HAPSBURG THRONE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18587, 22 December 1934, Page 5

HAPSBURG THRONE

ARCHDUKE OTTO’S CLAIM

RETURN FROM EXILE

CAMPAIGN BY MONARCHISTS

(Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Received Dec. 22. noon) VIENNA, Dec. 21.

The Archduke Otto and his mother, the ex-Enipress Zita, are returning from their long exile to take up residence in the Tyrol in January. This move is reputed to have been made with full consent of Dr. Schuschuigg, and Prince Starhemberg.

In the meantime Austrian and Hungarian monarchists are displaying feverish activity with a view to winning domestic opinion and obtaining foreign moral and material support for the. restoration of Otto.

The Archduke Franz Josef Otto of Austria was born at Villa Wartholz, Lower Austria, on November 20, 1912. He is the eldest son of the ex-Empcror Karl I of Austria (who also was King Karl IV of Hungary), and of Princess Zita of Bouibon-l’arnia. His father died in exile at Funchal, Madeira, in April, 1922. In November, 1918, the family was expelled from Austria and tool; up its abode in Switzerland, living first at Schloss Hertenstein on the Lake of Lucerne. When the ex-Emperor and Empress after their two abortive attempts to regain the throne of Hungary were banished by the Allies to Macleira in 1921, the children were taken to Schloss Wartegg, Switzerland, the seat of the ducal family of BourbonParma, whose head is the step-brother of ex-Enipress Zita. Later, when she was allowed to go to Spain, her eight children were taken there. In April, 1922, a conference of the Legitimist parties in Hungary declared that it regarded Otto as King of Hungary. The Queen-Mother, the statement added, was to be the guardian of the King’s interests. But in November, 1922, the Hungarian Government replied to this declaration by decreeing the abolition of the entire Hapsburg dynasty so far as Hungary was concerned. This decision, however, is not recognised by the Legitimists on the ground that it was arrived at under pressure from the Entente. As the representative of the Legitimists, Count Josef Karolvi was in attendance on the ex-Queen and was charged with the supervision of “King Otto s education. The count in February, 1925, stated that the lad was learning the Magyar, German, Croat and French languages. The family, he said, was entirely dependent on the revenue of a Hungarian estate, which amounted to 10,000 pesetas a month. .Out of this the exQueen. had to provide for 22 persons. Finally he declared that any forcible solution of the dynastic question would not be in the interest of the young After a visit in the spring of 1927 to the Grand Ducal Court of Luxembourg the Archduke Otto was sent there in the summer to continue his education, receiving lessons at Benedictine Abbey of Clerf. la the autumn cd 1929 it was decided that he should attend Louvain University and his mother, with her eight children, left Spam and took up her abode in Belgium in order to be near her eldest son. There has been talk from time to time of Archduke Otto being chosen as King oi Hungary on condition that he renounced his right to the Austrian throne to placate the Powers, but on this point his mother was obdurate. He came of ace in 1930, however, and will be able to decide for himself, if the clown is offered him.