Monarch Profile: King Tomislav II of Croatia

Ever since the end of World War II, during which it was created, lived and died, everything about the Independent State of Croatia is subject to controversy and that has extended to the nominal King of the newly freed Croatia; the Italian Duke of Spoleto who was, on paper at least, His Majesty Tomislav II. He has been accused of being a puppet for puppets, a fascist (what a surprise) and probably more than anything else that he was an uninterested playboy who was a never a real king. However, because he is not often remembered, and when he is it is mostly as the nominal King of Croatia during World War II, it is easy to allow opinion to overtake the facts and much of what is assumed about the last King of the Croats may not be anywhere near the truth at all. He was born Prince Aimone Roberto Margherita Maria Giuseppe Torino of the Italian royal house of Savoy on March 9, 1900 in Turin. He was the second son of Prince Emanuele Filiberto, 2nd Duke of Aosta and Princess Helene. His paternal grandparents were the controversial King Amadeus I of Spain and Princess Maria Vittoria and his maternal grandparents were Prince Philippe of Orleans and the Infanta Maria Isabel of Spain. King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy was his great grandfather and, as such, on September 22, 1904 he was given the title of Duke of Spoleto to be held for the rest of his life.

An avid outdoorsman, the Duke of Spoleto made the news when he tried to climb K2 in Karakorum in the Himalayas, the second highest mountain on earth in 1929. His uncle, the Duke of the Abruzzi had tried twenty years before and Prince Aimone decided to focus his efforts purely on scientific research rather than a race for the top. He also became known, in his adulthood, as something of a ladies man. The tall, handsome prince was considered quite a prize by most women and there were numerous rumors about him, especially concerning a relationship with the daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain the Infanta Beatriz. However, he did finally settle down when he married Princess Irene of Greece on July 1, 1939 in Florence. This brought about some new family connections for the House of Savoy as Princess Irene was the daughter of the Greek King Constantine I and Princess Sophie of the German Imperial Family of Prussia. The couple eventually had one son, Prince Amedeo, who was born on September 27, 1942. Little did he know on his wedding day in 1939 that in a few years he would be declared the reigning monarch of a new country.

In April of 1941 the Axis forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy invaded and conquered the Serbian dominated Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Of the many minority nationalities who had been handed over to Serbia after the Allied victory in World War I none were so eager for liberation as the Croatians and they quickly set up the Independent State of Croatia under the leadership of the Ustashe party of Head Man Ante Pavelic. A new government was quickly established under Italian supervision as southern Europe was considered by the Axis to be within the sphere of the Kingdom of Italy and the new Roman Empire Benito Mussolini dreamed of creating around the Mediterranean. The following month Ante Pavelic went to the Quirinal Palace in Rome to meet with His Majesty Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy, Albania and Emperor of Ethiopia, to request that he appoint a member of the House of Savoy to be the king over the new Croatian State recently established. On May 18, 1941 the ceremony was held in which the Italian monarch named his cousin Prince Aimone as the new King over Croatia, which also included what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina.

This is where the story becomes really interesting since many enemies of Croatia, especially enemies of the Ustashe but really enemies of a free Croatia period, like to state that Aimone was never really a true Croatian monarch. However, that argument is obviously false and these people contradict their claim by their own arguments as we shall see. The ancient Crown of Zvonimir was solemnly given to Prince Aimone who took as his reigning name King Tomislav II in honor of the heroic Tomislav who was the first King of an independent Croatia in ancient times. This in itself shows that Aimone or Tomislav II was serious about his new position. Enemies like to repeat the story that when Aimone first heard of the appointment he thought his cousin the King was playing a joke on him, implying that he never considered the job anything more than that himself, but such an implication is obviously false. By taking the name of an honored hero from Croatian history Tomislav II was obviously making an effort to adopt the culture of his land and illustrate that a new period of greatness was upon them again and that free Croatia had been reborn.

