Imperial Requiem: Four Royal Women and the Fall of the Age of Empires

by Justin C. Vovk

  Once Zita and Charles formalized their engagement, they had little time to spend together. Along with her mother, siblings, and an official Austrian escort, Zita headed for Rome where the new pope, Pius X, had asked for a special audience with the bride-to-be. It was the first time in almost two hundred years that a Habsburg archduke was marrying a Bourbon-Parma princess. The symbolism was not lost on the pontiff that their wedding would unite two of Europe’s leading Catholic dynasties. Zita’s visit began with a private Mass for her family in the pope’s private chapel. “I am very happy with this marriage and I expect much from it for the future,” Pius told Zita. “Charles is a gift from Heaven for what Austria has done for the church.”634 The pope nearly caused a diplomatic incident among Zita’s Austrian escort when he referred to Charles as the heir apparent, forgetting his place after Franz Ferdinand. It was only Zita’s calm, quick reminder of her fiancé’s place in the succession that prevented any offense.

  While Zita was in Rome, Charles was off on his own mission. He was sent to England to represent Austria-Hungary at the biggest royal event of the year: the coronation of King George V and Queen Mary. The choice to send Charles was made both to call attention to his position as the heir presumptive and also to obviate the awkwardness that would have arisen from Franz Ferdinand’s presence with his morganatic wife. They were forbidden by protocol from entering a room together, sharing a table at an official banquet, or even riding in the same carriage during the procession.

  Planning for the event was a monumental undertaking. At Edward VII’s coronation, Queen Alexandra threw tradition out the window by disregarding a number of important etiquettes. Even her choice of trainbearers ruffled feathers. Queen Mary, the archtraditionalist, saw to it that these were set right. To remedy Queen Alexandra’s faux pas, she studied history books for hours, absorbing, analyzing, and dissecting all the various traditions that had been used for coronations of previous English kings. Mary wanted to be a statelier, less glamorized queen than her mother-in-law. One of the ways she set herself apart was in the clothes she chose for the coronation. The dress she chose for the ceremony was subtle, with silver, gold, and white woven throughout. Unlike her worldlier mother-in-law, Mary found the process of dress fittings burdensome. She wrote to Aunt Augusta of her “tiresome trousseau of clothes which has meant endless trying on. The fashions are so hideous that it has been a great trouble to evolve pretty toilettes.’”635

  The city of London found itself playing “host to a huge number of foreign royals for what was to be, although no one involved in it was to know, the last gathering on the world stage of the royal houses of Old Europe before the wholesale social disintegration that was to come in the aftermath of the 1914–18 war.”636 There was an extraordinary display of dignitaries gathered for the event. Some fifty-eight delegations arrived from countries as far-off as Argentina and Zanzibar. The event had such a global impact that when the new shah of Persia came to the throne in 1925, he asked for a copy of King George V’s coronation upon which to model his own. As the greatest symbol of royal power in the world, London proved to be the ideal—not to mention the traditional—venue for the coronation. To further celebrate the event, the Festival of Empire was opened at the Crystal Palace on May 12, showcasing exhibitions from around the world. On the dull, chilly day of Thursday, June 22, 1911, the king and queen made their way to Westminster Abbey, the site of past coronations of some thirty-eight English monarchs, which was founded in AD 965 by Saint Dunstan and built up in the tenth century by Edward the Confessor. The procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey made a vivid impression on the queen. The embroidered coronation coach, pulled by eight cream-colored horses dressed with scarlet leather and touches of blue and lavender, was cheered on by hundreds of thousands of spectators standing behind decorated military officers from across the British Empire. Immediately behind the carriages of the British royal family was the coach that carried Archduke Charles, Crown Prince Willy, and Crown Princess Cecilie of Germany.

