The Courier-Mail (Brisbane, Qld. : 1933 - 1954)(about) |
Previous issue
Thursday 31 December 1936
Next issue
Send to:
|
1 correction by allanraymond - Show corrections
DEATH OF ARCHDUKE FRIEDRICH
Last Of Hapsburg Field Marshals BUDAPEST, December 30
The death is announced of the Archduke Friedrlch of Austria, the last of the Hapsburg Field Marshals who took part in the Great War.
He was 80 years of age. The deceased was the son of the Archduke Karl. His uncle, Archduke Albrecht, died childless, and left to hi great estates in Silesia, Moravia, and Hungary totalling 387,000 acres, ind the title of Duke of Teschen, but four-fifths of this property were con- fiscated after the war. Suits for its restoration saved only a small part of i. Friedrich entered the army in 1871, and by 1889 he was general in com- mand of an army corps. As he was senior officer when the war began he became commander-in-chief. He left the actual exercise of the command to his chief of staff, von Holssendorff, but as mediator between the conflict- ing demands of the military and civil elements he did valuable service. On the death, of the Emperor Franz Josef he gave up his post. In 1878 he had married the Belgian Princess Isabelle of Croy and had five daughters and one son, the Arch- duke Albrecht, bom in 1897. Friedrich's eldest sister was Queen Maria Crlstina of Spain (mother of King Alfonso). After the collapse of the Dual Mon- archy, Archduke Friedrich went to Switzerland, but returned to Hungary, in 1921. On the occasion of his golden wedding In October, 1928, he thanked the Hungarian nation for its kind- ness to his house in its time of mis- fortune, and presented various art treasures to the National Museum. His wife died in September, 1931. In 1933 he sold, by auction, most of his remaining treasures, and a year later his costly Napoleon relics were lodged in a Basel bank as security for a loan. The Hungarian courts last month sequestrated an estate of the Archduke's in view of his heavy debts, said to total over £750,000. He stated that this was done by his own request. His financial straits were said to be due to the big burden on his Hungarian estates, which had to pay pensions to all his former ser- vants both on these estates and on those which had been taken over by the Succession States. Moreover a campaign In favour of his son for the Hungarian throne had proved very expensive.