Ferdinand IV.

Ferdinand IV Salvator was born on June 10, 1835, in Florence, the eldest son of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his wife, Maria Antonia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. His full name was Ferdinand Salvator Maria Joseph Johann Baptist Franz Ludwig Gonzaga Raphael Rainer Januarius. Within his family, he was known as Nando. He belonged to the Habsburg-Lorraine-Tuscany cadet branch and was a great-grandson of Emperor Leopold II. Ferdinand received an education that was comparatively liberal for his time. On November 24, 1856, he married Princess Anna Maria of Saxony in Dresden, the daughter of King John I of Saxony and Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria. The couple’s daughter, Maria Antonia, was born on January 10, 1858. A second daughter was born in 1859 but died on the day of her birth. Anna Maria herself died on February 10, 1859, during the delivery. At this time, Habsburg rule over Tuscany was coming under increasing pressure from the Italian national movement. In the run-up to the Second Italian War of Independence, Ferdinand’s father, Leopold II, declared the grand duchy’s neutrality. He wished neither to fight against Austria, to whose Viennese branch the House of Habsburg was closely connected, nor to enter the war on the side of the national forces. This position intensified the political crisis. A revolution broke out, and the grand-ducal family first fled to Bologna and then went into exile in Vienna. Leopold II tried to preserve the throne for his dynasty and abdicated in favor of his son on July 21, 1859. Ferdinand IV thus became Grand Duke of Tuscany, but he could not exercise power in practice. Following a plebiscite, Tuscany was annexed to the Kingdom of Sardinia in 1860 as part of Italian unification. This brought the rule of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine-Tuscany over the country to an end. Ferdinand initially continued to uphold his claim diplomatically and kept the existing Tuscan ambassadors in office. Only after Austria’s defeat in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 did Emperor Franz Joseph I order the symbol of Tuscany removed from his coat of arms. On December 20, 1866, Ferdinand and his children were readmitted to the imperial household. The House of Tuscany thereby lost its status as a sovereign Habsburg branch and was absorbed into the Austrian imperial house. Ferdinand was permitted to retain his personal right to confer honors, known as the fons honorum, for life. His children, however, bore only the titles of imperial princes and princesses, or Archdukes and Archduchesses of Austria. In 1870, Ferdinand renounced, in favor of his cousin Franz Joseph I, all dynastic rights for himself and his future heirs in the defunct grand duchy. This step was also intended to settle outstanding property matters. From 1868 onward, Ferdinand lived alternately in the summer at Villa Tuscany in Lindau on Lake Constance and in the winter in part of the Salzburg Residence, which Emperor Franz Joseph had made available to him. This area later became known as the Tuscany Wing. In the same year, Ferdinand married Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma in his second marriage. She was the daughter of the late Duke Charles III of Parma and Princess Louise Marie Therese of France. The marriage produced numerous children, including Leopold Ferdinand, Luise, Joseph Ferdinand, Peter Ferdinand, Heinrich Ferdinand, Anna, Margareta, Germana, Robert Ferdinand, and Agnes Maria Theresa. Several of his sons pursued military careers; Heinrich Ferdinand was also an officer, painter, and photographer. His daughter Luise was initially married to King Frederick Augustus III of Saxony and later married Enrico Toselli. Maria Antonia, Ferdinand’s daughter from his first marriage, became abbess of the Theresian Ladies’ Foundation in Prague. Ferdinand had a strong interest in photography and was patron of the Amateur Photographers’ Club in Salzburg. He spent most of his life in exile, however, without ever regaining his former rule in Tuscany. After Ferdinand’s death, Emperor Franz Joseph prohibited his descendants from using Tuscan sovereign titles. The dynastic orders associated with the former grand-ducal dignity could likewise no longer be properly continued by them. Ferdinand IV died in Salzburg on January 17, 1908. He was buried in the Tuscany Crypt of the Capuchin Crypt in Vienna. His widow, Alicia, remained in Salzburg until 1918 and then moved to Schwertberg. Ferdinand’s life thus exemplified the political decline of a Habsburg cadet branch during the age of Italian nationalism and the European reordering of the nineteenth century.