A painting of Blessed Karl I of Austria.Today the Church marks the liturgical feast of Blessed Karl I of Austria. Karl, who in 1916 succeeded the 86-year-old Francis Joseph as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, died in exile on April 1, 1922, aged 35.
Karl took the first steps to bring about peace without victors. Unfortunately for Europe, the Entente Powers could not be swayed- Joseph Carroll
In 1919, the new republic of Austria had banished the former Emperor from his homeland by means of decree of the notorious Habsburg Laws. Following two failed attempts to regain the throne of Hungary, Karl was exiled to Portugal by the Allied powers. There the family resided in a mountain villa on the island of Madeira.
In March 1922, the Emperor caught a severe cold that soon developed into pneumonia thanks to their draughty and humid house. His mind ever directed toward the good of his people, Karl offered his illness and suffering as a sacrifice for the peace and unity of his lands: “I must suffer like this so my people will come together again.”
Six years earlier, Karl’s reign had started with the funeral of his great-uncle, Emperor Francis Joseph. At Karl’s birth, few thought he would one day inherit the throne; a grand-nephew was simply too far removed from the line of succession.
In 1900, Karl suddenly found himself second in line to the throne. He was only 13.
His uncle, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the direct heir to the throne, had chosen to marry beneath his station – his wife was a mere countess – and his children were accordingly excluded from imperial succession.
Great scrutiny was therefore given to Karl’s marriage to Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, who shared his love of the faith as well as of family life and the outdoors.
After their wedding in 1911, Karl turned to her and said: “Now we must help each other to go to heaven.” The couple was blessed with eight children during the 10 years of their happy and exemplary married life.
Five years later, Karl led the massive funeral procession from St Stephen’s Cathedral to the Imperial Crypt, where the members of the House of Habsburg are put to rest. Thousands lined the streets of Vienna, watching the procession pass by, paying their respects and showing their affection for the old Emperor.
Francis Joseph’s 68-year reign had made him a symbol of stability and continuity. With his passing, a new period of the history of Austria-Hungary began and its future now rested with the untried 26-year-old grand-nephew.
The timing of Karl’s ascension to the throne was not a fortunate one. The terrible Great War had raged across Europe for two years. Domestically, he inherited a multi-ethnic empire torn apart by nationalist fanaticism and in desperate need of political and social reform, suffering from widespread misery and poverty, only made worse by the war.
From the very beginning, Karl conceived of his office “as a holy service to his people” and his chief concern was “to follow the Christian vocation to holiness”.
The archbishop of Budapest, who crowned Karl King of Hungary, recalled that “it was neither the ornamentation nor the pomp that interested him; it was only the duty that he was undertaking before God, before the nation and before the Church. He wished to be worthy of this, for which he had been chosen”. Before the high altar in the magnificent Matthias Corvinus church in Budapest, Karl pledged himself to work tirelessly for peace and justice in his realm.
In his first declaration he underlined his commitment to this sacred duty, declaring that he would “do everything to banish in the shortest possible time the horrors and sacrifices of war and to win back for my peoples the sorely-missed blessing of peace”.
In his commitment to peace he followed the efforts of Pope Benedict XV. The Holy Father had called for peace without victors. But the Holy See’s proposal fell on deaf ears everywhere but in Vienna. Among European statesmen, Karl stood alone.
The war started in August 1914 with the cheery departure of troops certain of a speedy victory. By 1916, countless numbers of Europe’s sons had fallen to the merciless trench warfare. The tragedy that triggered the chain of events leading to the outbreak of the disastrous war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo by a Serbian terrorist.
Ironically, Franz Ferdinand was particularly sympathetic toward the southern Slavs and their pursuit of a united Yugoslavia. Moreover, his innovative plans for imperial reform promised the smaller nations within the empire an unprecedented degree of independence and self-determination.
Karl also recognised the need for internal reorganisation and wisely envisioned the future of the monarchy along federalist principles. On becoming Emperor he initiated a number of critically-needed social reforms and prepared the way for a federation of nations joined together by their loyalty to the House of Habsburg and based on the recognition of mutual benefit and interest.
This traditional constitution would serve both the smaller nations as well as the empire and thus procure a balance of power. Each nation’s identity and culture would be duly recognised and respected in a true unity in diversity.
But the genuinely European policy of the House of Habsburg conflicted with less judicious, rival visions for a new European order. The young and ambitious German Empire and its Emperor William II marched for a place in the sun at the head of a Germanic Mitteleuropa.
Though the Western democracies favoured the idea of the nation-state organised according to the republican form of government, they did not seek to break-up the Austro-Hungarian Empire – at least initially. When the US entered the war on the side of the Entente and following President Woodrow Wilson’s powerful rhetoric, the Western powers rigorously pursued the vision of a post-war Europe without monarchies, without empires.
The ‘war to end all wars’ was to climax in a permanent peace by realising a Europe of democratic republics based on the principle of national self-determination.
Beginning in the early months of 1917 Karl took the first concrete steps to bring about peace without victors. He offered far-reaching concessions. Unfortunately for Europe, for the world, the Entente Powers could not be swayed.
In the end, the ill-conceived idea of national self-determination together with the disregard for age-old polities advanced at the Versailles peace conference only prepared the soil for the next catastrophe.
Karl’s peace policy would have been the more prudent choice. At the time, however, his desire for peace was not returned. Germany blunted his efforts. The Entente declined his offers.
Peace, that “beautiful gift of God, the name of which… is the sweetest word to our hearing and the best and most desirable possession”, Karl did not attain.
And yet, even his republican enemies at home remember him as the Friedenskaiser, the Peace Emperor. When meditating on the life of Blessed Emperor Karl we see an encouraging example of faith.
We are reminded that just rule is deeply anchored in faith. We are reminded that we can only order ourselves and the world around us well when we join our will to the will of the Father in heaven and so lay to rest all enmity between God and us. Only when we are reconciled with God and struggle to abide in peace with Him can we genuinely struggle for peace on earth.
As Emperor and King, Karl sought always to imitate Jesus, the true Solomon, the true bringer of peace, and so can be called a son of God.
Emperor Karl was declared Blessed by Pope John Paul II on October 21, 2004 – the anniversary of his marriage to Princess Zita in 1911. Empress Zita, who never remarried, lived to the ripe old age of 96 and died in 1989.
The Emperor Karl League of Prayers for Peace among Nations is the official promoter of the canonisation cause of Blessed Karl I. Anyone interested in enrolling in this international league may e-mail beatukarlumalta@yahoo.com.