Archduke Leopold Wilhelm

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (January 5, 1614 – November 20, 1662) was an Austrian military commander, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands from 1647 to 1656, and a patron of the arts.

Born at Wiener Neustadt, he was the youngest son of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and Maria Anna of Bavaria (1574–1616), daughter of William V, Duke of Bavaria.

His elder brother became Emperor Ferdinand III (1608–1657). Leopold Wilhelm served as a general in the Thirty Years' War and the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659). During the latter, the Spanish-Low Country forces under Leopold Wilhelm lost the Battle of Lens in an attempt to recover the city in 1648. Later in the war, he sallied forth from the Netherlands on two occasions. On the second, he successfully seized a number of northern French forts in February–March 1652, forcing the French to withdraw forces from Catalonia to reinforce their northern frontier. This assisted Spanish forces in Spain in recovering Catalonia from the French-backed Catalan rebellion.

Even though Leopold Wilhelm lacked the canonical qualifications, he was invested, with the help of his father, with a number of prince-bishoprics in order to provide him with an income. Unqualified as he was, he officially only held the title administrator, nevertheless realising the full episcopal revenues, of the prince-bishoprics of Halberstadt (1628–1648), Passau (1625–1662), Breslau (1656–1662), Olmütz (1637–1662) and Strasbourg (1626–1662). In 1635, Pope Urban VIII authorised him to become the prince-archbishop of Bremen, but due to its occupation by the Swedes he never gained de facto power.

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