Thursday, August 7, 2008

Archduke Otto off to Italy

August 7, 1934

Archduke Otto - the de jure Austrian emperor -- is said to be planning a trip by car to Italy, where he will be seeing Mussolini or wooing Princess Maria of Italy, the youngest daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele and Queen Elena. He will be, according to a report in the New York Times, making stops in Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland and will also visit his mother, Empress Zita, in Viareggio.

Otto, it is said, believes that "time is now ripe for monarchical restoration in Austria," and wants to discuss the situation with the Italian dictator. Another rumor is that Otto's trip to Italy has more to do with marriage than with restoration, "as he proposes to press his suit" for Maria's hand in marriage.
A marriage between the Habsburgs and the Savoys would be a good alliance, certainly from a genealogical point of view. Two good, devout Roman Catholic families.

[Otto never did get Maria to marry him. In 1939, she married his uncle, Prince Luigi of Bourbon-Parma, who was the younger brother of Empress Zita.]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what happened that there was not only an engagement between otto and maria ? did they love each other ? was it a political arrangement ? how was their relationship after the second world war ? oh,dear ! too many questions,I'm afraid !