Empress Zita, Servant of God

"A Sovereign can never abdicate." And she didn't! The Austrian Parliament had to pass a special law exempting her from the anti-Habsburg law because she refused to renounce her titles to visit Austria.

From One Peter Five

By Piers Shepherd

"A Sovereign can never abdicate."

Zita: Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary
By Charles A. Coulombe
TAN Books
Hardcover, 424 pages

Charles Coulombe’s latest book is a fascinating, well-written and compelling biography of Zita, last empress of Austria and last queen of Hungary. Zita’s husband Charles, the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was beatified by the Church in 2004. Zita’s own cause for beatification is currently under examination and she holds the title, Servant of God. 

The book’s first two chapters are an extensive background history of the royal houses of which Zita was a part. These were the houses of Bourbon from France (and later extending to Spain and parts of Italy), and the Braganzas of Portugal. Coulombe, who is something of a specialist on the history of European royal houses, shows how closely many of the different royal families were tied together through dynastic marriages and especially highlights the close and intimate link many of these families had with the Catholic Church. For example, the Holy Roman Emperor was made a canon of St. Peter’s in Rome at his coronation, while the King of France was by right a canon of St. John Lateran. While the Holy Roman Emperor could serve as a deacon at papal masses in St. Peter’s, the King of France could serve as a subdeacon at papal masses in St. John Lateran. 

Coulombe’s long background history encompasses such events as the French Revolution, dynastic struggles in Spain, France and Portugal, the Crimean War, the Italian Risorgimento and the creation of the battalion known as the Papal Zouaves. This history provides the backdrop to the life and struggles of Zita and her husband Charles.  

The couple were married in 1911. Charles succeeded to the throne in 1916 at the height of the First World War. Both were of one mind as to the need for reform within the Empire, supporting a gradual federalization of its territories. Both were determined to bring an end to the war. And of course they shared the same fervent religious convictions. Coulombe writes:

The close agreement of the happy couple was far deeper than political —it was religious. Both saw the salvation of the human soul as its highest good, and both were devoted to the Blessed Sacrament, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, the Rosary, and many other devotions. The religion royale of Zita’s forebears dovetailed nicely with the Pietas Austriaca of Charles’s forebears. For both, being a good spouse, a good parent, and a good ruler were interrelated religious duties. 

A large part of the book deals with World War I and Charles’s efforts, as head of state of one of the leading belligerents, to make peace. The war brought closely related royal relatives into conflict. For example, the British king was the cousin of the German Kaiser, and two of Zita’s brothers fought on the Allied side. Coulombe expresses the view that monarchs such as Franz Joseph (Charles’s predecessor as emperor), Tsar Nicholas of Russia and the Kaiser were never very interested in war but that their ministers and generals were.

While her husband was desperately pursuing peace, Zita spent the war doing various works of mercy. Coulombe writes:

She directed a fund to provide for war-widows and orphans, developed needlework guilds, créches, poor people’s kitchens, homes for expatriated Galicians and other refugees, distributions of shoes and clothing for orphans throughout the Empire…

She visited hospitals and operating rooms across the Empire and took a particular interest in alleviating the sufferings of blind soldiers. 

Charles and Zita, although allied to Germany, opposed many of the more objectionable policies of the Germans such as unrestricted submarine warfare and the sending of Lenin to Russia, leading to the Communist Revolution in that country. They supported the peace plan proposed by Pope Benedict XV and used Zita’s brother Sixtus, who was fighting for France, as an intermediary between the Austro-Hungarian and Allied governments. These attempts were to no avail however as Britain and France had already decided on a policy of dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. 

With the end of the war, Charles and Zita were forced to flee the country but Charles never abdicated and made two unsuccessful attempts to return as king of Hungary before his death in 1922. In 1921 the Hungarian National Assembly declared Charles deposed but did not abolish the monarchy. Until 1944 the country was ruled by Admiral Nicholas Horthy who held the title Regent of Hungary but stifled all attempts at a Habsburg return. Zita resisted any suggestions that her husband could abdicate. She stated:

A Sovereign can never abdicate. He can be deposed. He can be declared to have lost his rights. Very well. That is force. It does not compel him to admit that he has lost his rights. He can submit to force according to time and circumstances, but abdicate! Never, never, never! Rather will I be struck down here with you. Then Otto will succeed us. And if we all fall—why, there remain other Habsburgs!

She regarded their coronation oaths as religiously binding. Coulombe writes:

Their anointing and oaths were as binding as those taken at their baptisms and wedding and could be no more renounced than those sacred obligations. If anything, their religiosity deepened as adversities multiplied.

Coulombe chronicles the sixty-seven years of Zita’s widowhood following Charles’s death. Her commitment to the Habsburg cause was unwavering and she raised her son Otto to be a potential king and emperor. Perhaps the most interesting part of this section of the book is the information revealed about Zita’s activities in the 1930s and during the Second World War. With the rise to power in Austria of the strongly Catholic leaders, Engelbert Dolfuss and Kurt Schusnigg, there was some hope and chance of a Habsburg restoration to which both men were sympathetic. This opportunity died however, with Hitler’s occupation of Austria. When this happened, Zita urged her son Otto to fly to Vienna and rally whatever resistance he could. But Otto refused on the ground that such an enterprise would almost certainly fail. Coulombe recounts:

When his mother pressed him further, he reminded her of the second Hungarian attempt and how it had brought about Charles’s death. To his horror, his mother broke down before his eyes—the only time he would ever see her do so.

On the outbreak of the war, Zita was living in France but had to flee following the German occupation in 1940. Several Habsburg family members would spend time in Dachau, including Zita’s brother Xavier. Zita spent the rest of the war in the United States where she supported Otto in forming an Austrian National Committee, but the Free Austrian Battalion, formed with the support of President Roosevelt and including among its members Werner Von Trapp of Sound of Music fame, floundered for lack of men. During and after the war, Zita continued to advocate for a Danubian Confederation incorporating many of the territories of the old Empire. One should question however, whether such a state would have eventually fallen apart like Czechoslovakia or Yugoslavia. 

In addition to the many political events chronicled, Coulombe gives ample description of Zita’s religious devotion. She became a Benedictine oblate in 1926. She spent the last three decades of her life in a religious house in Switzerland where she would attend Mass three times a day, pray the rosary and Litany of Loreto and maintain many other devotions. From 1916-1951 she held the position of High Protectress of the Order of the Starry Cross, a chivalric order of women devoted to the Holy Cross. 

This is an easy-to-read, information packed history with a wealth of absorbing detail written by an evident expert on the subject matter. The book contains some interesting appendices, in addition to a detailed list, with appropriate web links, of Habsburg-related historical sites in Europe and North America.