EX-EMPRESS ZITA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17189, 5 November 1923, Page 3

EX-EMPRESS ZITA.

LIVING IN EXILE AND POVERTY. NO MARKET FOR FAMOUS DIAMOND. ("San Francisco Chronicle ") In a forlorn fishing 5 illage on the lip of the blue Biscayan Sea. spurning the j favours of her rich Spanish relations. : lived Zita, former Empress of Austria, ! proud daughter of the Duke of Parma, born an heir to forty millions now a queen without a crown, a widow without a home. She who .but recently lived on a royal income 'of 16.000,000 dollars annually has nothing left but a cold, yellowish diamond weighing many carats—but the world will not buy it. The fourth largest diamond in the world lies in an empty purse. Zita, former Empress of Austria, looks from the marvellously faceted gem to her clamorous brood of hungry children, and writes again to Italy. The Florentine diamond, once worn so proudly by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, is all that stands between the exiled ro\ al family and grim poverty, j APPEAL TO ITALY. " I prav you.” wrote Zita, from her forlorn home in . the Pyrenees, at the# edge of- the rough Biscayan Sea. where she and the small archdukes and archduchesses languished in solitude. “ I pray you, Italy, to buy my last jewel. We cannot live on the bounty of the King of Spain. For one year we could do so. but it may be forty! Neither the King nor the Spanish people should be called on to take such, a responsibility.” Will Italy heed her cry? Italy has not and rather than longer i live on the charity of the King of Spain she and her brood returned to Austria, where she is living almost like an outcast near Vienna. Tier total, re- j sources are less than fiOOO dollars real- , ised by the sale of the remnants of the royal wine cellar. The Swiss will not i buy the diamond because it is too big for ordinary use, and l’s, therefore, chieof hsitorical value. Tt weighs 137.27 metric carats, is beautifully cut, and has a slightly yellowish tinge. Since Zita and the Emperor Charles

night in March, 1919. and left the Castle of Ekartsau on the Danube, whither they had retired after the proclamation that created the AustriaI Bulgarian republic, disaster has pursued the royal exiles. The wonderful collection of jewels, ’representing centuries of search and millions upon millions of Austrian crowns, lavished to enrich the house that had given kings to Hungary since 1252, was taken with the refugees on their flight. While Charles and his devoted Empress were flying by airplane -toi Burgenland. to head the revolting royalists in that wild, ill-advised attempt to seize the throne, a conspiracy of pretended “ international jewellers ” defrauded the Emperor of the wealth of crown jewels, giving to Charles's, personal representative, who was beside himself with anxiety over pressing creditors, a mere -">000 pounds in exchange. TIIE FAMOUS DIAMOND. The Florentine Yliamond alone escaped the fate of the treasure that belonged to the Hapsburgs, probably because it is too large to be disposed of. undetected. and. because of its peculiar yellowish tinge and intricate faceting could not be recut. and so disguised. * After the fiasco at Burgenland, Charles and Zita were turned over to the Allies, placed on a British warship and sent to Madeira, where they were given a handsome villa, but supplied with no money for expenses. Zita, to whom the. ban forbidding Charles to leave tho island did not apply, travelled to Switzerland to .sell , the jewels, and came back again, • empty-handed, with the story of the | swindle and without even the .5000 ! pounds, which had been swallowed up i in the enormous bill of costs presented ; by creditors. j The next day the royal family vacat- | cd the villa and moved into a cottage lent them by a neighbourhood priest. On some days, if it had not been for charity, the family would have gone ! hungry to bed. The cold was intense, j despite the supposed mildness of the ; Madeira climate, and wood and coal | were high. Charles developed a raekI mg cough. Bronchitis, then pneuj rnonia, attacked him. Weak for want j of proper food, exhausted by worry, his I pride cut to the quick, his heart j broken, ( hades Francis Joseph, once Emperor of Austria and King of Hunj gary, last of a long royal line, died in ! a lowly lied beneath a humble roof. LIVING ON CHARITY. : The King of Spain appealed for Zita j and her fatherless children, the seventh , qf who was vet unborn, to all the 1 crowned heads of Europe, asking that ' the private property of Charles be j. turned over to her. Tn the meantime i he threw open to the tragic-little fam- ! ily the castle of Pardo, on the out- / skirts of’-Madrid, where his own Queen had spent happy months prior to their ! wedding. Here the last little arch--1 duchess was born. Still. Zita had no funds. The bank of Pal ft y in Budapest, where the personal account of Charles had lain untouched, failed immediately after Charles's death, and disputes over what is and is not private property of the j Hapsburgs continue until to-day. Presently, the. proud daughter of the Duke of Parma, born an heir to his i forty millions, now a Queen without a crown, a-widow without a home, found j the part of "poor relation ” irksome. She moved, with her lovely childrer