  The queen entered Westminster before her husband’s grand entrance. Her six-yard-long train was carried by a team of six earls’ daughters. As she made her way up the abbey on the three-minute long procession to the altar, the altar boys cried out “Vivat Regina Maria! Vivat, vivat, vivat!”637 First to be crowned that day was the king. After receiving the scepter, orb, and crown, George V made his way back to the throne. Once he was seated, the queen’s crowning followed. Dressed in her white satin gown embroidered with gold and wearing a purple robe, Mary looked every inch a queen. When the moment came, she acquitted herself with dignity and grace, even though she had been crying as her husband was crowned. After being anointed, upon her head was placed a specially made crown sparkling with twenty-two hundred diamonds set in silver arches above a purple coronet. Once she returned to the throne, she and the king received tributes from the royal family and the other assembled dignitaries before exiting the church to the tune of “God Save the King.”

  One guest at the coronation, the First Viscount Murray, noted Mary’s transformation that day from when she entered the church to after being crowned.

  The Queen looked pale and strained. You felt she was a great lady, but not a Queen. She was almost shrinking as she walked up the aisle, giving the impression that she would have liked to have made her way to her seat by some back entrance: the contrast on her “return”—crowned—was majestic, as if she had undergone some marvellous transformation. Instead of the shy creature for whom one had felt pity, one saw her emerge from the ceremony with a bearing and dignity, and a quiet confidence, signifying that she really felt that she was Queen of this great Empire, and that she derived strength and legitimate pride from the knowledge of it.638

  After the ceremony, the queen sent a heartfelt letter to Aunt Augusta, whose old age prevented her from attending. In it, she shared her own feelings about the ceremony.

  You may imagine what an intense relief it is to us that the great and solemn Ceremony of Thursday is well over for it was an awful ordeal for us both especially as we felt it all so deeply and taking so great a responsibility on our shoulders—To me who love [sic] tradition & the past, & who am English from top to toe, the service was a very real solemn thing & appealed to my feelings more than I can express—Everything was most perfectly & reverently done—The foreigners seemed much impressed & were most nice & feeling.… Everyone regretted yr enforced absence & no one more than I did but you wld have found it most agitating—I never ceased thinking of you the whole time.639

  At the festivities that were held across London, Archduke Charles was immensely popular with both the British public and the hundreds of other dignitaries gathered. He stayed late at the parties “but was never seen to dance with anyone. This was interpreted as a gallant homage to Princess Zita, whose portrait he showed with pride to the newly-crowned Queen Mary.”640 Charles’s meeting with the queen, at which he was introduced to the king, was a great historical irony. It was the only time Charles would meet the British monarchs face to face, even though the king and queen would one day become directly responsible for Charles and Zita’s safety.

  The coronation revelry went on for weeks. The king and queen took the customary seven-mile-long drive through the streets of London, attended the ceremony in which their son David was created Prince of Wales, held a review of the Royal Navy at Spithead, attended a thanksgiving service at Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and ate the traditional luncheon at the London Guildhall. These public appearances sent Mary’s popularity soaring. A joke began to circulate renaming the king and queen “George the Fifth and Mary the Four-Fifths.”641 The British press was relentless in its coverage of the royal events. A ball hosted by the Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Stafford House was attended by one of the largest gatherings in history of foreign royalty on British soil. The newsmagazine the Lady offered in-depth coverage and also took special note of Charles and Zita’s romance.

  The Royalties began to arrive about half past elev
en and of course those we looked for most were the German Crown Prince and Princess who arrived together, the latter tall, erect, smiling and very smart, with a beautiful tiara pointed with pearls in her hair.… Then there were Princess Louis of Battenberg [Alexandra’s sister], Princess Frederick Charles of Hesse [Dona’s sister-in-law Mossy], the Hereditary Princess of Saxe-Meiningen [Dona’s sister-in-law Charly], the Princess Militza of Montenegro, and the Crown Princess of Bulgaria. Amongst the most interesting men present, of course, were the Grand Duke Boris of Russia who represented the Czar, the Hereditary Prince Yousof Effandi representing Turkey (who, by the way, is second in precedence amongst the coronation guests and, I was told, had never been to a ball before!) and the Infante Don Fernando of Spain, the handsome Italian Prince, the Duke d’Aosta and the Archduke Charles Francis Josef of Austria representing his [great-]uncle the Emperor, a handsome young prince who, by the way, was formally betrothed the day before he came to England to the Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, a daughter of the late Duke of Parma and sister of the present. The bride-elect is only 19 and very pretty, and she is the 12th child in a family of 20 brothers and sisters, all born of the same parents![sic]642

