Sigismund Francis, Archduke of Further Austria (27 November 1630 – 25 June 1665) was the ruler of
Further Austria
Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (german: Vorderösterreich, formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-wes ...
including
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
from 1662 to 1665.
Biography
He was born at
Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a p ...
, the second son of
Leopold V, Archduke of Austria and
Claudia de' Medici
Claudia de' Medici (4 June 1604 – 25 December 1648) was Regent of the Austrian County of Tyrol during the minority of her son from 1632 until 1646.
She was a daughter of Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Christina of Lorraine. ...
. He was appointed as
bishop of Augsburg
Diocese of Augsburg is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Germany. The diocese is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Munich.[bishop of Gurk
The Bishop of Gurk is the head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gurk, which was established in 1072 as the first suffragan bishop by Archbishop Gebhard of Salzburg in the Duchy of Carinthia.
Initially performing the functions of a mere archiep ...]
and in 1659
bishop of Trent
The Italian Catholic Archdiocese of Trento ( la, Archidioecesis Tridentina, German Trient), in the Triveneto, is a Latin Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese named after its see in Alpine Italy, Trento (Tr(i)ent), in Trentino-Alto Adige region.
Th ...
. He was never ordained as a priest or consecrated as a bishop.
In 1662 he was put forth by his cousin
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria ...
as a candidate for
Archbishop of Strasbourg
{{Unreferenced, date=December 2009
These persons were bishop, archbishop or prince-bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Strasbourg (including historically Prince-Bishopric of Strasbourg):
Bishops and prince-bishops
*Amandus
*Justinus vo ...
. This included large cash incentives to the cathedral chapter and a promise that Sigismund would be a very hands off ruler.
After the 1662 death of his brother
Archduke Ferdinand Charles, he became
Archduke of Further Austria
The Archduchy of Austria (german: Erzherzogtum Österreich) was a major principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at the Empire's southeastern periphery. ...
, and therefore withdrew from the candidacy for the bishopric. He was more able than his brother and could have made him a good ruler, but with his early death in 1665 the younger Tyrolean line of the
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
house ended. Leopold I, who as the heir male succeeded Sigismund Francis, took direct control over the government of
Further Austria
Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (german: Vorderösterreich, formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-wes ...
and
Tyrol
Tyrol (; historically the Tyrole; de-AT, Tirol ; it, Tirolo) is a historical region in the Alps - in Northern Italy and western Austria. The area was historically the core of the County of Tyrol, part of the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Emp ...
.
He married
Hedwig of the Palatinate-Sulzbach
Marie Hedwig Auguste of Sulzbach (german: Marie Hedwig Auguste von Sulzbach; born: 15 April 1650 in Sulzbach; died: 23 November 1681 in Hamburg) was a Countess Palatine of Sulzbach by birth and by marriage, Archduchess of Austria and by her sec ...
on 3 June 1665 and died in Innsbruck twenty-two days later of an illness.
Ancestors
References
Works cited
*
1630 births
1665 deaths
17th-century archdukes of Austria
Counts of Tyrol
Sigismund Francis of Austria, Archduke
People from Innsbruck
Bishops of Gurk
{{Austria-royal-stub