took their little familv that windy t to the tiny fishing village of Lequietio, j a medieval town, on the lip of the blue f Biscayan sea. The home taken by the thirty yearold royal widow is a. dreary place, built of stone and • unheated, though the-climate of the coast is not mild. The fare of the orphaned Hapsburgs was plain and their garments those of the- children of the fisher-folk of the village, with whom the young heirs to a bygone kingdom romped on the sandy beach. BROUGHT IT IN LUXURY. A contrast) indeed to the style of [ her life a»s the favourite child ol her j wealthy father. Brought up in Italy j ' arid France, part of her education | given her on the Isle of 'Wight—luxury j lavished upon her in all three conn- j tries the little " Princess Zita,’’ as she was called, had no need to cal- | (iilate the cost of coal and bread. j In the castle of Charnbord. she) dreamed away golden days of girlhood I -(.hat wonderful old pile in which Charles V. held magnificent reoep- j (ions in the. sixteenth century. “ One ! o( mv father's houses," she could say. i as she wandered among the 365 rooms, and ascended the monumental, double-! spiraled central staircase, up and down wh’irh two regiments may march at - the. same time, without passing or • even seeing each other. I But love claimed her. ‘•'•Mot© for you than for me.” reads I the njottp and device, chosen hy the f proud little Princess when she was no ' li.pro than a .child, and bravely has she clung to it through these troublous Charles Francis Joseph. then not even _ heir-upparopt to the dual throne, wooed her in the gardens of Chambord, pursued her vo the convent on the. Isle of Wight. ?• ml. won her under the blue of Italian skies. wb4ch wvere. I in truth, no bluer than the eyes of I the young Prince. j Then came the assassination of the. Archduke at . Sarajevo, which plunged the world into war. But it gave to Charles and Ztt.a positions next to tho . throne, and an income of 16.00p.C00 j dollars annually. Again " Princess Zita ” lived in luxury. ! Thev were not days of joy. those days upon the throne. War shook the land. diaries, her beloved, was ! often away with his troops. Zita’s own. brothers were active members of | the , Belgian Army, her sisters nurses

iii English hospitals, her closest friends fought under the Italian flag. THE KAISER’S HATRED. The young Empress's heart was with the Allies. She was accused of influencing Charles toward a separate peace, and incurred the malignant hatred of the Kaiser. That deadly hate urged the war-lord to circulate of the basest kind against the innocent Zita’s honour. Manufactured evidence was presented to Charles, and he was pressed to obtain a. divorce that would throw the Uickleas Empress, helpless and dishonoured, robhed of her children, out into the world But- tlie Enqieror, who had once hoen a blue-eyed lover urging his suit in halting English in shady lanes on the Isle of Wight,, aid not listen. More for you than for me.” reads her raotto. Now. it applies to . the handsome, ■orphans who duster altoni her knee to repeat ’their daily lessons, or run out .to play- -perhaps most of all it. applies to the glorious youngster who has I>een acclaimed King of Hungary by ardent royalists. Otto, as he is fondly called, is very near his mother’s heart. He was only eight when his parents made their fatal journey to Burgenland. “Take a message to my sou,” begged Zita, front her prison cell in 'l’ata. “Toll him he must not fear for us.” And so she looks front the Florentine diamond, flashing hack at her from the royal jewel case, to the true blue eyes of the “‘little Emperor.” and pleads with the* country of her birth: “ T pray you. Italy, buy my last