Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Information
Leopold I (name in full: Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Felician; Hungarian: I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria. He was also a first cousin of his rival, Louis XIV of France.
He became heir apparent on 9 July 1654 by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV, and reigned as Holy Roman Emperor from 1658 to 1705. Leopold's reign was marked by military successes against the Ottoman Empire in the Great Turkish War through his greatest general Prince Eugene of Savoy, including at Saint Gotthard, Vienna, Second Mohács and Zenta. By the end of the war, the Habsburg Monarchy had annexed Transylvania and much of Hungary.
Leopold is also known for his conflicts against France through the Nine Years' War and the War of Spanish Succession. In the latter, he had hoped to enforce the Second Partition Treaty, which assigned the throne of the Kingdom of Spain to his son the Archduke Charles. Leopold managed the war extremely well, and the Habsburg Monarchy scored decisive victories at Schellenberg and Blenheim. His death in 1705 left the throne to his eldest son Joseph.
Early life
Intended for the Church, he received a good education but his prospects were changed by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV, on 9 July 1654 of smallpox, when he became his father's heir apparent.
Leopold was physically unprepossessing. Short and sickly, he had inherited the Habsburg lip to a degree unusual even in his family. Historian William Coxe described Leopold in the following manner: "His gait was stately, slow and deliberate; his air pensive, his address awkward, his manner uncouth, his disposition cold and phlegmatic."[1]
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In 1655 he was chosen king of Hungary, in 1656 king of Bohemia, in 1657 he gained the crown of Croatia. In July 1658, more than a year after his father's death, he was elected emperor at Frankfurt in spite of the intrigues of Cardinal Mazarin, who wished to place on the imperial throne Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria or some other prince whose elevation would break the Habsburg succession.
Mazarin, however, obtained a promise from the new emperor that he would not send assistance to Spain, then at war with France, and, by joining a confederation of German princes, called the League of the Rhine, France secured a certain influence in the internal affairs of Germany. Leopold's long reign covers one of the most important periods of European history; for nearly the whole of its forty-seven years he was pitted against Louis XIV of France, whose dominant personality completely overshadowed Leopold. The emperor was not himself a man of war, and never led his troops in person; yet the greater part of his public life was spent in arranging and directing wars. The first was with Sweden, whose king Charles X found a useful ally in the prince of Transylvania, György II Rákóczi, a rebellious vassal of the Hungarian crown.
Early wars against the Ottoman Empire
This war, a legacy of the last reign, was waged by Leopold as the ally of Poland until peace was made at Oliva in 1660. A more dangerous foe next entered the lists. The Ottoman Empire interfered in the affairs of Transylvania, always an unruly district, and this interference brought on a war with the Holy Roman Empire, which after some desultory operations really began in 1663. By a personal appeal to the diet at Regensburg Leopold induced the princes to send assistance for the campaign; troops were also sent by France, and in August 1664, the great imperialist general, Raimondo Montecuccoli, gained a notable victory at Saint Gotthard. By the Peace of Vasvár the emperor made a twenty years' truce with the sultan, granting more generous terms than his recent victory seemed to render necessary.
Wars Against France
Hungarian Thaler of Leopold I minted in 1692. Latin inscription: Obverse, LEOPOLDVS D[EI] G[RATIA] RO[MANORVM] I[MPERATOR] S[EMPER] AVG[VSTVS] GER[MANIAE] HV[NGARIAE] BO[HEMIAE] REX; Reverse, ARCHIDVX AVS[TRIAE] DVX BVR[GVNDIAE] MAR[CHIO] MOR[AVIAE] CO[MES] TY[ROLIS] 1692, "Leopold, by the grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, Ever Augustus, King of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia; Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Margrave of Moravia, Count of Tyrol 1692"After a few years of peace began the first of three wars between France and the Empire. The aggressive policy pursued by Louis XIV towards the United Provinces had aroused the serious attention of Europe, and steps had been taken to check it. Although the French king had sought the alliance of several German princes and encouraged the Turks in their attacks on Austria the emperor at first took no part in this movement. He was on friendly terms with Louis, to whom he was closely related and with whom he had already discussed the partition of the lands of the Spanish monarchy; moreover, in 1671, he arranged with him a treaty of neutrality.
