| Maria Leopoldine of Austria | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byLorenzo Lippi, 1649 | |
| Holy Roman Empress (more...) | |
| Tenure | 2 July 1648 – 7 August 1649 |
| Born | (1632-04-06)6 April 1632 Innsbruck,County of Tyrol,Holy Roman Empire |
| Died | 7 August 1649(1649-08-07) (aged 17) Vienna,Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire |
| Burial | Imperial Crypt, Vienna, Austria |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria |
| House | Habsburg |
| Father | Leopold V, Archduke of Further Austria |
| Mother | Claudia de' Medici |
Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Tyrol (6 April 1632 – 7 August 1649)[1][2] was by birthArchduchess of Austria and member of theTyrolese branch of theHouse of Habsburg and by marriage the second spouse of her first cousin,Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor. As such, she wasEmpress of the Holy Roman Empire,German queen andqueen consort of Hungary andBohemia. She died in childbirth, aged 17.
Maria Leopoldine was born inInnsbruck[2] on 6 April 1632 as the third (but second surviving) daughter and the fifth and youngest child ofLeopold V, Archduke of Further Austria, andClaudia de' Medici. Her father died on 13 September 1632, when she was five months old.[2][3] On her father's side, her grandparents wereCharles II, Archduke of Inner Austria and his wife and niece PrincessMaria Anna of Bavaria; on her mother's side, her grandparents wereFerdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and his wife PrincessChristina of Lorraine. In addition to her full siblings, she had an older half-sister,Vittoria della Rovere, born from her mother's first marriage toFederico Ubaldo della Rovere, Duke of Urbino.[4]
Maria Leopoldine's oldest brother,Ferdinand Charles, inheritedFurther Austria, but Dowager Archduchess Claudia assumedregency because of her son's minority. In a letter written to his mother,Elizabeth of England, on 8 September 1641,Charles Louis of the Palatinate (later Elector Palatine) described the intentions of his uncle, KingCharles I of England, and Maria Leopoldine's first cousin,Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, to arrange a marriage between the 9-year-old archduchess and himself; the marriage between them was to end "all grudges betweene our families".[5] However, the union never took place.
InLinz on 2 July 1648 Maria Leopoldine married the widowed Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, thereby becomingEmpress of the Holy Roman Empire,Queen of the Germans,Queen of Hungary andQueen of Bohemia. The wedding ceremony was splendid.[6] The composerAndreas Rauch celebrated the marriage as "anticipating (with the help of Divine Providence) the most beautiful end of theThirty Years' War"[7] and an opera titledI Trionfi d'Amore, produced byGiovanni Felice Sances, was meant to commemorate the event, but the Prague premiere was canceled at the last moment when KingWładysław IV Vasa (Ferdinand III's brother-in-law) died within two months of the wedding; the plannedPressburg performance apparently never took place.[7] The new empress was as closely related to her husband as her cousin and predecessor,Maria Anna of Spain; both marriages were means by which theHouse of Habsburg frequently reinforced itself,[8] and ultimately succumbed to inbreeding.
Soon after her wedding, Maria Leopoldine became pregnant, and wasdepicted as such in the 1649 painting by the Italian painter and poetLorenzo Lippi. The Imperial couple's only child,Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria, was born on 7 August 1649.[9] The childbirth was extremely difficult, ending in the death of the 17-year-old empress.[10] Her husband remarried within two years, while their son died childless aged 14.[2][7][11] She is buried in tomb 21 in theImperial Crypt inVienna. The writerWolf Helmhardt, Baron von Hohberg, then at the beginning of his career, sent to Emperor Ferdinand III a poem written in honour of the late Empress, called "Poem of tears" (de:Klag-Gedicht).[12]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Maria Leopoldine of Austria Born: 6 April 1632 Died: 7 July 1649 | ||
| Royal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Vacant Title last held by Maria Anna of Spain | Holy Roman Empress;German queen; Queen consort of Hungary andBohemia; Archduchess consort of Austria 1648–1649 | Vacant Title next held by Eleanor of Mantua |
| Přemyslid |
|  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-dynastic |
| |||||
| Luxembourg |
| |||||
| Habsburg |
| |||||
| Non-dynastic |
| |||||
| Jagiellonian |
| |||||
| Habsburg |
| |||||
| Habsburg-Lorraine |
| |||||
| ||||||
| Carolingian Empire |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Holy Roman Empire |
| |
| ||
