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

by Justin C. Vovk

22. Catherine Karolyi, A Life Together (London: Allen & Unwin, 1966), pp. 168–169.

  23. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, pp. 28–29.

  24. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 56.

  25. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 55.

  26. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 32.

  27. Queen Mary to Lady Charlotte Mount Stephen, November 10, 1916, in Queen Mary, Pope-Hennessy, p. 504.

  28. John Fraser, The Secret of the Crown: Canada’s Affair with Royalty (Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2012), p. 48.

  29. Wakeford, Three Consort Queens, p. 178.

  30. Ibid.

  31. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 132.

  32. King George V to Tsar Nicholas II, January 7, 1916, in George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, Carter, p. 393.

  33. Wakeford, Three Consort Queens, p. 151.

  34. Diary entry of Queen Mary, December 6, 1916, in Queen Mary, Pope-Hennessy, p. 503.

  35. Wakeford, Three Consort Queens, p. 151.

  18: Imperial Endgame

  1. Hall, Little Mother of Russia, p. 279.

  2. Grand Duke Alexander, Once a Grand Duke, pp. 283–284.

  3. Pares, My Russian Memoirs, p. 361.

  4. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 397.

  5. Diary entry of January 17/30, 1917, in The Story of My Life, Queen Marie, vol. 3, p. 129.

  6. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 67.

  7. Tsarina Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas II, March 2, 1917, in The Fall of the Romanovs: Political Dreams and Personal Struggles in a Time of Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995), eds. Mark D. Steinberg and Vladimir M. Khrustalëv, pp. 93–95.

  8. Abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, March 3, 1917, in From Splendor to Revolution, Gelardi, p. 322.

  9. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 257.

  10. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 95.

  11. Diary entry of King George V, March 13, 1917, GV/PRIV/GVD, King George V Papers, the Royal Archives, quoted in George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, Carter, p. 399.

  12. Kurth, Tsar, p. 8.

  13. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 385.

  14. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 77.

  15. Snyder, The Red Prince, p. 87.

  16. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 66.

  17. Memorandum of W. Gugoy, June 3, 1917, FO 371-3134, London Public Records Office.

  18. Memorandum of Philippe Pétain to Paul Painlevé, August 4, 1917, in “Empress Zita,” The Catholic Counter-Reformation, Thomas, p. 3.

  19. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 80.

  20. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, pp. 67–68. The Habsburgs’ ties to Lorraine stretched back two hundred years to when Maria Theresa, the heiress to the Austrian throne, married Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine. The title had been passed down to Austrian emperors ever since. Since that time, the official name of the Austrian imperial family has been Habsburg-Lorraine.

  21. Emperor Charles I to Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, March 24, 1917, in The Fall of Eagles (New York: Crown Publishers, 1977), C. L. Sulzberger, pp. 337–341.

  22. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 74.

  23. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 82.

  24. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, pp. 74–75.

  25. Ibid., pp. 85–86.

  26. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, pp. 89–90.

  27. Ibid, p. iii.

  19: Hated, Humbled, Rejected

  1. Tsar Nicholas II, March 3, 1917, State Archive of the Russian Federation 601/2100, in Michael and Natasha: The Life and Love of the Last Tsar of Russia (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997), Donald and Rosemary Crawford, p. 288.

  2. Gelardi, From Splendor to Revolution, p. 325. The original quote, translated by the author, was written in French: “le pauvre … tout seul là bas … oh, mon Dieu, par quoi il passé! Et je ne puis pas être près de lui pour consoler.”

  3. Buxhoeveden, Alexandra Feodorovna, p. 262.

  4. Gelardi, Born to Rule, pp. 257–258.

  5. Queen Marie, The Story of My Life, vol. 3, pp. 151–152.

  6. Dehn, The Real Tsaritsa, pp. 190–191.

  7. Paley, Memories of Russia, p. 87.

  8. Erickson, Alexandra, p. 306.

  9. Ibid., p. 310.

  10. Buxhoeveden, Alexandra Feodorovna, p. 282.

  11. Gelardi, From Splendor to Revolution, p. 327.

  12. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 410.

  13. Gilliard, Thirteen Years, p. 257.

  14. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 410.

  15. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 495.

  16. Arthur Bigge, Baron Stamfordham, to Arthur Balfour, April 6, 1917, LG/F/3/2/19, Parliamentary Archives.

  17. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 151.

  18. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 264.

  19. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 496.

  20. Alexandra Feodorovna Romanova to Alexander Syroboiarsky, May 29, 1917, in Fall of the Romanovs, Steinberg and Khrustalëv, pp. 150–152.

