Courage and Honour: The Maria Theresa Order

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Richard Bassett

Published:

2025

Publisher:

Yale University Press

This chapter recounts the remarkable life of Baron Gottfried von Banfield, the last living recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa, Austria's highest military honour. It considers Banfield as a courageous naval aviator who defended Trieste during the First World War, earning nobility through his daring exploits. It also traces his journey through shifting national identities mirroring the internationalism of the Theresian era. The chapter details Banfield's postwar struggles, including imprisonment, expulsion, and obscurity in Newcastle before being reunited with his Triestine sweetheart and returning to Italy. It underscores how Banfield embodied both the courage and honour of the Theresian legacy and the complex fate of those tied to the vanished world of the Habsburg Empire.

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