Ferdinand Charles, Archduke of Austria

As the son of Archduke Leopold V and Claudia de' Medici, he succeeded his father upon the latter's death in 1632, under his mother's regency. He took over his mother's gubernatorial duties when he came of age in 1646. To finance his extravagant living style, he sold goods and entitlements. For example, he wasted the exorbitant sum which France had to pay to the Tyrolean Habsburgs for the cession of their fiefs west of the Rhine (Alsace, Sundgau and Breisach). He also fixed the border to Graubünden in 1652. Ferdinand Charles was an absolutist ruler, did not call any diet after 1648 at the age of thirty-four, and was succeeded by his younger brother, Sigismund Francis. == Marriage and children ==