Charles Stephen of Austria – the „Polish” Habsburg -Żywiec

Fact of the Polish figure „The Meeting of the Jagiellonian Kings with Emperor Maximilian in Vienna” – painting by Jan Matejko”

Part of the „Legacy of the Jagiellonians and Habsburgs dynasties” topic

Although the Habsburg dynasty is, due to their involvement in partitions of Poland, viewed as foreign oppressors, not all of them viewed Polish people as just subjects. In year 1907, Charles Stephen of Teschen (Cieszyn) branch, proclaimed himself and his family to be Polish by choice and later, in 1918, willingly applied for the citizenship of Poland, reborn from the ashes of declining Habsburg empire. Although a relic of a past eagerly left behind in the interwar period, Charles and his family (especially son and heir) remained faithful Polish patriots, considered by the monarchists to be valid candidates to the eventual throne – that, however, never happened, as Poland remained the republic.