On December 29, 1953, in the historic église de Brou, dans l’Ain, Princess Margherita of Aosta will be united with Duke Robert of Habsburg. It will be the tenth time that a member of the House of Savoy has married a representative of the House of Habsburg since the distant year of 1315, when Catherine of Aosta was wed to Leopold, Duke of Austria.
Archduke Otto, present head of the Habsburg dynasty and elder brother of the groom, together with Duchess Anne of Aosta, mother of Margherita, will open the bridal procession. They will be followed by the groom, giving his arm to his mother, Empress Zita, and the bride, who will be accompanied by King Umberto of Italy.
The day before, at the town hall of Bourg-en-Bresse, Mayor Mercier will celebrate the civil marriage in the presence of the witnesses: Archduke Felix of Austria and Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma for Robert of Habsburg; King Umberto and the Count of Paris for Margherita of Aosta.
Margherita, daughter of Duke Amedeo of Aosta and Princess Anne of Orléans, was born twenty-three years ago in the royal palace of Capodimonte in Naples. It was in the park of Capodimonte that she first learned to walk. In 1931, when she was only two, her father received a new posting in Trieste, commanding the 23rd artillery regiment. The family settled in the castle of Miramare, which became the scene of Margherita’s childhood memories and where her sister Maria-Cristina, three years her junior, was born. Duke Amedeo, before shaping his daughter into an accomplished princess, wished her to be a sportswoman and a woman prepared to face the challenges of modern life.
To teach her to swim at the age of two, he used an infallible method: he threw her into the water, paying no heed to her cries. Hardly older, she was strapped onto his rucksack as he carried her into the mountains to learn to ski. At five, he bought her a pony. She had to ride like an Amazon, and if she fell, she was to remount at once, no matter what.
In 1937, her father was appointed Viceroy of Ethiopia. He had long been drawn to Africa, like his mother Hélčne of France, who left several books about her travels on the continent. He prepared the old Italian Legation in Addis Ababa to receive his family, who soon joined him there. But the question of Margherita’s education quickly arose. By tradition, she should have been sent to the famous Poggio Imperiale College in Florence. Yet her father feared such a refined atmosphere might hinder her free development. He chose England instead, sending her there in 1936. With the outbreak of war, she returned to Italy, where her mother and sister joined her in Florence.
The family saw Duke Amedeo for the last time in 1940 during a forty-eight-hour leave. Back in Ethiopia, he was taken prisoner by the British, who, with Free French forces, entered Abyssinia. He died in Nairobi in 1942. The news deeply affected Margherita, though she was only twelve. The following year, when she made her First Communion with Maria-Cristina, the Pope himself celebrated the ceremony in the Mathilde Chapel at the Vatican and told the girls: “You will always find a father in me.”
The Duchess of Aosta and her daughters remained in Florence, enduring heavy bombardments. In 1944, German troops broke into their home and carried them off as hostages to northern Italy and then to Germany, where, after ten months of captivity, they were liberated by French troops. They did not remain long in Italy. In 1946 the referendum abolishing the monarchy sent them into exile. They went first to Belgium, then to Switzerland, where Margherita continued her studies at the renowned La Combe College near Geneva. Their exile ended in 1948, when they settled in Florence. There the Duchess of Aosta purchased from a British vice-consul a beautiful Renaissance-style villa of twenty-five rooms, surrounded by cypresses: “La Cipressina.”
Since then Margherita has lived there, though she spends her holidays in Sorito, the family’s villa at the tip of the Sorrento peninsula. Faithful to her husband’s wish that their daughter become an accomplished woman, the Duchess saw to it that Margherita took her chartered accountancy examinations, in which she excelled. She is also a skilled typist and often acts as her mother’s secretary, together with her sister Maria-Cristina. But Margherita also has a passion for art and especially for painting, in which she shows real talent. She loves serious reading; her latest bedside book is a treatise on Hindu philosophy. She speaks with ease Italian, French, English, German, and Spanish, learned during stays with her maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Guise, in Larache, Morocco. To make her daughters polyglots, the Duchess obliged them to speak only one language each week, even at mealtimes.