  Crown Prince Willy and Crown Princess Cecilie were among the most senior-ranking royals visiting London. As honored guests, the couple was housed at Buckingham Palace. On more than one occasion, the queen “was noted in deep and informal conversation with” Willy.643 This was taken as a sign of the continuing amiable relations between the British and German sovereigns, in spite of the floundering of Anglo-German relations as a whole.

  The festivities ended on June 28 with a ball given by the politician Lord Derby. After everyone went their separate ways, George and Mary traveled throughout Great Britain. In Wales, their son David received his official investiture at a special ceremony at Caernarfon Castle on July 13. In the meantime, Charles returned home to his beloved Zita and his upcoming nuptials.

  Nearly five months after the British coronation and the visit to Rome, one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragic love stories began as Charles and Zita were united in matrimony on Saturday, October 21, 1911 at the white Baroque castle of Schwarzau am Steinfeld. Outside the castle walls, large crowds gathered to wish the archduke and his bride every happiness. The night before, villagers made a torchlight procession up to the castle, followed by a colorful fireworks display. It was during this dazzling display that Charles took Zita by the hand and told her, “Now, we must help each other get to heaven.”644 On her wedding day, Zita prepared herself in one of Schwarzau’s salons. A full-length train embroidered with the Bourbon fleur-de-lis was attached to her iridescent cloth-of-silver dress. Resting on her head was a diamond crown surrounded at the top by large pearls, a gift from Emperor Franz Joseph, accented with sprays of myrtle and fresh orange blossoms. Around her wrists were sparkling bracelets covered in precious stones, a gift from her mother. Together with Charles, the emperor, and her soon-to-be mother-in-law, Archduchess Maria Josepha, Zita made her way to the white-and-gold chapel for the wedding service.

  The wedding itself was a vivid tapestry of tradition and progress, royal splendor and quiet dignity. The wedding gifts alone filled two of the castle’s rooms from floor to ceiling. Part of the ceremony was filmed on cine cameras, a first for a royal wedding. The footage that still exists a century later captures the occasion. Everyone who appears on film, from the bride and groom to their illustrious guests, appears supremely happy, including Franz Ferdinand—who arrived without his controversial wife—and the Duke of Madrid, Zita’s old flame. Although Zita never sought public acclaim, her grace and bearing commanded the attention of everyone who saw her walk down the aisle that day. Her dress, made of Duchesse satin embroidered with Bourbon lilies, was high necked with a wide waist. Charles was dressed in the blue uniform of the Lorraine Dragoons. His chest was covered in various medals, including the Order of the Golden Fleece—one of the highest honors in the world—and a Jubilee Medal given to him by the emperor on the sixtieth anniversary of his reign. Officiating the ceremony was Monsignore Bisletti, the personal representative of Pope Pius X and an old friend of the Bourbon-Parma family. According to the Tablet, London’s weekly Catholic magazine, Bisletti “was also the bearer of a present from the Pontiff to the Royal pair, and an autograph [sic] letter in which His Holiness expressed his paternal affection and good wishes.”645 At the couple’s request, the service was performed in Italian, but they took their vows in French. At the altar, Zita’s voice was so strong and happy that it brought a smile to the emperor’s usually stern face. When Bisletti declared the couple married, the guests erupted in cheers and applause. As the wife of a Habsburg archduke, Zita now enjoyed the styles and titles of Her Imperial and Royal Highness, princess imperial and archduchess of Austria, princess royal of Hungary and Bohemia.

