The Last Order of the Emperor

historical figures, royalty documentary, history, Quebec, Canada. 2024. Karl von Habsburg is standing in front of a safe deposit box. He is the great-grandson of an emperor. A politician, an entrepreneur, the head of his family. And he has no idea what he's about to find. Next to him: two cousins he barely knows. And a Viennese jeweller whose family has worked for the Habsburgs since 1814. The lock clicks. The door swings open. What he sees has been sitting there for over eighty years. Untouched. Unopened. Left there by his grandmother. To understand what's inside that box, you have to go back. To a different night. A different city. A different century. Vienna. November 1st, 1918. The empire is collapsing. The republic is about to be proclaimed. And Emperor Karl I issues his final order. He doesn't call a general. Not a minister. He sends for Count Leopold Berchtold — his Lord Chamberlain. The man who, as Foreign Minister four years earlier, had pushed Franz Joseph into declaring war on Serbia. The order: save the jewels. Berchtold enters the treasury of the Vienna Hofburg alone, in the middle of the night. He opens display case XIII. And starts packing. What he wraps in newspaper is not ordinary jewellery. The Florentine — 137 carats, yellow, roughly the size of a walnut. Once owned by the Medici in Florence. It came to the Habsburgs through marriage. Franz Stephan of Lorraine, the husband of Maria Theresa, had it set into his imperial crown. Maria Theresa gave it its name. It was considered one of the largest diamonds in the world. Where it was — until very recently, nobody knew. In today's video we look at EoH-54 — The Last Order of the Emperor. Keep watching to see historical Figures, historical Photos, true Storys. On our history channel Eyeblink of History, we will go through forgotten Lives, history documentary, Historical biography. Stay tuned for the latest historical figures and historical biography in History. #history #facts #historical