At 1.87 meters tall, though still shorter than her mother, Margherita has never lost her love of sport. She has won ski championships and is a fine swimmer. In dress, she remains simple, choosing discreet models in her favorite color, blue, made by a Florentine seamstress. Her best friend is a young paralyzed girl in Florence, whom she visits weekly and calls “little sister.” At “La Cipressina” her favorite companions are Tarik, a solemn-eyed cocker spaniel, and Médor, a wolfhound who understands only French.
Duke Robert of Habsburg, third of the eight children of Emperor Charles I and Empress Zita, was born in 1915 at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. In 1916, upon the death of Emperor Francis Joseph, his father was proclaimed emperor, but with the collapse of the empire in 1918, the family was forced into exile. In 1921 Charles attempted a march on Budapest that failed, and the Habsburgs were sent to Madeira, where he died of pneumonia while Empress Zita was expecting their eighth child. From Spain, where King Alfonso XIII gave them refuge, the family moved to Saint-Sébastien, where young Robert began his studies with Austrian and Hungarian tutors.
Zita, determined to provide her sons with the finest education, sent Robert, like his elder brother Otto, to the Jesuit College of Saint-Michel in Brussels. Robert completed his schooling there and entered the Catholic University of Louvain. During the Second World War, he rallied to “Free Austria,” organized the resettlement of nearly 30,000 Austrian refugees in Britain, obtained his pilot’s license, and made frequent flights between London and Washington. After the war he attempted to found a monarchist party in Vienna with his brothers, but the government reaffirmed the banishment of the archdukes. Robert then settled in Paris and later undertook, with Otto, a six-month tour around the world, flying their own plane. On his return he was given a post at the Banque d’Indochine, which he still holds.
Robert, who measures 1.93 meters, seven centimeters taller than Margherita, is also an ardent sportsman, fond of swimming, hunting, riding, and the Basque pelota he learned as a boy in San Sebastián. He is passionate about sculpture and painting, favoring the Spanish, Flemish, and sixteenth-century Venetian schools. He knows six languages: French, German, Hungarian, English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and had to learn a seventh, Italian, after meeting Margherita, though his mother was born in Tuscany and he assumed the traditional Habsburg title of Duke of Este.
Robert and Margherita first met in Beaulieu on the Côte d’Azur in November 1952, at the wedding of Archduke Felix with Princess Anne-Eugénie d’Arenberg. At the reception, held under a great tent, Robert invited Margherita to dance a tango. She noticed that he was even taller than she was; he thought her far more beautiful than in photographs, and the most elegant of all the guests in her pale blue gown sparkling with sequins. After the tango, they danced a samba. Both wished to continue, but Margherita had to greet her numerous aunts and cousins, while Robert was obliged to attend to the guests.
After the reception, Robert accompanied his brother and sister-in-law to Paris before their departure for Mexico, and there he thought much of Margherita. In Florence, Margherita thought much of Robert. At Easter she chose Paris for her holiday. There, Robert became her guide. They explored castles, museums, and churches together. The declaration of love came quickly. Following an old family tradition, Robert asked that his proposal be made in a little church. In a small chapel on the Left Bank dedicated to the Virgin, their secret engagement took place.
After two weeks in Paris, Margherita returned to Italy. In the summer, Robert was again at Florence, invited to “La Cipressina.” Soon after, the Duchess of Aosta travelled to France to obtain King Umberto’s authorization for the marriage. On August 18 the official engagement was announced. Robert spent blissful days in Florence, strolling through the city with Margherita and Maria-Cristina, helping with the household accounts, and playing fierce chess games with Cristina, who always won. Later in Sorrento, the family settled at their villa Sorito, while Robert was lodged in “La Forestičre,” a rustic cottage once occupied by the great writer Maxim Gorky. There they swam, walked, and sped across the sea in the Aosta motorboat.
In the side aisles of the church a vast crowd pressed forward, while in the central nave the last representatives of the Austro-Hungarian and Italian monarchies had taken their places.
At 11:30, the first Aosta car drew up before the church. Robert of Austria-Este, Duke of Lorraine, alighted, accompanied by his mother, Empress Zita. Soon after, Margherita of Aosta arrived in turn, accompanied by the former King Umberto and the Dowager Duchess of Aosta.
