Archduke Rainer of Austria

Archduke Rainer of Austria (; 21 November 1895 – 25 May 1930) was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, a member of the Tuscan branch of the Imperial House of Habsburg, an Archduke of Austria and Prince of Tuscany by birth. He was the eldest son Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany. He served as officer in the Austrian army during World War I. At the fall of the Habsburg dynasty, he remained in Vienna and worked for a time as taxi driver. He died unmarried at the age of 34 from blood-poisoning. He received the names Rainer Karl Leopold Blanka Anton Margarete Beatrix Peter Joseph Raphael Michael Ignaz Stephan.

During World War I Rainer served as a lieutenant of artillery in the Austro-Hungarian Army. After the fall of the Habsburg monarchy and the establishment of the First Austrian Republic, he renounced his rights to the Austrian throne in order that he could remain in Austria. He lived in an apartment in the Palais Toskana, but also retained properties in Zagreb,

In May 1921 it was reported that there had been protests against Rainer at Schloss Hernstein. They reportedly led a demonstration with cries of "Down with the Republic", and marched to the Austrian Parliament Building demanding that the flag be lowered to half-staff in honour of Austria's former sovereign.915

In 1930 Rainer died in the Wiedner Hospital in Vienna from the effects of blood poisoning; he was 35. His remains were buried in the Imperial Crypt of the Capuchin Church in Vienna. He was the first member of the Habsburg family to be buried in the crypt since the Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1916. Among those present for the funeral were his parents, Archduke Leopold Salvator and Archduchess Blanca, his father's brother Archduke Franz Salvator of Austria with his sons Hubert and Klemens, his mother's uncle Infante Alfonso Carlos of Spain and his wife Infanta Maria das Neves of Portugal, and Dr. Ignaz Seipel (former Chancellor of Austria).

In 1962 Rainer's sarcophagus was moved to the Neue Gruft (New Crypt) where it lies next to the sarcophagus of his father.

Ancestry