19 May

Archduke Karl Ludwig died on 19 May 1896. His name likely doesn’t ring a bell – and for good reason: he was merely a younger son of a younger son of Emperor Francis II/I. Even learning that he was the brother of Emperor Francis Joseph and Maximilian I of Mexico may not help much.

For most of his life, Karl Ludwig remained an unremarkable member of the Habsburg family. He showed little interest in politics, although he briefly governed Tyrol in his youth. By character, he was a genuine family man – devoted to his parents and siblings, a patron of artists and actors, active in charity, and fond of visiting relatives and friends. In short, Karl Ludwig embodied a role traditionally reserved for the women of his dynasty: tending to family matters, engaging in social life, and becoming the ancestor of someone historically significant.

In Karl Ludwig’s case, that ‘someone’ was his elder son, Franz Ferdinand, the heir presumptive whose assassination on 28 June 1914 triggered the First World War. Through his younger son, he was also the grandfather of Charles (Karl), the last Emperor of Austria.