Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, or, more fully,
His Imperial and Royal Highness Ferdinando III Giuseppe Giovanni Baptista Grand Duke of Tuscany, Archduke of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia, (
May 6,
1769 –
June 18,
1824; born and died in
Florence,
Italy), was the son of
Emperor Leopold II (
1747 -
1792) and his wife
Maria Louisa of Bourbon and Two Sicilies (
1745 -
1792).
He was married on
August 15,
1790, at
Naples, Italy, to Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa of the Two Sicilies (
July 27,
1773 -
September 19,
1802), daughter of
Fernando I of the Two Sicilies (
1751 -
1825) and his wife
Maria Carolina of Austria (
1752 -
1814).
Their children were:# Carolina Ferdinanda Theresia (
1793 -
1802)# Franz Leopold (
1794 -
1800)#
Leopold II (
1797 -
1870)# Marie Louise Josephe Christine Rose (
1799 -
1857)# Maria Teresa (
1801 -
1855)# [stillborn son] (
1802)
He was married again on
May 6,
1821 at Florence, Italy to Maria of
Saxony (or, more fully, Her Highness Maria Ferdinande Amalia Xaveria Theresia Josepha Anna Nepomucena Aloysia Johanna Vincentia Ignatia Dominica Franziska de Paula Franziska de Chantal, Duchess of Saxony) (
April 27,
1796 -
January 3,
1865), daughter of
Maximilian, Prince of Saxony, (
1759 -
1838) and his wife Caroline of Bourbon-Parma (
1770 -
1804). There were no children born of this second marriage.
Ferdinand succeeded his father as
Grand Duke of Tuscany in
1790, and ruled in Tuscany until
1801, when he was forced by
Bonaparte to give up Tuscany to the
Bourbons of Parma, who turned it into the
Kingdom of Etruria. Ferdinand was compensated by being given the secularized lands of the
Archbishopric of Salzburg and several other ecclesiastical princes in Germany, and was made a
Prince-elector of the
Holy Roman Emperor. By the
Treaty of Pressburg of
1805, Ferdinand was made to give up Salzburg, which was annexed by his brother, the
Emperor of Austria, and instead became Duke of
Würzburg, a new state created for him from the old Bishopric of Würzburg. He remained in this role until Napoleon's fall in
1814, when he returned to Tuscany, which he ruled until his death.
