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There was venison from Balmoral, partridges from Sandringham, and beef from the Windsor Castle' farms.
The heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg had arrived in London from Vienna earlier in the week having spent their first two nights at the Ritz Hotel "where a suite of rooms had been reserved for their use”, according to The Times.
George V and Queen Mary were indifferent to the toffy protocolar angst that had gripped the imperial court in Vienna, which always struggled to grapple with the “unequal” rank of the Archduke marrying a Countess and former lady-in-waiting.
Emperor Franz Jospeh of Austria-Hungary only grudgingly approved the marriage after Franz Ferdinand agreed to a cringeful set of conditions including that his wife could never be Empress, that their children could not ascend the throne, and that her title at Court, and that of their children, would always be beneath "wives of equal birth and to children of archdukes or marriages of equal birth”.
Although the Emperor elevated her rank to Princess and later to Duchess, the Archduke’s wife never escaped the humiliation of being prevented from being seated near her husband at official events and dinners at the Viennese Court; and was even forbidden to ride in the same carriage on state occasions.
Such slights were thrown aside when the couple were guests at Windsor Castle for what was essentially five days of shooting and dining with George V and Queen Mary in November 1913.
After a morning of shopping in London’s Bond Street, royal carriages were provided to take the couple from the Ritz Hotel to Paddington station where a special train awaited them for the journey to Windsor. As the train pulled into Windsor station, the King and Mayor of Windsor were waiting to greet the couple, with the King also acting as royal translator:
“The Archduke thanked the Mayor for his welcome, and, his Majesty noticing that the Mayor did not understand the language informed him what the Archduke had said”, reported The Times.
In his post abdication memoirs, The Duke of Windsor remembers being called to Windsor for this dinner. At the time he was the 19 year-old Prince of Wales:
"In November my father [George V] called me from Oxford to Windsor when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir Apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came to England with his wife, the Fürstin [Princess] Hohenberg, and they were invited to stop at the Castle for two days. For the big dinner in the evening I wore the Windsor uniform and afterward practised the subtle art of talking to the right people about the right things".
The Duke also remembered how the royal dinners during the Archduke's visit were a pivotal moment when he wondered about the opulence of royal hospitality:
"... while my father was showing me how he entertained foreign Royalty and I was doing my best to play my part at these Court functions with credit, I was beginning to form my own ideas about all this lavish hospitality.
Although this State pomp and ceremony had previously seemed exciting and colourful and I had accepted it all without question, my association at Oxford with men far removed from the trappings of Royal life had begun to give me a more sceptical view".
This dinner menu is for the Archduke’s and Duchesses’ last night staying at Windsor Castle. They left the following evening to spend five days at Welbeck Abbey with the Duke and Duchess of Portland.
W
hen Archduke Franz Ferdinand arrived at Windsor Castle in 1913 as a guest of King George V, he was treated to a spread of homegrown royal produce.
Royal Menu Collection / © Jake Smith
Menu
Consommé Grimaldi: Tomato consommé garnished with parsley-flavoured Royale (diced egg-custard cut into diamond shapes) and a julienne of celery named after the ruling Grimaldi family of Monaco | Filets de Sole Dauphine: Filets of sole garnished with poached oysters, truffle, mushrooms, crayfish and mussels | Suprême de Volaille des Gourmêts: Chicken fillets (with wing attached) layered with smoked tongue and casseroled in Madeira with artichokes, truffles and mushrooms | Cuissot de Chevreuil de Balmoral à la Crême: Haunch of Venison, from the Balmoral estate, dressed in a creamed sauce made from the venison roasting juices and redcurrant jelly | Piéce de Bœuf à la Windsor: Braised tenderloins of beef | Chapons à la Broche: Spit-roasted capons (castrated roosters) | Perdreaux de Sandringham rôtis: Roast partridges from the Sandringham estates | Petits Pois au Beurre: Steamed baby peas tossed in butter and parsley | Soufflés Valtesse: Double layered souffle's with a vanilla base and chocolate top, separated with lady-finger biscuits | Gâteau Napolitain garni de Glace Vanillée: Napolitain cakes made from layers of baked marzipan dough, with a hole in the centre, that have been sandwiched together with apricot jam and then decorated with crystalised fruits; served with vanilla ice-cream through the centre | Crêmes frites au fromage: Fried creams made from creamed rice, eggs and Gruyère | Parfait de Foie Gras: Parfait made from foie-gras, cream and Port.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand with his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg and their children (left to right) Prince Ernst, Prince Maximilian (later Duke) and Princess Sophie of Hohenberg.
Crossing the Channel by boat to the United Kingdom in November 1913 are Archduke Franz Ferdinand, his wife the Duchess of Hohenberg (right) and the Countess Baillet De Latour (centre).
Photo: Library of Congress
The Duke of Windsor remembers the visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Windsor Castle in 1913
"No suggestion of tragedy then touched the elegant couple who only seven months later would fall before the assassin’s fateful bullets at Sarajevo."
The Duke of Windsor
The Prince of Wales
(future King Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor)
"In November [1913] my father called me from Oxford to Windsor when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Heir Apparent to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, came to England with his wife, the Fürstin [Princess] Hohenberg, and they were invited to stop at the Castle for two days.* For the big dinner in the evening I wore the Windsor uniform and afterward practised the subtle art of talking to the right people about the right things.
The next day there was a duck shoot in the Great Park. There I watched the Archduke, who could match my father as a wing shot, pull two hundred and seventy-three birds down out of the sky. No suggestion of tragedy then touched the elegant couple who only seven months later would fall before the assassin’s fateful bullets at Sarajevo.
But, while my father was showing me how he entertained foreign Royalty and I was doing my best to play my part at these Court functions with credit, I was beginning to form my own ideas about all this lavish hospitality. Although this State pomp and ceremony had previously seemed exciting and colourful and I had accepted it all without question, my association at Oxford with men far removed from the trappings of Royal life had begun to give me a more sceptical view.
When I was once more called from Oxford the following spring for another of these State visits, this time by the King and Queen of Denmark, the comments that I confided to my diary after the formal banquet would have surprised my father:
“...I took in Granny [Queen Alexandra, the Queen Mother]. . . Then we stood about in the picture gallery till 11.15 talking to the guests. . . . What rot & a waste of time, money, & energy all these State visits are ! ! This is my only remark on all this unreal show & ceremony!!"
* The Duke of Windsor's memory is mistaken when he says the Archduke and Duchess stayed two days at Windsor. The Court Circular shows they arrived on 17th November and departed on the 21st November.
** The Court Circular shows the Prince of Wales arrived at Windsor on 20th November ahead of this dinner: "The Prince of Wales, attended by Maj. The Hon. W Cadogan, arrived at the Castle from Magdalan College, Oxford".
