, spouse = Princess Josephine of Baden , issue =

Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern , title = , image = LeopoldHS.jpg , image_size = 180px , caption = , succession = Prince of Hohenzollern , reign-type = Tenure , reign = 2 June 1885 – 8 June 1905 , predecessor = Karl Anton , successor ...

Stephanie, Queen of Portugal
Carol I, King of Romania
Prince Anthony
Prince Frederick
Princess Marie, Countess of Flanders , house =

Hohenzollern The House of Hohenzollern (, also , german: Haus Hohenzollern, , ro, Casa de Hohenzollern) is a German royal (and from 1871 to 1918, imperial) dynasty whose members were variously princes, electors, kings and emperors of Hohenzollern, Brandenb ...

, father =

Karl, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Karl, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (20 February 1785 – 11 March 1853) was the reigning Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen from 1831 to 1848. In 1833, Karl summoned a constitutional assembly (''Landtag'') and promulgated a constitutiona ...

, mother =

Marie Antoinette Murat Marie Antoinette Murat, french: Marie Antoinette Murat, Princesse Murat (3 January 1793, Labastide-Murat, Lot, French Republic – 19 January 1847, Sigmaringen, Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen) was a member of the House of Murat. T ...

, birth_date = , birth_place = Krauchenwies, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen , death_date = , death_place =

Sigmaringen Sigmaringen ( Swabian: ''Semmerenga'') is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district. Sigmaringen is renowned for its castle, Schloss Sigmaring ...

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (german: link=no, Karl Anton Joachim Zephyrinus Friedrich Meinrad Fürst von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen) (7 September 1811 – 2 June 1885) was the final

Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a principality in Southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the senior Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern. The Swabian Hohenzollerns were elevated to princes in 1623. The small sovereign state with the ca ...

before the territory was annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

in 1849 and

Prime Minister of Prussia The office of Minister-President (german: Ministerpräsident), or Prime Minister, of Prussia existed from 1848, when it was formed by King Frederick William IV during the 1848–49 Revolution, until the abolition of Prussia in 1947 by the Allie ...

from 1858 to 1862, which made him the only Hohenzollern Prince to hold that post. His second son,

Karl Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austri ...

, became the first king of Romania.

Life

Karl Anton was the son of

, who abdicated in favour of his son on 27 August 1848, and his first wife, Princess

, niece of

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

. After only slightly over a year ruling his family's small principality, Karl Anton abdicated in December 1849 in favor of his distant cousin, the

King of Prussia The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order, a Roman C ...

, and Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, along with the neighboring principality of

Hohenzollern-Hechingen Hohenzollern-Hechingen was a small principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to the Swabian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. History The County of Hohenzollern-Hechingen was created in 1576, upon the partition of the Co ...

, was annexed by Prussia. After his abdication, Karl Anton became a prominent figure in Prussian politics. After the fall of the reactionary Manteuffel ministry in 1858, and the accession of Prince William as regent for his incapacitated brother, King Frederick William IV, a new, moderately liberal ministry was appointed, with Karl Anton as Prime Minister. The Prince continued in this role until 1862, when he resigned in the midst of a struggle with parliament over the military budget. CHARLES ANTOINE HOHENZOLLERN

After this, Karl Anton largely resigned from active politics and focused on his role as head of the Catholic branch of the Hohenzollern family, accentuated by the extinction of the Hohenzollern-Hechingen line in 1869. In 1866, his second son,

, was offered the throne of Romania, where he would rule for nearly fifty years as Carol I. A few years later, in 1870, his eldest son, Leopold, was given a similar offer of the Spanish throne. This so-called "Hohenzollern candidacy" for the Spanish throne was one of the main factors in instigating the Franco-Prussian War.

Marriage and issue

Prince Karl Anton was married to Josephine Friederike Luise, Princess of Baden (1813–1900), daughter of Grand Duke Charles of Baden. * Leopold (1835–1905) * Stephanie (1837–1859) - married Peter V of Portugal *

(1839–1914), future King of Romania * Anton (1841–1866), died in battle * Friedrich (1843–1904) * Marie (1845–1912) - married

Philippe of Belgium Philippe or Filip ( nl, Filip Leopold Lodewijk Maria ; french: Philippe Léopold Louis Marie ; born 15 April 1960) is King of the Belgians. He is the eldest child of Albert II of Belgium, King Albert II and Queen Paola. He succeeded his father upo ...

Honours

;German decorations Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Preußen
(1884/85), Genealogy p.5 ;Foreign decorations

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern 1811 births 1885 deaths People from Sigmaringen Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Princes of Hohenzollern Members of the Prussian House of Lords Prime Ministers of Prussia Colonel generals of Prussia 19th-century Prussian military personnel German landowners Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (military class) Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary Knights of the Golden Fleece of Austria Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Recipients of the Order of St. Anna, 1st class Grand Crosses of the Order of the Star of Romania Grand Crosses of the Order of the Crown (Romania) Grand Crosses of the Order of Saint-Charles Royal reburials