857 



LEOPOLD II. (OF GERMANY). 



LEOPOLD (OP BELGIUM). 



853 



his conviction, whether real or politically assumed, that the whole was 

 a gross fabrication. " But," added he, " let us convince the world 

 also that it is an imposture ; let us declare war against the infidels." 

 The declaration was voted almost unanimously, and Sobieski assembled 

 his troops at Cracow. Meantime Vienna was invested by the Turka 

 on the 15th of July 1683, after Leopold and his court had left it. 

 Messenger after messenger was now despatched to Sobieski to urge 

 him to march. He had some difficulty, owing to the wretched state 

 of the Polish treasury, to collect even 16,000 men, with whom he 

 marched towards the Danube, and was joined by the Duke of Lorraine 

 with the Imperial forces, forming in all 70,000 men. On the llth of 

 September the allied army reached the summit of the Calemberg, 

 which commanded a view of the Austrian capital, and of the wide- 

 spreading tents of the Ottomans, who were entrenched around it. On 

 the 12th the battle was fought, the Turks were defeated, and Vienna 

 was saved. Hungary was cleared of the Turks after several hard- 

 fought campaigns. 



The court of Vienna now took strong measures to prevent any 

 recurrence of Hungarian insurrection supported by Turkish invasion. 

 At the Diet of Presburg of 1687 the crown of Hungary was declared 

 to be no longer elective, but hereditary in the Austrian male line. 

 Transylvania likewise submitted to Leopold unconditionally. The 

 Turkish war was at length concluded by a great victory gained by 

 Prince Eugene, in September 1697, near Zenta in Hungary, which 

 was followed by the peace of Carlowitz. 



Leopold sustained three wars against Louis XIV. The first war 

 endeJ by the treaty of Nymwegen, in 1679, and the second by the 

 peace of Ryswick, in 1697. It was in this second war that the French 

 minister Louvois ordered the French commanders, in the name of his 

 sovereign, to waste the Palatinate by fire and sword. The atrocities 

 committed at Mannheim, Speyer, Oppenheim, and especially at Heidel- 

 berg, which was taken and destroyed twice, in 1688 and 1693, are 

 frightful. The same system was pursued at the same time, in 

 1690-91, in Piedmont, the sovereign of which was allied to the 

 emperor. Catinat, who commanded the French on the banks of the 

 Po, had instructions from Louvois to destroy everything. After 

 some devastation Catinat, who was not a cruel man, asked for fresh 

 instructions, and represented the deplorable state of the innocent 

 populations. " Burn and destroy, and burn again," was the answer of 

 Louvois. (Botta, ' Storia d'ltalia,' book xxxii.) 



The third war of Leopold against Louis XIV. was that of the Spanish 

 succession, to which his sun the archduke Charles had undoubted 

 claims. Leopold however did not live to see the termination of it ; he 

 died in 17"5, and one of bis last acts was to confer by letters-patent 

 on the Duke of Marlborough the dignity of prince of the empire, for 

 the victory of Blenheim. 



The principal internal events in Germany during the reign of Leopold 

 are : 1, The establishment of a ninth electorate in favour of Krui-st 

 Augustus, duke of Brunswick Liineburg, who in 1692 became the first 

 elector of Hanover. This was the act of Leopold, who procured the 

 consent of the other electors to it, in return for important aid in money 

 and troops from two princes of that family. 2, The assumption of 

 the regal title by Frederic, elector of Brandruburg and duke of Prussia, 

 in 1701. Leopold acknowledged him, as he stood in need of his assist- 

 ance, and Holland, England, and Sweden followed the example. France, 

 Spain, and the Pope refused to acknowledge the new King of Prussia 

 for some time longer. 3, The establishment of a permanent Diet 

 attended, uot by the electors in person, but by their representatives. 

 Leopold's disposition was well-meaning, but weak, irresolute, and 

 inclined to bigotry. He had the good fortune to meet with, and 

 perhaps the merit of finding out and appreciating, able ministers and 

 generals, whilst his very want of shining talent and the fear excited 

 by the unprincipled ambition of his antagonist Louis XIV. procured 

 him allies in various quarters of Europe. He was succeeded by his 

 eldest son. [JOSEPH I.] 



LEOPOLD IL of Germany and I. of Tuscany, was the second eon of 

 Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband Francis of Lorraine. After 

 Maria Theresa succeeded, by the death of her father Charles VI., to 

 the Austrian dominions, the grand-duchy of Tuscany, which, according 

 to treaties, was to remain separate from the hereditary states of 

 Austria, devolved upon Leopold, his elder brother Joseph being the 

 presumptive heir of the Austrian dominions. As soon as Leopold was 

 of age he took possession of Tuscany, in 1705, and fixed bis residence 

 at Florence. During the five and twenty years of his administration 

 he greatly improved the condition of Tuscany. His principal reforms 

 concerned tlie administration of justice and the discipline of the 

 clergy in his dominions. By his 'Motu proprio,' in 1786, he promul- 

 gated a new criminal code, abolished torture and the pain of death, 

 and established penitentiaries to reclaim offenders. He finally abolished 

 the Inquisition in Tuscany in July 1782, and placed the monks and 

 nuns of liia dominions under the jurisdiction of the respective bishops. 

