Archduke Leopold Johann of Austria

Archduke Leopold Johann of Austria (13 April 1716 – 4 November 1716), was the last-born male descendant from the House of Habsburg. The only son and long-hoped heir of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, with his and his father's death in 1740, the Habsburg male line died out completely, being succeeded by the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (originated by the marriage of Leopold Johann's sister Maria Theresa and Francis III Stephen, Duke of Lorraine) who ruled the Habsburg domains until their dethronement following World War I in 1918. Birth and baptism Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel had been married for seven years when the Empress' first pregnancy was confirmed. Since the beginning, Elisabeth Christine was under the immense pressure to produce a male heir: she had to endure numerous treatments to cure her inability to have children. Among other things, she undertook pilgrimages to Mariazell, cures in Karlsbad, a wine cure (court doctors prescribed large doses of liquor to make her more fertile, which gave her face a permanent blush) and visit to clairvoyants and astrologers. The imperial bedchamber has been even painted with stimulating erotic scenes on the walls and ceiling to make her expected a baby male by stimulating her fantasy. The birth of Leopold Johann on 13 April 1716 at 7:30 p.m. was celebrated with great pomp in the style of the Spanish court ceremonial. At that time Austria, along with the Republic of Venice, was at war against the Turks. As the heir to the throne of the Habsburg dynasty, he received the Order of the Golden Fleece at birth, since his father himself was Grand Master of the Order in Austria. The solemn baptism took place the next day in the Knights' Hall (Rittersaal) of the Hofburg and with water of the Jordan River from the Holy Land. The infant's full name Leopold Johann Anton Joseph Franz de Paula Hermengild Rudolph Ignatius Balthasar refer to the Habsburg family tradition and the veneration of saints of the time. The ceremony was performed by the Papal Nuncio together with the Cathedral Provost of St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Abbot of the Schottenstift. Also present were the Archbishop of Prague, Franz Ferdinand von Kuenburg, and the Archbishop of Valencia, Antonio Folc de Cardona, as well as eight other bishops and nine abbots. The godfather was King John V of Portugal, who was married to Maria Anna of Austria, paternal aunt of Leopold Johann.