Leopold Joseph von Habsburg

Leopold Joseph of Austria was born in Vienna on October 29, 1700, and died there on August 4, 1701. He was an archduke of Austria and the second of three children of the future Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. As the couple’s only son, he stood in the dynastic succession to his father and had two sisters. Leopold Joseph suffered from hydrocephalus, a serious accumulation of fluid in the brain. He died from the effects of the illness before his first birthday, at the age of nine months. His brief life unfolded in the early eighteenth century and was shaped by his membership in the Habsburg ruling family.