The bloodless obituary put out by the Eurocrats in Brussels for Otto von Habsburg, who died yesterday at 98, enraged the Daily Mail correspondent, whose ire I share: "So what did the officials at the European Parliament do to mark the death of this living link with historic Europe? They put out a statement announcing 'the death of former MEP Mr Otto Von Hapsburg [sic] on 4 July 2011.' Yes, unfortunately this heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian empire was rather a pan-European; but as I noted in a post about him last December, he was a citizen of Austria, Hungary, Germany and Croatia, and could have been king of Bohemia, so he was born a bit 'pan.' But the officials at the parliament noted none of that. By their reasoning, the only reason to note the death of 'Mr' von Habsburg was that he had been an MEP [Member of the European Parliament]."
      Whereas in actual fact we mourn the disappearance of Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Habsburg, the Emperor who might have been (shown above with Emperor Franz Josef I, his great-great-uncle) and the last human link to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to its turbulence and tolerance, its artistic supremacy, its multitude of nations and languages, its long slow waltz with death from Mayerling to Sarajevo. RIP, Your Imperial Majesty.