Franz, Count of Meran

Franz Ludwig Johann Baptist Count von Meran, Baron von Brandhofen (b. 11 March 1839 in Vienna; d. 27 March 1891 in Opatija) was an Austrian nobleman and Viennese courtier.

Franz was the only child of the morganatic marriage of Archduke Johann of Austria-Tuscany and Anna Maria Plochl, and a grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II. On 8 July 1862 at Ottenstein, Germany, he married Countess Theresia von Lamberg, the second child and only daughter of Franz Philipp, Count von Lamberg and Countess Caroline Hoyos.

His father having eloped with his mother (daughter of a postmaster at Bad Aussee) in defiance of Archduke Johann's brother the Emperor, Franz was entitled to inherit none of his father's positions or entailed possessions. 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. Born legitimate but a commoner, unable to bear the Habsburg-Lorraine surname of his father's dynasty, when his mother was ennobled by the Emperor seven years after her marriage to the archduke, Franz shared in her new title, becoming Baron von Brandhofen 4 July 1834. He was raised to comital rank as Count von Meran 29 April 1844 (letters patent issuing 30 December 1845, Vienna).

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