v42_0552 - MURBACH ET LURE - LÉOPOLD GUILLAUME D'AUTRICHE Batz

MURBACH AND LURE - LEOPOLD WILLIAM OF AUSTRIA

(1632-1662)

Leopold was the twelfth child of Archduke Charles and Mary of Bavaria; he was born in Graz in 1586. In 1598, he was appointed bishop of Passau in Bavaria, then nine years later he obtained the bishopric of Strasbourg. In 1614 he was appointed administrator of the abbey seat of Murbach and Lure. In 1619, Emperor Matthias appointed him Governor of the Upper and Lower Lands of Austria, with the title of Landgrave of Alsace, making him one of the most powerful princes of the House of Habsburg. In 1625, in order to ensure the continuity of the direct male line of the House of Habsburg, he left the ecclesiastical state by abandoning his bishoprics and abbeys but keeping his status as governor of Tyrol and Alsace. After obtaining a dispensation from Pope Urban VIII, he married on April 20, 1626, Claudia de' Medici, daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinand I of Tuscany. He died on September 13, 1632 in Schwaz (Tyrol).