Austrian archduke (1842–1919)
Archduke Ludwig Viktor Joseph Anton of Austria (15 May 1842 – 18 January 1919) was the youngest child of
Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and his wife
Princess Sophie of Bavaria , and as such was the younger brother of Emperor
Franz Joseph I . He had a military career, as was usual for
archdukes , but did not take part in politics. He was
openly homosexual and declined to marry princesses who were sought for him. He is well-known for his art collection and patronage as well as philanthropy.
Family
Ludwig Viktor (r.) with his brothers Karl Ludwig, Franz Joseph and Maximilian
Ludwig Viktor was born in
Vienna . He was the youngest son born to
Archduke Franz Karl of Austria and
Princess Sophie of Bavaria . His elder siblings included Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria , Emperor
Maximilian I of Mexico and Archduke
Karl Ludwig . His family called him by the nickname "Luziwuzi".
[1]
Career
During the
Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire and the
Vienna Uprising , Ludwig Viktor and his family had to flee the Austrian capital, at first to
Innsbruck , later to
Olomouc . Ludwig Viktor pursued the usual military career and was appointed
General of the Infantry , but had no intentions to interfere in politics. He rejected his brother Maximilian's ambitions in the
Second Mexican Empire . Instead he concentrated on building up his own art collection and had
Heinrich von Ferstel design and build
a city palace on the new
Schwarzenbergplatz in Vienna, where Ludwig Viktor hosted
homophile soirées.
Personal life
Ludwig Viktor's mother attempted to arrange a marriage for him with
Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria , youngest sister of Empress
Elisabeth , but he declined. He likewise rejected plans to marry him to
Isabel , daughter and
heir presumptive of Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil . In 1863, Ludwig Viktor's brother
Maximilian had tried to persuade him to marry her because "such a marriage might found yet another
Habsburg dynasty in Latin America.... Maximilian wrote to
Franz Joseph that Ludwig Viktor was 'anything but pleased with the idea,'" and asked Franz Joseph to order Ludwig Viktor to marry her. Franz Joseph refused.
[2]
Ludwig Viktor was "a homosexual and
cross-dresser with a reputation as a libertine."
[3] After a scandalous incident at the
Central Bathhouse Vienna in which he was publicly slapped,
[4]
[5] his brother Emperor Franz Joseph finally forbade him to stay in Vienna and joked that he should be given a
ballerina as
adjutant to keep him out of trouble.
Ludwig Viktor retired to
Schloss Klessheim near
Salzburg where he became known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. He died in 1919, at the age of 76, and is buried at the
Siezenheim cemetery.
He was awarded the
Order of the White Eagle .
[6]
Honours
He received the following orders and decorations:
[7]
Austrian Empire :
[8]
Sovereign Military Order of Malta : Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion, with Distinction for Jerusalem
Russian Empire :
United Kingdom : Honorary Grand Cross of the
Royal Victorian Order , 9 October 1903
[9]
Kingdom of Prussia :
France :
Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour
Kingdom of Italy :
Knight of the Annunciation , 21 September 1873
[11]
Kingdom of Bavaria :
Knight of St. Hubert , 1867
[12]
Kingdom of Saxony :
Knight of the Rue Crown , 1865
[13]
Spain : Grand Cross of the
Order of Charles III , 28 September 1891
[14]
Württemberg :
Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown , 1867
[15]
Sweden-Norway :
Knight of the Seraphim , 19 April 1885
[16]
Belgium : Grand Cordon of the
Order of Leopold
Kingdom of Greece :
Grand Cross of the Redeemer
Kingdom of Romania :
Grand Cross of the Star of Romania
Principality of Serbia :
Siam : Knight of the
Order of the Royal House of Chakri , 23 June 1897
[17]
Grand Duchy of Hesse : Grand Cross of the
Ludwig Order , 26 July 1858
[18]
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach :
Grand Cross of the White Falcon , 2 September 1864
[19]
Mecklenburg :
Grand Cross of the Wendish Crown , with Crown in Ore
Nassau Ducal Family :
Knight of the Gold Lion of Nassau
Brunswick : Grand Cross of the
Order of Henry the Lion , 1876
[20]
Ernestine duchies : Grand Cross of the
Saxe-Ernestine House Order
Ancestry
Ancestors of Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria
References
^
"Ludwig Viktor – Erzherzog "Luziwuzi" " . Die Welt der Habsburger (in German). Retrieved 18 April 2022 .
