Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Ferdinand III
Grand Duke Ferdinand sitting in his library, 1797, after Joseph Dorffmeister
Predecessor	Leopold I
Successor	Leopold II
Consort	Luisa of Naples and Sicily Maria Ferdinande of Saxony
Detail Issue
Archduchess Caroline Archduke Francis Leopold Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany Archduchess Maria Louisa Josepha Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia
Full name
Ferdinando Giuseppe Giovanni Baptista
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Luisa of Spain
Born	6 May 1769 Florence
Died	June 18, 1824 (aged 55)
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany (6 May 1769 – 18 June 1824) was Grand Duke of Tuscany, (1790-1801; 1814-1824). He was also the Prince-elector and Duke of Salzburg (1803-1806) and Grand Duke of Würzburg (1806-1814).

Ferdinand was born in Florence, Tuscany, into the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. He was the son of Leopold, then Grand-Duke of Tuscany, and his wife Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain.

When his father was elected Emperor in 1790, Ferdinand succeeded him as Grand Duke of Tuscany ceded by his father on 22 July 1790. He was driven out by the French in 1799 but still ruled in Tuscany until 1801, when in the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801), he was forced by Napoleon to make way for the Kingdom of Etruria, created as compensation for the Bourbon Dukes of Parma, being dispossessed by the Peace of Lunéville in that same year.

Ferdinand was compensated by being given the Dukedom and Electorate of Salzburg, the secularized lands of the Archbishop of Salzburg, as Duke of Salzburg. He was also made a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, both on 26 December 1802, a role which expired with the Empire's dissolution in 1806.

On 25 December 1805, Ferdinand had to give up Salzburg as well, which by the Treaty of Pressburg was annexed by his older brother, Emperor Francis II. Ferdinand was made Duke of Würzburg, a new state created for him from the old Bishopric of Würzburg, remaining an Elector. With the dissolution of the Empire in 1806 he took the new title of Grand Duke of Würzburg.

On 30 May 1814, after Napoleon's fall, Ferdinand was restored as Grand-Duke of Tuscany. However, in 1815, the Duchy of Lucca was carved out of Tuscany, again as temporary compensation for the Bourbons of Parma. (Lucca would be reintegrated into Tuscany in 1847.)

Ferdinand died in 1824 in Florence and was succeeded by his son Leopold.

Family and children

In Naples on 15 August 1790 by proxy and in Vienna on 19 September 1790 in person, Ferdinand married firstly his double first cousin, Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa of the Two Sicilies (Naples, 27 July 1773 - Vienna, 19 September 1802), daughter of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Marie Caroline of Austria.

Their children were:

1. Archduchess Carolina Ferdinanda Teresa (Carolina Ferdinanda Theresia) (Florence, 2 August 1793 - Vienna, 5 January 1802)
2. Archduke Francesco Leopoldo (Franz Leopold) (Florence, 15 December 1794 - Vienna, 18 March 1800)
3. Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1797 - 1870), Grand Duke of Tuscany between 1824-1859
4. Archduchess Maria Luisa Giuseppa Cristina Rosa (Florence, 30 August 1799 - Florence, 15 June 1857)
5. Archduchess Maria Teresa (21 March 1801 - 12 January 1855). Married Charles Albert of Sardinia.
6. Archduke unnamed (19 September 1802 - 19 September 1802), stillborn

In Florence on 6 May 1821, Ferdinand married secondly Maria of Saxony (Dresden, 27 April 1796 - Schloss Brandeis, Bohemia, 3 January 1865), daughter of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony, (1759 - 1838) and his wife Caroline of Bourbon-Parma (1770 - 1804). She was the first cousin once removed of his first wife and also his first cousin once removed. There were no children born of this second marriage.

Ancestry

External links

• Grand-Ducal House of Tuscany^{[dead link]}
• Royal House of Two-Sicilies^{[dead link]}
• Royal House of Saxony^{[dead link]}