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

by Justin C. Vovk

  A memorandum written by Philippe Pétain, the French general in chief, to Paul Painlevé, the minister of war, shows that—at least at first—the French were willing to talk peace. The memo, dated August 4, 1917, highlights the desire on France’s part to limit German power in the postwar era.

  The only enemy of France, the one danger in Europe is Prussia. The amendments to the constitutions of the other [German] governments are secondary factors as long as Prussia is not entirely and definitely vanquished and reduced to impotence. The Entente must therefore create an irremediably hostile power next to Prussia. It [the Entente] can achieve this through the Habsburgs by forming, with a bond of the personal union, a federation with a majority of Slavic states …935

  Once it became apparent that the French were on board and using the Duchess of Parma as a go-between, the empress convinced her brother to come to Laxenburg, a palace outside Vienna, for a secret meeting; Charles was uninvolved in the initial contact to give himself plausible deniability if needed. When Sixtus arrived on behalf of President Poincaré, he set the tone for the meeting by asking Charles Salomon, Poincaré’s political adviser, to join him. At the meeting, Sixtus pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket. It listed four points from the French government that were nonnegotiable for the peace talks to go forward. In no uncertain terms, if Austria wanted peace, France demanded the return of Alsace and Lorraine from Germany, which had been seized in the Franco-Prussian War; the restoration of Belgium’s independence; the guaranteed independence of Serbia; and the handover of Constantinople to Russia. Years later, Prince Sixtus wrote in his memoirs his impression of the initial peace negotiations.

  The young Emperor was innocent of his predecessor’s faults and had come to the throne with only one desire, which was to put an end to the universal slaughter. He wished to play an untrammeled [sic] game, face to face with his associates and face to face with his enemies, in order to provoke a possibility and a necessity for peace. The Emperor Charles would have gone on further, for his duty clearly showed him that he could not uselessly sacrifice his people to the obstinacy of an ally [Germany] whose pride was causing his coming destruction.… a separate peace with Austria would have realised the principle object of the war. It would have brought about invincibly the submission of Bulgaria and Turkey. The facts of 1918 have proved how easy it would have been after 1917 to come to an understanding with these two powers. The war would have been concentrated on the French front and brought about the results obtained eighteen months later. The lives of thousands, nay millions of men would have been saved.936

  Upon leaving that first meeting, Sixtus obtained a guarantee from Count Ottokar Czernin, the Austrian foreign minister, that he was fully committed to the peace process. Ambitious, underhanded, tall, and with a gaunt face and deeply recessed eyes, Czernin was a vocal Germanophile who was committed to Austria-Hungary’s military alliance with the Hohenzollern Empire. There were even rumors that he was a German spy. All of these things made Sixtus very skeptical of his assurances, but he trusted Zita and Charles implicitly. It was enough for the peace process to go to stage two: examining the feasibility of France’s terms. Empress Zita recalled her husband’s reaction to the demands.

  The return of Alsace-Lorraine was of course a French interest. But it was also one of the Emperor Charles’s, who was the head of the House of Lorraine. This family link of his with Lorraine was one reason why President Poincaré, who came from that province himself, had so much personal sympathy with the Emperor.

  The four points that [were taken] back to Switzerland were personally drafted by the Emperor. It was still too early in his reign for him to have formed any close circle of advisers around him. As for the South Slav kingdom idea, I remember that he had pondered on this—and discussed it with several advisers and friends including my brothers—while he was heir-apparent and even earlier, before the war.… It was envisaged by the Emperor as part of his overall federalist solution.937

  Once Sixtus returned to France, a flurry of letters flew back and forth between him and Zita, to whom Charles had asked to speak on his behalf. It spoke volumes to the deep love the emperor and empress had for one another that Charles was able to trust his wife implicitly to speak for him. It was also hoped that should these negotiations ever be made public, it would appear as a woman asking her brother for help, not the emperor of Austria suing for peace.

