Franz, Count of Meran

[1] Born 11 March 1839, in Vienna, Franz was the only child of the morganatic marriage between Archduke John of Austria and Anna Plochl, and a grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II.

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.

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.

[1] 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.

[1] 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.