Archduk :: Archduke :: Origins

“The Archduke Ludwig Salvator was born in Pitti Palace, next to the Arno River. The happiest moments of his childhood were those he spent playing in the palace gardens. There, hidden away in the treetops, he would play games and share food with a troop of monkeys. The hominoids belonged to him, and he controlled them fiercely yet affectionately. That paradise of Renaissance marble and tribal amusement would soon disappear suddenly. A resurgence of Italian nationalism caused his family to lose the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. They were forced by an armed militia to abandon the palace... The Austro-Hungarian Empire – that is, his family – proved to be vulnerable after all...”

Prologue of Llop, J.C., Pavana para un Archiduque difunto, in March Cencillo, J., El Archiduque, Biografía ilustrada de un príncipe nómada, La Foradada, 1991.