  21. Tyler-Whittle, The Last Kaiser, p. 285.

  22. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 403.

  23. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 266.

  24. Hibbert, Queen Victoria, p. 382.

  25. Nicolson, King George V, p. 308.

  26. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 270.

  27. Dennison, The Last Princess, p. 277.

  28. Legge, King George and the Royal Family, vol. 1, p. 287.

  29. Prince Louis of Battenberg to Princess Louise of Battenberg, June 6, 1917, in The Last Princess, Dennison, p. 277.

  30. Royal Proclamation of King George V, July 17, 1917, in King George and the Royal Family, Legge, vol. 1, pp. 294–295.

  31. Dennison, The Last Princess, p. 277.

  32. Legge, King George and the Royal Family, vol. 1, p. 297.

  33. Duff, Queen Mary, p. 134.

  34. Queen Mary to King George V, March 27, 1918, in Matriarch, Edwards, p. 271.

  20: Into the Abyss

  1. Report from the Associated Press, May 25, 1917 (published June 30, 1917).

  2. Kurth, Tsar, p. 164.

  3. Ibid., p. 166.

  4. Gelardi, From Splendor to Revolution, p. 338.

  5. Coryne Hall and John Van der Kiste, Once a Grand Duchess: Xenia, Sister of Nicholas II (Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing, 2002), p. 121.

  6. Empress Marie Feodorovna to Nicholas Romanov, December 21, 1917, in From Splendor to Revolution, Gelardi, p. 340.

  7. Erickson, Alexandra, p. 319.

  8. Viroubova, Memories, p. 298.

  9. Erickson, Alexandra, p. 324.

  10. Botkin, Real Romanovs, p. 165.

  11. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 83.

  12. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 268.

  13. Ibid.

  14. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 121.

  15. Ibid., p. 125.

  16. Snyder, The Red Prince, p. 99.

  17. Beech and McIntosh, Empress Zita, p. 36.

  18. Thomas, “Empress Zita,” The Catholic Counter-Reformation, p. 3.

  19. New York Times, January 15, 1918.

  20. Ashburton Guardian, July 11, 1918.

  21. Healy, Fall of the Habsburg Empire, p. 296.

  22. Diary entry of Empress Zita, April 2, 1918, Habsburg Family Archives, Cassette No. 22, File 128, in The Last Empress, Brook-Shepherd, p. 93.

  23. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 91.

  24. Diary entry of Empress Zita, April 2, 1918, Habsburg Family Archives, Cassette No. 22, File 128, in The Last Empress, Brook-Shepherd, p. 93.

  25. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 144.

  26. John Toland, No Man’s Land: 1918, The Last Year of the Great War (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1980), p. 167.

  27. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 96.

  28. Sir Horace Rumbold to Arthur Balfour, May 9, 1918, in A Heart for Europe, Bogle, pp. 97–98.

  29. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 147.

  30. Taylor,
Fall of the Dynasties, p. 358.

  31. Bogle, A Heart for Europe, p. 95.

  32. Cecil, Wilhelm II, p. 275.

  33. Diary entry of Empress Zita, April 13, 1918, Habsburg Family Archives, Cassette No. 22, File 128, in The Last Empress, Brook-Shepherd, p. 101.

  34. Ibid.

  35. Thomas, “Empress Zita,” The Catholic Counter-Reformation, p. 4.

  36. Diary entry of Empress Zita, April 14, 1918, in The Last Empress, Brook-Shepherd, pp. 102–103.

  21: The House of Special Purpose

  1. Snyder, The Red Prince, p. 102.

  2. Cecil, Wilhelm II, p. 275.

  3. Wilson and King, Resurrection of the Romanovs, p. 102.

  4. Dorpalen, “Empress Auguste Victoria,” The American Historical Review, p. 29.

  5. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, p. 333.

  6. Emperor Wilhelm II to Empress Augusta Victoria, September 29, 1918, in The Kaiser’s Daughter, Viktoria Luise, p. 119.

  7. Emperor Wilhelm II to Empress Augusta Victoria, September 30, 1918, in ibid., pp. 120–121.

  8. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 94.

  9. Buxhoeveden, Alexandra Feodorovna, p. 329.

  10. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 269.

  11. Receipt of the Ural Regional Soviet, April 30, 1918, in Kurth, Tsar, pp. 184-185.

  12. Wilson and King, Resurrection of the Romanovs, p. 82.

  13. Ibid., pp. 83–84.

  14. King, The Last Empress, p. 344.

  15. Viroubova, Memories, p. 305.

  16. Ibid., p. 318.

  17. Kursh, Tsar, p. 176.

  18. Diary entry of Afansy Beliaev, March 2–31, 1917, in Fall of the Romanovs, Steinberg and Khrustalëv, p. 144.

  19. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 270.

