Sixt of Bourbon-Parma

Father Sixt had twelve children from a previous marriage, and Sixt was the fourteenth of 24 children in a family. He was the sixth son, so his name was Sixt.

The father of Sixt was overthrown from the throne of the Duchy of Parma during the war for the unification of Italy, but having received the inheritance from his childless uncle Heinrich de Chambord , Duke Robert remained a very rich man. Prince Sixt was educated at the Stella Matutina catholic boarding school for boys, run by Jesuits in Feldkirch , near the Swiss border. After graduating from high school, he studied law in Paris.

After the death of his father in 1907, Elia of Bourbon-Parma , the only mentally healthy son among the half-blood Sixst, inherited most of the family wealth. In 1910, children from both wives of Duke Robert reached an agreement on the division of their father’s property. The following year, Sixth's younger sister, Princess Tsita , married Archduke Charles , heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, who was a friend of Sixth’s childhood.

The beginning of the First World War divided the family even more. Although their ancestors ruled in Parma, the brothers had even stronger ties with France and Austria. Prince Sixt and his brother Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma were recruited by the Belgian army, their brothers Elijah, Felice and Rene fought on the opposite side in the Austrian army.

The Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919) gave France the right to permanently confiscate the property of those who fought in the armies of the enemy during the war. Since Sixth's stepbrother, Elias, served in the Austrian army, the French government expropriated the castle of Chambord , owned by the Parma Bourbons. Since Prince Sixt and his brother Xavier fought on the side of the Allies, they sued their brother Elijah, demanding a larger share of their father’s inheritance ^[2] . They argued that the previous legal agreement was contrary to French law. In 1925, a French court upheld the lawsuit of Sixt and Xavier, but the appellate court overturned the sentence in 1928. The Court of Cassation of France upheld it in 1932. ^[2] The brothers were given an equal share of the property. However, Chambord was never returned by the French government, which paid Elijah compensation.

Married to a French aristocracy, Prince Sixtus settled in France ^[2] . In subsequent years, he made several research expeditions to Africa, wrote a number of books (including a biography of his great-great-grandmother Maria Louise Spanish ) and treatises ^[2] . He died on March 14, 1934 in Paris.

Family

On November 12, 1919, Prince Sixt of Bourbon-Parma married Hedwig de La Rochefoucauld (1896–1986), the daughter of Armand de La Riosfuca, duc de Dudovil, and his wife, Princess Maria de Lin . Hedwigy's youngest sister, Maria de Larochefoucauld, married Henri-Antoine-Marie de Noah, the 11th Prince de Pois. Elijah, the Duke of Parma did not issue a marriage permit and he was considered non-dynastic until 1959, when Elia’s son, Roberto , Duke of Parma, became head of the family instead of his father and recognized the marriages of his uncle Sixt and Xavier.

The couple had one daughter, Princess Isabella (1922–2015), who on June 23, 1943 married a distant relative, Roger de Larochefoucoux (1915–1970), the son of Count Pierre Paul (1887–1970) and his wife Henriette Margaret Marie de la Roche (1892-1980). They divorced in 1966. They had five sons and six grandchildren.

In 1917, when the war continued for the fourth year, the brother-in-law of Sixt, Emperor Charles I, secretly entered into peace negotiations with France, using Sixt as an intermediary. The emperor also enlisted the support of his faithful childhood friend and adjutant Tamas Erdödy . Carl came into contact with Sixt through neutral Switzerland. Empress Zita wrote a letter inviting her brother to Vienna. Mother Tsita and Sixt, who lived in neutral Switzerland, delivered the letter in person.

Sixt arrived with the negotiating conditions agreed with France: the return of France to Alsace-Lorraine , annexed by Germany after the Franco-Prussian war in 1870; the restoration of the independence of Belgium; independence of Serbia and the transfer of Constantinople of Russia. Karl agreed with the first three points and wrote a letter dated March 25, 1917 to Sixt, which contained “a secret and unofficial message that I would use all means and all my personal influence” on the French President.

This attempt at dynastic diplomacy ultimately failed, mainly due to the demand of Italy to cede Tyrol. Germany also refused to negotiate on Alsace-Lorraine and, seeing the approaching collapse of the Russian Empire, did not want to abandon the war. When in April 1918 there were reports of the beginning of negotiations, the brother-in-law of Sixt, the Austrian emperor Charles I, denied his involvement until French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau published his signed letters. Austria became even more dependent on its German ally.

The unsuccessful attempt at peace negotiations went down in history as the “Case of Sixt”.

• In Nordostarabien und Südmesopotamien: Vorbericht über die Forschungsreise 1912 , with Alois Musil (Vienna: 1913).
• Le Traité d'Utrecht et les lois fondamentales du royaume (Paris: E. Champion, 1914). Reprinted (Paris: Communication & Tradition, 1998).
• L'offre de paix séparée de l'Autriche, 5 décembre 1916 - 12 octobre 1917 (Paris: Plon, 1920). English translation: Austria's Peace Offer, 1916-1917 (London: Constable, 1921).
• La reine d'Étrurie , Paris, Calmann-Levy, 1928.
• La dernière conquête du roi Alger, 1830 (Paris: Calmann-Lévy, 1930).

• In the episode of the television series " The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles " entitled "Spy Games" appear Sixt (played by Benedict Taylor) and his brother Javier (played by Matthew White). They appear as Belgian officers during the First World War, who help the young Indiana Jones .
• Sixt and Javier are the central characters in Edward Parr's historical novel Kingdoms Fall - The Laxenburg Message . The novel tells about the "Case of Sixt" ^[3] .

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