^ Shawcross, Edward, The Last Emperor of Mexico , New York: Basic Books, 2021, pp. 92-93.
^ Shawcross, Edward, The Last Emperor of Mexico , New York: Basic Books, 2021, p. 92.
^ Kastl, Robert.
"Gay and Lesbian Life in Vienna" . Archived from
the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 25 June 2007 .
^
"Ludwig Viktor – Erzherzog "Luziwuzi" " . Die Welt der Habsburger (in German). Retrieved 18 April 2022 .
^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima . Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 581.
^
"Genealogie des Allerhöchsten Herrscherhauses" , Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie , 1918, p.
3 , retrieved 28 August 2020
^
"Ritter-Orden" , Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie , 1912, pp. 50,
53 , retrieved 28 August 2020
^
The London Gazette , issue 27604, p. 6147
^
"Schwarzer Adler-orden" , Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (in German), vol. 1, Berlin, 1886, p.
6 – via hathitrust.org {{
citation }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link )
^ Italia : Ministero dell'interno (1898).
Calendario generale del Regno d'Italia . Unione tipografico-editrice. p.
53 .
^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden" p.
8
^
Staatshandbuch für den Freistaat Sachsen: 1865/66 . Heinrich. 1866. p. 4.
^
"Real y distinguida orden de Carlos III" , Guía Oficial de España , 1911, p. 168, retrieved 23 July 2020
^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Württemberg (1907), "Königliche Orden" p.
27
^
Sveriges Statskalender (in Swedish), 1905, p. 440, retrieved 6 January 2018 – via runeberg.org
^
Royal Thai Government Gazette (8 January 1898).
"พระราชทานเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ ที่ประเทศยุโรป" (PDF) (in Thai). Archived from
the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2019 .
^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Großherzogtum Hessen (1879), "Großherzogliche Orden und Ehrenzeichen" p.
11
^ Staatshandbuch für das Großherzogtum Sachsen / Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (1869), "Großherzogliche Hausorden"
p. 12
Archived 8 June 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
^ Hof- und Staatshandbuch des Herzogtums Braunschweig für das Jahr 1897 , "Herzogliche Orden Heinrich des Löwen" p. 10
^
a
b
Wurzbach, Constantin von , ed. (1860).
"Habsburg, Franz Karl Joseph" .
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire ] (in German). Vol. 6. p. 257 – via
Wikisource .
^
a
b
Wurzbach, Constantin von , ed. (1861).
"Habsburg, Sophie (geb. 27. Jänner 1805)" .
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire ] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 149 – via
Wikisource .
^
a
b
Wurzbach, Constantin von , ed. (1860).
"Habsburg, Franz I." .
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire ] (in German). Vol. 6. p. 208 – via
Wikisource .
^
a
b
Wurzbach, Constantin von , ed. (1861).
"Habsburg, Maria Theresia von Neapel" .
Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire ] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 81 – via
Wikisource .
^
a
b
Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living ] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 94.
^
a
b
"Karoline Friederike Wilhelmine Königin von Bayern" . Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte [House of Bavarian History] (in German). Bavarian Ministry of State for Wissenschaft and Kunst. Archived from
the original on 1 December 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2018 .
Helmut Neuhold: Das andere Habsburg. Homoerotik im österreichischen Kaiserhaus , Tectum-Verlag
External links
Media related to
Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria at Wikimedia Commons
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from the first archdukes. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished in 1919.
1st generation 2nd generation 3rd generation 4th generation 5th generation 6th generation 7th generation 8th generation 9th generation 11th generation 12th generation 13th generation 14th generation 15th generation 16th generation
Habsburg Tuscany Palatines of Hungary
17th generation
Descent of Charles I Tuscany Palatines
18th generation
19th generation
S: also an infante of Spain
P: also an infante of Portugal
T: also a prince of Tuscany
M: also a prince of Modena
B: also a prince of Belgium
International National Artists People