Archduke Joseph Franz of Austria

Archduke Joseph Franz Leopold of Austria (9 April 1799 – 30 June 1807) was the second son and seventh child of Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. He was their fourth child to die.

Biography

Archduke Joseph Franz was born at the Hofburg Imperial Palace, where all of his siblings were born. Joseph's mother Maria Theresa died on 13 April 1807 after giving birth to a short-lived daughter, Amalie.

He was a lively child and one of the favourite children of his mother and possibly even his father.

On 30 June 1807, approximately 6 weeks after the passing of his mother, the 8 year-old Archduke died at the Hofburg Palace of either yellow fever or smallpox, though yellow fever seems to be the most acceptable, as the outbreak was in the United States in 1803 and most of the American plagues extended to Europe in a matter of 2–4 years.

Joseph Franz was buried at the Capuchin Church in Vienna, more specifically in the Imperial Crypt (his heart is buried in the Herzgruft chamber), the burial place of his family.

Ancestry