The young woman wore an ivory satin gown a diamond tiara crowned her chestnut hair, the curls hidden beneath a long Brussels lace veil... At Brou, during the wedding of Princess Margherita of Aosta and Archduke Robert of Habsburg, the sumptuous diamond tiara, which held in place the precious lace veil, was remarked upon. It was a creation of the jeweller Chaumet.
Archduke Robert wore morning coat and top hat, as did his brothers and all the Austrian, Italian, and French gentlemen, placed according to the court protocol. Viennese students, dressed in their traditional costumes, lined either side of the central aisle, standing motionless as the high personages, preceded by the Apostolic Nuncio, took their seats beneath the rood screen, its carvings adorned with a daisy, a feather, and a Burgundian briquet.
The university choir of Lyon performed a motet by Thomas Morley on a verse from the Song of Songs, followed by Schütz’s Prayer. These marked the beginning of the religious ceremony.
On the left side of the nave, the Gospel side, were Archduke Otto of Habsburg, King Umberto, and the three brothers of Archduke Robert, together with other distinguished guests. M. Colevari, Prefect of the Ain, attended the ceremony privately.
The high-ranking ladies were seated on the Epistle side. Among them were Queen Giovanna of Bulgaria, Archduchess Regina of Austria, Empress Zita, the Duchess of Aosta, Archduchesses Yolande, Xenia, Adelaide, and Charlotte of Austria, Princesses Maria-Cristina and Maria-Pia of Savoy, Princess Conrad of Bavaria, followed by a line of highnesses, near and distant kin of the young couple.
In the front row sat the frail figure of young Duke Amedeo of Aosta, in a black velvet suit with lace jabot and cuffs. His companion in the procession was young Archduchess Xenia who, before her marriage to Archduke Rudolf of Austria, had been employed by Air France in New York.
As the service continued, the Sanctus by Caplet and the O Sapientia by Lully were sung, followed by Handel’s majestic Largo, which marked the close of the Mass.
Monsignor Marella, surrounded by the clergy of Bourg, gave his archiepiscopal blessing to the princely couple and delivered an address.
At eight months’ interval, four of the most illustrious families, whose genealogies occupy several chapters of the Gotha, had been united this year by marriages of exceptional splendor. One hundred and fifty representatives of Europe’s highest nobility were present in the old stronghold of the Dukes of Savoy, where in 1513 was built a jewel of medieval architecture: the Church of Brou, dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, protector against plague, whose magnificent polychrome stained-glass windows had recently been exhibited in Paris.
For two days, the former courts of Austria-Hungary and Italy had reassembled in the grand hotels of the town, where every room had been repainted and forty-nine ultra-modern bathrooms installed.
Robert of Austria and Margherita of Savoy will no doubt form “the tallest couple in the world.” He measures 1.94 meters, she 1.88. Despite her height, the princess retains an inherited grace, enhanced by the qualities instilled in her by her mother. Empress Zita ensured that all her children were trained to a profession, with the sole exception of Archduke Otto, claimant to the Austrian throne, who gives lectures. Archduke Charles works in Washington for a Belgian company; Archduke Felix for a Mexican construction firm; Archduke Rudolf in a U.S. bank; Archduchess Adelaide is a doctor of law; Archduchess Charlotte devotes herself to charitable works; and Archduke Robert is employed as an attaché at the Banque d’Indochine in Paris.
Robert and Margherita each command five languages, Italian, German, French, English, and Spanish. The daughter of Duke Amedeo of Aosta, Viceroy of Ethiopia and Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army, of whom Winston Churchill declared that he “fought with bravery and chivalry,” is herself a graduate in business studies and shorthand. In recent years Princess Margherita has managed the household accounts at “La Cipressina,” the Aosta family’s Florentine villa, standing amid cypresses on the Plain of the Jongleurs.
M. de la Chauviničre, head of protocol at the Quai d’Orsay, attended the marriage in a strictly private capacity, accompanied by four other figures of the French armorial: Count and Countess Pierre de Leusse, Princess Pierre Murat, and the Marquis de Fiers, Director-General of the Banque d’Indochine.
