Leopold, Prince of Hohenzollern

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Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen

Prince Leopold Stefan Karl Anton Gustav Eduard Tassilo von Hohenzollern (22 September 1835 - 8 June 1905) was the head of the Swabian branch of the House of Hohenzollern, and played some minor role in European power politics.

He was born of their dynasty's surviving Sigmaringen branch, which inherited all dynasty's Swabian lands when the Hohenzollern-Hechingen branch went extinct.

Leopold's parents were Josephine of Baden and Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern. Leopold became father of future King Ferdinand I of Romania, as well as was a brother of Prince, later King, Carol I of Romania.

After the Spanish Revolution of 1868 that overthrew Queen Isabella II, Leopold was offered the Spanish crown. This offer was supported by the Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck, but rejected by the French emperor Napoleon III. Leopold was forced to decline the offer, and due to the extra demands made by the French government and the sending of the Ems Telegram the result was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871, which lead to the fall of emperor Napoleon III and the setting up of the French Third Republic.

In 1861 Prince Leopold married Antonia of Portugal, daughter of Queen Maria II of Portugal and Ferdinand II of Kohary and Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

They had the following children: