Archduke Friedrich
Duke of Teschen
Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen (Friedrich Maria Albrecht Wilhelm Karl; 4 June 1856 – 30 December 1936) was a member of the House of Habsburg and the supreme commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. Friedrich was born at the castle of Gross Seelowitz in Moravia (today Židlochovice near Brno in the Czech Republic), the son of Karl Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria. His siblings included Queen Maria Cristina of Spain, Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria, a candidate for the Kingdom of Poland, and Archduke Eugen of Austria, an Austrian officer. When Friedrich's uncle Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen died in 1895, he and his brothers each inherited large estates. Friedrich owned properties at Ungarisch-Altenburg (now Mosonmagyaróvár in Hungary), Belleje, Saybusch (now Zywiec in Poland), Seelowitz (now Židlochovice) and Frýdek in the Czech Republic, and Pressburg (now Bratislava in Slovakia). His Vienna residence, the Palais-Albrecht, housed the Albertina art collection which he owned. Like most of the princes of the ruling house, Friedrich adopted a military career, and served creditably for many years as commandant of the V. (Pressburg) Corps. Subsequently, commander-in-chief of the Imperial-Royal Landwehr (militia) and army inspector, he became, after the murder of the heir to the throne, Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, inspector-general of the Austro-Hungarian Army. In World War I, he was —from the dynastic point of view —as grandson of the victor of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Archduke Charles, and as nephew of the victor of the Battle of Custoza, Archduke Albrecht, the predestined head of the armed forces of Austria-Hungary; and on 11 July 1914 Friedrich was appointed supreme commander of the Austro-Hungarian Army by Emperor Franz Joseph I.
The 1st Silesian Infantry Regiment (German: Schlesisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 1) is a German infantry regiment of the United Army of Austria-Hungary, formed in 1715. Since 1848 it has been called the Kaiser Regiment, because at different times the patrons of the regiment were the Emperors of Austria - Franz I, Joseph II, Leopold II, Franz II, Ferdinand I and Franz Joseph I. Headquarters - Krakow, place of recruitment of soldiers - Troppau. It participated in the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars and the Austro-Italian-Prussian War. On 19 August 1715, the Elector and Archbishop of Trier, Charles III Joseph of Lorraine established two Trier regiments, which, starting in 1716, served the Emperor for 10 years under the names "Old-Lorraine" (German: Alt-Lothringen) and "Young-Lorraine" (German: Jung-Lothringen). The first chiefs were Crown Prince Leopold Clemens Karl of Lorraine and his younger brother Franz Stephan of Lorraine. Franz was for a time the chief of the Mlado-Lothringen infantry regiment. After the sudden death of his elder brother, he as the new Crown Prince became chief of the "Infanterieregiment Lothringen" (Infanterieregiment Lothringen). In 1745, when he became Holy Roman Emperor, he was appointed personal chief of the regiment: the chiefcy lasted until the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From 1769, the regiment was numbered No. 1 and was known as the 1st Kaiser Infantry Regiment (Infanterieregiment Kaiser No. 1). Since 1860, the regiment was known as the 1st Kaiser Kaiser Infantry Regiment (German K.u.k. Schlesisches Infanterieregiment "Kaiser" No. 1).
The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively Queen of Bohemia, Queen of Hungary, Queen of Croatia and Archduchess of Austria. Its members are the legitimate surviving line of both the House of Habsburg and the House of Lorraine and inherit their patrimonial possessions from their female line of the House of Habsburg and from the male line of the House of Lorraine. In 1722 Emperor Charles VI separated Teschen from the Bohemian Crown and granted the duchy to Duke Leopold of Lorraine, whose son Francis I was to marry Charles's daughter Maria Theresa. Leopold had unsuccessfully claimed his maternal grandmother's rights to the north Italian Duchy of Montferrat, which Charles had taken and given to the Dukes of Savoy in 1708 as part of their alliance pact. Once Holy Roman Emperor, Francis had to face the attack by the Prussian king Frederick the Great, who after the 1742 Peace of Breslau took the bulk of Silesia, while Teschen remained with the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1766 Teschen passed to Francis' eldest surviving daughter, Archduchess Maria Christina and her husband Prince Albert of Saxony, who thus became
known colloquially as the Duke of Saxe-Teschen. Although most of Silesia had passed to Prussia, Teschen with Bielsko and the duchies of Krnov (Jägerndorf), Opava (Troppau) and southern part of episcopal Nysa (Neisse) remained under Habsburg control and passed to the newly established Austrian Empire in 1804. Archduchess Maria Christina had died in 1798 and as her marriage remained childless, upon the death of the widowed Albert in 1822 the duchy passed to their adopted son, Archduke Charles of Austria, who assumed the title of Herzog von Teschen and became progenitor of the Teschen cadet branch of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. While the Duchy of Teschen finally merged into the crown land of Austrian Silesia after the Revolutions of 1848, the ducal title passed down Charles' line, first to his eldest son, Archduke Albert, and then in 1895 to Albert Frederick's nephew, Archduke Frederick. With Austrian Silesia, the territory of Teschen became part of the Cisleithanian half of the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy upon the Compromise of 1867. At the end of World War I both the crown land and the ducal title were disestablished with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Archduke Frederick, appointed Austrian field marshal in 1914 but soon neutralized by Chief-of-Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, found his vast possessions expropriated and retired to Magyaróvár in Hungary.
Emperor's imperial standard. The Standard for the Members of the Imperial House was regulated in 1828 in a square form, yellow with the border of four-coloured black-yellow-red-white flammulets and the coat of arms in the middle. The coat of arms consists of a black double-headed eagle, each head crowned with a royal crown and both topped with an imperial crown, holding in its talons a sword and an orb, with an escutcheon impaled of Hapsburg, Austria and Lorraine, and with a collar of the order of the Golden Fleece. The 1828 standard remained in used for the rest of the century, until the introduction of the "1894 Muster", when the design was "upgraded" into the coat of arms depicting the arms of the crown-lands, and the designs were distinguished for Emperor, Empress and Archdukes.
Awards: Insignia of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece (Orden vom Goldenen Vlies), Sash and star of the Order of Saint Joseph (Ordine del Merito sotto il titolo di San Giuseppe), Star of the Royal Hungarian Order of Saint Stephen (Königlich Ungarischer Sankt-Stephans-Orden).