The enemies of Tomislav II and Croatia also like to point out that the reigning monarch never actually set foot in Croatia, trying to make the case that his reign was never more than a matter of titles which he nor anyone else gave the slightest thought to. This is an argument that is a lot like rat poison; mostly good food but just enough strychnine to kill you. It is true that Tomislav II never resided in Croatia yet it was specifically because he took his job so seriously and was committed to being a truly Croatian monarch for his people and not simply an Axis puppet for Italy. Everything was set up for him to be given a formal Catholic coronation in Duvansko Polje in Bosnia but he refused to do so out of protest to the seizure of certain coastal areas of Dalmatia by Italy. He refused on the grounds of the sovereignty and national integrity of the country over which he was king! Tomislav II stated that this land was never going to be able to be fully integrated into Italy and by the Italian seizure of the territory it only served as an obstacle to better Italian and Croatian friendship. His refusal to enter the country was well thought out and based on a principled stand of putting his new country first, even before Italy.

This was based on agreement by which Mussolini would support Pavelic in restoring Croatian independence, in exchange for which the Italians would receive territorial concessions on the coast, basically consisting of Dalmatia. As compensation, the new Croatia was to include all of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which it did. And, actually, Italian and Croatian nationalist collaboration actually had a history behind, united as they were by a shared opposition to Yugoslavia and the extensive territorial concessions to Serbia after World War I. When Gabriele D’Annunzio and his Italian nationalists had seized Fiume, on the Dalmatian coast, they gave their moral support to the Croatian nationalists of the region, encouraging them to rise up against the Serbs to reclaim their independence. It is also true that, in the past, even under the Empire of Austria-Hungary (Croatia being a part of the Kingdom of Hungary) that Dalmatia and Croatia were always identified separately. So, there was certainly grounds for a legitimate difference of opinion over who Dalmatia should belong to. However, King Tomislav II, an Italian by birth and by blood a member of the proud Italian House of Savoy, took his new title seriously and refused to automatically take the Italian point of view and instead insisted that Dalmatia was Croatian and would not just be instantly turned over to Italy.

Enemies of the Croatian King also like to say that Tomislav II was simply a powerless figurehead who had nothing to do with Croatian life, cared nothing about it and was only a symbol of the Ustashe regime of Ante Pavelic which held the real power in the country (and which has the worst reputation). An easy response to that allegation is simple: Well So What?! Was King George VI of the UK and the British Empire no less a real monarch because he reigned while a government ruled in his name? What other monarch in any European country at the time actually ruled his country personally in an absolutist manner during World War II? He reigned but did not rule and this was the accepted practice of all monarchs of his time and still is today. He was, like any monarch then or now, a symbol of Croatian unity and tradition and was never meant to be a political administrator. However, that does not mean he did nothing or took no interest in his country. In the areas for which the monarchy was responsible he was quite active. For instance, while King he granted 60 titles of nobility such as duke, marquis, count, viscount and baron for Croatia; something he certainly would not have done if he considered his position purely honorary and nothing more than an additional title. He had enough of those anyway as one year after becoming King his full title was extended to: His Majesty Tomislav II (or Zvonimir II) King of Croatia, Prince of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Voivode of Dalmatia, Tuzla and Temun, Duke of Aosta, Prince of Cisterna and of Belriguardo, Marquess of Voghera and Count of Ponderano.