In 1672, however, he was forced to take action. He entered into an alliance for the defence of the United Provinces during the Franco-Dutch War; then, after this league had collapsed owing to the defection of the elector of Brandenburg, the more durable Quadruple Alliance was formed for the same purpose, including, besides the emperor, the king of Spain and several German princes, and the war was renewed. At this time, twenty-five years after the peace of Westphalia, the Empire was virtually a confederation of independent princes, and it was very difficult for its head to conduct any war with vigour and success, some of its members being in alliance with the enemy and others being only lukewarm in their support of the imperial interests. Thus this struggle, which lasted until the end of 1678, was on the whole unfavourable to Germany, and the advantages of the Treaty of Nijmegen were with France.
Almost immediately after the conclusion of peace Louis renewed his aggressions on the German frontier through the Réunions policy. Engaged in a serious struggle with the Ottoman Empire, the emperor was again slow to move, and although he joined the Association League against France in 1682 he was glad to make a truce at Regensburg two years later. In 1686 the League of Augsburg was formed by the emperor and the imperial princes, to preserve the terms of the treaties of Westphalia and of Nijmegen. The whole European position was now bound up with events in England, and the tension lasted until 1688, when William III of Orange won the English crown through the Glorious Revolution and Louis invaded Germany. In May 1689, the Grand Alliance was formed, including the emperor, the kings of England, Spain and Denmark, the elector of Brandenburg and others, and a fierce struggle against France was waged throughout almost the whole of western Europe. In general the several campaigns were favourable to the allies, and in September 1697, England, Spain and the United Provinces made peace with France at the Treaty of Rijswijk.
To this treaty, Leopold refused to assent, as he considered that his allies had somewhat neglected his interests, but in the following month he came to terms and a number of places were transferred from France to Germany. The peace with France lasted for about four years and then Europe was involved in the War of the Spanish Succession. The king of Spain, Charles II, was a Habsburg by descent and was related by marriage to the Austrian branch, while a similar tie bound him to the royal house of France. He was feeble and childless, and attempts had been made by the European powers to arrange for a peaceable division of his extensive kingdom. Leopold refused to consent to any partition, and when in November 1700 Charles died, leaving his crown to Philippe de France, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV, all hopes of a peaceable settlement vanished. Under the guidance of William III a powerful league, a renewed Grand Alliance, was formed against France; of this the emperor was a prominent member, and in 1703 he transferred his claim on the Spanish monarchy to his second son, Charles. The early course of the war was not favorable to the imperialists, but the tide of defeat had been rolled back by the great victory of Blenheim before Leopold died on 5 May 1705.
Internal problems
Leopold I column (1673) in TriesteThe emperor himself defined the guidelines of the politics. Johann Weikhard Auersperg was overthrown in 1669 as the leading minister. He was followed by Wenzel Eusebius Lobkowicz. Both had arranged some connections to France without the knowledge of the emperor. In 1674 also Lobkowicz lost his appointment.[2]
In governing his own lands Leopold found his chief difficulties in Hungary, where unrest was caused partly by his desire to crush Protestantism and partly by the so called Magnate conspiracy. A rising was suppressed in 1671 and for some years Hungary was treated with great severity. In 1681, after another rising, some grievances were removed and a less repressive policy was adopted, but this did not deter the Hungarians from revolting again. Espousing the cause of the rebels the sultan sent an enormous army into Austria early in 1683; this advanced almost unchecked to Vienna, which was besieged from July to September, while Leopold took refuge at Passau. Realizing the gravity of the situation somewhat tardily, some of the German princes, among them the electors of Saxony and Bavaria, led their contingents to the Imperial Army, which was commanded by the emperor's brother-in-law, Charles, duke of Lorraine, but the most redoubtable of Leopold's allies was the king of Poland, John Sobieski, who was already dreaded by the Turks. Austrian forces occupied the castle of Trebišov in 1675, but in 1682 Imre Thököly captured it and then fled from continuous Austrian attacks, so they blew the castle up, since then it is in ruins. They fled as supposedly Hungarian rebel troops under the command of Imre Thököly, cooperating with the Turks, and sacked the city of Bielsko-Biała in 1682. In 1692, Leopold gave up his rights to the property and he gave his rights to the property by a donation to Theresia Keglević.[3][4]
He also expelled Jewish communities from his realm, for example the Viennese Jewish community, which used to live in an area called "Im Werd" across the Danube river. After the expulsion of the Jewish population, with popular support, the area was renamed Leopoldstadt as a thanksgiving. But Frederick William I, Elector of Brandenburg, issued an edict in 1677, in which he announced his special protection for 50 families of these expelled Jews, he made clear that the next election of the next emperor would become exciting.[5]
When Leopold came to Bohemia in 1679 he received a flood of petitions presented, but many peasant petitioners were arrested after his departure and no action was taken to rectify the shortcomings. There was a peasant uprising and over a hundred leaders of the uprising were executed. Then Leopold adopted in 1680 the so-called Pragmatica, which re-regulated the relationship between landlord and peasant.[6] The escape from Trebišov through Bielsko-Biała in 1682 no one believed.
