A grandson of the last Emperor of Austria-Hungary has just got a plum job in Madrid but despite his own royal blood, he had to bow to King Felipe of Spain as part of his induction.
Pál György Habsburg-Lothringen is the new Hungarian ambassador to Spain and he’s just had a formal welcome ceremony at the Royal Palace in Madrid to present his credentials to the Head of State, King Felipe VI.
However, Pál György Habsburg-Lothringen has more than this brief meeting to link him to King Felipe. For George von Hapsburg, as he’s better known, is related to many of Europe’s royals and is part of a dynasty that once controlled Spain’s crown.
On a slightly less historic note, Felipe and Georg have known each other for years with the now king of Spain attending the new ambassador’s wedding in 1997.
However, it’s Georg’s ancestry that really makes this meeting intriguing. He was born in 1964, the youngest child and second son of Otto von Hapsburg and Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen. Otto was the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary and became first in line to one of Europe’s oldest and most powerful thrones when he was just 4. By then, the First World War was going on and in the year it came to an end, 1918, the Austro-Hungarian empire fell.
Crown Prince Otto lived in exile for much of his life and spent many of his early years in Spain. He renounced his claim to any throne of Austria in 1961. On his death, in 2011, the role of head of the House of Hapsburg passed to his older son, Karl.
Georg von Hapsburg has a long diplomatic career behind him already, having served as ambassador to France from 2020 until 2025. In 1996, he was Hungary’s ambassador extraordinary to the European parliament. However, it’s his formal encounter with King Felipe that’s excited interest.
For the Hapsburgs once dominated Spain. Their path to power there began with the marriage of Queen Joanna of Castile to Philip, son of Emperor Maximilian I. Their son, Charles, ended up inheriting both Castile and Aragon which had first been brought together by the union of Joanna’s parents, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. Charles also inherited Hapsburg lands in what is now the Netherlands and Germany. In 1519, he was elected Holy Roman Emperor. He had also inherited vast holdings in the ”New World” and was seen as the most powerful man in Christendom.
The Hapsburgs held Spain until the early 18th century when Charles II died without an heir and a war, called the Spanish Succession, began as other European powers tried to influence who would hold the throne. In the end, the Spanish crown passed to the Bourbon dynasty of which Felipe VI is a member.
So the meeting in Madrid was filled with history as well as being a chance for two old friends to catch up. Georg von Hapsburg, like his family, does not use any royal title and so, technically, should bow to Felipe VI, who was born in 1968 before the Spanish monarchy was even restored. A discreet nod of the head is required of ambassadors when they meet the Head of State to whom they are presenting their credentials and so Georg, descendant of the dynasty that once ruled Spain, offered a gentle reverence to the man who reigns in Madrid.
It’s another chapter in a long and tumultuous history that links their two dynasties but a calmer and much more diplomatic meeting than many between their forebears. And it’s given royal watchers plenty to talk about as the Hapsburgs enter the Royal Palace of Madrid once more.
