Charles I of Austria

Born in 1887, Charles became heir presumptive in 1914 after his uncle Franz Ferdinand's assassination at Sarajevo. He married Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma in 1911. Taking the throne in November 1916 as his grand-uncle Franz Joseph died, he began covert negotiations with the Allies hoping to exit the war peacefully, without success. His attempts to preserve Austria-Hungary through federalism and Austro-Slavism couldn't stop the fracture: Czechoslovakia and the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs declared independence, Hungary severed its monarchic link by late October 1918. After the Armistice he renounced participation in government but refused abdication; the next day the Republic of German-Austria was proclaimed, and by April 1919 the National Assembly formally dethroned the Habsburgs and exiled him for life. From Switzerland he twice tried reclaiming the Hungarian crown in 1921, blocked both times by regent Admiral Miklós Horthy. Exiled to Madeira, he died of respiratory failure in 1922, age thirty-four. The Catholic Church beatified him in 2004.