Peter Ferdinand von Österreich-Toskana

Peter Ferdinand Salvator of Austria-Tuscany was born on 12 May 1874 in Salzburg and died on 8 November 1948 in St. Gilgen. He belonged to the Tuscan line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and was a son of Ferdinand IV, the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Alice of Parma. After the abolition of the grand duchy, the family settled in Salzburg. Peter Ferdinand grew up there with nine siblings and, like his older brothers, embarked on a military career. He received his initial military training at the cavalry cadet school in Hranice. From 1890 to 1893 he studied as an external student at the Theresian Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. In 1893 he entered the Imperial-Royal Army as a lieutenant with Salzburg Infantry Regiment No. 59. Over the following decades, aided by his origin and education, he rose rapidly through the ranks. From 1895 to 1898 he served with Infantry Regiment No. 41 in Czernowitz and was promoted to first lieutenant in 1896. At the same time, he attended the War School in Vienna. He then served with Infantry Regiment No. 93 in Olomouc from 1898 to 1900 and was appointed captain in 1899. In 1903 he received the rank of major and returned to Infantry Regiment No. 59, where he remained until 1909. During this period he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1905 and colonel in 1907. From 1909 to 1911 he commanded Vienna Infantry Regiment No. 32. On 1 May 1911 he became a major general and took command of the 49th Infantry Brigade in Vienna. In February 1914 Peter Ferdinand was appointed commander of the 25th Infantry Division; on 23 April of the same year he received the rank of field marshal lieutenant. At the beginning of the First World War, his division was transferred to the Eastern Front. As part of the 2nd Army Corps, he fought against the Russian army in Galicia and southern Poland. His military performance was, however, assessed controversially. General Auffenberg accused him of having failed at the Battle of Komarów and of not achieving the encirclement of the Russian 5th Army. In June 1915 Peter Ferdinand was temporarily relieved of his command and initially lived outside active service. After Emperor Charles I ascended the throne, he returned to active military service and was transferred to the Italian Front. On 17 April 1917 he was promoted to general of infantry. In northern Italy he assumed command of two divisions, with which he fought under difficult conditions in the Alps. In the autumn of 1917, together with General Below’s 14th German Army, he took part in the successful breakthrough and the Battle of Caporetto. From August 1918 he commanded the 5th Army Corps. He remained in Italy until October of that year, when he relinquished his command. He was retired from the army effective 1 December 1918. As a member of the House of Habsburg, Peter Ferdinand held the title of archduke until the end of the monarchy and was entitled to be addressed as “His Imperial and Royal Highness.” In 1893 he was admitted to the Order of the Golden Fleece, and the following year he became a member of the House of Lords. During his military career he received numerous Austrian-Hungarian and foreign decorations. These included, among others, the Order of Leopold, the Order of the Iron Crown, the Iron Cross, and high orders from Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Saxony, and the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany. From 1908 he was also honorary colonel-in-chief of Infantry Regiment No. 66, stationed in Uzhhorod. In 1900 he married the Sicilian princess Maria Cristina, a daughter of Alfonso of Bourbon-Sicily, Count of Caserta. The wedding took place on 8 November 1900 in Cannes, in the chapel of the then-already demolished Villa Maria Teresa. The ceremony was conducted by Henri Louis Chapon, Bishop of Nice. The couple had four children. Their eldest son, Gottfried, was born in 1902 and was later designated titular Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1938 he married Dorothea of Bavaria. Their daughter Helena, born in 1903, married Philip II, Duke of Württemberg, in 1923, but died as early as 1924. Their son George, born in 1905, married Countess Marie Valerie of Waldburg-Zeil in 1936; she was a great-granddaughter of Emperor Franz Joseph I. The youngest daughter, Rosa, also married Philip II in 1928, becoming the wife of her deceased sister’s widower. After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy at the end of 1918, Peter Ferdinand went into exile in Switzerland and lived in Lucerne. He returned to Austria in 1935. He spent his final years in St. Gilgen in the Salzburg-Umgebung district, where he died in 1948 and was also buried.