Editing Charles I of Austria (section)

==Reign==

[[File:Karloath.jpg|thumb|King Charles IV taking his [[Coronation of the Hungarian monarch|coronation oath]] at Holy Trinity Column outside [[Matthias Church]], [[Budapest]], 30 December 1916]]
[[File:Karlfamily.jpg|thumb|Portrait of the recently crowned King Charles IV of Hungary and [[Zita of Bourbon-Parma|Queen Zita]] with their son [[Otto von Habsburg|Otto]]]]
[[File:Sultan-Reşat-Enver-Paşa.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Mehmed V]] hosting King Charles IV (left) in Constantinople, 1917]]

Charles succeeded to the thrones on 21 November 1916 upon the death of his grand-uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph. On 2 December 1916, he assumed the title of Supreme Commander of the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]], succeeding [[Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen|Archduke Friedrich]]. His coronation as King of Hungary occurred on 30 December. In 1917, Charles secretly entered into peace negotiations with [[Third French Republic|France]]. He employed his brother-in-law, [[Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma]], an officer in the [[Belgian Army]], as intermediary. However, the Allies insisted on Austrian recognition of Italian claims to territory and Charles refused, so no progress was made.<ref>David Stevenson, "The failure of peace by negotiation in 1917." ''Historical Journal'' 34#1 (1991): 65–86.</ref> Foreign minister [[Ottokar Czernin|Graf Czernin]] was only interested in negotiating a general peace which would include Germany; Charles himself went much further in suggesting his willingness to make a separate peace. When news of what became known as the [[Sixtus Affair]] leaked in April 1918, Charles denied involvement until French Prime Minister [[Georges Clemenceau]] published letters signed by him. This led to Czernin's resignation, forcing Austria-Hungary to give Berlin full control of its armed forces, factories, and railways.<ref>Edward P. Keleher, "Emperor Karl and the Sixtus Affair: Politico-Nationalist Repercussions in the Reich German and Austro-German Camps, and the Disintegration of Habsburg Austria, 1916–1918." ''East European Quarterly'' 26.2 (1992): 163+.</ref><ref>Geoffrey Wawro, ''A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the Habsburg Empire'' (2015) p. 371.</ref>

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was wracked by inner turmoil in the final years of the war, with escalating tension between ethnic groups. As part of his [[Fourteen Points]], U.S. President [[Woodrow Wilson]] demanded that the Empire allow for autonomy and [[self-determination]] of its peoples. In response, Charles agreed to reconvene the [[Imperial Council (Austria)|Imperial Parliament]] and allow for the creation of a confederation with each national group exercising self-governance. However, the ethnic groups fought for full autonomy as separate nations, as they were now determined to become independent from Vienna at the earliest possible moment.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

The new foreign minister Baron [[Stephan Burián von Rajecz|Istvan Burián]] asked for an armistice on 14 October based on the Fourteen Points, and two days later Charles issued a proclamation that radically changed the nature of the Austrian state. The Poles were granted full independence with the purpose of joining their ethnic brethren in Russia and Germany in what was to become the [[Second Polish Republic]]. The rest of the Austrian lands were transformed into a federal union composed of four parts: German, Czech, [[South Slavs|South Slav]], and Ukrainian. Each of the four parts was to be governed by a federal council, and [[Trieste]] was to have a special status. However, U.S. Secretary of State [[Robert Lansing]] replied four days later that the Allies were committed to the political independence of the Czechs, Slovaks and South Slavs, and that autonomy inside the Empire was no longer enough. In fact, a [[Czechoslovakia|Czechoslovak provisional government]] had joined the Allies on 14 October, and the South Slav national council declared an [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs|independent South Slav state]] on 29 October 1918.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

