Vatican set to beatify emperor

BBC ^ | Sunday, 21 December, 2003, 00:20 GMT | BBC

[John Beresford Tipton]

"Isn't canonization the last step before sainthood?"

I looked at it as canonization was sainthood, therefore it wasn't a step *before* sainthood.

[Petronski]

Charles I sat on the throne of the now defunct empire between 1916 and 1918.

The Beeb's breathtaking grasp of the obvious.

[Guelph4ever]

Alas, Wilhelm II has been singled out as 'scapegoat #1' for the Great War, with all of his good qualities ignored and all of his shortcomings magnified to absurd proportions.

I do not think the soon-to-be Blessed Kaiser Karl I was willing to sacrifice Germany for Austria, he could see where this war was going and urged Germany to give up Elsass-Lothringen, for which he would compensate them with territory of his own--better to lose a province than the whole empire after all. In fact, he was about the only world leader willing to concede in the name of peace.

However, that being said, I have bored many an individual with my explanation that Wilhelm II was not being entirely obstinate, but simply more realistic than his Austrian kamerad (though as half-English obstinancy was in his nature). Karl I suffered from a common disorder of the saintly: his purity inhibited him from seeing the impurity of others. He deserves every honor for his heartfelt desire to make peace, but Wilhelm II realized that the Allies were bent on nothing less than their total annihilation and that any attempt to negotiate only served to show that the Central Powers were become desperate.

Wilhelm II (like Franz Josef) was simply out-of-date. He still believed a monarch was answerable to God rather than politicians or ever shifting popular opinion.

Gott Erhalte Unser Kaiser!

[Selkie]

Hey Im related to Hapsburgs thrice over and am happy
to see this.

[AMDG&BVMH]

Amen, amen!

[AMDG&BVMH]

"Italy's and Russia's had been despicable."

Don't forget Russia's ally, France -- without whom she would not have moved . . .

[briant]

Beatification is the penultimate step in the canonization process. There it is fixed. First Dan Rather, now the BBC. You have been blogged--bow down.

[Goetz_von_Berlichingen]

One expects despicable conduct from the (republican) French. But Savoy and Romanov should have known better.

For the longest time, Russian ambassadors were forbidden to offer respects at the playing of la Marseillaise because it had been the theme song of the regicides of the Revolution. But all that changed once the Russians decided that they would co-operate with the Jacobins against their former allies, Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The Crimean War should have demonstrated the true intentions of the English and French. Tsar Nicholas was far too trusting of these western scoundrels, and his trust was repaid by the refusal of the English to grant him asylum, even after Kaiser Wilhelm's government had agreed to give the Romanovs free passage through Germany after the revolution.

[royalcello]

I'm related to Hapsburgs thrice over

Really? How? (If you don't want to post your genealogical information publicly, please send me a private message.)