The final change came on March 3, 1942 when he inherited the title of Duke of Aosta from his elder brother Prince Amedeo, Third Duke of Aosta who died in Tanzania as a British prisoner of war after having been taken in the fighting in Italian East Africa. His time as King of Croatia came to an end the following year though when the fortunes of war forced the Italians to seek an armistice and King Tomislav II abdicated the throne on July 31, 1943. One of the absurd things about the enemies of the King and Croatia is that they will claim he was never really king and yet know by heart and openly talk about the date of his abdication. They never care to explain how someone who was never really a king can abdicate his throne. In any event, Prince Aimone, now Fourth Duke of Aosta, went on doing his duty as best he could for his native land. Before World War II ended he took command of the important Italian naval base at Taranto however he was soon labeled as “too fascist” by the new powers that be when he expressed his disapproval of the judges who had handed a guilty verdict to General Mario Roatta. The Duke of Aosta, by then a Squadron Admiral in the Royal Italian Navy, was dismissed and at the end of the war pressure forced him to move to South America. He died in Buenos Aires in 1948. As far as Axis military figures go he was mostly forgotten but he is still widely remembered today as the last King of the Croatian people and their first (and so far only) independent monarch of modern times.

A World Without the Hapsburgs, Part II

Continued from Part I

Much the same could be said for Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia which were all more or less ceded to Serbia after World War I to create what eventually became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia but which was effectively the “Greater Serbia” that Serb nationalists had been longing for. In some ways things were better, but in others ways Yugoslavia was even more problematic than Czechoslovakia. One benefit was that the new created state was a monarchy, and even during the darkest days of World War II the monarchy was still able to unite many people, but it was the Serbian monarchy and an Orthodox monarchy and so was not as liable to be accepted by the great number of people who were not Serbian or Orthodox. True, the Hapsburg empire contained people of many different religious beliefs with Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Jews and Muslims but, outside of Bosnia perhaps, the largest majority of people in Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria and Hungary were Catholic just like their Imperial-Royal Family. And again, before, during and after World War I there was a renewed emphasis on nationalism and even without the religious differences there were bound to be problems between Serbs, Bosnians, Croats and Slovenes as well as other minority groups in Yugoslavia.

King Alexander I of Yugoslavia did his best to hold things together, outlawing political parties, regional distinctions (flags and such symbols), renaming things and centralizing power. How that may have worked in the long-run we will never know but in the short term it only embittered the nationalities further, though the King did have the good sense to ban the communist party which is always a smart move. The King was finally assassinated by a Bulgarian terrorist from a group that opposed Macedonia being part of Yugoslavia. He was succeeded by the young King Peter II, acted for by Prince-Regent Paul who was eventually forced into cooperating with the Rome-Berlin Axis. Ironically, the leaders of Yugoslavia, just like the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, finally determined that the only solution would be to federalize their country but they were prevented by the outbreak of World War II. Prince Paul was overthrown in a coup, King Peter II broke with the Axis and embraced the Allies which prompted the German and Italian invasion of Yugoslavia. The country was divided up again and there was horrific violence and cruelty as a civil war was basically fought throughout Yugoslavia in conjunction with World War II. The bitterness and desire for revenge would last for many decades to come.

In the end, as with most of the other successor-states of Austria-Hungary, it was the communists who emerged as the victors and Yugoslavia was forcibly put back together under the dictatorship of “Tito” and was even almost merged with Bulgaria in what would have been an even bigger witch’s supper but Stalin nixed that idea. For some reason which eludes me, some people romanticize Tito’s dictatorship but, while certainly not as bad as Albania or Cambodia, it was a communist tyranny with all of the injustice, cruelty and suffering that goes with that. Today, amazingly, many people view Tito as some sort of romantic, revolutionary figure or the “good” communist dictator, for seemingly no other reason than that he wanted to be a dictator and not simply the stooge of Stalin in Moscow. This is a dangerous mistake. Just because Communist Yugoslavia was not as bad as Pol Pot’s Cambodia does not mean it was a picnic and the member states have still not recovered from the impact of communist rule even today. Additionally, as we all know, when Tito died in 1980 the country began to fragment in the absence of the dictator and within ten years bitter and brutal civil war engulfed the region as the former Yugoslavia broke up.

