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Archduke Albert (1559-1621)

Albert (VII)
Rubens - arquiduquealbertoVII01.jpg
Portrait of Albert VII, c. 1615, by Rubens;
São Paulo Museum of Art collection
Reign 6 May 1598 – 13 July 1621
Predecessor Philip II
Successor Philip IV
Co-monarch Isabella Clara Eugenia
Archduke of Lower and Upper Austria
Reign 20 March – 9 October 1619
Predecessor Matthias
Successor Ferdinand III
Born 13 November 1559
Wiener Neustadt
Died 13 July 1621(1621-07-13) (aged 61)
Brussels
Burial St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral
Spouse Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain
House Habsburg
Father Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother Maria of Spain
Religion Roman Catholicism

Albert VII (13 November 1559 – 13 July 1621) was the ruling Archduke of Austria for a few months in 1619 and, jointly with his wife, Isabella Clara Eugenia, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1598 and 1621. Prior to this, he had been a cardinal, archbishop of Toledo, viceroy of Portugal and Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands. He succeeded his brother Matthias as reigning archduke of Lower and Upper Austria, but abdicated in favor of Ferdinand II the same year, making it the shortest (and often ignored) reign in Austrian history.

Archduke Albert was the fifth son of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain, daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal. He was sent to the Spanish Court at the age of eleven, where his uncle, King Philip II, looked after his education. Initially he was meant to pursue an ecclesiastical career. On 3 March 1577 he was appointed cardinal by Pope Gregory XIII, with a dispensation because of his age of eighteen, and was given Santa Croce in Gerusalemme as his titular church. Philip II planned to make Albert archbishop of Toledo as soon as possible, but the incumbent, Gaspar de Quiroga y Sandoval, lived much longer than expected; he died on 12 November 1594. In the meantime Albert only took lower orders. He was never ordained priest or bishop, and thus he resigned the See of Toledo in 1598. He resigned the cardinalate in 1598. His clerical upbringing did however have a lasting influence on his lifestyle.


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