Archduke Leo Karl Maria Cyril-Methodius Habsburg-Lorraine, Archduke of Austria (5 July 1893, Pula – 28 April 1939, Bestwina) was the son of Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria and Archduchess Maria Theresia, Princess of Tuscany. He was his father’s answer to the Eastern European question and become a would-be regent of future Balkan zone of influence of the Habsburg monarchy.
In 1913 he and his younger brother, Wilhelm, enrolled at the imperial military academy at Wiener-Neustadt. Upon reaching Habsburg age of majority, twenty years old, he was inducted into the Order of the Golden Fleece – a Habsburg noble order – as well as the upper house of the parliament .
He served first in the Austrian army and then after the fall of the Habsburg Empire he served with great distinction in the Polish Army.
He married an Austrian noble woman Maria-Klothilde von Thuillières Gfn von Montjoye-Vaufrey et de la Roche (1893–1978), known among family as Maja in October 1922, at St. Stephen Cathedral in Vienna. The marriage was acceptable though morganatic. Their children are granted the title of Count of Habsburg.
Children: Count Leo Stefan of Habsburg (b. 1928).
He lived on a partition of the Żywiec family estate, that he and his brother Albrecht inherited from their father Karl Stefan. Leo was rising his children German. He died of tuberculosis on the 28th of April 1939 in his estate in Bestwina, southern Poland. He hadn’t left a last will and the property was inherited by his wife Maja.
He was buried in the local cemetery in Bestwina, a countryside belonging to his family and the place where he and his family moved into a palace in 1933 after the death of Karl Stefan, the father.
Famous quotes containing the word austria:
“All the terrors of the French Republic, which held Austria in awe, were unable to command her diplomacy. But Napoleon sent to Vienna M. de Narbonne, one of the old noblesse, with the morals, manners, and name of that interest, saying, that it was indispensable to send to the old aristocracy of Europe men of the same connection, which, in fact, constitutes a sort of free- masonry. M. de Narbonne, in less than a fortnight, penetrated all the secrets of the imperial cabinet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)