Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold II, born Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard in Vienna on 5 May 1747, served as the second-to-last Holy Roman Emperor. He also held the crowns of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and ruled as Archduke of Austria from 1790 until his death on 1 March 1792. Before that, he was Grand Duke of Tuscany (as Leopold I) from 1765 to 1790. His parents were Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, making him brother to Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma, and Emperor Joseph II. Like his brother Joseph, Leopold supported enlightened absolutism, though in a more moderate form. As a youth, Leopold was the third son and initially groomed for the clergy, receiving a theological education. In 1753, he was betrothed to Maria Beatrice d’Este, heir to the Duchy of Modena, but the marriage was never completed; she later wed his brother, Archduke Ferdinand. After his older brother Archduke Charles died young in 1761, the family decided Leopold would succeed his father as Grand Duke of Tuscany—a territory set aside as a secundogeniture for the second son. He married Maria Luisa, daughter of King Charles III of Spain, by proxy in Madrid on 16 February 1764, and in person on 5 August 1765. His father, Francis I, died on 18 August 1765, and Leopold became Grand Duke. For the first five years as Grand Duke, Leopold held little real power, with counsellors appointed by his mother running things. In 1770, he traveled to Vienna to end this arrangement and returned to Florence with full authority. Over the next twenty years, until his brother Joseph II died in 1790, he reformed Tuscany’s administration. He removed harsh restrictions on industry and personal freedom left by the Medici, introduced a fairer tax system with lower rates, and funded public works like draining the Valdichiana. With no army to maintain and having disbanded the small Medici navy, all revenue went to improving the state. Leopold was not popular with his subjects; he had a cold, reserved manner and simple, almost stingy habits, though he could show splendor when needed. This alienated those who had benefited from the old Medici abuses. Still, his steady, intelligent governance brought material prosperity. His ecclesiastical policies, which challenged deep-seated beliefs and put him at odds with the Pope, were less successful. He failed to secularize church property or fully bring clergy under state control. However, he permanently abolished the death penalty—the first such abolition in modern times. After effectively halting executions (the last was in 1769), he issued the Leopoldine Code on 30 November 1786, which banned capital punishment and ordered the destruction of execution tools. Torture was also outlawed. This act is commemorated annually on 30 November as the Feast of Tuscany, a custom started in 2000. Following Enlightenment ideas, he expanded La Specola museum with medical waxworks to teach Florentines about natural laws through observation. Leopold also helped draft a political constitution that foreshadowed the French constitution and shared features with the 1778 Virginia Bill of Rights. It emphasized citizens’ political rights and a balance between executive and legislative power. But it was never enacted because Leopold left for Vienna in 1790 to become emperor, and its radical nature faced opposition even from potential beneficiaries. He supported social reforms, making smallpox inoculation widely available and founding an early institution for juvenile delinquents. On 23 January 1774, he introduced Europe’s first law on the insane, allowing for the hospitalization of those deemed mentally ill. He later built the Bonifacio Hospital, appointing young physician Vincenzo Chiarugi to lead it. Chiarugi introduced humane regulations, including a ban on using chains for mental patients. Despite his short reign as emperor, Leopold is highly regarded. Historian Paul W.