 The discovery of licentious practices carried on in certain nunneries iu 

 the towns of Pistoia and I'rato with the connivance of their monkish 

 directors induced Leopold to investigate and reform the whole system 

 of monastic discipline, and he entrusted liicci, bishop of Pistoia, with 

 full power fur that purpose. This occasioned a long and angry contro- 

 versy with the court of Rome, which pretended to have the solo 

 cognisance of matters affecting individuals of the clergy and monastic 



orders. Leopold however carried his point, and the pope consented 

 that the bishops of Tuscany should have the jurisdiction over the 

 convents of their respective dioceses. Rioci, who had hish notions of 

 religious purity, and was by his enemies accused of Jansenism, 

 attempted other reforms ; he endeavoured to enlighten the people as 

 to the proper limits of image-worship and the invocation of saints, he 

 suppressed certain relics which gave occasion to superstitious practices, 

 he encouraged the spreading of religious works and especially of the 

 Gospel among his flock, and lastly he assembled a diocesan council at 

 Pistoia in September 1786, in which he maintained the spiritual inde- 

 pendence of the bishops. He advocated the use of the liturgy iu the 

 oral language of the country, he exposed the abuse of indulgences, 

 approved of the four articles of the Galilean council of 1682, and 

 lastly appealed to a national council as a legitimate and canonical 

 means for terminating controversies. Several of Ricci's propositions 

 were condemned by the pope in a bull as scandalous, rash, and injuri- 

 ous to the Holy See. Leopold supported RiccI, but he could not 

 prevent his being annoyed iu many ways and at last obliged to resign 

 his charge. The whole of this curious controversy is given in Potter's 

 work, ' Vie de Scipion de Ricci,' 3 vols., Brussels, 1825, in which the 

 numerous annexed documents and quotations from other works form 

 the most important part. Leopold himself convoked a council at 

 Florence, of the bishops of Tuscany, in 1787, and proposed to them 

 57 articles concerning the reform of ecclesiastical discipline. He 

 enforced residence of incumbents, and forbade pluralities, suppressed 

 many convents and distributed their revenues among the poor bene- 

 fices, wherein he favoured the parochial clergy, and extended their 

 jurisdiction, as he had supported and extended the jurisdiction of the 

 bishops. He forbade the publication of the bulls and censures of 

 Rome without the approbation of the government ; he forbade the 

 ecclesiastical courts from interfering with laymen in temporal matters, 

 and restrained their jurisdiction to spiritual affairs only; and he 

 subjected clergymen to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts in all 

 criminal cases. All these were considered in that age as very bold 

 innovations for a Roman Catholic prince to undertake, and contrast 

 remarkably with recent proceedings of the present Emperor of Austria. 



In the civil administration Leopold favoured the independence and 

 self-administration of the communes, suppressed feudal rights, re- 

 strained the power of creating fidei-comrnissa, abolished the right of 

 common pasture, by which many proprietors were prevented from 

 inclosing their lands, equalised the land tax, abolished the monopolies 

 of tobacco, brandy, and other articles, and in alfrespects favoured 

 liberty of commerce. Meantime he drained the Val di Chiaua and 

 part of the Maremme, and fixed colonists in the reclaimed grounds, 

 founded schools and houses for the poor, reformed the universities of 

 Pisa and Siena, opened roads and canals, redeemed gi-eat part of the 

 public debt, and lastly ordered the publication of the national budget. 



By the death of his brother Joseph II. on the 20th of February 



1790, Leopold succeeded to his vast dominions as well as to the impe- 

 rial crown, whilst his son Ferdinand succeeded him as grand duke of 

 Tuscany. Ou assuming the administration of the hereditary dominions 

 of the House of Austria, Leopold found discontent everywhere, owing 

 in a great measure to the rash innovations of his brother ; the Nether- 

 lands in open revolt ; Hungary preparing to follow the example ; 

 Bohemia disaffected ; the clergy and the court of Rome at variance 

 with the government ; Prussia hostile ; England estranged ; France 

 herself convulsed, aud likely to become <xn enemy ; and Russia, the 

 only ally of his predecessor, engaged as well as himself in war against 

 the Turks. Leopold had not only abilities but judgment and honest 

 feelings also. He showed an earnest desire to please his subjects, and 

 he succeeded. He abolished the more obnoxious innovations of his 

 brother ; he concluded a peace with the Porte ; he pacified Hungary 

 by restoring such of the ancient privileges of its aristocracy as had 

 been lately disregarded, and at the same time marching troops to 

 restrain the more rebellious nobles. The next step of Leopold was 

 to endeavour to pacify the revolted states of the Netherlands, by 

 offering to re-establish their ancient constitutions. The insurgents 

 having obstinately refused to listen to his offers, he sent troops against 

 them, and the leaders being divided among themselves, Leopold 

 recovered without much difficulty those fine provinces. Then came 

 fresh anxieties concerning the fate of his sister Antoinette and her 

 husband, the convention of Reichenbach, and that of Piluitz iu August 



1791, between Austria and Prussia for the purpose of checking the 

 progress of French revolutionary proselytism. In the midst of all 

 these cares Leopold died on the 1st of March 1792, aged forty-four 

 years. He was generally regretted for his affability, his strict justice, 

 his kindness towards the poor, whom he admitted freely iuto his 

 presence, and his sound judgment. He was succeeded by his eldest 

 son. [FRANCIS II.] 



LEOPOLD GEORGE CHRISTIAN FREDERICK, KING OF 

 THE BELGIANS, Duke of Saxony, Prince of Saxe Coburg Gotha, 

 Margrave of Meissen, and Landgrave of Thuringen, is the third and 

 youngest sou of Francis Anthony Frederick, late reigning duke of 

 Saxe Saalfeld Coburg. His Majesty is consequently brother of the 

 Duchess of Kent, uncle to her Majesty Queen Victoria, and to her 

 consort Prince Albert. He was born on the 16th of December 1790, 

 and while holding the title of Prince Leopold of Saxe Cobourg he 

 married (May 2nd, 1816) the Princess Charlotte Angusta, only child 



