Ferdinand III[nb 1] (6 May 1769 – 18 June 1824) was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1790 to 1801 and, after a period of disenfranchisement, again from 1814 to 1824. He was also the Prince-elector and Grand Duke of Salzburg (1803–1805) and Duke and Elector (to 1806, Grand Duke from 1806) of Würzburg (1805–1814).
Biography
Ferdinand as a young boyBaptismal certificate Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
In 1792, during the French Revolution, Ferdinand became the first monarch to recognize the new French First Republic formally, and he attempted to work peacefully with it.[2] As the French Revolutionary Wars commenced, however, the rulers of Britain and Russia persuaded him to join their side in the War of the First Coalition. Ferdinand provided his allies with passive support but no enthusiasm, and after he witnessed a year of resounding victories by the French, he became the first member of the coalition to give up. In a proclamation dated 1 March 1795, he abandoned the alliance and declared Tuscany's neutrality in the war.[3]
Portrait of an aging Ferdinand
His normalization of relations with France helped stabilize his rule for several years but by 1799 he was compelled to flee to Vienna for protection when republicans established a new government in Florence. He was forced to renounce his throne by the Treaty of Aranjuez (1801): Napoleon brushed him aside to make way for the Kingdom of Etruria, created as compensation for the BourbonDukes of Parma, dispossessed by the Peace of Lunéville in that same year.[1][2]
Ferdinand was compensated with the Electorate of Salzburg, the secularized former territory of the Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg. He was also made a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire (a role which expired with the empire's dissolution in 1806), receiving the title and land on 26 December 1802.
Their first two children, Carolina and Francis, died at very young ages (eight and five respectively) but the later three prospered under their father's care. Luisa died when they were all quite young, on 19 September 1802, together with a stillborn son who was unnamed. Two decades later, in Florence on 6 May 1821, Ferdinand married again, this time to the much younger Princess Maria Ferdinanda of Saxony (1796–1865). She was the daughter of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony, and his wife, Caroline of Parma; she was also his first cousin once removed, as well as the first cousin once removed of the dead Luisa, and the sister of his daughter-in-law Princess Maria Anna of Saxony. Though Ferdinand was likely hoping to produce another male heir, there were no children born of this second marriage.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany[4]
^(German: Ferdinand Josef Johann Baptist; Italian: Ferdinando Giuseppe Giovanni Battista; English: Ferdinand Joseph John Baptist.
References
^ abGilman, Daniel Coit, ed. (1905). "Ferdinand III (1769–1824)". The New International Encyclopædia. Vol. 7. New York: Dodd, Mead. p. 539. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from the first archdukes. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished in 1919.
Generations are numbered from the children of Francesco de' Medici, first Grand Duke of Tuscany. Later generations are included but the grand duchy was abolished in 1860.
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