  20. Erickson, Alexandra, p. 341.

  21. Ibid., p. 344.

  22. Ibid., p. 345.

  23. Wilson and King, Resurrection of the Romanovs, p. 90.

  24. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 162.

  25. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 270.

  26. Diary entry of Alexandra Romanova, July 3/16, 1918, in Kurth, Tsar, p. 194.

  27. Erickson, Alexandra, p. 351.

  28. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, p. 186.

  29. Ibid., p. 188.

  30. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 271.

  22: The Fall of Eagles

  1. Rappaport, Last Days of the Romanovs, pp. 58–59.

  2. Edwards, Matriarch, pp. 274–275.

  3. Diary entry of Queen Mary, July 24, 1918, in Queen Mary, Pope-Hennessy, p. 505.

  4. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 382.

  5. Diary entry of King George V, August 31, 1918, GV/PRIV/GVD, King George V Papers, the Royal Archives, quoted in George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, Carter, p. 411.

  6. Lord Stamfordham to Lord Esher, July 25, 1918, in George V, Rose, p. 217.

  7. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra, p. 498.

  8. Lewiston Evening Journal, April 11, 1921.

  9. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 260.

  10. Since Maria Louisa’s wedding was less than a year after Zita was born, the two sisters were never close. Maria Louisa died in 1899 from pneumonia twenty-four hours after giving birth to her last child when Zita was only seven. Ferdinand did not become King of the Bulgarians until 1908, so Zita’s sister was never queen consort.

  11. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 33.

  12. Taylor, Fall of the Dynasties, p. 358.

  13. Empress Zita to Gordon Brook-Shepherd, October 9, 1978, in The Last Empress, Brook-Shepherd, p. 110.

  14. Thomas, “Empress Zita,” The Catholic Counter-Reformation, p. 4.

  15. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 168.

  16. Beech and McIntosh, Empress Zita of Austria, p. 111.

  17. George, Heirs of Tradition, p. 206.

  18. Toland, No Man’s Land, pp. 586–587.

  19. A. J. P. Taylor, The Habsburg Monarchy, 1809–1918: A History of the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1948), p. 265.

  20. S. Miles Bouton, And the Kaiser Abdicates: The German Revolution November 1918–August 1919 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921), p. 126.

  21. Thomas, “Empress Zita,” The Catholic Counter-Reformation, p. 4.

  22. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 188.

  23. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 121.

  24. Bouton, And the Kaiser Abdicates, p. 127–128.

  25. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 131.

  26. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 205.

  27. Ibid., p. 215.

  28. Toland, No Man’s Lands, p. 587.

  29. Taylor, Fall of the Dynasties, p. 352.

  30. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 132.

  31. Guardian, July 4, 2011.

  32. Snyder, The Red Prince, p. 108.

  33. Wilson and King, Resurrection of the Romanovs, p. 102.

  34. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II (Kobo desktop version), chap. 8, para 39.

  35. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 412.

  36. Tyler-Whittle, The Last Kaiser, p. 296.

  37. Taylor, Fall of the Dynasties, p. 323.

  38. Ibid., p. 325.

  39. Princess Ina Luise of Solms-Baruth to Princess Daisy of Pless, November 7, 1918, in “Empress Auguste Victoria,” The American Historical Review, Dorpalen, p. 37.

  40. Dorpalen, “Empress Auguste Victoria,” The American Historical Review, p. 33.

  41. Emperor Wilhelm II to Empress Augusta Victoria, November 8, 1918, in The Kaiser’s Daughter, Viktoria Luise, pp. 135–136.

  42. Gordon Brook-Shepherd, November 1918 (Boston & Toronto: Little, Brown, 1981), p. 357.

  43. Bouton, And the Kaiser Abdicates, p. 178.

  44. Taylor, Fall of the Dynasties, p. 342.

  45. Brook-Shepherd, November 1918, p. 364.

  46. Emperor Wilhelm II to Empress Augusta Victoria, November 9, 1918, in The Kaiser’s Daughter, Viktoria Luise, p. 138.

  47. Diary entry of Queen Mary, November 9, 1918, in Queen Mary, Pope-Hennessy, p. 507.

  48. Diary entry of King George V, November 9, 1918, in George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, Carter, p. 413.

  49. Taylor, Fall of the Dynasties, p. 346.

  50. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 414.

  51. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 127.

  52. Clay, King, Kaiser, Tsar, p. 352.

  53. Wakeford, Three Consort Queens, p. 180.

  54. Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth, p. 96.

  55. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 280.

