Marian Column restored to Prague

A ray of hope in an otherwise dark time: Prague's Marian column, torn down by an angry mob in 1918 due to its association with the Habsburg monarchy, rises again.

In honour of the reconstruction of the column, originally erected in 1650 under Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III (1608-1657), here are pictures of two other Habsburg Ferdinands in Prague: the Coronation of Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I (1793-1875) as King of Bohemia in 1836, and his great-great-great-great-grandnephew Ferdinand Habsburg (b 1997) in the same St Vitus Cathedral in 2019.

Enemies of Monarchy, Heroes of Modernity

I sometimes find it depressing how in so many countries, even non-Communist ones, men I despise are widely and even officially revered:

United States: Thomas Paine (1737-1809), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and other "Founding Fathers"
France: the leaders of the French Revolution in general, though it's interesting that no individual is really singled out
Poland: Tadeusz Kościuszko (1746-1817)
Hungary: Lajos Kossuth (1802-1894)
Mexico: Benito Juarez (1806-1872)
Italy: Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
Czech Republic (whose very name is offensive): Tomáš Masaryk (1850-1937), Edvard Beneš (1884-1948)
Greece: Eleutherios Venizelos (1864-1936)
Ireland: Eamon de Valera (1882-1975)
Egypt: Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970)

Even in England, Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) still has a much better reputation than he deserves, with that disgusting statue outside Parliament.

That's how it is when one is on what the world considers to be the "wrong side of history"...

Empress Regina (1925-2010)

HI&RH Crown Princess Regina of Austria, Hungary, & Bohemia (born a Princess of Saxe-Meiningen at Würzburg on January 6, 1925), wife since 1951 of HI&RH Crown Prince Otto (head of the House of Habsburg since 1922), died this morning at her home in Pöcking, Bavaria [Telegraph obituary]. I am sorry to learn of her passing, which leaves Archduke Otto a widower at the age of 97 (something no man who married a woman 12 years his junior would ever expect), and also regret that Europe cannot officially mourn her as the consort of the reigning Emperor as she ought to have been. May she rest in peace.

(At other blogs: Mad Monarchist, Wilson Revolution Unplugged, Lew Rockwell, Cross of Laeken)

Czech monarchists march in Prague

Heroically refusing to accept the past 91 years of republicanism as permanent, Czech monarchists recently marched through Prague advocating a restoration of the monarchy. The question of who would be king might appear thorny, since Czechs are probably even less likely to be persuaded to reunite with Austria than to restore the monarchy. However, unless an entirely new dynasty were to be established (perhaps from a Czech aristocratic family with distant royal roots), for the moment there is no obvious candidate other than Otto von Habsburg. Failing a full-blown restoration of the pre-1914 (or, for that matter, pre-1789) status quo, an ideal compromise might be for the present-day countries which made up the Habsburg Empire (principally Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Croatia) to adopt some sort of [British] Commonwealth-like arrangement, retaining separate parliaments and prime ministers while sharing the head of the Habsburg family as head of state, thus restoring the monarchy while retaining their independence. Sadly all this would appear to be quite hypothetical at present, but the Czech monarchists are to be commended for not giving up.

Empress Zita's Cause

The New Liturgical Movement reports (with lovely photos and video), as does Andrew Cusack, that the Roman Catholic Church has opened the cause for beatification of Empress Zita (1892-1989), wife of Emperor Karl of Austria-Hungary (1887-1922) who was himself beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004. Naturally I am in favor of such a process, but I am also anxious that appreciation of the Habsburgs not be confined to the past. Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, Slovene, and Croatian Catholics should be praying and working not only for her beatification but for the demise of the illegitimate republics that have dared in their arrogance to claim to replace one of history's greatest dynasties, and the restoration of her son Otto to the thrones of his ancestors! Yes, by all means honor Empress Zita, but not as the "last" Empress; the tragedy of 1918 must never be accepted as permanent, as the efforts of organizations such as the Black-Yellow Alliance and the Czech Crown remind us, no matter how formidable the odds.

Here is a beautiful video of Karl and Zita's wedding in 1911.

Maria Theresa on "Freedom"

Yesterday on the airplane en route from New York to Dallas I finished Julia P. Gelardi's new book In Triumph's Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory. Drawing parallels between the lives of Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451-1504) and her daughter Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England (1485-1536), Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary & Bohemia (1717-1780) and her daughter Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (1755-1793), and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (1819-1901) and her daughter Victoria, German Empress (1840-1901), it's a good read that I would recommend to anyone interested in those royal personalities.

Coming across this quotation on the "Enlightenment," from a letter of the great Empress to one of her sons, I thought readers might find it particularly interesting, as relevant today as it was in the 18th century.

Nothing is more pleasant, nothing more suitable to flatter our egos as a freedom without restrictions. "Freedom" is the word with which our enlightened century wants to replace religion. One condemns the whole past as a time of ignorance and prejudice, while knowing nothing of that past and very little of the present. If I could see these so-called enlightened figures, these philosophes, more fortunate in their work and happier in their private lives, then I would accuse myself of bias, pride, prepossession, and obstinacy for not adjusting to them. But unfortunately daily experience teaches me the opposite. No one is weaker, no one more spiritless than these strong spirits; no one more servile, no one more despairing at the least misfortune as they. They are bad fathers, sons, husbands, ministers, generals, and citizens. And why? Because they lack substance. All of their philosophy, all of their axioms are conceived only in their egotism; the slightest disappointment crushes them beyond hope, with no resources to fall back upon.