After her husband's death, Zita and her son Otto served as the symbols of unity for the exiled dynasty.

Asteroid 689 Zita is named in her honour.

The unusual name Zita was given her after a popular Italian Saint who had lived in Tuscany in the 13th century.

It was mainly in these two residences that Zita spent her formative years.

Her maternal grandmother sent Zita and her sister Franziska to a convent on the Isle of Wight to complete her education.

Zita in later years recalled that after her engagement she had expressed to Charles her worries about the fate of the Austrian Empire and the challenges of the monarchy.

The war was personally difficult for Zita, as several of her brothers fought on opposing sides in the conflict ( Prince Felix and Prince René had joined the Austrian army, while Prince Sixtus and Prince Xavier lived in France before the war and enlisted in the Belgian army.

Also her country of birth, Italy, joined the war against Austria in 1915, and so rumours of the ' Italian ' Zita began to be muttered.

At Franz Joseph's request, Zita and her children left their residence at Hetzendorf and moved into a suite of rooms at Schönbrunn Palace.

Here, Zita spent many hours with the old Emperor on both formal and informal occasions, where Franz Joseph confided in her his fears for the future.

Zita had some influence on her husband and would discreetly attend audiences with the Prime Minister or military briefings, and she had a special interest in social policy.

Energetic and strong-willed, Zita accompanied her husband to the provinces and to the front, as well as occupying herself with charitable works and hospital visits to the war-wounded.

Zita, at first glance, mistook it for an abdication and made her famous statement " A sovereign can never abdicate.

The children were being looked after at Wartegg Castle in Switzerland by Charles's step-grandmother Maria Theresa, although Zita managed to see them in Zurich when her son Robert needed an operation for appendicitis.

" Zita wore mourning black in Charles's memory throughout her 67 long years of widowhood.

Alfonso XIII of Spain had approached the British Foreign Office via his ambassador in London, and they agreed to allow Zita and her seven ( soon to be eight ) children relocate to Spain.

They were then escorted to the Pardo Palace in Madrid, where shortly after her arrival Zita gave birth to a posthumous child, Archduchess Elisabeth.

This appealed to Zita, who did not want to be a heavy burden to the state that harbored her.

For the next six years Zita settled in Lekeitio, where she got on with the job of raising and educating her children.

Zita continued her political lobbying on behalf of the Habsburg family, even sounding out links with Mussolini's Italy.

With the Nazi invasion of Belgium on 10 May 1940, Zita and her family became war refugees.

The two daughters of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria were Zita ’ s first cousins and Charles ’ half-aunts.

Charles was under pressure to marry ( Franz Ferdinand, his uncle and first-in-line, had married morganatically, and his children were excluded from the throne ) and Zita had a suitably royal genealogy.

Zita later recalled, " We were of course glad to meet again and became close friends.

Charles and Zita were married at the Schwarzau castle on 21 October 1911.

Charles and Zita were crowned in Budapest on 30 December 1916.

He called Zita several times a day whenever they were separated.

Several of the children and staff were also ill, and Zita ( at the time eight months pregnant ) helped nurse them all.

In a series of interviews with the Viennese tabloid newspaper Kronen Zeitung, Zita expressed her belief that the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera, at Mayerling, in 1889, were not a double suicide, but rather murder by French or Austrian agents.

Zita was in the habit of spending several months each year in the diocese of Le Mans at St. Cecilia's Abbey, Solesmes, where three of her sisters were nuns.

Among the royal guests were Crown Prince Olav ( later King Olav V ) and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway, Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Felix of Luxembourg, King Peter II of Yugoslavia, King George II of Greece, Empress Zita of Austria and her daughters, as well as Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, her daughter, Princess Juliana ( later Queen Juliana ), and granddaughters, Princesses Beatrix ( later Queen Beatrix ) and Margriet.

Among the leaders were Zita Urbonaitė and Diana Čepelienė ( who took third place in GC ) in the Women's Challenge that summer.

* 1272 – Zita, Italian saint ( b. 1212 )

Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma was born at the Villa Pianore in the Italian Province of Lucca, 9 May 1892.

Saint Zita ( c. 1212 – 27 April 1272 ; also known as Sitha or Citha ) is an Italian saint, the patron saint of maids and domestic servants.

Zita managed a personal achievement during this time by stopping the German plans to send airplanes to bomb the home of the King and Queen of Belgium on their name days.

The Party was founded 1982, originally named Movimento Ecologista Português-Partido " Os Verdes ", by a group of Portuguese citizens interested in the promotion of the ecologist movement in the Portuguese society and the support of the Portuguese Communist Party and including in its founders one of its members, Zita Seabra.

She is portrayed by Zita Johann.

She is a niece of Empress Zita of Austria and a great niece of Empress Marie Feodorovna of Russia.

" I remember the dear plump figure of Prince Lobkowitz going up to my husband ," Zita later recounted, " and, with tears in his eyes, making the sign of the cross on Charles's forehead.

For his fuller ‘ Vita e miracoli di S. Zita vergine lucchese ’ ( Lucca, 1752 ) Bartolomeo Fiorito has used this and other notices, especially those taken from the process drawn up to prove the immemorial cult.