In 1690, Transylvania put a veto against a, by Leopold attempted, constitutional amendment about some religious questions.[7] In 1692, Peter the Great became a little bit sorry that he only met Jesuits at the court in Vienna, when he visited Leopold.[8] In 1692, Prince Michael of Transylvania was called to Vienna, because of a dispute over his recent marriage.
Success against the Turks and in Hungary
On 12 September 1683, the allied army fell upon the enemy, who was completely routed, and Vienna was saved. The imperial forces, among whom Prince Eugene of Savoy was rapidly becoming prominent, followed up the victory with others, notably one near Mohács in 1687 and another at Zenta in 1697, and in January 1699, the sultan signed the treaty of Karlowitz by which he admitted the sovereign rights of the house of Habsburg over nearly the whole of Hungary (including Serbian Vojvodina). As the Habsburg forces retreated, they withdrew 37,000 Serb families under Peć Patriarch Arsenije III Čarnojević. In 1690 and 1691 Emperor Leopold I had conceived through a number of edicts the autonomy of Serbs in his Empire, which would last and develop for more than two centuries until its abolition in 1912. Before the conclusion of the war, however, Leopold had taken measures to strengthen his hold upon this country. In 1687, the Hungarian diet in Bratislava (called Pressburg at that time) changed the constitution, the right of the Habsburgs to succeed to the throne without election was admitted and the emperor's elder son Joseph I was crowned hereditary king of Hungary.
The Holy Roman Empire
During this reign some important changes were made in the constitution of the Empire. In 1663, the imperial diet entered upon the last stage of its existence, and became a Perpetual Diet, permanently in session at Regensburg. In 1692, the duke of Hanover was raised to the rank of an elector, becoming the ninth member of the electoral college. In 1700, Leopold, greatly in need of help for the impending war with France, granted the title of king in Prussia to the elector of Brandenburg. The net result of these and similar changes was to weaken the authority of the emperor over the members of the Empire and to compel him to rely more and more upon his position as ruler of the Austrian archduchies and of Hungary and Bohemia. Leopold was the first to have realized this altered state of affairs and to have acted in accordance with it.
Character and overall assessment
Leopold was a man of industry and education, and during his later years, he showed some political ability. Regarding himself as an absolute sovereign, he was extremely tenacious of his rights. Greatly influenced by the Jesuits, he was a staunch proponent of the Counter-reformation. In person, he was short, but strong and healthy. Although he had no inclination for a military life, he loved exercise in the open air, such as hunting and riding; he also had a taste for music and composed several Oratorios and Suites of Dances.
