Francis IV Joseph Charles Ambrose Stanislaus (Italian: ''Francesco IV Giuseppe Carlo Ambrogio Stanislao d'Asburgo-Este''; 6 October 1779 – 21 January 1846) was Duke of
Modena,
Reggio, and
Mirandola
Mirandola (Emilian language#Dialects, Mirandolese: ) is a city and ''comune'' of Emilia-Romagna, Italy, in the Province of Modena, northeast of the Modena, provincial capital by railway.
History
Mirandola originated as a Renaissance Defensiv ...
(from 1815), Duke of
Massa and Prince of
Carrara (from 1829), Archduke of Austria-Este, Royal Prince of
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
and
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...
, Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Biography
Francis was born in
Milan
Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
. His father was
Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este and Duke of
Breisgau, his mother
Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa and Princess of Carrara, who was the last descendant of the
House of Este and, through her mother, of the
House of Cybo-Malaspina.
He was a grandson of
Maria Theresa of Austria, head of the
House of Habsburg, and was heir to the
Este states through his father, who had been invested with the succession in the imperial fies of the Este by the
Perpetual Imperial Diet in 1771, just before his marriage to Maria Beatrice, although he could never actually ascend the throne during the
Napoleonic era
The Napoleonic era is a period in the history of France and history of Europe, Europe. It is generally classified as including the fourth and final stage of the French Revolution, the first being the National Assembly (French Revoluti ...
. Francis's mother was not entitled to inherit due to the
Salic law
The Salic law ( or ; ), also called the was the ancient Frankish Civil law (legal system), civil law code compiled around AD 500 by Clovis I, Clovis, the first Frankish King. The name may refer to the Salii, or "Salian Franks", but this is deba ...
in force in Modena and Reggio (but not applied in Massa and Carrara). He thus became the first member of the House of Habsburg-Este to rule the Este inheritance in Northern Italy.
Francis is distinguished for his stern and tyrannic rule by which he repressed all the democratic movements appearing during his reign, particularly following a major revolt in 1830. The harshness of the Ducal policies are illustrated by the hanging of
Ciro Menotti for an attempted insurrection against the Duke (1831).
Family
In 1812, Francis married his niece the Princess
Maria Beatrice of Savoy, who was the daughter of his sister
Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este and King
Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia. The couple had four children:
*
Maria Theresa (1817–1886), married
Henri, comte de Chambord
Henri, Count of Chambord and Duke of Bordeaux (; 29 September 1820 – 24 August 1883), was the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France as Henri V from 1844 until his death in 1883.
Henri was the only son of Charles Ferdinand, Duke of ...
.
*
Francis V, Duke of Modena (1819–1875), married
Princess Adelgunde of Bavaria.
*
Ferdinand Karl (1821–1849), married
Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria. Father of
Maria Theresia, Archduchess of Austria-Este.
*
Maria Beatrix (1824–1906), married
Infante Juan de Bourbon, Count of Montizón.
Ancestry
See also
*
Duke of Ferrara and of Modena
*
House of Este
*
Modena
External links
*
*
, -
, -
, -
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francis 04 Of Modena, Duke
Francesco IV d'Este
Dukes of Reggio
House of Austria-Este
Nobility from Milan
Roman Catholic monarchs
1779 births
1846 deaths
Modenese princes
Generals of the Holy Roman Empire
Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria
Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia)
Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)
Sons of duchesses regnant