The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 1/Offer of Coronation Spurned
The Bohemian Review | ||
Jaroslav F. Smetanka, Editor, 2324 South Central Park Ave., Chicago. | ||
| Vol. I, No. 4. | MAY 1917 | 10 cents a Copy |
Offer of Coronation Spurned
Since Charles I. succeeded his grand-uncle, Francis Joseph, in November, 1916, stories of a contradictory character have been coming from Vienna. Ministries have been dismissed and new servants of the emperor appointed to have charge of the Austrian affairs and of the affairs common to both halves of the monarchy. Only the all powerful Count Tisza, friend of the German Kaiser, has not been disturbed in his position of dictator of Hungary and arbiter of the foreign policies of the entire dual empire. A month after his accession to the throne, Charles went through the solemn ceremonial of being crowned king of Hungary and, at that time, took the oaths which bind him to maintain the rights of Hungary as a self-governing kingdom.
The medieval ceremony of coronation means to the Americans merely a gorgeous pageant which it is worth while to witness, even if one has to pay a stiff admission fee. To the subjects of European monarchies, and particularly to the inhabitants of those parts of the Hapsburg empire that were formely independent states, coronation still means much the same thing that it signified for their ancestors five hundred years ago. It is the solemn ratification of a pact between the king and his people, wherein the people accept the king for their true lord, and promise him loyalty and allegiance, while he swears in the cathedral church of his capital and in the presence of the highest church dignitaries that he will maintain and faithfully observe all the ancient liberties and privileges of the kingdom and its people.
During the long reign of Francis Joseph Austrian politics turned mainly on the question of his two fold coronation. Although primarily known as the Emperor of Austria, he is not crowned as such. The title of Emperor of Austria was assumed by Francis II. in 1806, when changes introduced by Napoleon compelled him to give up the nominal headship of the medieval German Empire. Since the upstart Napoleon gave himself the style of an emperor, Francis, the scion of some fifteen generations of emperors, would not be content with the title of King of Bohemia and Hungary and therefore created an Austrian empire out of the possessions of the House of Hapsburg.
The dominions of the Hapsburg dynasty were composed in the main of three political and historical groups. There were the Austrian lands proper, provinces on the Danube and in the Alps, which Emperor Rudolph, the founder of the Hapsburg for tunes, took away from the Bohemian king Ottokar. They had always been a part of the German empire, their ruler a vassal of the emperor, bearing the title of duke or archduke and having the right to a ducal coronet only, not to a royal crown. More important than the Austrian duchies were the two kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary to which Ferdinand I. was elected in 1526. In course of time, through changes more or less constitutional, these kingdoms be came hereditary in the House of Hapsburg, and each ruler, upon his accession, was styled King of Bohemia and Hungary, while waiting to be elected emperor by the secular and ecclesiastical electors of Germany.
Francis, the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and the first Emperor of Austria, had been crowned king of Bohemia and Hungary shortly after his father’s death in 1792. Ferdinand, who succeeded him in 1835 and whom Austrian historians call Benevolent—he was really dull-witted—allowed himself also to be crowned king of the two ancient kingdoms and swore to maintain their historical rights. But Francis Joseph, who came to power shortly after insurrection in Bohemia had been quelled and while the Magyars in Hungary were fighting to establish their independence, determined to be emperor of Austria only. Acceptance of the two crowns would profit him nothing, since his Bohemian and Hungarian subjects obeyed him because he could enforce obedience, not because he was the rightful sovereign, while he, on his side, would have to promise in the presence of God and the Church to uphold complete home rule in the two kingdoms. Autonomy to Bohemia and Hungary would spell defeat to his ambition of making German territory of all his hereditary possessions and securing an unquestioned predominance in the German Bund over the rival Hohenzollern house.
The war of 1866 put an end definitely to the dreams of the Hapsburgs to rule Germany. They were thrust out of it and faced now the problem of reorganizing their possessions on a new basis. All the ten races of the monarchy clamored for national liberty. The Magyars were the loud est and most to be feared, and Francis Joseph gave in to their demands. The compromise of 1867 transformed the Austrian empire into the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and made Magyars absolute masters of the Hungarian half of it. This political act was confirmed by Francis Joseph in the most solemn way through his coronation as king of Hungary.
The rights of the Bohemian kingdom, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, were as undoubted as the rights of Hungary, and Francis Joseph on several occasions recognized the justice of the claims of Bohemia to separate government and promised by imperial rescripts to confirm them anew by assuming the crown of St. Vaclav in the cathedral of Prague. The Bohemian question which has been the burning problem of internal Austrian politics ever since the division of the empire into two parts, centered principally around the struggles of the Czechs to secure for their lands the same semi-independent position under the rule of the Hapsburgs which had been granted to Hungary. The emperor’s coronation in Prague was looked upon as the outward symbol of the political aims of the Czech nation during the last half century. But when the war broke out, the accomplishment of these aims seemed further off than ever.
