It could be mentioned that Archduke Johann Salvator Nepomuk, Leopold Salvator's youngest uncle, dropped all noble pretenses in 1890, assuming the name "J. Orth," so named after Schloss Orth, the estate granted to him by the Kaiser as a place of residence so long as he obeyed the ancient Habsburg family law. Renunciation of the family laws meant renunciation of all wealth and privilege attributed to the family, and so J. Orth was forced to quit Austria. After marrying a British actress, and kicking around London for nearly two years, this fellow took a steamer to South America in 1891 but failed to arrive, and so mysteriously disappeared at sea. His death was finally announced by the Habsburgs in 1911.
Anyway, Archduke Leopold Salvator was married in Frohsdorf on 24 October 1889 to the Infanta Blanca of Spain (1868-1949), and had five sons and five daughters from this marriage: Maria (1891-1974), Maria Immakulata (1892-1971), Margaretha Raineria (1894-1986), Rainer (1895-1930), Maria Antonia (1899-1977), Anton (1901-1987), Assunta (1902-1993), Franz Josef (1905-1975), and Karl (1909-1953).
The marriage was a classic realliance of the Spanish and Austrian monarchies but global polities had shifted far beyond Spain in the XIX. Century, leaving Leopold Salvator little more significant than any other Archduke in the Habsburg realm.
Leopold Salvator was the Inspector General of the Artillery for the k.u.k. armies. He was elevated to Generaloberst on 20 May 1916, but was pensioned shortly thereafter, along with his cousin Archduke Karl Stefan, chief of the navy. The following is a timeline of the Archduke's military career:
Oct 1892 Promoted to Oberst
Mar 1896 Commands 13. Artillery brigade until October 1898
Apr 1896 Promoted to Generalmajor
Oct 1898 Commands 72. infantry brigade until October 1899
Oct 1899 Promoted to Feldmarschalleutnant
Oct 1899 Commands 36. infantry division until September 1900
Sep 1900 Commands 25. infantry division until October 1906
Nov 1906 Promoted to Feldzeugmeister
Apr 1907 Inspector General of the Artillery until March 1918
May 1916 Promoted to Generaloberst
Mar 1918 Leave of absence
Dec 1918 Retired
In addition, he was an honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Science in Vienna, an Honorary Doctor of Technical Science at the Vienna Institute of Technology and of the German Institute of Technology in Prague.
Following the establishment of the Republic and its fierce laws against the primacy of the Habsburg family, the Archduke Leopold Salvator renounced all titles and claims, dropped all military honours, and assumed a normal life as a grocer in downtown Vienna. He therefore followed in his uncle Johann's foot-steps and received the cold shoulder from his fellow Habsburgs. Leopold Salvator continued to have regal contacts with his wife's royal Spanish relatives until the revolution ousted them from power in 1928. Archduke Leopold Salvator died on 4 September 1931 in Vienna.
GWS, 10/02 [rev. 11/03]
