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LEOPOLD IL (1747—1792)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 460 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEOPOLD IL (1747—1792) , See also:Roman See also:emperor, and See also:grand-See also:duke of See also:Tuscany, son of the empress Maria See also:Theresa and her See also:husband, See also:Francis I., was See also:born in See also:Vienna on the 5th of May 1747. He was a third son, and was at first educated for the priesthood, but the theological studies to which he was forced to apply himself are believed to have influenced his mind in a way unfavourable to the See also:Church. On the See also:death of his See also:elder See also:brother See also:Charles in 1761 it was decided that he should succeed to his See also:father's grand duchy of Tuscany, which was erected into a " secundogeniture" or apanage for a second son. This See also:settlement was the See also:condition of his See also:marriage on the 5th of See also:August 1764 with Maria Louisa, daughter of Charles III. of See also:Spain, and on the death of his father Francis I. (13th August 1765) he succeeded to the grand duchy. For five years he exercised little more than nominal authority under the supervision of counsellors appointed by his See also:mother. In 1770 he made a See also:journey to Vienna to secure the removal of this vexatious guardianship, and returned to See also:Florence with a See also:free See also:hand. During the twenty years which elapsed between his return to Florence and the death of his eldest brother See also:Joseph II. in 1790 he was employed in reforming the See also:administration of his small See also:state. The See also:reformation was carried out by the removal of the ruinous restrictions on See also:industry and See also:personal freedom imposed by his predecessors of the See also:house of See also:Medici, and See also:left untouched during his father's See also:life; by the introduction of a rational See also:system of See also:taxation; and by the See also:execution of profitable public See also:works, such as the drainage of the Val di See also:Chiana. As he had no See also:army to maintain, and as he suppressed the small See also:naval force kept up by the Medici, the whole of his See also:revenue was left free for the improvement of his state. Leopold was never popular with his See also:Italian subjects. His disposition was See also:cold and retiring.

His habits were See also:

simple to the See also:verge of sordidness, though he could display splendour on occasion, and he could not help offending those of his subjects who had profited by the abuses of the Medicean regime. But his steady, consistent and intelligent administration, which advanced step by step, making the second only when the first had been justified by results, brought the grand duchy to a high level of material prosperity. His ecclesiastical policy, which disturbed the deeply rooted convictions of his,See also:people, and brought him into collision with the See also:pope, was not successful. He was unable to secularize the See also:property of the religious houses, or to put the See also:clergy entirely under the See also:control of the See also:lay See also:power. During the last few years of his See also:rule in Tuscany Leopold had begun to be frightened by the increasing disorders in the See also:German and Hungarian dominions of his See also:family, which were the See also:direct 0 result of his brother's headlong methods. He and Joseph II. were tenderly attached to one another, and met frequently both before and after the death of their mother, while the portrait by Pompeo Baltoni in which they appear together shows that they See also:bore a strong personal resemblance to one another. But it may be said of Leopold, as of See also:Fontenelle, that his See also:heart was made of brains. He knew that he must succeed his childless eldest brother in See also:Austria, and he was unwilling to inherit his unpopularity. When, therefore, in 1789 Joseph, who knew himself to be dying, asked him to come to Vienna, and become co-See also:regent, Leopold coldly evaded the See also:request. He was still in Florence when Joseph II. died at Vienna on the 20th of See also:February 1790, and he did not leave his Italian See also:capital till the his See also:allies had somewhat neglected his interests, but in the following See also:month he came to terms and a number of places were transferred from See also:France to See also:Germany. The See also:peace with France lasted for about four years and then See also:Europe was involved in the See also:War of the See also:Spanish See also:Succession. The See also:king of Spain, Charles II., was a See also:Habsburg by descent and was related by marriage to the See also:Austrian See also:branch, while a similar tie See also:bound him to the royal house of France.

He was feeble and childless, and attempts had been made by the See also:

