Leopold II
(born May 5, 1747, Vienna?died March 1, 1792, Vienna) was the
Holy Roman emperor
from 1790 to 1792, one of the most capable of the 18th-century reformist rulers known as the “enlightened despots.”
The third son of the Habsburg
Maria Theresa
and the
emperor
Francis I
, Leopold succeeded his father as duke of
Tuscany
when his eldest brother became emperor as
Joseph II
in 1765. Like Joseph, Leopold was influenced by the ideas of the
Enlightenment
and was determined to construct an efficient state
apparatus
at the expense of feudal interests. During his 25-year reign over the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, he rationalized his states’ taxation and tariff systems and encouraged the development of representative institutions.
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After Joseph II died in February 1790, Leopold was elected emperor (and also became king of Hungary and archduke of Austria). Although he dismantled some of the centralized state machinery that Joseph had set up in the Habsburg domains, he kept in force Joseph’s decrees that emancipated the peasantry and granted increased religious liberty to non-Catholics. At first Leopold reacted cautiously to the explosive situation created in Europe by the
French Revolution
. In August 1791, however, he joined with the Prussians in issuing the
Declaration of Pillnitz
, appealing to the European
sovereigns
to use force to assure the maintenance of monarchical government in France.
Austria
and
Prussia
concluded a defensive alliance in February 1792, but Leopold died less than two months before France declared war on Austria.