It is not to be wondered at that a sensation was created among the Bohemian speaking people of the United States, when a cablegram reached the Bohemian National Alliance in Chicago from the central Bohemian committee in Paris in the latter half of April stating that Emperor Charles made to the representatives of the Bohemian people the offer that he would be crowned king of Bohemia and make Prague his residence for part of the year, thus making it equal to Vienna or Budapest. This surprising concession was due to three things. The fundamental reason was the conduct of the Bohemian people during the war; it is an old story by this time: insubordination of reservists, surrender of Czech regiments, unreliability of any miltiary unit composed of soldiers from Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia, the well known attitude of the Bohemian deputies which made the convocation of parliament inadvisable, refusal to subscribe to the war loans, treason trials of the leaders of the people, thousands of hangings in districts inhabited by Czechs. It proved impossible to suppress eight million determined people who set their faces dead against the unjust war. The second reason which had a great weight with the new emperor arose directly out of the attitude of the Czech race toward the war and the German plans of conquest. When the Allies announced to the world that their conditions of peace involved the disruption of the Hapsburg empire, the statesmen of Vienna could close their eyes no longer to the fact that policy of repression was dangerous. The voice of Bohemians, Slovaks, Roumanians, Italians, Serbians and Croats has been heard and heeded by Allies who claimed to fight for the rights of small nations. And while Germany, a real nation, cannot be destroyed even when completely defeated, Austria which is only a government and not a nation, will not be spared by the Allies, if its various races do not ask to have it preserved. Since January of this year those that followed closely all items of news coming from the capital city on the Danube perceived plainly a labored effort to convince the neutral and hostile world that the talk of discontent and disloyalty among the faithful subjects of the Hapsburgs was greatly exaggerated and that the Bohemians especially were satisfied with the course of action adopted by their young ruler.
Undoubtedly, though, the final impetus which induced Charles to go so far down the road of concessions to the Bohemians was the same motive which induced Kaiser William to promise electoral reforms in Prussia after the war. The greatest autocrat of them all, the Czar, had fallen, and even the Hapsburgs who, like the Bourbons, can learn nothing new, could read the warning.
It was the expectation of Charles that such a liberal offer on his part would bring promptly expressions of gratitude and loyalty from the richest parts of his dominions—the lands of the Bohemian crown. It should be kept in mind that attempts had been made previously by threats and promises to extort from the Czechs some public, authoritative pronouncement which could be used to stultify the campaign for Bohemian independence carried on beyond the boundaries of Mittel Europa. But even the promise of coronation did not bring the Czechs over to the side of Kaiser Karl.
The promise had been conveyed unofficially from the emperor himself to the two bodies which today have the right to speak for the Czechs—the Bohemian Club, comprising all deputies of Czech race to the Parliament of Vienna, with the exception of one social democrat and, of course, with the exception of the most prominent deputies who are in prison; and the National Council which consists of the big men of Bohemia and Moravia under the chairmanship of the veteran political leader Dr. Charles Matus. The offer was unanimously refused, or rather the message was received and no answer returned to it. It came too late.
War has made a chasm between the Bohemian nation and its rulers which cannot be bridged. The flower of Bohemian manhood, hundreds of thousands of them, have been sacrificed to the insane pride and lust of conquest of the degenerate family of Hapsburgs, thousands of cripples, of men maimed and blind, walk the streets of Prague: children are dying of want, and the leaders of the nation are in jail or on the gallows. Every Bohemian, be he rich or poor, professor or peasant, is convinced that all these horrors were foolishly and recklessly caused by the alien emperor and the archdukes and courtiers that surround him. To kiss the hand that smote them, when it offers alms? Never!
In all probability it matters little that the Bohemian nation spurned the rich bribe tendered them by the young emperor. He could not have carried out his word, even if we take it for granted that he would want to do so. Kaiser Karl is not a free agent; he is a dependent of Kaiser Wilhelm. Austria dances as Germany plays. There is no doubt, for instance, that Charles was anxious to avoid a break with the United States, but Germany needed a proof to convince the world that it can still dispose of the resources of Austria-Hungary, and Emperor Charles sent Penfield home. It is quite unlikely that Germany would have permitted Charles to establish a self-governing Bohemia on the road between Berlin and Vienna, and those who have lived in Vienna feel quite certain that the populace of the gay city would storm, the imperial castle and overthrow the monarchy before it would allow the “Czechische Hunde” to become masters in their own land. In fact, the latest cablegrams from Vienna state that pro-German ministers threatened to resign because they considered the German character of the monarchy endangered, but later they received guarantees that induced them to stay at their posts.
How long will it take America to realize the hopelessness of expecting any good to come out of the rotten empire of the Hapsburgs? The best intentions of the best ruler will not save him his heritage. The United States have much to learn from the experience of the Allies. Not the least is to acquire from them their view of the future of Austria-Hungary. It must pass away, in order that of its many races each may live under a government of its own choice.J. F. S.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1937, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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