Centenary: Austria-Hungary's Last Coronation

My last post of 2016 concerns a topic I’ve written about before, so I’ll make it brief.
 
While Karl I of Austria effectively became emperor upon the death of his great uncle Franz Joseph, he had to undergo his official coronation as Apostolic King of Hungary in order to open the Hungarian Diet, according to the constitution of that part of the Dual Monarchy. The pageantry was orchestrated by the parliamentary deputy, nobleman, and later novelist Miklós Bánffy (see my earlier post on his trilogy).
 
Karl was beatified by the Catholic Church in 2004, in part due to his peace overtures to France. He was most tolerant towards Jewish subjects, and in 1918 pardoned Leopold Hilsner, who had been wrongfully convicted in a blood libel case in 1900. Karl died in exile in Madeira in 1922.
 
French novelist Anatole France wrote of him, “Emperor Karl is the only decent man to come out of the war in a leadership position, yet he was a saint and no one listened to him. He sincerely wanted peace, and therefore was despised by the whole world. It was a wonderful chance that was lost.”