Also present were the Belgian statesman M. Van Zeeland, the British Conservative MP Mr. Teeling, four knights of the Sovereign Order of Malta, among them His Excellency Gabor de Apor, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Order, and two knights of the Holy Sepulchre, in scarlet habit and black cape.
On December 29, under the Gothic arches of Brou, Robert and Margherita knelt on cushions filled not with feathers, but with clods of Austrian soil, in keeping with Habsburg tradition. The bride held an orange blossom and a sprig of myrtle, plucked from the imperial park of Schönbrunn.
Thus were united two destinies marked by exile, but carried forward by the youth, culture, and vitality of the bride and groom.
An emperor, two empresses, a king, two queens, twenty-two archdukes, dukes, archduchesses and duchesses, thirteen princes and princesses, all of them in exile, around fifty marquises, counts and barons, but only one reigning prince, that of Liechtenstein, have transformed the little town of Bourg-en-Bresse into a fief of the Houses of Habsburg and Savoy, where the marriage of a bank employee and a shorthand typist, both of royal blood, is being celebrated.
He is Robert of Habsburg, 38 years old, 1.92 meters tall, second son of Empress Zita and brother of Otto, pretender to the crown of Austria. She is Margherita-Isabella of Savoy, 23 years old, 1.88 meters tall, daughter of the late Duke of Aosta, and niece of Umberto of Italy. This afternoon, at four o’clock, they were united civilly at the Bourg town hall, in the strictest intimacy, by Mayor Mercier, first magistrate of the town and a clerk by profession.
For eight days Bourg has known an extraordinary effervescence. There has not been a single free hotel room, not even a chicken left in the farmyards.
Today the town buzzes with the reason behind the sudden decision of the Count of Paris not to attend the wedding of his niece, Duchess Anne of Aosta, who is Margherita’s mother, though he was meant to act as witness. A quarrel of precedence lies at the heart of this refusal, curiously reviving the old conflict between Legitimists and Orleanists.
Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, brother of Empress Zita and uncle of the groom, is also a pretender to the throne of France, as he is to that of Spain. He descends from Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, who renounced the French throne for himself and his descendants when he took the Spanish one. He wished to take precedence over the Count of Paris, great-grandson of Louis-Philippe. The Count took this badly and demanded the first place at the wedding, even before Empress Zita herself. Robert of Habsburg might perhaps have yielded to Xavier of Bourbon, but he refused to do so for the Empress: “First because she is a woman, and second because she has reigned.”
“How is this possible,” the Count of Paris is said to have exclaimed, “am I not here in my kingdom?” In the end, the Bishop of Pistoia replaced the Count of Paris as witness. Margherita of Savoy did not insist further that her cousin Isabelle of France should attend either.
No one came from the English royal family. The Count of Barcelona was absent too, preferring to spend the holidays at Estoril with his two sons. Belgium was represented by Mr. Van Zeeland, and Luxembourg by Prince Consort Félix, as the ducal family prepared for the imminent birth of the child of Princess Joséphine-Charlotte and Prince Jean.
The date of the wedding was chosen for practical reasons: at the end of the year the banks allow a longer holiday, making it easier for Robert to leave his post at the Banque d’Indochine on the Boulevard Haussmann in Paris, and for his brothers, who all work quite democratically, to take time off from their occupations.
The bridge holidays had already played a role in the young couple’s romance. Their hearts had been drawn together from their first meeting, at a Viennese waltz in November 1952 during the wedding of Archduke Felix with Anne-Eugénie d’Arenberg, as their exceptional heights also matched. Robert had to return immediately to Paris, and Margherita to her mother’s villa in Florence, where she pursued her studies in shorthand and foreign languages.
Christmas reunited the lovers, then Easter holidays, and on the mid-August bridge they sealed their engagement. It came as a surprise to outsiders, who had thought Margherita might marry King Baudouin of Belgium.
The young couple decided to marry in the Church of Brou, dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, protector against plague, built in 1505 on the orders of Margaret of Austria in memory of her husband Philibert the Fair, who died at 24. This sanctuary, jewel of sixteenth-century architecture and often called a chapel of love, will tomorrow host the princely marriage, blessed at 11:30 by Monsignor Marella, Apostolic Nuncio.
