Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma
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Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma (given names: Sixtus Ferdinand Maria Ignazio Alfred Robert; Wartegg, Switzerland, August 1, 1886 - Paris, March 14, 1934) was a Prince of the Duchy of Parma, a Belgian officer in the First World War, and the central figure in the Sixtus Affair.
[edit] Biography
Prince Sixtus Ferdinand was a son of the last Duke of Parma, Robert I (1848−1907) and his second wife Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (1862−1959), daughter of King Miguel of Portugal.
On March 14 1919 Prince Sixtus Ferdinand married in Paris Princess Hedwig de la Rochefoucauld (1896−1986), daughter of Duke Armand von Doudeauville and his wife Princess Louise Radziwill. They had one daughter :
- Princess Isabella Marie Antoinette Louise Hedwig (1922), who in 1943 married Count Roger Alexander Lucien de la Rochefoucauld (1915−1970, murdered), son of Count Pierre Paul (1887−1970) and his wife Henriette Marguerite Marie de la Roche (1892−1980).
During World War I Prince Sixtus and his brother Prince Xavier enlisted in the Belgian Army. Several of their older brothers were officers in the Austrian Army.
His sister Zita of Bourbon-Parma was even married to Archduke Charles of Austria, who became the Austrian Emperor on November 21, 1916.
In 1917, Emperor Charles I secretly entered into peace negotiations with France, with his brother-in-law Sixtus as intermediary, without the knowledge of his ally Germany. When news of the overture leaked in April 1918, Charles I denied involvement until the French prime minister Georges Clemenceau published letters signed by him. This led to an even more dependent position of Austria with respect to its seemingly wronged German ally.
This affair is known as the Sixtus Affair.