Silver coin of Leopold I, 3 Kreuzer, dated 1670. The Latin inscription reads (obverse): LEOPOLDVS D[EI] G[RATIA] R[OMANORVM] I[MPERATOR] S[EMPER] A[VGVSTVS] G[ERMANIAE] H[VNGARIAE] B[OHEMIAE] REX (reverse):ARCHID[VX] AVS[TRIAE] DVX B[VRGVNDIAE] CO[MES] TYR[OLIS] 1670. In English: "Leopold, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the Romans, always Augustus, of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, King, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Tyrol, 1670."Due to an extreme interbreeding among his progenitors, the hereditary Habsburg jaw was most prominent in Leopold. Because his jaw was depicted unusually large on a 1670 silver coin, Leopold was nicknamed "the Hogmouth". However, most collectors do not believe the coin was an accurate depiction.
Private life
Leopold I in costume as Acis in La Galatea (1667, by Jan Thomas van Ieperen).Leopold was married three times.
In 1666, he married Margarita Teresa of Austria (1651–1673), daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, who was both his niece and his first cousin. She was the blonde princess depicted in Diego Velázquez' masterpiece Las Meninas. The wonderful series of Velazquez portraits of this lovely Spanish princess at various stages of her childhood were sent from the court of Madrid to Leopold as he waited in Vienna for his fiancee to grow up. This beautiful girl, the representation of merry childhood, was married at fifteen. She gave birth to four children and finally died at the age of twenty-one, leaving Leopold heartbroken, as he had truly loved her.
Leopold and Margarita Teresa of Austria's children:
- Archduke Ferdinand Wenzel (1667–1668).
- Archduchess Maria Antonia (1669–1692) married Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.
- Archduke Johann Leopold (1670), Archduke of Austria.
- Archduchess Maria Anna Antonia (1672), Archduchess of Austria.
His second wife was Archduchess Claudia Felicitas of Austria, the heiress of Tyrol. She died at the age of twenty-two on 2 September 1676; their two daughters also died. She was buried in the crypt of the St. Dominic side chapel of the Dominican church in Vienna.
- Archduchess Anna Maria Sophia (1674).
- Archduchess Maria Josepha (1675-1676).
His third wife was Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, a princess of the Palatinate. They had the following children:
- Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711) married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
- Archduchess Christina (1679).
- Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1680–1741) Governor of the Austrian Netherlands.
- Archduke Leopold Joseph (1682–1684).
- Archduchess Maria Anna (1683–1754) married John V of Portugal.
- Archduchess Maria Theresa (1684–1696).
- Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685–1740) married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
- Archduchess Maria Josepha (1687–1703).
- Archduchess Maria Magdalena (1689–1743).
- Archduchess Maria Margaret (1690–1691).
Music
Like his father, Leopold was a patron of music and a composer.[9] He continued to enrich the court's musical life by employing and providing support for distinguished composers such as Antonio Bertali, Giovanni Bononcini, Johann Kaspar Kerll, Ferdinand Tobias Richter, Alessandro Poglietti, Johann Fux. Leopold's surviving works show influence of Bertali and Viennese composers in general (in oratorios and other dramatic works), and of Johann Heinrich Schmelzer (in ballets and German comedies). His sacred music is perhaps his most successful, particularly Missa angeli custodis, a Requiem Mass for his first wife, and Three Lections, composed for the burial of his second wife.[10] Much of Leopold's music was published with works by his father, and described as "works of exceeding high merit."[11][12]
Titles
The full titulature of Leopold after he had become emperor went as follows: Leopold I, by the grace of God elected Holy Roman Emperor, forever August, King of Germany, King of Hungary,King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Rama, Serbia, Galicia, Lodomeria, Cumania, Bulgaria, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Margrave of Moravia, Duke of Luxemburg, of the Higher and Lower Silesia, of Württemberg and Teck, Prince of Swabia, Count of Habsburg, Tyrol, Kyburg and Goritia, Landgrave of Alsace, Marquess of the Holy Roman Empire, Burgovia, the Enns, the Higher and Lower Lusace, Lord of the Marquisate of Slavonia, of Port Naon and Salines, etc. etc.
Ancestors
See also
- Family tree of the German monarchs He was related to every other king of Germany.
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Notes
- ^ Coxe, William (1853). History of the House of Austria: From the Foundation of the Monarchy by Rhodolph of Hapsburgh, to the Death of Leopold the Second: 1218 to 1792. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 515.