The break-up of Austria-Hungary was certainly traumatic but it was nothing compared to the horror of the conflict that accompanied the break-up of Yugoslavia with massacres, reprisals and accusations of ethnic cleansing from both sides. This revealed that the unity of the old Yugoslavia had always been a complete fabrication and as soon as the iron grip of tyranny slipped for an instant the long-smoldering rage between the member ethnicities erupted into a conflagration which finally took outside intervention to restore some semblance of peace and order. The immediate question, of course, is whether the Hapsburg monarchy could have made any difference in preventing this tragedy. No one can ever say definitively what ‘might have been’ but the most probably answer is clearly “yes”. Much of the conflict (certainly not all) was between Croats and Serbs and with Croatia inside Austria-Hungary and Serbia outside of it, these two could have brought their full force to bear against each other. Further, we have the historical record to show that in all the years of Hapsburg rule such a bloodletting never took place. It may not satisfy idealists, but one practical reason for this was that minorities were sufficiently divided between the Austrian and Hungarian halves of the Dual-Monarchy that no one group could come together in sufficient strength to cause much trouble.

It is also worth noting that most of the bitterness seen in the civil wars can be traced back to some extent with the creation of Yugoslavia itself but even more so events in World War II rather than to Austria-Hungary. After World War I there was some, for lack of a better word, “bullying” by the victors against their defeated foes. This was not uncommon; the Poles were sometimes unkind toward the Germans in their country, though in light of subsequent events they attract little sympathy. Then, during World War II, the tables were turned and horrible reprisals were meted out, often with the backing of the Axis powers, and then after the Axis defeat there were reprisals of the reprisals and hatred grew and grew. It is beyond the realm of possibility that this could have happened under Emperor Charles I or a potential “Emperor Otto”. A Hapsburg Emperor, and this is certainly in keeping with the character of Archduke Otto, would have discouraged nationalism and ethnic hatred and with his combined forces could have restrained such radicals were that to become necessary.

Concluded in Part III

Monarchist Profile: Svetozar Boroevic von Bojna

The military of Austria-Hungary often does not receive the respect it deserves despite having some excellent and hard fighting units as well as some very accomplished leaders. One of those was Svetozar Boroevic Baron von Bojna, the only officer of a Slavic background to attain the rank of field marshal in the imperial and royal army. He was born on December 13, 1856 in Umetic in what is now Croatia, the son of a local army officer, and was baptized in the Orthodox faith. Largely because of this he has often been described as being of the Serbian nationality though the Baron always identified himself as a Croat. From very early in life he was set on the path for a career in the military, attending his first cadet school at age 10 and afterwards studying at several military academies before but still worked his way up through the ranks. In 1872 he was a simple corporal but rose rapidly in rank to become a lieutenant in 1875, the same year he attended the officer-training school at Liebenau. Later he obtained a commission as an officer in the Croatian Home Guard, basically the Croatian militia. In 1889 he married Leontina von Rosner, who was herself from a military family, and who not long after gave birth to his only son (who sadly died in the last year of the Great War). The highest ranks in the army tended to be dominated (not surprisingly) by Austrians and Hungarians but Boroevic advanced himself by talent and a strong work ethic.

After being commissioned into the regular army he still held rank as the commander of the Croatian Home Guard 42nd Division until 1903 though he would later command many of the same troops when war broke out in 1914. A year later he was promoted to major general and in 1905 was raised to the Hungarian nobility, became a lieutenant field marshal in 1908 and in 1913 was promoted to General of Infantry. When the First World War began in 1914 von Bojna was commanding the VI Corps on the Russian front. He proved himself early in the fighting, taking command of the III Army the following month, liberating Przemysl (the fort, not the city) and later blocking a Russian advance on the Danube plain. Early in 1915, when the Russians launched a major offensive, his troops fought with great determination and skill, suffering considerable losses but managing to hold on long enough for German reinforcements to arrive and stabilize the front, saving Budapest and Pressburg from enemy occupation. These feats gained him more attention from the high command though, sadly, subsequent historians have tended to ignore these victories and hard-earned accomplishments on the part of the Austro-Hungarian forces. Baron von Bojna was highly decorated by the Emperor and participated in the early stages of the Gorlice-Tarnow offensive (another feat for which Austria-Hungary is given little of the credit they deserve) but was transferred out before most major gains were won.

