Ernst von Österreich

Archduke Ernst of Austria, whose full name was Ernst Karl Felix Maria Rainer Gottfried Cypriak, was born in Milan on August 8, 1824, and died in Arco, South Tyrol, on April 4, 1899. He belonged to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and attained the rank of lieutenant field marshal. His father was Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria, who served as viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia and was a younger brother of Emperor Francis I. His mother, Maria Elisabeth Franziska of Savoy-Carignano, was the sister of the future Sardinian-Piedmontese King Charles Albert. Ernst was the fourth of eight children and the second-oldest son. His siblings included Maria Adelheid, who became Queen of Sardinia-Piedmont as Maria Adelaide, as well as several brothers who likewise held senior military positions. Ernst received his military training in Italy under the future field marshal Radetzky. In 1845, King Ferdinand V appointed him proprietor of the 48th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Nagykanizsa. Two years later, he was promoted to major general and given command of a brigade. He remained in Italy during the revolutionary years. In 1849, he fought against Giuseppe Garibaldi in Tuscany. On July 31, he drove Garibaldi and his troops toward the border of San Marino near Mount Tassano. Garibaldi subsequently fled toward the Ravenna area with his wife and several followers, while around 1,800 soldiers left behind surrendered to Archduke Ernst the following day. For this military success, Ernst was promoted to lieutenant field marshal and awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold with war decoration. In 1850, he received command of a division of the VI Army Corps stationed in Verona. His secret marriage played an important and socially sensitive role in his life. On April 26, 1858, Ernst married Laura Skublics in Laibach. She came from an old noble family of Zala County and was the daughter of Alajos Skublics, the former chief notary of Zala, and Franziska Ivánkovich. She had originally been registered under the name Alojzia Rozália Franciska and had previously entered into a brief and unhappy marriage with the lawyer Ignác Csendhelyi, which had been dissolved by ecclesiastical permission. To keep the socially unequal union with a member of the imperial family secret and to reduce opposition in court circles, Ernst arranged for his fiancée to be adopted on the morning of the wedding by Karl von Wallburg, a Prussian officer. She therefore stood before the altar as Fräulein von Wallburg. By the second half of the 1850s, Ernst and Laura were already living together in Vienna. In 1859, Ernst was appointed commander of the XI Army Corps in Budapest, and he later also assumed command of the II Cavalry Corps there. The transfer to Budapest was regarded as a form of removal from the Viennese court. Ernst had accumulated considerable debts, although his brothers did what they could to conceal his financial difficulties. The marriage produced four children, who bore the bourgeois surname Wallburg: Laura Ernestine, Ernst Heinrich Karl, Heinrich, and Klothilde Elisabeth Mathilde. The family lived at Archduke Ernst’s Schönkirchen Castle in Lower Austria, where the children grew up. Laura died in Vienna on October 18, 1865. After her death, the children were placed under guardianship, but the court provided them with regular payments. Ernst’s younger brother Heinrich served as godfather to all four children. Ernst remained active in the military after his time in Budapest. He was appointed successively commander of the X and III Army Corps. As commander of the III Army Corps, he took part in the Prussian-Austrian War of 1866, including the Battle of Königgrätz. On September 3 of that year, he was transferred to Graz and appointed commander of the army corps there, as well as commanding general in several Austrian lands and along the Adriatic coast. These areas included Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Tyrol, Istria, Görz, Vorarlberg, and the Littoral. On January 16, 1867, he was promoted to general of cavalry. He left active military service on March 20, 1868. During the final years of his life, Ernst suffered frequent illnesses. He went to Arco for treatment, but nothing more could be done for him there. After his death, he was buried in the traditional burial place of the Habsburgs, in the crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna. The fate of his children remained difficult after his death. In 1899, his eldest son Ernst petitioned Emperor Francis Joseph. The court offered him a monthly allowance of 600 crowns if he moved to the vicinity of Vienna. Ernst initially complied, but moved to Budapest at the end of 1900 and consequently lost his payments. He was forced to work and was employed as head waiter at the New York Café in 1902 and 1903. He later wrote an account of his life under the title “Ein Justizmord,” hoping both to secure his livelihood and to obtain recognition from the court of his Habsburg descent for himself and his siblings. These hopes were not fulfilled. He later worked as an agent and died of tuberculosis in February 1920. His younger brother Heinrich had already taken his own life in 1888. His youngest sister Klothilde married twice. Her first marriage produced three children, whose family name was changed to Skublics by imperial order in 1909.