Zita of Bourbon-Parma

Zita of Bourbon-Parma
Empress Zita, at her coronation as Queen of Hungary, 1916
Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria; Queen of Jerusalem etc. Archduchess of Austria; Grand Duchess of Tuscany and of Cracow; Duchess of Lorraine, of Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and the Bukovina; Grand Princess of Transsylvania, Margravine of Moravia Duchess of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Countess of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Princess of Trent and Brixen; Margravine of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Countess of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg etc.; Lady of Trieste, of Cattaro and on the Windic March; etc., etc.
Tenure	21 November 1916 – 11 November 1918
Coronation	30 December 1916
Born	(1892-05-09)9 May 1892 Villa Pianore, Tuscany, Kingdom of Italy
Died	14 March 1989(1989-03-14) (aged 96) Zizers, Landquart District, Grisons, Switzerland
Burial	1 April 1989 Imperial Crypt Heart buried in Muri Abbey, Switzerland
Spouse	Emperor Charles I of Austria (m. 1911 - 1922; his death)
Issue	Crown Prince Otto of Austria Archduchess Adelheid Archduke Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este Archduke Felix Archduke Carl Ludwig Archduke Rudolf Archduchess Charlotte, Hereditary Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Strelitz Archduchess Elisabeth
House	Bourbon-Parma
Father	Robert I, Duke of Parma
Mother	Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Styles of Zita of Austria
Reference style	Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty
Spoken style	Your Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty
Alternative style	Ma'am

Zita of Bourbon-Parma (Zita Maria delle Grazie Adelgonda Micaela Raffaela Gabriella Giuseppina Antonia Luisa Agnese; 9 May 1892 – 14 March 1989) was the wife of Emperor Charles of Austria. As such, she was the last Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and many others (see Grand title of the Empress of Austria)..

Born as the seventeenth child of the dispossessed Robert I, Duke of Parma and his second wife Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal, Zita married the then Archduke Charles of Austria in 1911. Charles became heir presumptive to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria in 1914 after the assassination of his uncle Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and acceded to the throne in 1916 after the old emperor's death.

After the end of World War I in 1918, the Habsburgs were deposed and the empire became four independent countries, Austria, Hungary, and the newly formed Czechoslovakia and State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. Charles and Zita left for exile in Switzerland and later Madeira, where Charles died in 1922. After her husband's death, Zita and her son Otto served as symbols of unity for the exiled dynasty. A devout Roman Catholic, she raised a large family after being widowed at the age of 29, and never remarried.