Sunday, July 23, 2017

Old Claimants

"Some would argue that the Austro-Hungarian Empire still exists, since Blessed Karl never lawfully abdicated," said my host during the post-dinner cigars last evening. "That's quite something," I quietly thought, "since when my grandmother left Hungary in 1925 she was accustomed to calling it Hungary."

Our sympathies for noble causes can sometimes distract us when they are too removed from reality to see the tinge of human fault, which would be more apparent were there any substance to them. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is very gone. 

This conversation led me to remember a strange tomb I saw in the Vatican basilica six years ago. I could not understand why it was there, ignorant of pretender history at the time, and was convinced the Latin must have been some sort of mistake, since England never had a James III. The "Karlists" may never have their chance, but the Jacobites did and made the least of it. The Hanovers and their descendants continue to supply English monarchs. Walter Scott's Edward Waverly failed to advance the Stuart cause, apparently. 



1 comment:

  1. Queen Victoria was the last Hanoverian by birth as much as the current Queen will be the last member of the House of Wettin to rule over these realms. Prince Charles will be the first agnatic member of the House of Glucksburg to rule over the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms. Legal names do no change the dynastic and genealogical reality. - As much as the current Hapsburgs are all agnatic members of the House of Lorraine.

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