Anton of Austria

Archduke Anton was born on March 20, 1901 in Vienna , the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He became the third son and seventh child in the family of the Austrian Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria from the Tuscan branch of the Habsburgs and his wife, Spanish Infanta Blanca . In total, the family had ten children. At baptism, he was given the name Anton Maria Franz Leopold Blanca Karl Joseph Ignat Rafael Mahael Margareta Nisetas von Habsburg-Lorraines with the title "His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke of Austria, Prince of Hungary, Prince of Bohemia, Prince of Tuscany . "

Anton's family was very rich. They owned two palaces near Vienna: the Tuscan Palace and Wilhelminenberg . Summer was usually spent in Italy, where their mother owned a villa in Viareggio. He received an excellent education. Mother was the head of their family, possessing an imperious character, father was a military man and inventor, having created several military inventions. Ancestors on the father's side ruled in Austria, Tuscany and the Kingdom of Both Sicilies, on the mother's side - in Spain, France and the Duchy of Parma.

After the Austrian empire collapsed, he lived with his parents in Spain, where they bought small apartments with money from the sale of jewelry.

On July 26, 1931, Anton married Her Royal Highness Princess Ileana of Romania , the youngest daughter of Romanian King Ferdinand I and his wife Maria, nee Princess Edinburgh , granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Emperor Alexander II . This marriage was arranged by the brother of the bride, King Carol II , who did not like the excessive popularity of his sister. After the wedding, King Carol announced that the Romanian people would not tolerate the Habsburgs on their land, and, on the basis of this, the newlyweds had to leave Romania. ^[one]

The pair initially settled in Munich and Mödling . They owned the castle of Sonnbergstaben in Lower Austria. Six children were born in the marriage:

• Stefan (1932-1998) - was married to Mary Soper, had five children;
• Maria Ileana (1933-1959) - married Count Franz Joseph Kottulinski, had a daughter;
• Alexandra (born 1935) - married Duke Eugene of Württemberg;
• Dominic (born 1937) - married Virginia van Voss, two sons;
• Maria Magdalena (born 1939) - wife of Baron Hans Ulrich von Holzhausen, three children;
• Elizabeth (1942–2019) - married Friedrich Joseph Sandhofer, had four children.

During World War II, Anton served in the German Wehrmacht until 1944 as a pilot. After the war, he moved to Bran Castle, where his family lived. After the abdication of King Mihai I from the throne on December 30, 1947, the Anton family had to leave Romania. The family moved first to Switzerland, then to Argentina, and in the early 1950s - to the United States.

May 29, 1954 Anton and Ileana divorced. In the same year, Ileana entered into a second marriage with Dr. Stefan Nikolai Issarescu , who also ended in divorce. In 1961, Ileana went to the monastery, died in 1991 in the United States.

After the divorce, Anton left for Austria, where he lived until his death. He owned Villa Minola (after his death it was sold and the new owners renamed it Villa Mizzi ).

His daughter Maria Ileana died with her husband in a plane crash in Brazil along with their unborn second child. The son of Dominic in 2006 received from the Romanian Parliament the right to own the Bran Castle. ^[2]

  - Order of the Golden Fleece (Austria-Hungary);

  - Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia);

  - Order of St. Hubert (Bavaria);

• Ileana von Österreich-Toskana: A Live Again Princess Of Romania Archduchess Of Austria . Rinehart & Company Incorporated, 1952
• Hannah Pakula: The Last Romantic. Biography of Queen Marie of Roumania . Phoenix House, 1996, ISBN 1-85799-816-2

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