Leopold Salvator von Österreich-Toskana

Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria-Tuscany was born on October 15, 1863, at Alt-Bunzlau Castle in Silesia, today Stará Boleslav in the Czech Republic. He came from the House of Habsburg-Tuscany. His father was Archduke Karl Salvator, a son of the last Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany, and his mother was Maria Immaculata Clementine, a princess of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Leopold was the second-born of ten children and the eldest son. Several of his siblings married into European princely families; his brother Franz Salvator became particularly closely connected to the Austrian imperial house through his marriage to Marie Valerie, the youngest daughter of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth. Like many Habsburgs, Leopold was initially taught by private tutors and educators. He then attended the Technical Military Academy and entered the army as a lieutenant on April 23, 1878. He first served with various field artillery and infantry units, attended the Vienna War School, and gradually rose through the higher ranks. In 1889 he became a major and commander of a battery division, in 1891 a lieutenant colonel, and in 1892 a colonel. In the following years he commanded, among other formations, infantry and artillery units. He was promoted to major general in 1896, to Feldmarschallleutnant in 1899, and was placed in command of an infantry division. From 1900 he headed the 25th Infantry Division. Until 1918, Prague Infantry Regiment No. 18 and Zagreb Field Howitzer Regiment No. 13 bore his name. On October 24, 1889, Leopold Salvator married the Spanish infanta Blanca de Castilla de Borbón in Frohsdorf. She was the eldest daughter of the Bourbon pretender Carlos María de Borbón, later the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne, and Princess Margareta of Bourbon-Parma. The marriage was a classic dynastic alliance between the Spanish royal house and the Austrian imperial family, and it gave Leopold considerable international standing. The couple had ten children, five sons and five daughters. They included Archduke Anton, who married Princess Ileana of Romania in 1931, and Archduke Karl, who from 1943 was the Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne as Karl VIII. Several of the children later contracted marriages with people outside their social rank. The family initially lived at the Palais Toskana on Vienna’s Argentinierstraße. From 1908 they occupied Wilhelminenberg Palace in Ottakring. After the death of his uncle Rainer Salvator in 1913, Leopold also inherited Hernstein Castle in Lower Austria. His personal interests extended beyond the military to technology and scientific development. In addition to German and Italian, he spoke French and had knowledge of Czech, Polish, and Croatian. Leopold was particularly committed to modernizing the armed forces. In 1905 he became involved in technical developments at the Austro-Daimler works in Wiener Neustadt. In 1906 the Austro-Daimler 28/32 HP automobile was built for him; he drove it himself and had it equipped with the most advanced technical solutions of the time. He also designed an all-wheel-drive system for military transport vehicles, known as the Daimler-Salvator, as well as a truck with a propeller shaft, whose production was taken up by the Škoda works. His contacts with vehicle and machine manufacturers helped the Austro-Daimler works obtain important orders from the Imperial and Royal Army. On November 1, 1906, Leopold was promoted to the rank of General of Infantry and later to that of Generaloberst. In April 1907 he became Inspector General of the Austro-Hungarian Artillery, a position he held throughout the First World War. In this role he advocated the motorization and technical renewal of the artillery. He considered powerful trucks, all-wheel-drive tractors, and modern transport vehicles especially important. His achievements earned him membership in the Austrian Academy of Sciences, as well as honorary doctorates from the Vienna University of Technology and the German Technical University in Prague. Leopold was also passionately interested in aviation. In 1902 he took a balloon flight from Salzburg with Captain Franz Hinterstoisser and later participated in further flights in hot-air and gas balloons. In 1903 he flew from Saint-Cloud near Paris in a gas balloon with his brother-in-law, the Spanish infante Don Jaime de Bourbon. He also followed the development of airships and airplanes and assessed their possible military uses. He regularly attended air shows in Vienna, Aspern, and Wiener Neustadt. On May 20, 1916, Leopold received the rank of Generaloberst. Under his leadership, the Austro-Hungarian artillery was reorganized according to modern principles and substantially improved technically. Its performance during the operations of the First World War confirmed his reform efforts. In March 1918 he was placed on the inactive list, and on December 1 of the same year he retired. After the collapse of the Habsburg monarchy, the family was expelled from Austria by the new republican government in 1919. Their property and real estate were confiscated. Leopold initially traveled with his family to Italy, to relatives of his wife, and later settled in Barcelona. Through his technical inventions he continued to possess considerable wealth. In 1930 he returned to Austria as a wealthy man. The condition for his return was that, under the Habsburg Law, he permanently renounce his titles and claims to the Austrian throne and withdraw from political life. Leopold Salvator died in Vienna on September 4, 1931, at the age of 67. His property, including Hernstein Castle, passed to his three surviving sons, Anton, Josef, and Carlos. He remained remembered as a Habsburg archduke, senior artillery officer, and promoter of military motorization and aviation.