This afternoon, at four o’clock, wearing a simple black suit, her complexion clear and her eyes bluer than ever, Princess Margherita climbed the steps of the town hall, adorned with green plants neatly lined up. She entered the small council chamber where, beneath the portraits of the astronomer Delalande, of President Vincent Auriol, and the bust of Marianne, symbol of the Republic, Mayor Mercier, wearing his tricolor sash, pronounced the legal formula uniting Archduke Robert Habsburg-Este and Margherita of Savoy-Aosta.
Present at the civil ceremony were the Duchess of Aosta, Marie-José and Umberto of Italy, Regina and Otto of Habsburg, and Empress Zita. At five o’clock all paid a visit to Monsignor Marella, and at 7:30 the family dined together at the Hôtel de France.
A reception followed, attended by close relations and the municipal and departmental authorities. But the true festivities were reserved for the following day. The bride would be led to the altar by King Umberto, the groom by his mother, Empress Zita. After a luncheon at the Hôtel de France, the couple would receive 2,000 Italian and Austrian subjects in the Bourg festival hall, come to pay homage to their princes.
Officially, the French government ignored this marriage. Yet M. de la Chauviničre, head of protocol at the Quai d’Orsay, was present, as was the Prefect of the Ain, though in civilian dress.
For several weeks Margherita had been residing at Brou, where Robert joined her every weekend. Except for Umberto of Italy, who secluded himself nearby at the Château de Longchamp, the families and their guests divided themselves between the Hôtel de France and the Hôtel de l’Europe. The fiancés stayed in the first. A curious detail: under canon law, living beneath the same roof in the days before marriage could, it is said, be cause for annulment. Robert and Margherita seemed little concerned.
They spent Christmas Eve together, and Robert gave his fiancée as a Christmas gift a pair of earrings that had belonged to his grandmother.
Probably the sapphire and diamond earrings in the picture above.
This morning Margherita, who had spent the previous day resting, awoke fresh and radiant. She went with her mother to the station at 1:15 p.m. to welcome her fiancé, Empress Zita, Otto and Regina of Habsburg, and all her future brothers- and sisters-in-law. As it was raining, the family took shelter in the modest office of the deputy stationmaster, somewhat flustered by the honor. At the train’s arrival, Zita of Bourbon-Parma, dressed in black as always but smiling warmly, embraced her children. There was much bowing and embracing among the imperial highnesses, to the astonishment of ordinary travelers, before the party proceeded to the Hôtel de France.
The bride’s gown
Princess Margherita of Aosta would not allow herself to be photographed in her wedding dress before the ceremony, for in Italy the custom holds that doing so brings bad luck. The dress, very simple, was the work of an Italian couturier. It was made of ivory satin in a natural princess silhouette. She wore a veil in Brussels lace, in which lilies alternated with very small knots. That veil once belonged to Margherita’s mother, Anne de France, who wore it at her own marriage to the Duke of Aosta.
For her honeymoon journey, the young bride would bring twelve suits, all in shades of grey; three coats, one of which in wild mink; and two evening gowns, one white and the other black. All the princess’s lingerie was made by Italian seamstresses, in silks of pastel tones.
Point de Vue – Mme Denise Etebrald, in Brussels...............
......The guests at the wedding of Robert of Habsburg and Margherita of Aosta, as well as the curious onlookers drawn to the event, were enchanted by the carillon of the Church of Brou. Only later did they learn what you asked us: namely, that it was a recording, amplified a hundredfold through loudspeakers.
Among the gifts offered to the young couple, we note:
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a brooch in the form of a fleur-de-lis, adorned with sapphires and diamonds, given to the bride by her grandmother, the Duchess of Guise
- an ivory fan painted with a sumptuous view of Versailles, given by the Queen of Spain
- a tea service, offered by Princess Torlonia
- the Madonna of Montenero in a gold frame, a gift from a group of nurses from Livorno.
Quelle:Archiv Ursula Butschal;English translation of a contemporary French press report;CHAUMET