  For the reception that followed in Schwarzau’s Theresa Hall, hundreds of guests—including Emperor Franz Joseph and Charles’s maternal uncle King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony—dined on the late Duke of Parma’s fine gold china. The emperor, normally cold and dour, was the epitome of joviality that day. He took it upon himself to make the wedding toast. With a champagne glass held high, he proclaimed, “And now I want to extend to the newly-weds on their great day my heartiest congratulations in the confident hope that they will both find in life that happiness which they are destined to achieve. May God guard and protect Archduke Charles and Archduchess Zita: long may they live!”646 Charles and Zita were happy to get away for a tranquil six-week honeymoon tour of southern Europe. Starting at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau, they made a pilgrimage to pray at the altar at one of the holiest churches in Austria, Mariazell. From there, Italy was next on the itinerary, with a stop at Kostanjevica in modern-day Slovenia to visit the tomb of King Charles X of France and Zita’s other Bourbon relatives. This close time with Charles proved to be some of the happiest moments in Zita’s life.

  Like her imperial counterparts, Queen Mary’s accession to the throne was greeted with the highest expectations. She now joined the rarified circle of Europe’s imperial consorts. She was now the royal doyenne of the greatest imperial power the world had ever seen. Almost from the moment she became queen, Mary captured her role—she owned it; she embraced it. The shy awkwardness of her youth was gone. The years of training at Queen Victoria’s side, the colonial tour, carrying out official duties as Princess of Wales—it all came together for the new queen-empress.

  For the first time in fifty years, the queen of England was also the matriarch of a young family. David was seventeen, Bertie was sixteen, Mary was fourteen, Harry was eleven, George was nine, and John was six. But shortly after George’s accession to the throne in July 1910, the unexpected happened: Mary announced she was pregnant for the seventh time at the age of forty-four. Most of the details surrounding the queen’s last pregnancy have been obscured by history, but it is relatively certain that she was probably not happy about this. Mary made no secret of her dislike for pregnancy, especially once women reached a certain age. This, combined with her strong desire to be an active, useful queen could not have sat well with her. But the pregnancy of an English queen was still a celebrated event in Britain. Not since Queen Victoria gave birth to her last child, Beatrice, in 1857 had such an event taken place. In December, the New York Times reported, “Queen Mary’s accouchement is expected in March. This will be the first birth at Buckingham Palace in fifty-four years.”647 This was the last official, publicly reported statement on Queen Mary’s final pregnancy. There are no further newspaper articles, no public bulletins. Most likely, sometime between December 1910 and March 1911, the queen miscarried, and the details and circumstances surrounding it were evidently kept closely guarded secrets within the royal family.

  During Queen Victoria’s reign, Great Britain became a vast overseas empire that could proudly boast of being a superpower. Industrially, the country was unmatched. It “produced two-thirds of the world’s coal, half its iron, well over half its
steel, half its cotton and was engaged in 40 percent of its trade.”648 Geographically, the British Empire had a foothold on almost every continent, stretching from Canada in the West to Australia and India in the Far East. It was the last of these territories, India, which truly gave Britain its imperial identity. Its three hundred million inhabitants were “policed” by Britain’s standing army in India of only seventy thousand. An English territory for more than a century, the subcontinent provided the empire with exotic, highly prized resources.

  Queen Victoria had a deep, personal affinity for India. One of her favorite servants was an Indian man named Abdul Karim, similar in many respects to the now-famous John Brown. By the latter half of the nineteenth century, the queen became irked by the proliferation of emperors in Europe—specifically in Russia, Austria, and Germany—and she decided it was time to take an imperial title for herself. By definition, Great Britain was an empire: a diverse group of nations and peoples united under a single monarch. But as Queen Victoria put it, she “knew the British wouldn’t stomach an empress at home,” so she persuaded her prime minister Benjamin Disraeli to pass an act in Parliament on May 12, 1876 that granted her the title and style of empress of India. One of Victoria’s biographers explained why gaining the imperial title was so important to her.