Early years Archduchess Adelheid was born on 3 January 1914, in the
Schloss Hetzendorf. She was the second child and eldest daughter of
Archduke Charles of Austria and his wife,
Zita of Bourbon-Parma. On 7 January 1914 she was baptised by
Friedrich Gustav Piffl, Archbishop of Vienna. Her godparents that stood for her were her father's mother,
Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, and her mother's brother
Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma. On 21 November 1916, Adelheid's great-granduncle,
Emperor Franz Joseph, died and her father succeeded him as
emperor of Austria and
king of Hungary. During
World War I Adelheid would often accompany her brother,
Crown Prince Otto, and father on trips to inspect the Austrian troops. Following the Austro-Hungarian Empire's defeat in the war, her father was forced to renounce participation in state affairs and subsequently the empire was dismantled—and republics were established in Austria and Hungary. In 1919, Adelheid and her family were sent into exile, first in
Switzerland and lastly in the
Island of Madeira. On 9 March 1922, Adelheid was with her brother Otto and father when he went into town to buy toys for
Carl Ludwig’s birthday. On the way back, they were enveloped by chill mists; due to this, her father caught a cold that later developed into
pneumonia, from which he died on 1 April.
Later life In December 1933 she became the first member of her family to set foot in
Vienna since the establishment of the republic, when she arrived by train from
Budapest. Adelheid attended the
University of Louvain and gained a
doctorate in 1938. During
World War II she emigrated with most of her family to the
United States to escape the
Nazis; she would later return to Europe. On 2 October 1971, Adelheid died in
Pöcking,
Bavaria, aged 57. She never married and did not have children. She is currently buried in the Tulfes Friedhof. ==Ancestry==