Ludwig Viktor's mother attempted to arrange a marriage for him with
Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria, youngest sister of Empress
Elisabeth, but he declined. He likewise rejected plans to marry him to
Princess Isabel, daughter and
heir presumptive of Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil. In 1863, Ludwig Viktor's brother
Maximilian had tried to persuade him to marry her because "such a marriage might found yet another
Habsburg dynasty in Latin America.... Maximilian wrote to
Franz Joseph that Ludwig Viktor was 'anything but pleased with the idea,'" and asked Franz Joseph to order Ludwig Viktor to marry her. Franz Joseph refused. Ludwig Viktor was "a homosexual and
cross-dresser with a reputation as a libertine." After a scandalous incident at the
Central Bathhouse Vienna in which he was publicly slapped, his brother Emperor Franz Joseph finally forbade him to stay in Vienna and joked that he should be given a
ballerina as
adjutant to keep him out of trouble. Ludwig Viktor retired to
Schloss Klessheim near
Salzburg where he became known as a philanthropist and patron of the arts. He died in 1919, at the age of 76, and is buried at the
Siezenheim cemetery. He was the last surviving grandchild of
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor. ==Honours==