Erzherzog Gottfried von Österreich, Erblicher Erzherzog von Toskana

Archduke Gottfried of Austria, whose full name was Gottfried Maria Joseph Peter Ferdinand Hubert Anton Rupert Leopold Heinrich Ignaz Alfons, was born on 14 March 1902 in Linz, Austria-Hungary, and died on 21 January 1984 at the age of 81 in Bad Ischl. He belonged to the House of Austria and was later described as a claimant to the defunct throne of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Gottfried was the eldest son of Archduke Peter Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Princess Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. He grew up with his three siblings in Salzburg and Vienna. After the end of the First World War in 1918, the family emigrated to Lucerne, Switzerland. His dynastic position was shaped by the political changes surrounding the end of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His grandfather, Ferdinand IV, was the last Grand Duke of Tuscany. After the duchy was abolished in 1860, Ferdinand initially retained his grand-ducal title, but in 1870 he abdicated in favor of the Austrian emperor. Ferdinand and his children had already been readmitted to the imperial family in 1866. The House of Tuscany therefore ceased to exist as a sovereign branch and was absorbed into the Austrian imperial house. From then on, Ferdinand’s children were regarded solely as imperial princes, or Archdukes of Austria, and no longer as princes or princesses of Tuscany. After Ferdinand IV’s death in 1908, Emperor Franz Joseph I also prohibited the assumption of the titles of Grand Duke or Prince or Princess of Tuscany. Members of the family born after 1866 were likewise unable to lawfully take over the dynastic orders associated with the former grand duchy. Gottfried’s father, Peter Ferdinand, never claimed the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany. Around 1970, however, Gottfried assumed the title without the consent of the head of the imperial and royal house. In doing so, he disregarded his grandfather’s earlier abdication and the relevant dynastic provisions. His son Leopold later also used the title of titular Grand Duke of Tuscany. On 2 August 1938, Gottfried married Princess Dorothea of Bavaria, a daughter of Prince Franz of Bavaria and his wife, Princess Isabella Antonie of Croÿ. The civil ceremony took place on 2 August, followed by the religious wedding on the next day in Sárvár, in the Kingdom of Hungary. The couple had five children: Archduchesses Elisabeth and Alice, Archdukes Leopold and Sigismund, and Archduchess Maria Antoinette. The children married into various European noble and patrician families and established their own family branches. Elisabeth married Friedrich Hubert Edler von Braun, and they had three children. Alice became the wife of Baron Vittorio Manno. Their son Leopoldo died shortly after birth, while their son Niccolò and daughter Domitilla went on to establish families of their own. Leopold married Laetitia de Belzunce d’Arenberg, and they had two sons. His son Sigismund later served, among other roles, as ambassador of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to Uruguay and continued the titular claim associated with Tuscany. His second son, Guntram, married Deborah de Sola, Countess von Habsburg, and also had two children. Gottfried’s youngest daughter, Maria Antoinette, married Baron Hans Walter von Proff zu Irnich. Their marriage also produced children and grandchildren. In this way, the extensive family connections between the House of Austria and other European noble families continued. Gottfried was awarded the rank of Knight of the Austrian Order of the Golden Fleece. His life was marked by political and dynastic change: he came from a family whose rule in Tuscany had ended when it was incorporated into the Austrian imperial house, while also representing an attempt to maintain a connection with that vanished dynastic tradition.