PATHETIC REUNION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 229, 28 September 1931, Page 11

PATHETIC REUNION

ARCHDUCHESS AND SON PRINCE WHO REFUSED THRONE A pathetic family reunion took place in a Budapest nursing home on August 12 between the ill and aged Archduchess Isabella of Hapsburg, wife of the Archduke Friedrich, ex-commander of the Austrian army, and her son, the Archduke Albrecht. Albrecht, once pretender to the throne of Hungary, is now “nobody” on account of his romantic runaway marriage with the beautiful Frau Irene von Rudnay, divorced wife of a Hungarian diplomat. The proud old Archduchess, who had worked secretly for years to put her son on tKe throne, has not seen Albrecht since that dramatic day, a year ago, when the impetuous young lover bartered his chances of becoming king by swearing loyalty to his kinsman, the Archdqke Otto, son of the ex-Empresi Zita, as head of the House of Hapsburg, in return for the right to marry the woman of his choice. On Albrecht’s marriage to a divorcee ho ceased to exist in the eyes of his mother. Now the Archduchess, worn out with disappointment at the failure of her ambitious plan, was lying dangerously ill. She had been visited in the previous few days by avery aristocrat and personage of note Tn Budapest, including even Admiral Horthy, ths Regent of Hungary. On the night of August 11, tho Archduchess’ condition taking a turn for the worse, she gave a command that every member of her family must attend her bedside, and next day Archduke Albrecht saw his mother again. What passed between mother and son? Did the Archduchess make a last endeavour to win Albrecht from the side of the wife with whom, incidentally, he has never shared a home, be- y cause the civil marriage at Brighton was never recognised by the Roman Catholic Church, or did she abandon her life’s work in a last-moment forgiveness and bless her son?