Birth: 9 May 1892 - Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the future last Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary, and Queen of Bohemia. She was a daughter of the dispossessed Robert I, Duke of Parma, who had lost his Duchy during the unification of Italy. He was a member of the House of Bourbon and was descended from Philip, Duke of Parma the third son of King Philip V of Spain and Elizabeth Farnese. He fathered twelve children during his first marriage to Maria Pia of the Two Sicilies (six of whom were mentally retarded, and three of whom died young). Duke Robert became a widower in 1882 and two years later he married Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, Zitas mother. This second marriage also produced twelve children, one of whom, Felix became the ancestor of the Grand-Dukes of Luxembourg, whilst another son, Xavier inherited the leadership of the Spanish Carlists and who in 1974 after the death of his nephew Robert II became the titular Duke of Parma. In the October of 1911, their sister Zita married the then Archduke Charles of Austria, who became heir presumptive to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1914 and acceded to the throne in 1916 after the old emperors death. In 1918, the Habsburgs were deposed and Charles and Zita left for exile in Switzerland and later Madeira, where Charles died in 1922. After her husbands death, Zita and her eldest son Otto served as the symbols of unity for the exiled dynasty until her death on 14 March 1989.
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 20:46:38 +0000
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