It was in 1915 that the Kingdom of Italy joined the conflict, declaring war on Austria-Hungary, and the baron was given command of the V Army and bringing his usual skill and solid determination in defensive fighting. The Austrians had the terrain to their advantage (along with some other things) but as their forces were fighting on numerous fronts it was the Italians, who mostly had a single front to concentrate on, that held the numerical advantage and they hit the Austrian lines in a series of gallant, costly offensives. Baron von Bojna and his men took a devastating toll on the attacking Italians and while Austria-Hungary was usually forced to give ground, it was minimal and came at a disproportionate loss to the Italians and much of this was due to the tenacity of the baron and his forces. Eventually, however, as conditions inside Austria-Hungary became worse, the stress increasing on the forces on every front and the slow but continuous progress of the Italians, Field Marshal Conrad von Hoetzendorf, the chief of staff and a renowned strategist (despite what you may have heard) recommended that the imperial-royal forces on the Italian front fall back, abandoning most of what is now Slovenia, to a better defensive position that could be held with fewer troops.

Baron von Bojna objected to this proposal and argued vociferously that he could hold his position and that the Slovenian troops in his command would fight even harder defending their own territory whereas, if Slovenia were abandoned, their morale might collapse. Later, this little showdown would be used by some to promote the image of Baron von Bojna at the expense of Count Conrad. However, to be fair, from a purely strategic point of view, the count was probably correct. Yet, it was the baron, directly commanding troops in the field, who could be expected to know the temper and abilities of his men more than someone sitting at a desk looking at this like numbers, logistics and topography. The count did have a point but the baron was correct in knowing what his men could do and the Emperor, pleased at his fighting spirit, raised him to command of the Italian front. Baron von Bojna showed that his was no idle boast as his men, even when often outnumbered, held off repeated attacks or at least restricted Italian offensives to minimal gains with heavy losses. As a result, he was praised and decorated even further and was greatly loved by his regular soldiers who saw that he was concerned for their welfare and not willing to waste their lives needlessly.

In 1916 the baron was promoted to Colonel General and later was given even wider authority as a commander who had tangible proof of his ability. In this context, it is also important to remember that he was a loyal soldier of his emperor and defender of Austria-Hungary as it then was. His background may have been a disadvantage at times, but it also made him something of an embodiment of Austria-Hungary itself in that (as would later be seen) it would have been hard to say there was one group to which he belonged; he was not German, not Magyar and a Serbian Orthodox Croatian seems almost a contradiction in terms, however, as long as the empire existed, none of that mattered because Austria-Hungary as a whole was his country, it was where he belonged and he would fight for it to the bitter end. That included actions away from the front such as his staunch opposition to an effort by some in the Hungarian government to split the military completely in two with an Austrian branch and a Hungarian branch. While others were exasperated by trying to keep Germans, Magyars, Slavs, Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Muslims and Jews from trying to break away, for Baron von Bojna it was enough that he was from one of the many Hapsburg lands and he was loyal to his monarch, simple as that. Of course, as with any of us mortals, he was not flawless. He was notoriously difficult to work with, being an extremely strict disciplinarian and was rather excessively vain; however, given his great talent one can certainly see why.

