Maria Leopoldine of Austria-Tyrol (6 April 1632 – 7 August 1649)[1][2] was by birth Archduchess of Austria and member of the Tyrolese branch of the House of Habsburg and by marriage the second spouse of her first cousin, Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor.

Maria Leopoldine was born in Innsbruck[2] on 6 April 1632 as the third (but second surviving) daughter and the fifth and youngest child of Leopold V, Archduke of Further Austria, and Claudia de' Medici.

[4] Maria Leopoldine's oldest brother, Ferdinand Charles, inherited Further Austria, but Dowager Archduchess Claudia assumed regency because of her son's minority.

[6] The composer Andreas Rauch celebrated the marriage as "anticipating (with the help of Divine Providence) the most beautiful end of the Thirty Years' War"[7] and an opera titled I Trionfi d'Amore, produced by Giovanni Felice Sances, was meant to commemorate the event, but the Prague premiere was canceled at the last moment when King Władysław IV Vasa (Ferdinand III's brother-in-law) died within two months of the wedding; the planned Pressburg performance apparently never took place.

[7] The new empress was as closely related to her husband as her cousin and predecessor, Maria Anna of Spain; both marriages were means by which the House of Habsburg frequently reinforced itself,[8] and ultimately succumbed to inbreeding.