Otto von Habsburg was born in 1912, the eldest son of Charles I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, and of Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. After leaving Austria in 1919, he lived in Switzerland, Madeira, Spain, and Belgium, and received his doctorate in the social sciences from the University of Louvain. Besides his travels on the Continent, he is well acquainted with the Americas and has visited the Orient. He has given much time both to lecturing and writing. In 1951 he married Princess Regina of Saxe-Meiningen.