Leo Karl of Habsburg-Lothringen

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Archduke Leo Karl Maria Kyrill Method von Habsburg-Lothringen (born July 5, 1893 in Pola , today Croatia ; † April 28, 1939 in Bestwina , Upper Silesia / Poland ) was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army and Polish military .

Archduke Leo Karl von Habsburg-Lothringen in Polish officer's uniform 1920

Life

Leo Karl as a toddler with parents and siblings in 1896

Leo Karl was the fifth child and second son of the Austro-Hungarian Admiral Archduke Karl Stephan and his wife Maria Theresa , born Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Tuscany . He spent his first years in Istria , attended a secondary school in Vienna and then moved with the family to their property in Saybusch in western Galicia .

During the First World War he was used as a cavalry officer on the Eastern Front. In 1915 he received the Order of the Golden Fleece . During the war his father and older brother Karl Albrecht were candidates for the throne of the reign of Poland, which was ruled by the Central Powers . His younger brother Wilhelm was traded as a candidate for the Ukrainian throne in 1918 .

The Saybuscher Habsburgs stayed after 1918 at their Żywiec Castle in the re-established Poland. Archduke Leo Karl took Polish citizenship in 1919 and took the name Leon Karol Habsburg-Lotaryński . He was taken over as an officer by the Polish army after he had volunteered in Krakow in November 1918 , and fought in the wars against the Ukraine (1919) and against Soviet Russia (1920). Leon reached the rank of captain again in the service of the 17th Uhlan Regiment based in Leszno .

On February 28, 1919, the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property in Warsaw had a state administration over the Habsburg property. The confiscated family property in Żywiec (53,263 hectares of land, 48,446 hectares of which was forest) and Bestwina were returned in 1924 after being transferred by Karl Stephan to the Polish officers Leo Karl and Karl Albrecht. Even the Spanish King Alfonso XIII. , a cousin of Leo Karl, had intervened with the Polish President to this end.

In 1922, Leo married Marie-Klothilde von Thuillières, Comtesse de Montjoye-Vaufrey et de la Roche (1893–1978) in Vienna. The marriage had five children. In 1934 he received the Bestwina estate in Polish Upper Silesia from his father's inheritance , where he and his family settled. There he died of tuberculosis at the age of 45 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Walter von Hueck (Ed.): Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels . Starke Verlag, Limburg 1956, p. 95.
  2. ↑ Józef Buszko (ed.): Austria - Poland. 1000 years of relationships. Publishing house Nakładem Uniw. Jagiellońskiego, Krakow 1995, ISBN 83-233-0968-X , p. 315.
  3. ^ Bogumiła Hyla: The Habsburgs in Saybusch (Żywiec) .
  4. ↑ Józef Buszko (ed.): Austria - Poland. 1000 years of relationships. Publishing house Nakładem Uniw. Jagiellońskiego, Krakow 1995, ISBN 83-233-0968-X , p. 317.
  5. ↑ Walter von Hueck (Ed.): Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels. Starke, Limburg 1956, p. 95.
  6. ↑ Leo Karl Archduke of Austria on thepeerage.com , accessed on September 11, 2016.
  7. ↑ Józef Buszko (ed.): Austria - Poland. 1000 years of relationships. Publishing house Nakładem Uniw. Jagiellońskiego, Krakow 1995, ISBN 83-233-0968-X , p. 318.
  8. ↑ Timothy Snyder : The King of Ukraine. The secret life of Wilhelm von Habsburg. Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-552-05478-3 , p. 175.
personal data
SURNAME Habsburg-Lothringen, Leo Karl von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Habsburg-Lotaryński, Leon Karol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian and Polish officer
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Pola , Croatia
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1939
Place of death Bestwina , Poland