The Emperor Who Tried to Stop World War I: Charles of Austria

From the first moment of his reign, Charles, almost alone among European leaders at the time, desired peace. Charles IV inducted into the Order of St. Stephen, January 1916, by Arpad Pasch. Public Domain

He knelt there beside the emperor’s bed, forehead pressed into palms, as the murmuring of the prayers for the dying filled the stillness of the room. And as his lips moved in supplication for his granduncle, his thoughts drifted to the overwhelming possibility of what could soon be.

As Emperor Franz Joseph I’s worsening condition became clear, the weight of immense responsibility settled on the 29-year-old heir’s shoulders like a shadow. The earnest young archduke wrestled with the reality that he would soon be emperor of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Charles von Habsburg never expected to rule the Austrian Empire. He is shown here at his coronation at Holy Trinity Column outside Matthias Church, Budapest, Dec. 30, 1916. Public Domain

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Library of Congress. Public Domain

When he rose to his feet beside the monarch’s deathbed, he was rising to face a world wracked with woe and seemingly insurmountable challenges: His own country was torn by nationalist and ethnic tensions, while the wider world was engaged in the bloodiest and most destructive war humanity had ever seen, World War I—or as it was then called, simply “The Great War.”

The Chain of Command

Charles von Habsburg (1887–1922) was never meant to be monarch. Growing up, he remained several layers removed from the throne, but a series of tragedies brought him rapidly to it. First, Crown Prince Rudolf (son of the reigning emperor Franz Joseph) committed suicide in 1889, thus making his cousin, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir. Franz Ferdinand contracted a morganatic marriage, which meant that his children could not inherit the throne. Instead, once the future emperor Franz Ferdinand died, his nephew, Charles, would become ruler.

Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary (née Duchess of Bourbon-Parma) in 1911. Public Domain

But Charles still believed that he had many years ahead of him before he would be called on to lead the empire since Franz Ferdinand was still a relatively young man. Then came the bullet from the Serbian’s gun, the heat of which set the world ablaze and changed Charles’s life—and the lives of millions of others—forever. Franz Ferdinand was killed, World War I had broken out, and Franz Joseph’s health was declining. Charles was suddenly on the brink of assuming the crowns of Austria and Hungary, with their ancient traditions, expectations, and responsibilities.

The Emperor’s Greatest Wish

Franz Joseph died in 1916, and Charles became Charles I, emperor of Austria and king of Hungary. That was no easy year to become a head of state. Along with the throne, Charles inherited a war, of which he had personal, frontline experience. From the first moment of his reign, Charles, almost alone among European leaders at the time, desired peace.

As the official website for Charles’s canonization puts it: “As emperor he understood peace to be his absolute, kingly duty. In his ascension manifesto, therefore, he named peace as his central goal. Only [Charles] took up the peace proposal of Pope Benedict XV, incorporating its principles in a set of proposed peace accords (which historians have evaluated as thoroughly realistic and having had great potential).” Charles further made peace overtures to the Allies through his brother-in-law, Prince Sixtus von Bourbon-Parma.

Tragically, these attempts proved unsuccessful due to the “peace-through-victory” policy of Charles’s German allies and because of the antipeace factions among the Entente (the international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan). As Charles Coulombe describes in his 2020 biography of the emperor, Charles’s liaison Sixtus waited for some time in Westminster for a response from the British, which was not forthcoming. Eventually, he had to return to his regiment.

Charles was a dedicated father to his eight children, shown here with Zita in exile at Hertenstein, Switzerland, 1921. Public Domain

As related in “A Heart for Europe” by Joanna and James Bogle, Sixtus later recalled: “The young emperor was innocent of his predecessor’s faults and had come to the throne with only one desire, which was to put an end to the universal slaughter. ... He could not uselessly sacrifice his people to the obstinacy of an ally [Germany] whose pride was causing his coming destruction.” Had Charles’s peace attempts been successful, wrote Sixtus, “The lives of thousands, nay millions of men would have been saved.”

Charles’s desire for the good of his subjects extended beyond peace efforts. Coulombe tells us that the young monarch created a ministry of social welfare in his domains to address hunger and disease, as well as child and youth protection, family rights, and social insurance. This ministry was the first of its kind in Europe. Charles also planned to transform part of the empire into a federated state to give his peoples more independence and help resolve nationalist problems in the multinational empire, but he faced too much opposition from his cabinet, according to Coulombe.

The emperor and king was also a dedicated husband and father. He remained deeply in love with his wife, the lively and loyal Zita of Bourbon-Parma, and they had eight children together. He discussed important matters of state with her, relying on her advice and support as he labored for his peoples. After Charles’s death, Zita wore black for the rest of her life.

All he ever wanted was peace. Charles I of Austria, 1919. Public Domain

The young emperor had an appealing character, according to Coloumbe:

“[H]e was both logical and practical, with a well-developed sense of right and wrong. ... He was not ‘intellectual’ rather, his empress recalled, he would arrive at conclusions by instinct and common sense. ...  Charles’s tastes were quite simple; he preferred folk music to symphonies and operas, and histories and travel books to fiction. ... Charles was an avid hunter and horseman. He was particularly attentive to other people’s views, attempting to understand them even if he disagreed.”

In 1918, after the armistice, the Austrian parliament demanded Charles’s abdication. He refused, instead renouncing participation in state affairs without formally abdicating. The Allies exiled him first to Switzerland, and then, after he attempted twice to recover the throne, to the island of Madeira. The royal couple and their children lived in poverty and poor conditions on the island. Charles contracted pneumonia and died on April 1, 1922, at the age of 34. His last words to Zita were “I love you so much.”

Assessments of Charles and his accomplishments vary. Some call him weak and ineffective. Some call him a villain. Others see him as a hero who tried to save his country from the horrors of war; in the Catholic Church, for instance, he is considered “Blessed.”

One thing we know for sure: With his death came the end of the centuries-old Habsburg dynasty, and perhaps something more. The old monarchies of Europe had once been associated with tradition, custom, and old-fashioned European culture. Old Europe was bound up with the monarchies. The death of the young emperor marked the end of that Europe.