Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria

Born at Wiener Neustadt on 5 January 1614, he was the final of seven children born to Emperor Ferdinand II (1578-1637) and his first wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574–1616). His elder brother became Emperor Ferdinand III (1608–1657). ==Career==

As a younger son, Leopold was educated for the church. However, he was never ordained. In spite of the reforms of the Council of Trent that were meant to weaken the basis for Protestant claims of impropriety, Leopold accumulated a variety of ecclesiastical titles. In 1626, at the age of 12, he became bishop of Strasbourg and Passau, succeeding his uncle Archduke Leopold V. While this title can be understood as a traditional sinecure for a noble who was the youngest of his siblings, he also held the title of bishop of Halberstadt beginning in 1627 and archbishop of Magdeburg beginning in 1629. These latter two titles can be best understood as related to the ambitions of his father, Emperor Ferdinand II, to re-Catholicize these Protestant areas where Catholic infrastructure had largely disappeared. This attempt was unsuccessful, as Magdeburg was secularized in 1635 and given to the duke of Saxony, while Halberstadt passed to Brandenburg and out of Catholic hands in 1648. ==Art collection==

While in Brussels, he employed David Teniers the Younger as keeper of his collection, spending immense sums on works by Frans Snyders, Peter Snayers, Daniel Seghers, Peter Franchoys, Frans Wouters, Jan van den Hoecke, Pieter Thijs, Jan van de Venne and others. He also acquired a number of Italian masters, purchased from the sale of collections owned by Bartolomeo della Nave and Charles I. His most prized pieces engraved in the book Theatrum Pictorium, which is often called the first "art catalogue". When the tomb of Childeric I, an early Merovingian king, was discovered in 1653 by a mason doing repairs in the church of Saint-Brice in Tournai, it was Leopold Wilhelm who had the find published in Latin. On his return to Vienna in 1656, his collection relocated to the Hofburg Palace, where Jan Anton van der Baren, a Flemish priest and artist, served as director. The collection was bequeathed to his nephew Leopold I, and is now part of the collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. He played an active role in court politics and was close to his stepmother, Eleonora of Mantua (1598-1655), who shared his interest in Italian art and was a prominent supporter of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Although suggested as a candidate to replace Ferdinand as Holy Roman Emperor in 1657, he ensured his nephew Leopold I was elected when he reached 18 in July 1658. File:Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria.jpg|Bust of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, by Francois Dieussart (1656). Kunsthistorisches Museum File:David Teniers the Younger - Archduke Leopold William in his Gallery at Brussels - Google Art Project.jpg|Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery in Brussels, by David Teniers the Younger, c. 1650 File:David Teniers - Gallery of the Archduke Leopold Willem in Brussels KMSKB.jpg|Gallery of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels; by David Teniers the Younger, 1651 ==Ancestors==