Francis I Stephen

Duke of Lorraine and husband of Maria Theresa, by whose insistence he was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1745 — the imperial dignity could not pass through a woman, so the couple ruled the Habsburg patrimony jointly under his title. Eclipsed politically by his wife but interested in finance and natural science, he built a personal fortune and a celebrated cabinet of curiosities. His male line, Habsburg-Lorraine, ruled in Vienna until 1918.