Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Ferdinand IV
Grand Duke of Tuscany
Reign21 July 1859 – 22 March 1860
PredecessorLeopold II
Born10 June 1835
Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died17 January 1908(1908-01-17) (aged 72)
Salzburg, Austria-Hungary
Spouse
(m. 1856; died 1859)
Princess Alice of Parma
(m. 1868)
Issue
Detail
Names
  • Italian: Ferdinando Salvatore Maria Giuseppe Giovan Battista Francesco Luigi Gonzaga Raffaello Ranieri Gennaro
  • German: Ferdinand Salvator Maria Joseph Johann Baptist Franz Ludwig Gonzaga Raphael Rainerius Gennarius
HouseHabsburg-Lorraine
FatherLeopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany
MotherPrincess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies
ReligionRoman Catholicism

Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany (Italian: Ferdinando IV, Granduca di Toscana; 10 June 1835 – 17 January 1908) was the last Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1859 to 1860.*

Biography

Born at Florence, he was the son of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies.

His first wife died on February 1859. Sometime later, he and his family were forced to flee Florence on 27 April 1859, with the outbreak of a revolution inspired by the outbreak of the Second Italian War of Independence as part of the unification of Italy. The family took refuge in Austria. After the end of the war, Leopold II abdicated on 21 July and Ferdinand succeeded him as Grand Duke. Ferdinand proved unable to return to Florence to claim his throne, and an elected Tuscan National Assembly formally deposed him only a month later, on 16 August, with Tuscany being merged into the United Provinces of Central Italy. Ferdinand still hoped to recover his throne, as both France and Austria had promised to recognize his rights to it in the Armistice of Villafranca. However, neither power was willing to take any steps to bring about his restoration; Sardinia would annex Tuscany on 22 March 1860, and with Austria recognizing the new Kingdom of Italy after the Third War of Independence in 1866, Ferdinand's hopes to reclaim the throne were ended.

Subsequently Ferdinand and his family returned to Austria. While Ferdinand was allowed to keep the grand ducal title as a courtesy and retain his status as grand master of all Tuscan orders of chivalry for his lifetime, his descendants could only bear the title of "Archduke/Archduchess of Austria"; the right to bear the title "Prince/ss of Tuscany" became restricted solely to family members born before 1866. In 1870 Ferdinand relinquished all dynastic rights to the defunct Grand Duchy for himself and his future heirs in favour of his second cousin, Emperor Franz Joseph I, effectively ending the House of Habsburg-Tuscany's status as a sovereign cadet branch.

Ferdinand died in Salzburg in 1908, after spending the rest of his life in exile. Upon his death, his descendants were barred from using their Tuscan titles by Imperial decree.

Family and children

He married twice and had issue:

From his first marriage in Dresden on 24 November 1856 to Princess Anna of Saxony, (Dresden, 4 January 1836 – Naples, 10 February 1859), daughter of King John I of Saxony, was born:

From his second marriage in Frohsdorf on 11 January 1868 to Princess Alice "Alix" of Bourbon-Parma (Parma, 27 December 1849 – Schwertberg, 16 November 1935), daughter of Duke Charles III of Parma:

Honours

Ferdinand received the following awards:

Ancestry

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-03-25 13:45 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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