“C’est la paix!” – The Sixtus Letters and the Peace Initiative of Emperor Karl I
“C’est la paix!” – The Sixtus Letters and the Peace Initiative of Emperor Karl I

Summary/Abstract: Hungary’s last King Károly IV (Emperor of Austria as Karl I) is mostly associated in Hungary with his failed attempts to reclaim the Hungarian throne in 1921. His early, courageous, albeit abortive peace initiatives have received much less attention, for a variety of reasons. First of all, this peace plan needed to be executed in strict secrecy on account of the alliance with Germany, since Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany was determined to continue to fight until victory, and an acknowledgement of Austria–Hungary’s war fiasco and subsequent pullout would have, in more ways than one, fatally jeopardised the achievement of Germany’s military aims. Almost to the very end, Wilhelm II believed in the practicability of those aims and would not hear of any form of Austro-Hungarian withdrawal, be it a separate peace or total capitulation.

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