  56. Carter, George, Nicholas and Wilhelm, p. 405.

  57. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 280.

  58. Empress Augusta Victoria to Victoria Louise, Duchess of Brunswick, November 11, 1918, in The Kaiser’s Daughter, Viktoria Luise, p. 144.

  59. New York Times, November 13, 1918.

  60. Dorpalen, “Empress Auguste Victoria,” The American Historical Review, p. 38.

  61. Viktoria Luise, The Kaiser’s Daughter, p. 144.

  62. Tyler-Whittle, The Last Kaiser, p. 308.

  63. Radziwill, Disillusions of a Crown Princess, p. 213.

  Part 4: Twilight and Shadow (1918–89)

  23: The Edge of Night

  1. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, p. 346.

  2. Norah Bentinck, The Ex-Kaiser in Exile (New York: George H. Doran, n.d.), p. 23.

  3. Emperor Wilhelm II to Empress Augusta Victoria, November 11, 1918, in The Kaiser’s Daughter, Viktoria Luise, p. 139.

  4. Bentinck, The Ex-Kaiser in Exile, pp. 33–34.

  5. Ibid., p. 35.

  6. Viktoria Luise, The Kaiser’s Daughter, p. 144.

  7. Harding, Imperial Twilight, p. 129.

  8. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 220.

  9. Harding, Imperial Twilight, p. 129.

  10. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 44.

  11. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 136.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Empero
r, p. 45.

  14. Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary, p. 510.

  15. Diary entry of Queen Mary, January 21, 1919, in “Reflections on the ‘Lost Prince,’” Royalty Digest, Charlotte Zeepvat, iss. no. 141, vol. 12, no. 8, p. 4.

  16. Edwards, Matriarch, p. 279.

  17. Martin Kitchen, Europe Between the Wars, (New York: Longman, 2000), p. 22.

  18. Bertrand M. Patenaude, “Food as a Weapon,” Hoover Digest, no. 1, (January 30, 2007), taken from http://www.hoover.org/publications/hoover-digest/article/6135 (viewed on July 11, 2011).

  19. Gelardi, Born to Rule, p. 282.

  20. Queen Mary to Emily Alcock, February 2, 1919, in Queen Mary, Pope-Hennessy, p. 511.

  21. Letter of Dr. Otto von Habsburg to the author, April 28, 2007.

  22. New York Times, February 16, 1919.

  23. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 46.

  24. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Habsburg, p. 224.

  25. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 137.

  26. Emperor Charles I to King George V, February 21, 1919, CV M1466/5, the Royal Archives, quoted in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, pp. 224–225. The original letter was written in French: “Majesté, Je suis heureux de pouvoir venir remercier Votre Majesté de la si delicate attention de m’avoir envoyé le colonel Summerhayes. Je suis fort touché de cet acte si courtois et ne même temps j’en suis très reconnaissant. Le colonel est un homme charmant qui remplit sa mission avec beaucoup de tact d’amabilité. La situation dans le monde entier est très difficile surtout pour nous souverains. Que Dieu ait pitié de l’humanité souffrante et lui rende bientôt le repos don’t elle a si besoin! De Votre Majesté le bon frère et cousin, Charles. Eckartsau, 21 February 1919.”

  27. Diary entry of Colonel Edward Strutt, February 27, 1919, in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, p. 232.

  28. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 140.

  29. Diary entry of Colonel Edward Strutt, February 27, 1919, in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, pp. 232–233.

  30. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 47.

  31. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 141.

  32. Diary entry of Colonel Edward Strutt, March 19, 1919, in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, p. 240.

  33. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 143.

  34. Brook-Shepherd, Uncrowned Emperor, p. 50.

  35. Diary entry of Colonel Edward Strutt, March 23, 1919, in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, p. 244.

  36. Brook-Shepherd, The Last Empress, p. 145.

  37. Emperor Charles I to King George V, April 11, 1919, GV AA43/224, the Royal Archives, quoted in The Last Habsburg, Brook-Shepherd, p. 250. The original letter was written in French: “Arrivé sur le sol hospitalier de la Suisse avec l’escorte militaire que le gouvernement de Votre Majesté a bien voulu mettre à ma disposition, je désire vous exprimer directement et sans délai les sentiments de gratitude que me fait éprouver l’appui sûr et généreux de l’empire britannique dans ces circonstances cruelles que je veux croire momentanées.… Je n’ai eu qu’à me louer, en particulier, des dispositions prises par le Colonel Strutt, qui m’a accompagné jusqu’ici et dont le caractère plein de droiture a ete hautement apprecié par moi. Charles. Wartegg, 11 April 1919.”