  After taking time to consider his options, and advised by his loving wife, Emperor Charles wrote Sixtus a long and thoughtful letter in response to the four points the prince had brought with him on behalf of the French government.

  My dear Sixtus,

  The third year of this war that has brought the world so much mourning and sorrow is coming to an end.…

  I beg you to let the President of the French Republic, M. Poincaré, know in a secret and unofficial way that I shall support the just claims of France to Alsace-Lorraine in every way and with all my personal influence.

  Belgium must be re-established as a sovereign state, retaining all its African possessions.… The sovereignty of Serbia will be re-established and, as a token of our good-will, we are inclined to guarantee her an equitable and natural access to the Adriatic, and far-reaching economic concessions. Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, will demand as an indispensable condition that the Kingdom of Serbia dissociates itself from, and suppresses the tendency for the disintegration of the Monarchy,… that it shall faithfully and by all means in its power stop that kind of agitation in Serbia and outside her frontiers, and that it will make a pledge to that effect under the guarantee of the Entente Powers.

  The recent events in Russia oblige me to withhold comment on that subject until the final formation of a legal government.

  Hoping that this way we shall soon be able, on both sides, to put an end to the suffering of so many millions of men and of so many families that live in sorrow and anxiety.

  I beg you to believe in my kindest and most fraternal regards,

  Karl938

  In spite of the best efforts made by Zita’s husband, the peace process was mired by one struggle after another. German military command had been sounded out regarding peace but had not been told about the emperor’s meetings with Sixtus. The Germans refused to even consider most of France’s Four Points. Charles found himself making little progress convincing Wilhelm II or even his own foreign minister, Count Czernin, who was acting as an intermediary between the two emperors. The fact that Wilhelm was willing to negotiate was obvious, but so too was the fact that his generals, specifically those in favor of the war, were actually in control.

  In an effort to appeal to Wilhelm in person, Charles and Zita arranged to meet with the German emperor during his visit to the military base at Homburg in 1917. Officially, Charles had arranged the visit so Zita could meet Augusta Victoria for the first time. At the peace talks between the two emperors, Charles conspicuously failed to mention Alsace-Lorraine and a unified Slavic state to Wilhelm. He also failed to mention the fact that the go-between was Sixtus, how far along the peace process was, or even how closely the Austrian monarchs were working with the French. Years later, Zita described the meeting between the two emperors.

  The purpose of the Homburg meeting was not to break the news to the German Emperor that we had made a move to the other side, for this we had already told him. When Emperor William was in Vienna in February 1917 my husband had confided to him that he had taken an opportunity to make contact with the Entente to find a possible solution to the war.

  The German Emperor immediately asked for the name of the intermediary. My husband replied firmly: “That’s something I cannot tell you, but I can guarantee his discretion.” Emperor William accepted this and said: “All right, go ahead. I agree.”939

  Though Wilhelm may have been open to the idea of peace negotiations, the final word came from his generals, who were clearly opposed to the idea. The difference in attitudes between the Austrians and Germans can be seen in a confro
ntation between Zita and Henning von Holtzendorff, one of Wilhelm’s generals, at a lunch party at Homburg. When the general commented that Zita sounded against the war, she replied that indeed she was, “as every woman is who would rather see joy than suffering.” Angered, Holtzendorff shot back bellicosely, “Suffering? What does that matter? I work best on an empty stomach. It’s a case of tightening your belt and sticking it out.”940 It quickly became obvious to both Charles and Zita that the German military leaders could not be reasoned with.

  Although the Homburg visit failed to gain German support for the Sixtus peace initiative, it gave Empress Zita the first and only opportunity she would ever have to meet Dona. Since her husband’s accession, the two women had kept up an amiable correspondence, but they had never met until now. A photograph of the two empresses taken at the time paints a vivid picture. Both look regal in dark dress suits adorned with pearls, wide hats, and parasols, but it is obvious that the women represented different things. Dona, conservative and dignified, symbolized traditionalism and the past, while Zita, with her more stylish ensemble, embodied liberality and the future of monarchy. During one of the receptions at their meeting in Homburg, Zita brought up a subject with Dona that had disgusted her. Zita had been shocked to learn that, twice a year, German bombers were attacking the home of the king and queen of the Belgians on their name days.

