Archduke Heinrich Anton of Austria


Archduke Heinrich Anton of Austria, was an Archduke of Austria and Lieutenant field marshal.

Biography

Ernst was the fifth son of the viceroy Archduke Rainer Joseph of Austria and Princess Elisabeth of Savoy. In 1852 was made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Heinrich Anton had a military career and became Feldmarschallleutnant and commander of a division in Graz and later Brünn. He saw action in the War against Italy and distinguished himself during the Battle of Custoza.
Heinrich Anton married morganatically on February 4 1868 in Bolzano with singer Leopoldine Hofmann, who became Freifrau von Waideck in 1878. They had 1 daughter Maria Rainiera, Countesse von Waideck, who married in 1892 Graf Enrico Lucchesi Palli, Count von Campofranco and Duke della Grazia.
The Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria disapproved of this morganatic marriage and Heinrich Anton was expelled from the Royal family. He laid down all his military functions and moved to Luzern in Switserland, where the couple lived until he was pardoned by the Emperor in 1871.
The couple returned to Lombardy–Venetia where Heinrich Anton retired from the army and lived in a palace in the Musterstreet in Bolzano. On a rare visit to Vienna in 1891, both Heinrich Anton and his wife contracted pneumonia and they died in the same night.

Ancestry