- ^ Volker Press: I., Leopold. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band . 14 . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin not yet published, p. 257 . (German)
- ^ Das Königreich Ungarn: Ein topograph.-hist.-statistisches Rundgemälde, d. Ganze dieses Landes in mehr denn 12,400 Artikeln umfassend, Band 3, Seite 271, J.C. von Thiele, 1833.
- ^ Henryk Rechowicz: Bielsko-Biała. Zarys Rozwoju miasta i powiatu. Katowice: Wydawnictwo "Śląsk", 1971.
- ^ Juden in Wriezen: ihr Leben in der Stadt von 1677 bis 1940 und ihr Friedhof, Band 1 von Pri ha-Pardes, Seite 12, Brigitte Heidenhain, Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2007, ISBN 9783939469391
- ^ Geschichte Böhmens: von der slavischen Landnahme bis zur Gegenwart, Beck's historische Bibliothek, Seite 252, Jörg Konrad Hoensch, Ausgabe 3, Verlag C.H.Beck, 1997, ISBN 9783406416941
- ^ Konfessionsbildung und Konfessionskultur in Siebenbürgen in der Frühen Neuzeit, Band 66, Seite 64, Quellen und Studien zur Geschichte des östlichen Europa, Geschichte (Franz Steiner Verlag), Konfessionsbildung und Konfessionskultur in Siebenbürgen in der Frühen Neuzeit, Volker Leppin, Ulrich A. Wien, Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005, ISBN 9783515086172
- ^ Original anecdotes of Peter the Great, collected from the conversation of several persons of distinction at Petersburgh and Moscow, page 46, Jakob von Staehlin, Printed for J. Murray, 1788.
- ^ Dalberg-Acton, John Emerich Edward et. al. (1912). The Cambridge Modern History: Volume V: The Age of Louis XIV. New York: The MacMillan Company. p. 341.
- ^ Schnitzler, Rudolf, and Seifert, Herbert. "Leopold I", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (accessed 13 December 2006), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
- ^ (organization), Jstor (1892). "Musical times" (PDF). The Musical Times 1892. http://books.google.com/?id=xukEAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA400&dq=Leopold+I+Music. Retrieved 2009-03-16.
- ^ Adler, Guido (1892). Musikalishe Werke der Kaiser Ferdinand III., Leopold I., and Joseph I.,. Vienna, Austria: Antaria & Company.
Bibliography
- Crankshaw, Edward, The Habsburgs: Portrait of a Dynasty (New York, The Viking Press, 1971).
- Maria Goloubeva, The Glorification of Emperor Leopold I in Image, Spectacle and Text (Mainz, 2000) (Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für Europäische Geschichte. Abteilung für Universalgeschichte, 184).
- Jutta Schumann, Die andere Sonne. Kaiserbild und Medienstrategien im Zeitalter Leopolds I (Berlin, 2003) (Colloquia Augustana, 17).
External links
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor |
- Free scores by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor at the International Music Score Library Project
| Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor House of Habsburg Born: 9 June 1640 Died: 5 May 1705 | ||
| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Ferdinand IV | King of Bohemia 1656–1705 | Succeeded by Joseph I |
| King of Hungary 1655–1705 | ||
| King in Germany (formally King of the Romans) 1658–1690 | ||
| Preceded by Ferdinand III | Holy Roman Emperor (elect) 1658–1705 | |
| Archduke of Austria 1658–1705 | ||
| Duke of Teschen 1657–1705 | ||
| Preceded by Sigismund Francis | Archduke of Further Austria 1665–1705 | |
| Preceded by Michael II Apafi | Prince of Transylvania 1692–1705 | Succeeded by Francis II Rákóczi |
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| Authority control: PND: 118571869 | LCCN: n82099690 | VIAF: 54156429 | WorldCat |
| Persondata | |
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| Name | Leopold I |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | Holy Roman Emperor |
| Date of birth | 9 June 1640 |
| Place of birth | Vienna, Austria |
| Date of death | 5 May 1705 |
| Place of death | Vienna, Austria |
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