Born at
Florence, he was the son of
Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany and
Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies. His first wife died in February 1859. Sometime later, he and his family were forced to flee
Florence on 27 April 1859, with the outbreak of a revolution inspired by the outbreak of the
Second Italian War of Independence as part of the
unification of Italy. The family took refuge in Austria. After the end of the war, Leopold II abdicated on 21 July and Ferdinand succeeded him as
Grand Duke. Ferdinand proved unable to return to Florence to claim his throne, and an elected Tuscan National Assembly formally deposed him only a month later, on 16 August, with Tuscany being merged into the
United Provinces of Central Italy. Ferdinand still hoped to recover his throne, as both
France and
Austria had promised to recognize his rights to it in the
Armistice of Villafranca. However, neither power was willing to take any steps to bring about his restoration;
Sardinia would annex Tuscany on 22 March 1860, and with Austria recognizing the new
Kingdom of Italy after the
Third War of Independence in 1866, Ferdinand's hopes to reclaim the throne were ended. Subsequently Ferdinand and his family returned to Austria. While Ferdinand was allowed to keep the grand ducal title as a courtesy and retain his status as
grand master of all Tuscan orders of chivalry for his lifetime, his descendants could only bear the title of "Archduke/Archduchess of Austria"; the right to bear the title "Prince/ss of Tuscany" became restricted solely to family members born before 1866. The House of Habsburg-Tuscany continued to be recognised as a sovereign cadet branch of the House of Austria in the
Almanach de Gotha and other similar genealogical publications and given precedence as such at the Austrian court. In 1870 Ferdinand relinquished all dynastic rights to the defunct Grand Duchy for himself and his future heirs in favour of his second cousin, Emperor
Franz Joseph I, effectively ending the House of Habsburg-Tuscany's status as a sovereign cadet branch. Ferdinand died in
Salzburg in 1908, after spending the rest of his life in exile. Upon his death, his descendants were barred from using their Tuscan titles by Imperial decree. The statement that the orders were no longer conferred is correct; however, the first series of the
Almanach de Gotha sometimes erroneously attributed the title of Grand Master of the
Order of Saint Stephen of Tuscany and
Order of Saint Joseph of Tuscany to some descendants, and put them in brackets to indicate that they were not entitled to it. Other publications published at the same time as the Almanach de Gotha, in particular the series of Gothaischen Genealogischen Hofkalenders and Gothaisches Genealogisches Taschenbuc which later became the Genealogisches Handbuch der Fürstlichen Häuser, never made this mistake and correctly omitted these unfounded claims altogether. == Family and children ==