European See also:powers to arrange for a peaceable See also:division of his extensive See also:kingdom. Leopold refused to consent to any See also:partition, and when in See also:November 1700 Charles died, leaving his See also:crown to See also:Philip, duke of See also:Anjou, a See also:grandson of See also:Louis XIV., all hopes of a peaceable settlement vanished. Under the guidance of See also:William III. a powerful See also:league, the grand See also:alliance, was formed against France; of this the emperor was a prominent member, and in 1703 he transferred his claim on the Spanish See also:monarchy to his second son, the See also:archduke Charles. The See also:early course of the war was not favourable to the imperialists, but the See also:tide of defeat had been rolled back by the See also:great victory of See also:Blenheim before Leopold died on the 5th of May 1705. In governing his own lands Leopold found his See also:chief difficulties in See also:Hungary, where unrest was caused partly by his See also:desire to crush Protestantism. A rising was suppressed in 1671 and for some years Hungary was treated with great severity. In 168r, after another rising, some grievances were removed and a less repressive policy was adopted, but this did not deter the Hungarians from revolting again. Espousing the cause of the rebels the See also:sultan sent an enormous army into Austria early in 1683; this advanced almost unchecked to Vienna, which was besieged from See also:July to See also:September, while Leopold took See also:refuge at See also:Passau. Realizing the gravity of the situation somewhat tardily, some of the German princes, among them the See also:electors of See also:Saxony and See also:Bavaria, led their contingents to the imperial army which was commanded by the emperor's brother-in-See also:law, Charles, duke of See also:Lorraine, but the most redoubtable of Leopold's allies was the king of See also:Poland, See also:John Sobieski, who was already dreaded by the See also:Turks. On the 12th of September 1683 the allied army See also:fell upon the enemy, who was completely routed, and Vienna was saved. The imperialists, among whom See also:Prince See also:Eugene of See also:Savoy was rapidly becoming prominent, followed up the victory with others, notably one near Mohacz in 1687 and another at See also:Zenta in 1697, and in See also:January 1699 the sultan signed the treaty of See also:Karlowitz by which he admitted the See also:sovereign rights of the house of Habsburg over nearly the whole of Hungary. Before the conclusion of the war, however, Leopold had taken See also:measures to strengthen his hold upon this See also:country.

In 1687 at the See also:

diet of See also:Pressburg the constitution was changed, the right of the Habsburgs to succeed to the See also:throne without See also:election was admitted and the emperor's elder son Joseph was crowned hereditary king of Hungary. During this reign some important changes were made in the constitution of the See also:Empire. In 1663 the imperial diet entered upon the last See also:stage of its existence, and became a See also:body permanently in session at See also:Regensburg; in 1692 the duke of See also:Hanover was raised to the See also:rank of an elector, becoming the ninth member of the electoral See also:college; and in 1700 Leopold, greatly in need of help for the impending war with France, granted the See also:title of king of See also:Prussia to the elector of See also:Brandenburg. The See also:net result of these and similar changes was to weaken the authority of the emperor over the members of the Empire, and to compel him to rely more and more upon his position as ruler of the Austrian archduchies and of Hungary and Bohemia, and Leopold was the first who really appears to have realized this altered state of affairs and to have acted in accordance therewith. The emperor was married three times. His first wife was See also:Margaret Theresa (d. 1673), daughter of Philip IV. of Spain; his second Claudia Felicitas (d. 1676), the heiress of See also:Tirol; and his third Eleanora, a princess of the See also:Palatinate. By his first two wives he had no sons, but his third wife bore him two, Joseph and Charles, both of whom became emperors. He had also four daughters. 3rd of See also:March. Leopold, during his See also:government in Tuscany, had shown a speculative tendency to See also:grant his subjects a constitution.

When he succeeded to the Austrian lands he began by making large concessions to the interests offended by his brother's innovations. He recognized the Estates of his different dominions as " the pillars of the monarchy," pacified 'the Hungarians and divided the Belgian insurgents by concessions. When these failed to restore See also:

order, he marched troops into the country, and re-established at the same See also:time his own authority, and the historic franchises of the Flemings. Yet he did not surrender any See also:part that could be retained of what Maria Theresa and Joseph had done to strengthen the hands of the state. He continued, for instance, to insist that no papal See also:bull could be published in his dominions without his consent (placetum See also:regium). If Leopold's reign as emperor, and king of Hungary and Bohemia, had been prolonged during years of peace, it is probable that he would have repeated his successes as a reforming ruler in Tuscany on a far larger See also:scale. But he lived for barely two years, and during that See also:period he was hard pressed by peril from See also:west and See also:east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his See also:sister See also:Marie Antoinette, the See also:queen of Louis XVI., and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of a subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist emigrants, who were intriguing both to bring about an armed intervention in France, and against Louis XVI. From the east he was threatened by the aggressive ambition of See also:Catherine II. of See also:Russia, and by the unscrupulous policy of Prussia. Catherine would have been delighted to see Austria and Prussia embark on a crusade in the cause of See also:kings against the Revolution. While they were busy beyond the See also:Rhine, she would have annexed what remained of Poland, and would have made conquests in See also:Turkey.

