Jewels in Motion: Karl and Zita’s Wedding (1911)

Yesterday, we featured the classic tiara worn by Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma, the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, at her wedding in 1911. Today, I’ve got some fascinating newsreel footage from that wedding to share, including pictures of several tiara-clad guests. Put on your jewel detective hats, and enjoy seeing a piece of history in motion!

“The wedding day: the bride and groom and the wedding guests with Kaiser Franz Josef in the lead”

The groom, Archduke Karl of Austria (on the left), stands with other wedding guests, including (I believe) Don Jaime, Duke of Madrid

Uniformed guests, including the Duke of Madrid, walk together

Female guests, including at least two tiara wearers, process together

Tuxedoed wedding guests — Zita’s Bourbon-Parma brothers and relatives, I think — process through the crowd

Emperor Franz Josef stands beside the groom’s mother, Archduchess Maria Josepha, who wears her large diamond tiara from Kochert. The bride’s mother, the Duchess of Parma (on the left), wears the Bourbon-Parma Tiara that has since been lost (more on that tiara here)

Archduke Franz Ferdinand, then heir to the Austro-Hungarian thrones, steps in to take a bouquet of flowers from Emperor Franz Josef

On the left, you can see Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria wearing the Habsburg Fringe Tiara now worn by Hereditary Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein; more on that tiara over here

Maria Theresa was the sister-in-law of Emperor Franz Josef and the aunt of the bride; she was also the stepmother of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who can be seen here in the background. The little boy in the foreground is Zita’s six-year-old brother, Prince Gaetano of Bourbon-Parma

The beaming bride and groom, with (I think) King Friedrich August III of Saxony in the background; read more about Zita’s wedding tiara over here!

Also: for those of you who are also fascinated by the last years of the imperial House of Habsburg, you may be interested in a book I just pre-ordered: Greg King and Penny Wilson’s Twilight of Empire. I can’t speak to the quality of the content yet (because I obviously haven’t read it!), but I’m planning to review it soon. If you want to snag a copy right away, here’s a link. 

(The usual disclaimer: any time you purchase a book or something similar through one of the links on the blog, a small portion of the proceeds come back to me. I use that money to purchase more review and research materials for the blog.)