Archduke Leopold of Austria was born in Agram (the historic Austrian-German name for what is now the city of
Zagreb in
Croatia), the fifth child and second son of
Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany and
Princess Blanca of Bourbon (daughter of
Carlos, Duke of Madrid). He received the names Leopold Maria Alfons Blanka Karl Anton Beatrix Michael Joseph Peter Ignatz von Habsburg-Lothringen. During
World War I Archduke Leopold served as a lieutenant of artillery in the Austro-Hungarian Army with his eldest brother
Archduke Rainier. His actions, on 25 May 1917, as an officer at the Battle of Medeazza, near
Trieste in Italy, were favorably noted. At the age of 19, he was the last person appointed to the
Order of the Golden Fleece by Emperor Karl. Archduke Leopold also took part in the first line of combat in the
Battle of the Piave River. After the fall of the Habsburg Monarchy and the establishment of the
First Austrian Republic, he renounced his rights to the Austrian throne in order that he could remain in Austria. He was in love with Baroness Dagmar Nicolics-Podrinska (Zagreb 15 July 1898 – Lausanne 15 November 1967), a member of the minor Croatian nobility. His parents were initially against the marriage as Dagmar did not belong to a royal family. The wedding took place in Vienna on 12 April 1919. Theirs was a
morganatic marriage. After turning himself in, he spent twelve days in
The Tombs, a detention complex in Manhattan, before a neighbour posted his
bail bond. He was eventually acquitted of the first charge, and had his conviction on the second count vacated. After divorcing his wife in 1931, Leopold emigrated to the United States where he was known as "Mr. Leopold H(absburg) Lorraine". In 1932 he remarried, also morganatically, Alicia Gibson Coburn (New York 20 January 1898 – New York City 25 August 1960). Their marriage remained childless and ended in divorce. For a time Leopold sought a career in
Hollywood and had several minor roles, including
John Ford's 1928 drama
Four Sons. He moved to
Willimantic, Connecticut where he settled into a small house with his second wife and spent the rest of his life as a factory worker. He became an American citizen in 1953. His ashes are in tomb 91 of the
Imperial Crypt in
Vienna. ==Ancestry==