Archduke Anton Victor of Austria

Archduke Anton Victor
Archduke Anton of Austria
Born	(1779-08-31)31 August 1779 Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died	Vienna, Austrian Empire
Burial	Crypt of the Capuchins, Vienna
House	Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Luisa of Spain

Anton Victor, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia (31 August 1779 – 2 April 1835) was an Archduke of Austria and a Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. He was also briefly the last Archbishop and Elector of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Münster before those territories were secularised in 1803.

Anton Victor was the son of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Luisa of Spain. He was born in Florence and died in Vienna. He never married and died without issue.

After the death of his uncle, Maximilian Franz, Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne and Prince-Bishop of Münster, Anton Victor was chosen on 9 September 1801 as Prince-Bishop of Münster and on 7 October as Archbishop and Prince Elector of Cologne. The Electorate’s Rhenish territories had been occupied by the French in 1794 and had in 1800 become part of France (in Cologne’s case as sub-prefecture of the new département de la Roër, based on Aix-la-Chapelle), this state of affairs preventing Anton from taking his seat in Cologne Cathedral (which had in any case been reduced by the revolutionaries to the status of a parish church, a status which it had up till then never possessed, but which it retained even after reinstatement of the Archdiocese in 1821 until very recently) and leaving him in control only of the Duchy of Westphalia, as well as of the Prince-Bishopric of Münster. His reign was to prove a short one - in the reorganisation of the Holy Roman Empire as provided by its law of 1803 (at the time of writing still nameless) enacting the so-called Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (recte: Recès principal de la délégation extraordinaire d’Empire ‘Hauptschluß der außerordentlichen Reichsdeputation’, ‘chief recommendation of the select committee of the Reichstag’), the archiepiscopal electorates of Cologne and Treves were abolished and Anton’s remaining territories secularised, Münster being partitioned between the Prussians and various minor princes and Westphalia claimed by the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Anton Victor became Grand Master of the Teutonic Order in 1804. The Order's German lands, centred on Mergentheim, were secularised in 1809, but Anton remained its Grand Master until his death. Between 1816 and 1818 he was Viceroy of the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia.

Ancestry

Family of Archduke Anton Victor of Austria

16. Charles V, Duke of Lorraine               8. Leopold, Duke of Lorraine                       17. Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria Queen Dowager of Poland-Lithuania               4. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor                             18. Philippe I, Duke of Orléans               9. Princess Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans                       19. Countess Palatine Elizabeth Charlotte of Simmern               2. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor                                   20. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor               10. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor                       21. Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg               5. Maria Theresa of Austria Queen of Hungary & Bohemia                             22. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel               11. Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel                       23. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen               1. Archduke Anton Victor of Austria                                         24. Louis, Dauphin of France               12. Philip V of Spain                       25. Duchess Maria Anna of Bavaria               6. Charles III of Spain                             26. Edward II Farnese, Duke of Parma               13. Elisabeth of Parma                       27. Countess Palatine Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg               3. Maria Louisa of Spain                                   28. Augustus II of Poland Elector of Saxony               14. Augustus III of Poland Elector of Saxony                       29. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth               7. Maria Amalia of Saxony                             30. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor               15. Maria Josepha of Austria                       31. Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Calenberg

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

Archduke Anton Victor of Austria House of Habsburg-Lorraine Born: 31 August 1779 in Florence Died: 2 April 1835 in Vienna
Regnal titles
Preceded by Maximilian Francis of Austria	Duke of Westphalia 1801–1803	Annexation 1802 to Hesse-Darmstadt 1814 to Prussian Westphalia
Catholic Church titles
Regnal titles
Preceded by Maximilian Francis of Austria	Prince-Bishop of Münster1 1801–1803	Vacant Title next held by Ferdinand von Lüninck2 as Bishop of Münster
	Archbishop and Elector of Cologne3 1801–1803	Vacant Title next held by Ferdinand August von Spiegel4 as Archbishop of Cologne
Preceded by Charles Louis of Austria	Grand Master of the Teutonic Order 1804–1835	Succeeded by Maximilian of Austria-Este
Notes and references
1. Reign over the Bishopric of Münster was barred by Prussian occupation from 1802 2. The no longer princely bishopric of Münster was annexed by Prussia in 1814; 1803–20 sede vacante, it was subsequently void of regnal power and the bishop’s title was simply Bishop. 3. Reign over the Electorate of Cologne was barred by the partially French (from 1795) and partially Hessian occupation (from 1802) 4. The territory of the former Electorate of Cologne, this latter abolished by the still nameless law of 1803, was ceded to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna in 1814; the archiepiscopal see as re-established in 1821 was of course void of regnal power and Archbishop von Spiegel’s title was, like that of his successors, simply Archbishop. The practice of elevating Archbishops of Cologne to the cardinalate came only later.