Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Archduke Karl to become co-regent

November 19, 1916

Emperor Franz Joseph is expected to announce on December 2 -- the sixty-eighth anniversary of his reign -- that his heir, Archduke Karl, will be named as a co-regent. The Austrian emperor will "proclaim the extension of his sovereign right" to his great-nephew.
Franz Joseph, 86, has been in bad health for some years now, and the "burdens of the war are proving a heavy load."
Archduke Karl, barely 30, is in "robust health." He is married to the former Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, "who has won her way into the affections" of her husband's future subjects.

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