His father having eloped with his mother (the daughter of a postmaster at
Bad Aussee) in defiance of Archduke Johann's brother,
Emperor Francis, Franz was entitled to inherit none of his father's positions or
entailed possessions. However, the esteem in which his father was held by both emperor and nation as a general and patron of the arts shielded Franz from some of the scandal and consequences of the circumstances of his birth. He was born legitimate but a commoner, and thus he was not permitted to bear the
Habsburg-Lorraine surname of his father's dynasty. His mother had been ennobled by the emperor five years after her marriage to the archduke, becoming Baroness (
Freifrau) von Brandhofen on 4 July 1834, and Franz shared in her title after his birth. He was raised to
comital rank as Count (
Graf) von
Meran on 29 April 1844 (
letters patent issuing 30 December 1845, Vienna). While still a child, he had been designated a
Landmann in Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Tyrol and Austria, and was accorded a seat in the Austrian House of Lords on 24 November 1842. After his father's death in 1859 at
Palais Meran in
Graz, the manors of
Schenna,
Stainz and Gut Brandhof (near
Mariazell) were combined into a
fideicommis for him and his future descendants. He served the Habsburg emperors as
Imperial and Royal Chamberlain, member of the
Aulic Council and as a general in the Imperial army, becoming in 1868 a knight of the
Order of the Golden Fleece. He died at
Opatija, on 27 March 1891, aged 52. == Descendants ==