  “Just imagine if France or England knew of this meeting taking place and bombed the building!” Zita remarked.

  Dona was horrified—as Zita had hoped—and replied, “Don’t worry. I am sure the English would not bomb because they would know there are ladies present.” Zita managed to calm the German empress until she made her point.

  “But I am told that the Queen of the Belgians is being bombed by German pilots,” she said. Zita later recounted to a friend that Dona “was incredulous and, to my delight, called over [General] Hindenburg … who said he had never heard of these attacks, but would go into the matter immediately. And the fact was that, from that time on, the bombings stopped.”941

  When news of Germany’s resistance reached Paris, Raymond Poincaré brought the negotiations to a screeching halt. The British, who had at one time been interested in talking peace, were no longer on board once Austria expressed resistance to granting Italy unwarranted territorial concessions carved out of present-day Slovenia and Croatia. Prince Sixtus explained Charles’s position on Italy: “The Emperor stated that he was prepared to make [only] the necessary sacrifices to Italy, but that these must be no more than was strictly fair, confined, that was, to territories [that were] Italian in speech and sentiment.”942 The British government became extremely critical of Zita at this time, blaming her for the breakdown of the peace process, similar to the way they vilified Alexandra of Russia. Still latently anti-Catholic, the British foreign ministry accused Zita of scheming and made veiled references to “Bourbon intrigues.” Prince Sixtus staunchly defended his sister’s role.

  Legend says that my sister the Empress played a principal part in these negotiations. Too feudal to love intrigue for the pleasure of it, she was content to write me this charming letter as a woman and as a sovereign, begging me to come to Vienna: “Do not let yourself be held by considerations which in ordinary life would be justified. Think of all the unfortunates who live in the hell of the trenches and die there every day by the hundreds, and come!”943

  But by June, even Sixtus became frustrated, mostly by Italy’s refusal to participate unless it received most of the Austrian Balkans. Italy’s recalcitrance brought what was left of the peace talks to a standstill. With little accomplished, and without the support of France or Britain, Sixtus gave up on the peace process and returned to his regiment in the Belgian army. By the summer, Emperor Charles and Empress Zita were continuing their labors to find a peaceful end to the war. Russia had begun to cannibalize itself, and there was growing unrest in Germany and Austria. “In World War I Emperor Charles of Austria, King of Hungary, tried desperately to end the bloodshed with a constructive peace,” Archduke Otto wrote decades later of his father’s efforts. “Many are the reasons why he could not succeed. It staggers the imagination if one considers what would have happened had this man of peace been successful in his endeavours.”944 Sadly, the Sixtus Affair would not be successful. On the contrary it would serve to break the foundations of the entire Austro-Hungarian monarchy in just over a year. In the process, Europe’s last imperial remnants would be swept away forever.

  19

  Hated, Humbled, Rejected

  (March–November 1917)

  Once Alexandra’s husband abdicated his throne, there was a heated debate over what would happen to the government in Russia. The Duma had no immediate plans to abolish the monarchy, since they expected young Alexei to be named tsar with a state-appointed regent. But that plan fell through because Nicholas knew that if his son became tsar, he would be separated from his family, and Nicholas was unwilling to let that happen. He could not bear the thought of his close-knit family being broken up. Such a move would devastate Alexandra.