Baron von Bojna performed extremely well on the Italian front, receiving further honors and finally promotion to the rank of General Field Marshal for his service. Yet, that was in 1918 and not long after, things began to come apart. Their worst defeat turned out to be something of a blessing in disguise for the Italians as it resulted in the whole population uniting firmly behind the war effort, gaining a more competent commander and a renewed zeal to see the Austrians driven from Italian soil. Still, Baron von Bojna held things together surprisingly well considering the circumstances and might have done so longer had it not been for the beginning of the break-up of the empire as the Hungarian government declared its separation from Austria and ordered all Hungarian troops to cease hostilities and return home. The front quickly collapsed and von Bojna was forced to fall back with his remaining forces with the Italians advancing rapidly and riots breaking out in Vienna. Ever faithful, the baron sent a message to Emperor Charles I offering to take those few but faithful troops still under his command and marching on Vienna to shoot down the rioters and restore order as well as power to the Hapsburg Crown.

Emperor Charles, of course, refused the offer, being a very pious and peace-loving man, and Austria-Hungary was no more. Minority populations declared their independence, the Imperial Family went into exile and the Hapsburg lands were divided up amongst the Allied powers with the most generous portions going to Romania and Serbia with a totally new country (Czechoslovakia) being created in the process. Without the empire, Baron von Bojna regarded himself, as he always had, as a Croatian and offered his services to the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (under the Serbian monarchy which would later become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) but was refused, even though one would think any power would have been grateful to accept the services of a commander of such proven ability. The baron then made his home in Austria and, sadly, was forced to live a very modest existence on a small pension, being denied employment in the one occupation to which he had devoted his life. Embittered by his treatment after a lifetime of loyal and remarkable service, the Slavic field marshal died of an apoplexy on May 23, 1920. Still, not everyone was ungrateful as, despite his own immense difficulties, the exiled Emperor Charles I paid for his burial and would no doubt have attended the services for this exceptional former soldier of his had the Austrian authorities allowed it. Still, his life is one which can or should inspire others. He was a gifted soldier, a loyal subject and a devoted monarchist.

MM Video: King Tomislav II of Croatia

Soldiers of Monarchy: Stefan Sarkotic

Stefan Baron Sarkotic of Lovcen was a Croatian general in the Imperial-Royal Army of Austria-Hungary and served as Governor of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the First World War. He was born on October 4, 1858 in Sinac, Otocac to army Lieutenant Matija Sarkotic of the Second Otocac Border Regiment. He went to school in Senj and joined the army, serving in Herzegovina before being promoted to captain in 1889 and attached to the General Staff in Vienna. He learned Russian and was entrusted with the position of an intelligence officer and journeyed to Serbia, Bulgaria and Macedonia to gather information on these countries. He then went back to regimental service and was promoted to colonel and in 1912 was made a general and given command of the VI Royal Hungarian Honved District.

At the start of World War I he served in the initial campaign against Serbia and for his meritorious service was decorated with the Order of the Iron Crown and later succeeded General Oskar Potiorek as military commander of Bosnia-Herzegovina, the first Croat soldier to hold that position. He recognized the nationalist danger presented by the pan-Slavic ideas and urged Austria-Hungary to implement reforms to negate the danger. One of the ideas he put forward was akin to earlier ideas floated about the creation of a south-Slav state within the Hapsburg Empire but the Hungarian government would not hear of it. In 1916 he led the offensive into Montenegro and within a week had occupied the capital city for which he was awarded the Order of Leopold and given the Hungarian noble title of Baron of Lovcen. The following year he was promoted to Colonel General and remained in command in Bosnia until 1918.

With the dissolution of the Hapsburg Empire Sarkotic was arrested along with other Hapsburg loyalists by the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). This naturally did nothing to diminish his staunch opposition to Serbia and the new Yugoslav state. When he was finally released from prison he moved to Vienna where he continued to voice his opposition to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and cooperated with Croatian resistance groups operating in exile in Austria. He was also the leader of the Croatian Committee which would later come to be dominated by the notorious Ante Pavelic who allied with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to eventually create an independent Croatian monarchy during World War II following the Axis invasion and breakup of Yugoslavia. What the old Baron would have thought of this can only be speculated at as he died still in exile in Vienna in 1939.