Wenceslaus of Austria | |
Birth Date: | 9 March 1561 |
Birth Place: | Wiener Neustadt |
Death Place: | Madrid |
Burial Place: | El Escorial |
House: | Habsburg |
Father: | Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor |
Mother: | Maria of Spain |
Archduke Wenceslaus of Austria (9 March 1561 – 22 September 1578), was a German prince and member of the House of Habsburg. In 1577, he was appointed the Grand Prior of the Order of Malta in Castile. He was the son of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife, Maria of Spain.
Born in Wiener Neustadt, Wenceslaus was the eleventh child and eighth son of his parents' sixteen children. Only nine of the children survived early infancy. He grew up mostly in the court of Philip II of Spain with several of his siblings. In 1577, Wenceslaus was appointed Grand Prior of the Order of Malta in Castile, but died suddenly one year later in Madrid at age seventeen. He was buried in the Panteon de los Infantes in the Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.