Leopold II. had no difficulty in seeing through the rather trans-See also:

parent cunning of the See also:Russian empress, and he refused to be misled. To his sister he gave See also:good See also:advice and promises of help if she and her husband could See also:escape from See also:Paris. The emigrants who followed him pertinaciously were refused See also:audience, or when they forced themselves on him were peremptorily denied all help. Leopold was too purely a politician not to be secretly pleased at the destruction of the power of France and of her See also:influence in Europe by her See also:internal disorders. Within six See also:weeks of his See also:accession he displayed his contempt for her weakness by practically tearing up the treaty of alliance made by Maria Theresa in 1756 and opening negotiations with See also:England to impose a check on Russia and Prussia. He was able to put pressure on England by threatening to cede his part of the See also:Low Countries to France, and then, when secure of See also:English support, he was in a position to baffle the intrigues of Prussia. A personal See also:appeal to See also:Frederick William II. led to a See also:conference between them at See also:Reichenbach in July 17.90, and to an arrangement which was in fact a defeat for Prussia Leopold's See also:coronation as king of Hungary on the 15th of November 1790, was preceded by a settlement with the diet in which he recognized the dominant position of the See also:Magyars. He had already made an eight months' truce with the Turks in September, which prepared the way for the termination of the war begun by Joseph II. the peace of See also:Sistova being signed in August 1791. The pacification of his eastern dominions left Leopold free to re-establish order in See also:Belgium and to confirm • friendly relations with England and See also:Holland. During 1791 the emperor continued to be increasingly pre-occupied with the affairs of France. In January he had to dismiss the See also:count of See also:Artois, afterwards Charles X., king of France, in a very See also:peremptory way. His good sense was revolted by the folly of the See also:French emigrants, and he did his utmost to avoid being entangled in the affairs of that country.

The insults inflicted on Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette, however, at the time of their attempted See also:

flight to Varennes in See also:June, stirred his indignation, and he made a See also:general appeal to the sovereigns of Europe to take See also:common measures in view of events which " immediately compromised the See also:honour of all sovereigns, and the See also:security of all governments." Yet he was most directly interested in the conference at Sistova, which in June led to afinal peace with Turkey. On the 25th of August he met the king of Prussia at See also:Pillnitz, near See also:Dresden, and they See also:drew up a See also:declaration of their readiness to intervene in France if and when their assistance was called for by the other powers. The declaration was a See also:mere formality, for, as Leopold knew, neither Russia nor England was prepared to See also:act, and he endeavoured to guard against the use which he foresaw the emigrants would endeavour to make of it. In See also:face of the agitation caused by the Pillnitz declaration in France, the intrigues of the emigrants, and the attacks made by the French revolutionists on the rights of the German princes in See also:Alsace, Leopold continued to See also:hope that intervention might not be required. When Louis XVI. swore to observe the constitution of September 1791, the emperor professed to think that a settlement had been reached in France. The attacks on the rights of the German princes on the left See also:bank of the Rhine, and the increasing violence of the parties in Paris which were agitating to bring about war, soon showed, however, that this hope was vain. Leopold met the threatening See also:language of the revolutionists with dignity and See also:temper. His sudden death on the 1st of March 1792 was an irreparable loss to Austria. Leopold had sixteen See also:children, the eldest of his eight sons being his successor, the emperor Francis II. Some of his other sons were prominent personages in their See also:day. Among them were: See also:Ferdinand III., grand duke of Tuscany; the archduke Charles, a celebrated soldier; the archduke John, also a soldier; the archduke Joseph, See also:palatine of Hungary; and the archduke Rainer, See also:viceroy of See also:Lombardy-See also:Venetia. Several volumes containing the emperor's See also:correspondence have been published.

Among these are: Joseph II. and Leopold von Toskana. Ihr Briefwechsel 1781–1790 (Vienna, 1872), and Marie Antoinette, Joseph II. and Leopold II. Ihr Briefwechsel (Vienna, 1866), both edited by A. See also:

Ritter von See also:Arneth; Joseph II., Leopold II. and Kaunitz. Ihr Briefwechsel (Vienna, 1873) ; and Leopold II., See also:Franz II. and Catharina. Ihre Correspondenz nebst einer Einleitung: Zur Geschichte der Politik Leopolds II. (See also:Leipzig, 1874), both edited by A. See also:Beer; and Leopold II. and Marie Christine. Ihr Briefwechsel 1781–1792, edited by A. See also:Wolf (Vienna, 1867). See also H. von See also:Sybel, tuber See also:die Regierung Kaiser Leopolds II. (See also:Munich, 1860) ; A.

See also:

Schultze, Kaiser Leopold II. and die franzosische Revolution (Leipzig, 1899) ; and A. Wolf and H. von Zwiedeneck-Sudenhorst, Osterreich unter Maria Theresa, Joseph II. and Leopold II. (See also:Berlin, 1882—1884).

End of Article: LEOPOLD IL (1747—1792)

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