  With Alexei taken out of the succession, Nicholas passed the throne directly to his brother Michael, who some royalists hailed as Tsar Michael II. “We have judged it right to abdicate the Throne of the Russian State and to lay down the Supreme Power,” Nicholas declared in his formal abdication. “Not wishing to be parted from Our Beloved Son, We hand over Our Succession to Our Brother the Grand Duke Michael Aleksandrovich and Bless Him on his accession to the Throne.”945 But so unstable was the monarchy’s position now that, upon learning of his accession when he awoke the next morning, Michael declined to take the throne. He renounced his claim in the presence of Mikhail Rodzianko and the Duma officials who had come to his apartment at Gatchina Palace to meet him.

  At Tsarskoe Selo, Alexandra was racked with anxiety. The overthrow of the government in Petrograd led to a collapse of the most basic services. Electrical lines were cut, water was shut off, and the railways were blocked. Rumors circulated that mobs of armed soldiers were making their way to Tsarskoe Selo to kill the empress or capture the tsarevitch, neither of whom knew anything of Nicholas’s abdication. In a last-ditch attempt to keep order, the Alexander Palace guard regiment—some fifteen hundred soldiers who had remained staunchly loyal to the Romanovs—blockaded the palace’s courtyard with artillery and snipers. For a sleepless night, they kept their vigil, until it became clear that no armed troops were en route, at least not at the moment. Inside the palace, Alexandra was struggling to maintain her calm veneer. She paced back and forth in her room while she waited to hear any news from her husband. The waiting came to an end late that night when Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, Nicholas’s uncle, arrived at the palace with the earth-shattering news. After the meeting, a speechless Alexandra stumbled into another room where her friend Lili Dehn was waiting. Falling lifelessly onto a nearby couch, she cried out, “Abdiqué!” A few moments later, she turned to Lili and muttered, “the poor one … all by himself … oh my God, what has happened! And I cannot be near him to comfort him.”946

  When the moment finally came, and Alexandra realized her position as Empress of All the Russias was at an end, there was no anger or bitterness. “It’s for the best,” she said. “It’s the will of God. God will make sure that Russia is saved. It’s the only thing that matters.”947 She did not reproach her husband for abdicating but instead was overcome with grief for what he must be feeling in the moment. That night, Alexandra sat down at her desk and penned an emotional letter to her husband, giving him her support.

  I fully understand yr. action [in abdicating], my own heroe [sic]! I know that [you] could not sign [anything] against what you swore at yr. coronation. We know each other through & through—need no words—as I live, we shall see you back on yr. throne, brought back by your people, to the glory of your reign. You have saved yr. son’s reign & the country & yr. saintly purity.… I hold you tight, tight in my arms & will never let them touch your shining soul, I kiss, kiss, ki
ss & bless you & will always understand you.

  Wify948

  The overthrow of the greatest autocratic dynasty in modern history sent shockwaves across Europe. Queen Marie of Romania was frightened at what was taking place in Russia.

  What an hour for that woman [Alexandra] … she who would listen to no one except Rasputin, and separated herself little by little from all members of the family, then from the whole of society, never showing herself any more, shutting herself up either in Tsarskoe or in the Crimea.…

  What may her feelings be to-day? How does she bear it, separated, as she is from her husband, he not able to get to her and all her children down with measles. A ghastly situation. I sit and ponder over it and to me it seems tragic and fearful beyond words.949

  As Alexandra waited at Tsarskoe Selo for Nicholas to return, she and Lili Dehn spent their time destroying letters, diaries, and other documents that they were afraid would fall into the hands of the revolutionaries. Most of the papers were harmless enough; love letters between Nicholas and Alexandra or correspondences with Queen Victoria, but Alexandra could not take the chance of her personal thoughts being used as propaganda against her family.

  At the end of March, soldiers arrived at Tsarskoe Selo with orders from the new, officially named Russian Provisional Government. Alexandra and her children were placed under house arrest. The palace staff was told they could leave immediately and go free or share in the Romanovs’ captivity. In an unseemly display of loathsome cowardice, many of the servants abandoned the helpless Alexandra to her captors. Only Lili Dehn and a handful of loyal servants stayed with the family.