Leopold I.

Leopold I of the House of Habsburg was born in Vienna on June 9, 1640, as Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician, and died there on May 5, 1705. From 1658 until his death, he was Holy Roman Emperor. He was also king of Hungary, Bohemia, Croatia, and Slavonia. His long reign was shaped by the Habsburg monarchy’s two great foreign-policy adversaries: France under Louis XIV in the west and the Ottoman Empire in the southeast. Military successes against the Ottomans ultimately led to Austria’s rise as a European great power and established the Habsburg monarchy’s prominent position in the Baroque era. Leopold was the son of Emperor Ferdinand III and the Spanish Infanta Maria Anna. His elder brother Ferdinand, who had been designated heir, died unexpectedly in 1654. Leopold consequently became sole heir to the Habsburg lands at the age of fourteen. He had originally been intended for an ecclesiastical career, possibly as bishop of Passau, and therefore received a comprehensive education from Johann Ferdinand, Count Porzia, and several Jesuits. This upbringing shaped his strictly Catholic and initially strongly counter-Reformation character. Leopold was closely connected by family ties to the Spanish Habsburgs. He also had a dual relationship with Louis XIV: they were cousins through their Spanish mothers and became brothers-in-law through their marriages to Spanish princesses. Nevertheless, they remained lifelong political rivals. Leopold was crowned king of Hungary in Pressburg on June 27, 1655; the following year, he was crowned king of Bohemia in Prague. His succession in the Empire, however, was contested. France supported Louis XIV’s candidacy, while Bavarian and Protestant candidates were also discussed. After Leopold’s father died in 1657, a lengthy interregnum began. Only after difficult negotiations with the electors did Leopold prevail over several rivals. He was elected on July 18, 1658, and crowned on August 1 of the same year in Frankfurt’s Imperial Cathedral. During the first decades of his reign, Leopold largely entrusted state affairs to experienced advisers. After leading ministers were dismissed for having secretly established connections with France, he increasingly set political policy himself from the early 1680s onward. He governed without a single chief minister and relied on various chancellors, councils, and expert commissions. His political style was deliberate and shaped by dynastic convictions and a strong sense of imperial dignity. At the Viennese court, organized according to Spanish models, elaborate Baroque magnificence unfolded. Festivals, opera performances, and court ceremonies helped bind the high nobility of Austria, Bohemia, and the Empire to the imperial court. At the same time, the court was marked by intrigues and shifting factions. In the Habsburg lands, Leopold ruled in an absolutist manner and maintained close ties with the Catholic Church. He promoted the Counter-Reformation and pressured Protestants, particularly in Hungary, Bohemia, and Silesia. Vienna’s Jews were expelled in 1670–71, and the area where they had previously lived later became known as Leopoldstadt. Paradoxically, Jewish court financiers such as Samuel Oppenheimer and Samson Wertheimer were important in financing the wars. Social tensions were considerable. Peasants suffered under high taxes and forced labor, while epidemics and poverty placed further pressure on the population. After a major peasant uprising in Bohemia in 1680, Leopold issued a decree intended to limit forced labor, but the landlords observed it only inadequately. In Vienna, he established workhouses and a large poorhouse. A plague epidemic in 1678–79 reportedly claimed 50,000 lives in the city alone. Leopold’s relationship with Hungary was especially conflict-ridden. Absolutist measures, the Counter-Reformation, and the humiliating Peace of Vasvár led to a magnate conspiracy whose leaders were executed in 1671. Leopold subsequently restricted the estates’ rights and attempted to Germanize the country more extensively. Because resistance continued, however, he was forced to make concessions. After his victory over the Ottomans, he regained greater influence. In 1687, his son Joseph was crowned king of Hungary, and the Hungarian nobility recognized the hereditary succession to the Hungarian crown within the House of Habsburg. Transylvania came under Habsburg rule, while Leopold’s Diploma Leopoldinum of 1691 confirmed the country’s traditional constitution and religious rights. Within the Empire, Leopold developed from a initially weakened emperor into an important political authority. He upheld the Peace of Westphalia and the equality of the confessions, presenting himself as guardian of religious balance. The Imperial Diet convened in Regensburg in 1663 remained in permanent session and became the Perpetual Imperial Diet. Although Leopold was initially skeptical, this development ultimately strengthened the imperial position because it enabled him to exert closer influence over the imperial estates. Through marriages, elevations in rank, and political support, he tied the Palatine, Guelph, Wettin, and other princely houses to Vienna. He enabled the Brandenburg elector to assume the title of king in Prussia and supported the Saxon elector in his pursuit of the Polish crown. Leopold’s foreign policy was dominated by war. In the west, he had to resist Louis XIV’s expansion. He was defeated by France in the Franco-Dutch War and had to accept territorial losses in the Peace of Nijmegen. Nor could he prevent the French Reunion policy or the capture of Strasbourg. In the east, the situation changed decisively. During the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, Leopold left the city and initially stayed in Passau and Linz. He nevertheless succeeded in organizing an imperial, German, and Polish relief army. Under King John III Sobieski and Duke Charles of Lorraine, Vienna was liberated after the Battle of Kahlenberg. The victory initiated the Great Turkish War. Buda, Mohács, and Belgrade were conquered, and commanders such as Louis William of Baden and Prince Eugene of Savoy achieved important victories. In the Peace of Karlowitz in 1699, the Ottoman Empire renounced Hungary, Transylvania, and most of Slavonia. This marked the true beginning of Austria’s rise as a great power. At the same time, Leopold fought France in the Nine Years’ War. After the death of Charles II of Spain, he asserted his family’s claims in the War of the Spanish Succession. His son Charles was proclaimed king of Spain in 1703. In 1704, Eugene of Savoy and John Churchill defeated the Franco-Bavarian forces at Höchstädt, after which Bavaria was occupied by imperial troops. Leopold died in Vienna in 1705 during this war. Alongside his political activities, Leopold promoted science, architecture, and the arts. Under his rule, Vienna developed further into a Baroque city; the Leopoldine Wing of the Hofburg and the foundations of Schönbrunn date from his reign. He supported universities, scientific institutions, and the founding of the Academy of Fine Arts. He was particularly prominent as a music lover and composer. He played several instruments, conducted his chamber orchestra, and left more than 230 works, including sacred compositions, oratorios, ballets, and singspiels. Italian opera was intensively promoted at the Viennese court. Leopold married three times. His first marriage, to Margarita Teresa of Spain, produced, among other children, Maria Antonia, who married the Bavarian elector Maximilian II Emanuel. His second marriage, to Claudia Felicitas of Austria-Tyrol, produced two children who died young. With his third wife, Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg, Leopold had ten children, including the future emperors Joseph I and Charles VI. After his death, he was buried in Vienna’s Imperial Crypt; his heart, entrails, and other body parts were interred separately in accordance with Habsburg tradition. Through his cautious and persistent actions, Leopold secured a long period of relative stability for the Empire and became one of the most important Habsburg emperors of the late seventeenth century.