Seeing Austria and Hungary in the post immediately below, "Austria, Hungary Say No Substitute to Russian Gas as Germany’s BASF Warns of Worst Crisis Since WWII" reminded me of Karl.
From History Today:
Kaiser Karl and the End of the HabsburgsFifth in line to the throne, Karl I was not expected to become the Habsburg emperor. By the time he did, in 1916, it was already too late for the crumbling empire.
The Emperor Karl was the last of the Habsburg line of rulers, succeeding his great-uncle Franz Joseph in 1916 as head of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After a reign of less than two years, Karl died in penurious exile in Madeira 100 years ago on 1 April 1922. He was 34.
Many Habsburg emperors were unexpected, plucked from obscurity to serve as rulers due to political intrigue or biological misfortune higher up the chain of succession. Franz Joseph had only come to the throne in 1848 because the military men who had seized power wanted his vague and childless uncle, Ferdinand I, out of office. They had no time either for Ferdinand’s brother, the irresolute Franz Karl. So they lighted instead upon Franz Karl’s impressionable 18-year-old son Franz Joseph, convincing Ferdinand to abdicate and Franz Karl to renounce his rights in his son’s favour.
And then there was oneWhereas Franz Joseph had always been second in line to the throne, Karl was born a distant fifth. One by one, the higher-ranking Habsburgs perished in unforeseen circumstances, clearing Karl’s way. To begin with, Franz Joseph’s son, the heir apparent Rudolf, acquired a morbid fascination with death. Curious to watch someone die, he shot his teenage mistress and, curiosity sated, turned the revolver on himself. The next in line was Franz Joseph’s brother, Karl Ludwig, who was so incompetent that all he could be trusted to do reliably was open events on the emperor’s behalf. The press knew him as the ‘Exhibition Archduke’. Deeply pious, Karl Ludwig died of dysentery in 1896, contracted by drinking water from the River Jordan while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Next up were Karl Ludwig’s sons, Franz Ferdinand and Otto. Otto was a rake and womaniser. Having contracted syphilis, he hid the consequent facial disfigurement behind a prosthetic nose. He died of the disease in 1906. Franz Ferdinand was irascible, bombastic and a compulsive killer of animals – these included two elephants and a tiger, shot while touring India, his own cat and 274,889 small creatures, mostly partridges that beaters drove before him to give him a clear shot. (Franz Ferdinand’s game books survive.)....
....MUCH MORE
