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Emperor Leopold II

Leopold II
Johann Daniel Donat, Emperor Leopold II in the Regalia of the Golden Fleece (1806).png
Emperor Leopold II, in the regalia of the Order of the Golden Fleece
(by Johann Daniel Donat, 1806)
Holy Roman Emperor
King in Germany
Reign 30 September 1790 – 1 March 1792
Coronation 9 October 1790, Frankfurt
Predecessor Joseph II
Successor Francis II
Archduke of Austria
King of Hungary and Croatia
King of Bohemia
Reign 20 February 1790 – 1 March 1792
Coronations 15 November 1790, Pressburg
6 September 1791, Prague
Predecessor Joseph II
Successor Francis II
Grand Duke of Tuscany
Reign 18 August 1765 – 22 July 1790
Predecessor Francis Stephen
Successor Ferdinand III
Born (1747-05-05)5 May 1747
Vienna, Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died 1 March 1792(1792-03-01) (aged 44)
Vienna, Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial Imperial Crypt
Spouse Maria Luisa of Spain
Issue
Full name
Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard
House Habsburg-Lorraine
Father Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia
Religion Roman Catholicism
Full name
Peter Leopold Joseph Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia from 1790 to 1792, Archduke of Austria and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790. He was a son of Emperor Francis I and his wife, Empress Maria Theresa, thus the brother of Marie Antoinette. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism.

Leopold was born in Vienna, the 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 him against the Church.

In 1753, he was engaged to Maria Beatrice d'Este, heiress to the Duchy of Modena. The marriage never materialised; Maria Beatrice instead married Leopold's brother, Archduke Ferdinand.

On the death of his elder brother, Charles, in 1761, it was decided that he should succeed to his father's grand duchy of Tuscany, which was erected into a "secundogeniture" or apanage for a second son. This settlement was the condition of his marriage on 5 August 1764 with Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of Charles III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. On the death of his father, Francis I (18 August 1765), he succeeded to the grand duchy. Leopold was famous in Florence for his numerous extra-marital affairs. Among his lovers was Countess Cowper, wife of the 3rd Earl Cowper, who in compensation for being cuckolded was given honours by Leopold's brother, Joseph II.


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