Leopold | |||||
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Prince of Hohenzollern | |||||
Head of the Princely House of Hohenzollern | |||||
Predecessor | Charles Anthony | ||||
Successor | William | ||||
Born |
Krauchenwies |
22 September 1835||||
Died | 8 June 1905 Berlin |
(aged 69)||||
Spouse | Infanta Antónia of Portugal | ||||
Issue |
William, Prince of Hohenzollern Ferdinand I of Romania Prince Karl Anton |
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House | Hohenzollern | ||||
Father | Charles Anthony, Prince of Hohenzollern | ||||
Mother | Princess Josephine of Baden |
Full name | |
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German: Leopold Stephan Karl Anton Gustav Eduard Tassilo |
Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern (German: Leopold Stephan Karl Anton Gustav Eduard Tassilo Fürst von Hohenzollern) (22 September 1835 – 8 June 1905) was the head of the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, and played a fleeting role in European power politics, in connection with the Franco-Prussian War.
He was born into the dynasty's surviving Sigmaringen branch, which inherited all the dynasty's Swabian lands when the Hohenzollern-Hechingen branch became extinct.
Leopold's parents were Josephine of Baden and Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern. Leopold was the older brother of King Carol I of Romania and father of the future King Ferdinand of Romania. Carol ascended the Romanian throne in 1866, and Leopold renounced his rights to the Romanian succession in favor of his sons in 1880.
After the Spanish Revolution of 1868 that overthrew Queen Isabella II, Leopold was offered the Spanish Crown by the new government. This offer was supported by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, but opposed by the French 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.