===Trialism and Croatia===
From the beginning of his reign, Charles I favored the creation of a third, Croatian, political entity in the Empire, in addition to Austria and Hungary. In his Croatian coronation oath in 1916, he recognized the union of the [[Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia|Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia]] with [[Corpus separatum (Fiume)|Rijeka]]<ref name="Karlova zavjernica">(Hrvatska) Krunidbena zavjernica Karla IV. hrvatskom Saboru 28. prosinca 1916. (sa grbom Dalmacije, Hrvatske, Slavonije i Rijeke iznad teksta), str. 1.-4. Hrvatski Državni Arhiv./ENG. (Croatian) Coronation oath of Karl IV to Croatian Sabor (parliament), 28 December 1916. (with coat of arms of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Rijeka above the text), pp. 1–4 Croatian State Archives</ref> and during his short reign supported [[Trialism in Austria-Hungary|trialist]] suggestions from the [[Croatian Parliament|Croatian Sabor]] and [[Ban of Croatia|Ban]]; however, the suggestions were always vetoed by the [[Diet of Hungary|Hungarian Parliament]], which did not want to share power with other nations. After Emperor Charles's manifesto of 14 October 1918 was rejected by the declaration of the [[National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs|National Council]] in Zagreb,<ref name="F. Šišić">F. Šišić ''Dokumenti'', p. 180.</ref> President of the Croatian pro-monarchy political party [[Pure Party of Rights]] Dr. {{ill|Aleksandar Horvat|hr}} with [[Ivo Frank]] and other parliament members and generals went to visit the emperor on 21 October 1918 in [[Bad Ischl]],<ref name="Kazimirović">Vasa Kazimirović ''NDH u svetlu nemačkih dokumenata i dnevnika Gleza fon Horstenau 1941–1944'', Beograd 198., pp. 56–57.</ref><ref name="Jedna infamija">Jedna Hrvatska "H. Rieči", 1918., no. 2167</ref> where the emperor agreed and signed the trialist manifesto under the proposed terms set by the delegation, on the condition that the Hungarian part does the same since he swore an oath on the integrity of the Hungarian crown.<ref name="A. PAVELIĆ">A. Pavelić (lawyer) ''Doživljaji'', p. 432.</ref><ref name="Dr. Aleksandar Horvat">Dr. Aleksandar Horvat ''Povodom njegove pedesetgodišnjice rodjenja'', Hrvatsko pravo, Zagreb, 17/1925., no. 5031</ref><ref name="Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau">Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau, Die Katastrophe. Die Zertrümmerung Österreich-Ungarns und das Werden der Nachfolgestaaten, Zürich – Leipzig – Wien 1929, pp. 302–303.</ref> The delegation went the next day to Budapest where it presented the manifesto to Hungarian officials and Council of Ministers who signed the manifesto and released the king from his oath, creating a third Croatian political entity ([[Crown of Zvonimir|Zvonimir's kingdom]]).<ref name="Dr. Aleksandar Horvat"/><ref name="Budisavljević"/><ref name="F. Milobar">F. Milobar ''Slava dr. Aleksandru Horvatu!'', Hrvatsko pravo, 20/1928., no. 5160</ref><ref name="S. MATKOVIĆ">S. Matković, "Tko je bio Ivo Frank?", Politički zatvorenik, Zagreb, 17/2007., no. 187, 23.</ref> After the signing, two parades were held in Zagreb, one for the ending of the [[K.u.K.]] monarchy, which was held in front of the [[Croatian National Theatre, Zagreb|Croatian National Theater]], and another one for saving the trialist monarchy.<ref name="Budisavljević">[[Srđan Budisavljević|Budisavljević Srđan]], ''Stvaranje Države SHS, (Creation of the state of SHS)'', Zagreb, 1958, pp. 132–133.</ref> The last vote for the support of the trialist reorganization of the empire was, however, too late. On 29 October 1918, the Croatian Sabor (parliament) ended the union and all ties with Hungary and Austria, proclaimed the unification of all Croatian lands and entered the [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs]].<ref name="Hrvatska Država">Hrvatska Država, newspaper ''Public proclamation of the Sabor.'' Issued 29.10.1918. no. 299. p. 1.</ref>

The Lansing note effectively ended any efforts to keep the Empire together. One by one, the nationalities proclaimed their independence; even before the note the national councils had been acting more like provisional governments. Charles's political future became uncertain.  On 31 October, Hungary officially ended the [[personal union]] between Austria and Hungary. Nothing remained of Charles's realm except the predominantly German-speaking Danubian and Alpine provinces, and he was challenged even there by the [[German Austria]]n State Council. His last Austrian prime minister, [[Heinrich Lammasch]], advised him that he was in an impossible situation, and his best course was to temporarily give up his right to exercise sovereign power.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}