at Holy Trinity Column outside
Matthias Church,
Budapest, 30 December 1916 with their son
Otto hosting King Charles IV (left) in Constantinople, 1918 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. His coronation as King of Hungary occurred on 30 December. In 1917, Charles secretly entered into peace negotiations with
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. Foreign minister
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. 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 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. The new foreign minister Baron
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 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
Czechoslovak provisional government had joined the Allies on 14 October, and the South Slav national council declared an
independent South Slav state on 29 October 1918.
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
Triune Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia with
Rijeka and during his short reign supported
trialist suggestions from the
Croatian Sabor and
Ban; however, the suggestions were always vetoed by the
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 in Zagreb, President of the Croatian pro-monarchy political party
Pure Party of Rights Dr. with
Ivo Frank and other parliament members and generals went to visit the emperor on 21 October 1918 in
Bad Ischl, 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. 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 (
Zvonimir's kingdom). 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 Theater, and another one for saving the trialist monarchy. 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. 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 Austrian 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. == Proclamations of November 1918 ==