Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern (22 September 1835 – 8 June 1905) was the head of the
SwabiaSwabia, Suabia, or Svebia is both a historic and linguistic region in Germany. Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg , as well as the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia...
n branch of the
House of HohenzollernThe House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...
, and played a fleeting role in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an power politics.
He was born into the dynasty's surviving
SigmaringenSigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....
branch, which inherited all the dynasty's Swabian lands when the
Hohenzollern-HechingenHohenzollern-Hechingen was a county and principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to a branch of the senior Swabian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty.-History:...
branch went extinct.
Leopold's parents were Josephine of Baden and Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern.
Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern (22 September 1835 – 8 June 1905) was the head of the
SwabiaSwabia, Suabia, or Svebia is both a historic and linguistic region in Germany. Swabia consists of much of the present-day state of Baden-Württemberg , as well as the Bavarian administrative region of Swabia...
n branch of the
House of HohenzollernThe House of Hohenzollern is a noble family and royal dynasty of electors, kings and emperors of Prussia, Germany and Romania. It originated in the area around the town of Hechingen in Swabia during the 11th century. They took their name from their ancestral home, the Burg Hohenzollern castle near...
, and played a fleeting role in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
an power politics.
He was born into the dynasty's surviving
SigmaringenSigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....
branch, which inherited all the dynasty's Swabian lands when the
Hohenzollern-HechingenHohenzollern-Hechingen was a county and principality in southwestern Germany. Its rulers belonged to a branch of the senior Swabian branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty.-History:...
branch went extinct.
Leopold's parents were Josephine of Baden and Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern. Leopold was the older brother of King
Carol I of RomaniaCarol I of Romania, original name Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern Carol I of Romania, original name Prince Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern Carol I of Romania,...
and father of future King
Ferdinand I of RomaniaFerdinand was the King of the Romanians from 10 October 1914 until his death.-Early life:Born in Sigmaringen in southwestern Germany, the Roman Catholic Prince Ferdinand Viktor Albert Meinrad of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, later simply of Hohenzollern, was a son of Prince Leopold of...
.
Entry into European Controversy
After the
Spanish Revolution of 1868The Glorious Revolution took place in Spain in 1868,deposing Queen Isabella II.An 1866 rebellion led by General Juan Prim and a revolt of the sergeants at San Gil barracks sent a signal to Spanish liberals and republicans that there was serious unrest with the state of affairs in Spain that...
that overthrew Queen
Isabella IIIsabella II was Queen regnant of Spain She was Spain's first and so far only queen regnant, although she is sometimes considered the third Queen Regnant of Spain, as previous monarchs of Leon and Castile were counted...
, Leopold was offered the
Spanish crownThe Monarchy of Spain, constitutionally referred to as de la Corona de España, and commonly referred to as the Spanish Monarchy , is the constitutional institution and office comprising of a king or of a queen regnant of Spain , their legal spouse and family , and the Royal...
by the new government. This offer was supported by the
PrussianThe Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918, until the defeat of Germany in World War I, was the leading state of the German Empire, comprising almost two-thirds of the area of the empire...
Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
Otto von BismarckOtto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck was a Prussian German statesman and aristocrat of the 19th century. As Ministerpräsident of Prussia from 1862–1890, he oversaw the unification of Germany. In 1867 he became Chancellor of the North German Confederation...
, but opposed by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
emperor Napoleon III on the grounds that the installation of a relative of the Prussian king would result in the expansion of Prussian influence and the encirclement of France. Leopold was forced to decline the offer. Additional demands made by the French government heightened diplomatic tensions between Paris and Berlin; deliberate or accidental mistranslations of a diplomatic communique,
Ems TelegramThe Ems Dispatch , sometimes called the Ems Telegram, was used by France as a pretext to declare the Franco-Prussian War in July 1870. The actual dispatch was an internal message from the Prussian King's vacationing site to Bismarck in Berlin, reporting about demands made by the French ambassador,...
, also known as the Ems Dispatch, led to the declaration of war by France. Prussia's speedy mobilization, and the support of the other members of the North German Confederation resulted the defeat and capture of Emperor Napoleon III, the collapse of his government and the institution of the
French Third RepublicThe French Third Republic was the republican government of France between the end of the Second French Empire in 1870 and the Vichy Regime after the invasion of France by the German...
, and to the creation of the
German EmpireThe German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871 to 1918, when it became a German republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of Wilhelm II .The term Second Reich...
.
Marriage and issue
In 1861 Prince Leopold married
Antonia of PortugalInfanta Antónia of Portugal , was a Portuguese infanta of the House of Braganza-Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and her...
, daughter of Queen
Maria II of PortugalMaria II da Glória was Queen of Portugal from 1826 to 1853. She was the second Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves, and the 29th or 30th Portuguese monarch.-Life:...
and King Consort
Ferdinand II of PortugalFerdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha , named Prince Ferdinand Augustus Francis Anthony of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry, was King of Portugal and co-ruler with Maria II of Portugal from their marriage in 1836 to her death in 1853. In keeping with Portuguese law, only after the birth of his son in 1837 was...
of
Saxe-Coburg and GothaSaxe-Coburg and Gotha or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha served as the name of the two German duchies of Saxe-Coburg and Saxe-Gotha in Germany, in the present-day states of Bavaria and Thuringia, which were in personal union between 1826 and 1918....
-
KoharyKoháry was a Hungarian noble family with seats at Csábrág and Szitnya, now Čabrad and Sitno within Slovakia. Kohárys belonged among magnates of Hungary....
. They had the following children:
- Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1864–1927); succeeded as Prince of Hohenzollern
- Ferdinand (1865–1927), King of Romania
King of the Romanians rather than King of Romania was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947 when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
- Karl Anton
Prince Karl Anton of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was a member of the Princely House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Karl Anton was the third and youngest son of Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern and his wife Infanta Antónia of Portugal...
(1 September 1868–21 February 1919); married Princess Josephine Caroline of Belgium
Ancestry