Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma (; 1 August 1886 – 14 March 1934) was a member of the
House of Bourbon-Parma
The House of Bourbon-Parma ( it, Casa di Borbone di Parma) is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the Fren ...
, a Belgian officer in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, and the central figure in the
Sixtus Affair
The Sixtus Affair (, hu, Sixtus-ügy) was a failed attempt by Emperor Charles I of Austria to conclude a separate peace with the allies in World War I. The affair was named after his brother-in-law and intermediary, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-P ...
, an attempt to negotiate a treaty to end Austria-Hungary's participation in the Great War separate from its
Central Powers
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires,german: Mittelmächte; hu, Központi hatalmak; tr, İttifak Devletleri / ; bg, Централни сили, translit=Tsentralni sili was one of the two main coalitions that fought in ...
allies. He also wrote a number of books.
Early life
Sixtus was the eldest son of the last
Duke of Parma,
Robert I (1848–1907) and his second wife
Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal
''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...
(1862–1959), daughter of King
Miguel of Portugal. His father had had twelve children from a previous marriage and Sixtus was the fourteenth of Duke Robert's twenty four children. Among the twenty four, he was the sixth son, hence he was named, Sixtus.
Sixtus' father had been deposed from the
Duchy of Parma during the wars of Italian unification, but having inherited the large fortune of his childless uncle,
Henri, Count of Chambord
Henri, Count of Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux (french: Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d'Artois, duc de Bordeaux, comte de Chambord; 29 September 1820 – 24 August 1883) was disputedly King of France from 2 to 9 August 1830 as Hen ...
, Duke Robert was very wealthy. He raised his large family, alternating their residence between Villa Pianore (a large property located between
Pietrasanta Pietrasanta is a town and ''comune'' on the coast of northern Tuscany in Italy, in the province of Lucca. Pietrasanta is part of Versilia, on the last foothills of the Apuan Alps, about north of Pisa. The town is located off the coast, where the ...
and
Viareggio
Viareggio () is a city and ''comune'' in northern Tuscany, Italy, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea. With a population of over 62,000, it is the second largest city within the province of Lucca, after Lucca.
It is known as a seaside resort as ...
) and his
Castle Schwarzau,
lower Austria
Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
. Prince Sixtus was educated at
Stella Matutina, a Catholic boarding school for boys run by Jesuits in
Feldkirch Feldkirch may refer to:
Places
* Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, a medieval city and capital of an administrative district in Austria
** Feldkirch (district), an administrative division of Vorarlberg, Austria
* Feldkirch (Hartheim), a village in the munici ...
, near the Swiss border. After finishing high school, he studied law in Paris.
On the death of his father in 1907, the largest part of the family's fortune was inherited by
Elias, Duke of Parma
Elias I, Duke of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Elia di Borbone-Parma; 23 July 1880 – 27 June 1959) was the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma and pretender to the defunct throne of Parma between 1950 and 1959. From 1907 to 1950 he served as regent ...
, the only healthy son among Sixtus' half-siblings. In 1910, the children of Duke Robert's first wife and those of his second wife reached an agreement dividing their father's assets. The following year, Sixtus's sister, Princess
Zita
Zita (c. 1212 – 27 April 1272; also known as Sitha or Citha) is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants. She is often appealed to in order to help find lost keys.
She is often confused with St. Osyth or Ositha, ...
, married
Archduke Charles
Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Laurentius of Austria, Duke of Teschen (german: link=no, Erzherzog Karl Ludwig Johann Josef Lorenz von Österreich, Herzog von Teschen; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian field-marshal, the third s ...
, the heir to the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, who had been Sixtus' childhood friend.
The outbreak of World War I further divided the family. Although their ancestors had reigned in Parma, the brothers had even stronger ties with France and Austria. Unable to fight with the French army, while Prince Sixtus and his brother
Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma
Xavier, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, known in France before 1974 as Prince Xavier de Bourbon-Parme, known in Spain as Francisco Javier de Borbón-Parma y de Braganza or simply as Don Javier (25 May 1889 – 7 May 1977), was the head of the ducal Ho ...
enlisted in the
Belgian Army
The Land Component ( nl, Landcomponent, french: Composante terre) is the land branch of the Belgian Armed Forces. The King of the Belgians is the commander in chief. The current chief of staff of the Land Component is Major-General Pierre Gérard. ...
