Archduke Peter Ferdinand, Hereditary Grand Duke of Tuscany

Archduke Peter Ferdinand of Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia (Peter Ferdinand Salvator Karl Ludwig Maria Joseph Leopold Anton Rupert Pius Pancraz; 12 May 1874, in Salzburg, Austria-Hungary – 8 November 1948, in St. Gilgen, Salzburg, Austria) was an Austro-Hungarian archduke and an army commander in the Austro-Hungarian Army during World War I. Family Peter Ferdinand was the fourth child and third-eldest son of Ferdinand IV, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife Alice of Bourbon-Parma. His two elder brothers married morganatically. While his father had kept the title of Grand Duke of Tuscany after the abolition of the Dukedom in 1866, he had abdicated it in favor of the Austrian Emperor in 1870. Peter Ferdinand did not pretend to the title of Grand Duke himself. Life Peter Ferdinand had a career in the army. In 1908 he was a colonel, in 1911 major general and on 23 April 1914 he was promoted to Feldmarschall-Leutnant. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, he was commander of the 25th Infantry Division, with which he fought against Russia in Galicia and southern Poland, as part of the Austro-Hungarian II Corps. General Moritz von Auffenberg later blamed Peter Ferdinand's actions for preventing the encirclement of the entire 5th Russian army during the Battle of Komarów (1914). In June 1915, Peter Ferdinand was relieved of command and the 25th Division was taken over by Major General Joseph Poleschensky.