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma (German:Sixtus Ferdinand Maria Ignazio Alfred Robert von Bourbon-Parma; 1 August 1886 – 14 March 1934) was a member of theHouse of Bourbon-Parma, a Belgian officer inWorld War I, and the central figure in theSixtus Affair, an attempt to negotiate a treaty to end Austria-Hungary's participation in the Great War separate from itsCentral Powers allies. He also wrote a number of books.
Sixtus was the eldest son of the lastDuke of Parma,Robert I (1848–1907) and his second wifeInfanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (1862–1959), daughter of KingMiguel of Portugal. His father had had twelve children from a previous marriage and Sixtus was the fourteenth of Duke Robert's twenty four children. Among the twenty four, he was the sixth son, hence he was named, Sixtus.
Sixtus' father had been deposed from theDuchy of Parma during the wars of Italian unification, but having inherited the large fortune of his childless uncle,Henri, Count of Chambord, Duke Robert was very wealthy. He raised his large family, alternating their residence between Villa Pianore (a large property located betweenPietrasanta andViareggio) and hisCastle Schwarzau,lower Austria. Prince Sixtus was educated atStella Matutina, a Catholic boarding school for boys run by Jesuits inFeldkirch, near the Swiss border. After finishing high school, he studied law in Paris.
On the death of his father in 1907, the largest part of the family's fortune was inherited byElias, Duke of Parma, the only healthy son among Sixtus' half-siblings. In 1910, the children of Duke Robert's first wife and those of his second wife reached an agreement dividing their father's assets. The following year, Sixtus's sister, PrincessZita, marriedArchduke Charles, the heir to the throne of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, who had been Sixtus' childhood friend.
The outbreak of World War I further divided the family. Although their ancestors had reigned in Parma, the brothers had even stronger ties with France and Austria. Unable to fight with the French army, while Prince Sixtus and his brotherPrince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma enlisted in theBelgian Army, their brothersElias,Felix andRené fought on the opposite side, in theAustrian Army.
In 1917, as the War was dragging on towards its fourth year, Sixtus' brother-in-law, EmperorCharles I, secretly entered into peace negotiations with France using Sixtus as intermediary. The Emperor also enlisted the help of his loyal childhood friend andaide-de-camp Count TamásErdődy. Charles initiated contact with Sixtus via neutral Switzerland. Empress Zita wrote a letter inviting her brother to Vienna. Zita and Sixtus's mother, who was living in neutralSwitzerland, delivered the letter personally.
Sixtus arrived with French-agreed conditions for talks: the restoration to France ofAlsace-Lorraine, annexed by Germany after theFranco-Prussian War in 1870; the restoration of the independence of Belgium; the independence of Serbia and the handover ofConstantinople to Russia. Charles agreed, in principle, to the first three points and wrote a letter dated 24 March 1917, to Sixtus giving "the secret and unofficial message that I will use all means and all my personal influence" to the French President.
This attempt at 20th century dynastic diplomacy eventually failed, mainly because of the requirement for Italy to cedeTyrol. Germany also refused to negotiate over Alsace-Lorraine and, seeing a Russian collapse on the horizon, was loath to give up the war. When news of the overture leaked in April 1918, Sixtus's brother-in-law,Charles I of Austria, denied involvement until French Prime MinisterGeorges Clemenceau published letters signed by him. Austria now became even more dependent on its German ally, and there a sharp rebuke for Charles by Wilhelm II.
The failed attempt of peace negotiations became known as theSixtus Affair.
On 12 November 1919, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma was married to Hedwigede la Rochefoucauld (1896–1986), the daughter of Armand de La Rochefoucauld, Duke de Doudeauville,Duke de Bisaccia (1870–1963) and his wife, Princess LouiseRadziwill (1877–1942). Hedwige's younger sister, Marie de La Rochefoucauld, marriedHenri-Antoine-Marie de Noailles, the 11thPrince de Poix. The marriage lacked the authorization of Sixtus's elder half-brother,Elias, Duke of Parma, and was considerednon-dynastic until 1959, at which time Elias's son,Robert Hugo, Duke of Parma, inheriting his father's position as head of the family, recognized the marriages of his uncles Sixtus and Xavier. Together, they had one daughter: Princess Isabella (1922–2015) who married a distant cousin Count Roger de la Rochefoucauld on 23 June 1943. They divorced in 1966. They had five sons and six grandchildren.
The peaceTreaty of Saint-Germain, gave France the right to confiscate permanently the property of those who had fought in enemy armies during the war. As Sixtus's half-brother, Elias, had served in the Austrian army, the French government expropriatedChambord castle, owned by the Bourbons of Parma. Because Prince Sixtus and his brother Xavier had fought with theAllied side, they took their brother Elias to court demanding a greater share of the family inheritance.[1] They claimed that the former legal agreement was contrary to French law. In 1925, a French court upheld Sixtus and Xavier's claim, but the appeals court overturned the verdict in 1928. The FrenchCourt of Cassation upheld it in 1932.[1] The brothers were given an equal share of the estate. However, Chambord was never returned by the French government, which paid compensation to Elias.
Married to a French aristocrat, Prince Sixtus settled in France.[1] In the following years he made several exploratory expeditions to Africa, wrote a number of books (including a biography of his great-great grandmotherMaria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca) and treatises.[1] He died on 14 March 1934, in Paris from blood poisoning, which he contracted in May 1932 in the Sahara Desert during his last expeditions.[2]
The television seriesThe Young Indiana Jones Chronicles presents Sixtus (played byBenedict Taylor) and his brother Xavier (played byMatthew Wait) as Belgian officers in World War I who help the youngIndiana Jones. Sixtus and his brother Xavier and theSixtus Affair are the central subjects of the historical fiction novel "Kingdoms Fall - The Laxenburg Message" by Edward Parr.[3]
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