, their brothers
Elias
Elias is the Greek equivalent of Elijah ( he, אֵלִיָּהוּ ''ʾĒlīyyāhū''; Syriac: ܐܠܝܐ ''Eliyā''; Arabic: الیاس Ilyās/Elyās), a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 9th century BC, mentioned in several h ...
,
Felix
Felix may refer to:
* Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name
Places
* Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen
* Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...
and
René
René ('' born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus.
René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the femin ...
fought on the opposite side, in the
Austrian Army
The Austrian Armed Forces (german: Bundesheer, lit=Federal Army) are the combined military forces of the Republic of Austria.
The military consists of 22,050 active-duty personnel and 125,600 reservists. The military budget is 0.74% of nati ...
.
Sixtus affair
In 1917, as the War was dragging on towards its fourth year, Sixtus' brother-in-law, Emperor Charles I, secretly entered into peace negotiations with France using Sixtus as intermediary. The Emperor also enlisted the help of his loyal childhood friend and
aide-de-camp Count Tamás
Erdődy
The House of Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló (also House of Erdödy) is the name of an old Hungarian- Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently r ...
. Charles initiated contact with Sixtus via neutral Switzerland. Empress Zita wrote a letter inviting her brother to Vienna. Zita and Sixtus's mother, who was living in neutral
Switzerland, delivered the letter personally.
Sixtus arrived with French-agreed conditions for talks: the restoration to France of
Alsace-Lorraine, annexed by Germany after the
Franco-Prussian War in 1870; the restoration of the independence of Belgium; the independence of Serbia and the handover of
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...
to Russia. Charles agreed, in principle, to the first three points and wrote a letter dated 24 March 1917, to Sixtus giving "the secret and unofficial message that I will use all means and all my personal influence" to the French President.
This attempt at 20th century dynastic diplomacy eventually failed, mainly because of the requirement for Italy to cede
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
. Germany also refused to negotiate over Alsace-Lorraine and, seeing a Russian collapse on the horizon, was loath to give up the war. When news of the overture leaked in April 1918, Sixtus's brother-in-law,
Charles I of Austria
Charles I or Karl I (german: Karl Franz Josef Ludwig Hubert Georg Otto Maria, hu, Károly Ferenc József Lajos Hubert György Ottó Mária; 17 August 18871 April 1922) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary (as Charles IV, ), King of Croatia, ...
, denied involvement until French Prime Minister
Georges Clemenceau
Georges Benjamin Clemenceau (, also , ; 28 September 1841 – 24 November 1929) was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A key figure of the Independent Radicals, he was a ...
published letters signed by him. Austria now became even more dependent on its German ally, and there a sharp rebuke for Charles by Wilhelm II.
The failed attempt of peace negotiations became known as the ''
Sixtus Affair
The Sixtus Affair (, hu, Sixtus-ügy) was a failed attempt by Emperor Charles I of Austria to conclude a separate peace with the allies in World War I. The affair was named after his brother-in-law and intermediary, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-P ...
''.
Later life
On 12 November 1919, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma was married to Hedwige
de la Rochefoucauld (1896–1986), the daughter of Armand de La Rochefoucauld, Duke de Doudeauville,
Duke de Bisaccia (1870–1963) and his wife, Princess Louise
Radziwill (1877–1942). Hedwige's younger sister, Marie de La Rochefoucauld, married
Henri-Antoine-Marie de Noailles
Henri Antoine Marie de Noailles, 11th Prince de Poix, 7th Duke of Mouchy (9 April 1890 – 1 November 1947) was a French nobleman.
Early life
The Duke was born in Paris on 9 April 1890. He was the son of François Joseph Eugène Napoléon ...
, the 11th
Prince de Poix
Duke of Mouchy ( es, Duque de Mouchy) was a hereditary title in the Spanish nobility, peerage of Spain, accompanied by the dignity of Grandee and granted in 1747 by Ferdinand VI of Spain, Ferdinand VI to Philippe de Noailles (1715–1794), Philip ...
. The marriage lacked the authorization of Sixtus's elder half-brother,
Elias, Duke of Parma
Elias I, Duke of Parma and Piacenza ( it, Elia di Borbone-Parma; 23 July 1880 – 27 June 1959) was the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma and pretender to the defunct throne of Parma between 1950 and 1959. From 1907 to 1950 he served as regent ...
