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Concept
Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Summary
Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples, Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma, and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Unusually for his time, he opposed capital punishment and abolished it in Tuscany in 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him "one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown".
Leopold was born in Vienna as his parents' third son. Initially selected for a clerical career, he received an education with a focus on theology. In 1753, he was engaged to Maria Beatrice d'Este, heiress to the Duchy of Modena.
The marriage was never consummated and Maria Beatrice instead married Leopold's brother, Archduke Ferdinand.
Upon the early death of his older brother Archduke Charles in 1761, the family decided that Leopold was going to succeed his father as Grand Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a Secundogeniture, a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an Appanage. On 5 August 1765 Leopold married the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Upon the death of his father, Francis I, on 18 August 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany.
For five years, Leopold exercised little more than nominal authority, under the supervision of counselors appointed by his mother. In 1770, he made a journey to Vienna to secure the removal of this vexatious guardianship and returned to Florence with a free hand.
Official source
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