THE NEW EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA

New Zealand Tablet, 8 February 1917, Page 36

THE NEW EMPRESS OF AUSTRIA

. With. the advent of . the new; Empress Zita, wife of the Emperor Charles of Austria, curiosity is naturally aroused as to her personality and accomplishments (says th e> Catholic-Bulletin). From her early days she has been studious; she is an accomplished musician and is well versed in literature, history, and philosophy. She also is fond of society. Empress Zita was born in the Villa Reale at Pianore,: in the Italian province of Lucca, on May 9, 1892, the daughter of Duke Robert and Duchess Marie Antoinette of Parma. ; She is of Bourbon descent, but rapidly became Viennese owing to the fact that life in the capital on the Danube interested her exceedingly. Her early training was in. the hands of the Marquise Della Rosa. ■ Later she entered a Sisters’ academy at Zangbert, where she advanced rapidly in music, presiding now and then as organist in the convent chapel. After her father’s death the then Princess Zita in 1908 spent some time in the Ryde Abbey, Isle of Wight, where her sister, Princess Adelaide, is a nun. Here among the French Sisters who had been compelled to leave France owing to’the infidel persecution, she studied music, literature, Latin, history, and philosophy; Princess Zita made the acquaintance of Archduke Charles Francis at Franzenbad, Bohemia, in the spring of 1909 while.. the-guest of the* Archduchess Maria Annunziata, her cousin. x Later, Princess Zita and Archduke Charles Francis met at balls and other festivities *at the Hofburg palace and occasionally at the hunting lodge of the Archduchess Maria Theresa. On June 14, 1911, the engagement of the princess and the archduke was announced, and on October 21 of the same year they were married, neither expecting ever to ascend the Austro-Hungarian throne. The first household of the archduke and archduchess was established at Kolomea, Galicia, where they had occasion to enjoy the splendid hospitality of the Polish nobility. Their first child was born or. November 20, 1912, and was named Francis Joseph Otto, t: He is now heir-apparent to the Austrian throne. The late Emperor Francis Joseph was very fond of this boy. The other children of the couple are the Archduchess Adelaide, born January 3, 1914 Archduke Robert Charles Louis, ' born February 8, 1915, and Archduke Felix Frederick August, born May 31, 1916, the date on which his father was a victor in the battles at Asiero and Asiago, in Italy.