, and was considered
non-dynastic
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A d ...
until 1959, at which time Elias's son,
Robert Hugo, Duke of Parma
Robert Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (Italian: ''Roberto Ugo di Borbone-Parma''; 7 August 1909 – 15 November 1974) was the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma and the pretender to the defunct throne of the Duchy of Parma between 1959 and 1 ...
, inheriting his father's position as head of the family, recognized the marriages of his uncles Sixtus and Xavier. Together, they had one daughter: Princess Isabella (1922–2015) who married a distant cousin Count Roger de la Rochefoucauld on 23 June 1943. They divorced in 1966. They had five sons and six grandchildren.
The peace
Treaty of Saint-Germain
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal pers ...
, gave France the right to confiscate permanently the property of those who had fought in enemy armies during the war. As Sixtus's half-brother, Elias, had served in the Austrian army, the French government expropriated
Chambord castle, owned by the Bourbons of Parma. Because Prince Sixtus and his brother Xavier had fought with the
Allied side, they took their brother Elias to court demanding a greater share of the family inheritance.
They claimed that the former legal agreement was contrary to French law. In 1925, a French court upheld Sixtus and Xavier's claim, but the appeals court overturned the verdict in 1928. The French
Court of Cassation
A court of cassation is a high-instance court that exists in some judicial systems. Courts of cassation do not re-examine the facts of a case, they only interpret the relevant law. In this they are appellate courts of the highest instance. In th ...
upheld it in 1932.
The brothers were given an equal share of the estate. However, Chambord was never returned by the French government, which paid compensation to Elias.
Married to a French aristocrat, Prince Sixtus settled in France.
In the following years he made several exploratory expeditions to Africa, wrote a number of books (including a biography of his great-great grandmother
Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca
, succession = Queen consort of Etruria
, image = Maria Luisa of Spain, queen of Etruria and duchess of Lucca.jpg
, caption = Portrait by François-Xavier Fabre
, reign = 21 March 1801 – 27 May 1803
, reign-type = T ...
) and treatises.
He died on 14 March 1934, in Paris.
Publications
* ''In Nordostarabien und Südmesopotamien: Vorbericht über die Forschungsreise 1912'', with Alois Musil (Vienna: 1913).
* ''Le Traité d'Utrecht et les lois fondamentales du royaume'' (Paris: E. Champion, 1914). Reprinted (Paris: Communication & Tradition, 1998).
* ''L'offre de paix séparée de l'Autriche, 5 décembre 1916 - 12 octobre 1917'' (Paris: Plon, 1920). English translation: ''Austria's Peace Offer, 1916-1917'' (London: Constable, 1921).
* ''La reine d'Étrurie'', Paris, Calmann-Levy, 1928.
* ''La dernière conquête du roi Alger, 1830'' (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1930).
Ancestry
In fiction
The television series ''
The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles
''The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles'' is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 4, 1992, to July 24, 1993. Filming took place in various locations around the world, with "Old Indy" bookend segments filmed in Wilmington, Nort ...
'' presents Sixtus (played by
Benedict Taylor
Benedict Sean Taylor (born 18 April 1960) is a British actor.
Taylor was born in Hampstead, London, the eldest of six children of father, Richard, a documentary film maker, and Allegra, a writer. Taylor lived in Nigeria until 1965 and then wa ...
) and his brother Xavier (played by
Matthew Wait
Matthew may refer to:
* Matthew (given name)
* Matthew (surname)
* ''Matthew'' (ship), the replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot in 1497
* ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith
* Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chi ...
) as Belgian officers in World War I who help the young
Indiana Jones. Sixtus and his brother Xavier and the ''Sixtus Affair'' are the central subjects of the historical fiction novel "Kingdoms Fall - The Laxenburg Message" by Edward Parr.
Sources
encyclopedia.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sixtus Of Bourbon-Parma, Prince
1886 births
1934 deaths
People from the canton of St. Gallen
House of Bourbon-Parma
Princes of Bourbon-Parma
Princes of Parma and Piacenza
Belgian military personnel of World War I
Burials at Souvigny Priory
Sons of monarchs