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From the Emperor’s Desk: In Part one I will address the Grand Dukes family background and reign. In Part two I will address his two marriages.

Leopold II (October 3, 1797 – January 29, 1870) was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and was Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1824 to 1859. Leopold was recognised contemporarily as a liberal monarch, authorising the Tuscan Constitution of 1848, and allowing a degree of press freedom.

Born in Florence, Leopold II was the son of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa of the Two Sicilies, who were double first cousins. His maternal grandparents were King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Archduchess Marie Carolina of Austria.

Family Background

His father, Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, born an Archduke of Austria, was the second son of Archduke Leopold of Austria, then the ruling Grand Duke Leopold I of Tuscany, and his wife, Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of King Carlos III of Spain, formerly King of Naples and Sicily, and and his wife Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony.

When Archduke Ferdinand III’s father was elected Emperor Leopold II of the Holy Roman Empire, Archduke Ferdinand succeeded him as Grand Duke of Tuscany, officially taking the office on July 22, 1790.

Grand Duke Ferdinand III of Tuscany was also the Prince-Elector and Grand Duke of Salzburg (1803–1805) and Grand Duke (and briefly Prince-Elector) of Würzburg (1805–1814), during the time he had been deposed as Grand Duke of Tuscany during the Napoleonic Wars. On May 30, 1814, after Napoleon’s fall, Ferdinand was restored as Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany’s mother, Princess Luisa Maria Amelia Teresa of the Two Sicilies, was a double first cousin to her husband, was a member of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and was the daughter of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and his wife, Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa, (Queen of Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Archduchess of Austria in her own right) and her husband Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, former Duke of Lorraine.

Princess Luisa Maria Amelia’s paternal grandparents were King Carlos III of Spain and Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony.

Succession

Archduke Leopold succeeded his father upon his death on June 18, 1824 and became Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany. During the first twenty years of his reign he devoted himself to the internal development of the state.

His was the mildest and least reactionary of all the Italian despotisms of the day, and although always subject to Austrian influence he refused to adopt the Austrian methods of government, allowed a fair measure of liberty to the press, and permitted many political exiles from other states to dwell in Tuscany undisturbed.

During the early 1840s unrest spread throughout Italy, even in Tuscany demands for a constitution and other political reforms were advanced; in 1845 and 1846, riots occurred in various parts of the country, and Leopold granted a number of administrative reforms. But Austrian influence prevented him from doing more, even had he wished to do so.

The election of Pope Pius IX gave fresh encouragement to Liberalism, and on September 4, 1847 Leopold instituted the National Guard – a preparation for a constitution; soon afterward the Marchese Cosimo Ridolfi (1794–1865) was appointed Prime Minister. The granting of the Neapolitan and Piedmontese constitutions was followed (February 17, 1848) by that of Tuscany, written by Gino Capponi.

New elections in the autumn of 1848 returned a constitutional majority, but it ended by voting in favour of a constituent assembly. There was talk of instituting a central Italian kingdom with Leopold as king, to form part of a larger Italian federation, but in the meanwhile Grand Duke Leopold II alarmed at the revolutionary and republican agitations in Tuscany encouraged by the success of the Austrian troops, was, according to Montanelli, negotiating with Field Marshal Radetzky and with Pope Pius IX, who had now abandoned his liberal policies.

Grand Duke Leopold II had left Florence for Siena, and eventually for Porto Santo Stefano, leaving a letter to Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi in which, on account of a protest from Pope Pius IX, he declared that he could not agree to the proposed constituent assembly. The utmost confusion prevailed in Florence and other parts of Tuscany.

On February 1849 a Republic was proclaimed and on that same day Leopold sailed for Gaeta. A third parliament was elected and Guerrazzi appointed dictator. But there was great discontent, and the defeat of King Charles Albert of Sardinia at Novara caused consternation among the Liberals.

The majority, while fearing an Austrian invasion, desired the return of the Grand Duke who had never been unpopular, and in April 1849 the municipal council usurped the powers of the assembly and invited him to return, “to save us by means of the restoration of the constitutional monarchy surrounded by popular institutions, from the shame and ruin of a foreign invasion.” Leopold accepted, although he said nothing about the foreign invasion, and on May 1, sent Count Luigi Serristori to Tuscany with full powers.

But at the same time the Austrians occupied Lucca and Livorno, and although Grand Duke Leopold II faked surprise at their actions it has since been proved, as the Austrian General d’Aspre declared at the time, that Austrian intervention was due to the request of the Grand Duke Leopold II himself.

On the 25th of July the Austrians entered Florence and on July 28th Leopold himself returned. In April 1850 he concluded a treaty with Austria suspending the continuation for an indefinite period of the Austrian occupation with 10,000 men; in September he dismissed parliament, and the next year established a concordat with the Church of a very clerical character.

He feebly asked Austria if he might maintain the constitution, and the Austrian premier, Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg, advised him to consult Pope Pius IX, King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, Duke Charles II of Parma and Duke Francis V of Modena.

On their advice he formally revoked the constitution (1852). Political trials were held, Guerrazzi and many others being condemned to long terms of imprisonment, and although in 1855 the Austrian troops left Tuscany, Leopold’s popularity was gone.

Grand Duke Leopold II attempted a policy of neutrality with regard to the Second Italian War of Independence but was expelled by a bloodless coup on April 27, 1859, just before the beginning of the war. The Grand Ducal family left for Bologna, which was then papal territory since the Congress of Vienna of 1814.

Tuscany was occupied by soldiers of King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia for the duration of the conflict. The Armistice of Villafranca, agreed to between Emperor Napoleon III of France and Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on July 11th, provided for the return of the Habsburg-Lorraines to Florence, but Leopold himself was considered too unpopular to be accepted, and on July 21, 1859, he abdicated the throne in favour of his son, Archduke Ferdinand, technically Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany, who never reigned, but issued a protest from Dresden (26 March 1860).

Because the new Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany wasn’t any more acceptable to the revolutionaries in control of Florence, his accession was not proclaimed. Instead, the provisional government proclaimed the deposition of the House of Habsburg on August 16, 1859.

The former Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany spent his last years in Austria, and died in Rome on January 29th, 1870.