Archduke Anton Victor of Austria

Anton Victor, Viceroy of Lombardy–Venetia (full German name: Anton Viktor Joseph Johann Raimund von Österreich; 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-Elector of Cologne (and Duke of Westphalia) and Prince-Bishop of Münster before those territories were secularised in 1803.

Archduke Anton Victor
Viceroy of Lombardy–Venetia
In office	7 March 1816 – 3 January 1818
Monarch	Francis I
Predecessor	Heinrich von Bellegarde (Lieutenant-General)
Successor	Archduke Rainer
Born	(1779-08-31)31 August 1779 Florence, Grand Duchy of Tuscany
Died	2 April 1835(1835-04-02) (aged 55) Vienna, Austrian Empire
Burial	Imperial Crypt
House	Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Louisa of Spain

Life

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, centred on Aix-la-Chapelle/Aachen), 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 (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 Trier 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.^[1] 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

Ancestors of Archduke Anton Victor of Austria[2]

8. Leopold, Duke of Lorraine 4. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor 9. Élisabeth Charlotte of Orléans 2. Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor 10. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor 5. Maria Theresa of Austria 11. Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick 1. Archduke Anton Victor of Austria 12. Philip V of Spain 6. Charles III of Spain 13. Elisabeth Farnese 3. Maria Louisa of Spain 14. Augustus III of Poland 7. Maria Amalia of Saxony 15. Maria Josepha of Austria

References

1. "Habsburg-Lorraine". Archived from the original on 2012-01-04. Retrieved 2012-01-28.
2. 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. 109.

External links

Media related to Anton Viktor of Austria-Toscana at Wikimedia Commons

Further reading

• Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1860). "Habsburg, Anton Victor Joseph Johann Raymund" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 6. pp. 154–156 – via Wikisource.

• Karl H. Lampe: Anton Victor Joseph Johann Raimund. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Vol. 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6, pp. 317).
• Heinz Pardun: Die Wahl des letzten Kurfürsten von Köln Anton Viktor in Arnsberg. In: Zuflucht zwischen den Zeiten 1794–1803. Kölner Domschätze in Arnsberg. Arnsberg 1994, ISBN 3-928394-11-8

Archduke Anton Victor of Austria House of Habsburg 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 Münster (disputed)1 1801–1803	Vacant Title next held by Ferdinand von Lüninck [de](former)PrinceBishop of Corvey2 as Bishop of Münster
	Archbishop and Elector of Cologne (disputed)3 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 questionable (but not illegal,he was only administrator like others in past), and also 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 questionable (but not illegal ) as he was not a priest, and 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.