Zita, the Last Hapsburg Empress, Dies

Zita, the last empress of the vast Hapsburg Empire whose role in a plan to end World War I led to exile from her Austrian palace, died today. She was 96.

Born in Italy as a princess of Bourbon-Parma, Zita was the widow of Karl I, the last crowned head of the Hapsburg dynasty that ruled for 640 years.

Zita “just faded away” early this morning, said a spokesman for the Johannes Foundation Home for the Elderly, a former Franciscan convent where the empress spent the last 24 years of her life.

Officials said Zita would be interred April 1 in the Hapsburg Royal Family vault in Vienna.

Her life spanned nearly a century of European drama and tragedy.

As the young wife of Karl I she wore the glittering crown jewels of the Hapsburg Empire. As a widow in exile, she raised chickens and sheep to feed their eight children.

Zita reigned for just two years, holding court at the 1,400-room Schoenbrunn Castle in Vienna from 1916, when Karl I became emperor, to 1918 when the monarchy collapsed. They went into exile and Karl died on the island of Madeira in 1922. From that day, Zita wore black.

Tragedy surrounded the ascent of her husband.

He was crowned emperor of Austria and King of Hungary after the death in 1916 of his uncle, Francis Joseph, who reigned 68 years.

Francis Joseph’s wife, Elisabeth, was fatally stabbed by an Italian anarchist in Geneva in 1897. Their son, Crown Prince Rudolf, killed himself in a suicide pact with his mistress in 1889 at the hunting lodge in Meyerling. Their nephew, Francis Ferdinand, the heir presumptive, was shot by a Serbian assassin in Sarajevo in 1914, triggering World War I.

Karl I initiated moves in 1916 to negotiate a peace he hoped would save the Austrian monarchy. Zita helped arrange secret contacts with the Allies.

The Austrian efforts were revealed in 1918, causing an uproar and rocking the Austrian-German alliance. Zita became known as the “spy of the Bourbons.”

After Karl I’s death, Zita brought up her children first in a Spanish fishing village and then in the Belgian countryside. Hitler’s Blitzkrieg sent the family fleeing to Canada and Tuxedo Park, N.Y. After the war, Zita settled in Zizers.