LEOPOLD II, Grand Duke of Tuscany. - B. 3 Oct. 1797 in Florence, d. 29 Jan. 1870 in Rome. Son of Ferdinand III and Maria Luisa Amalia of Naples, he left Florence with his family after the French invasion in 1799 and followed his father in his wanderings abroad, to Salzburg and Würzburg. He returned to his homeland after the fall of Napoleon, and upon the death of Ferdinand III in 1824, became Grand Duke. Well-prepared for public administration, L. proved himself a sovereign of uncommon talents.
Deeply concerned for the welfare of his subjects and the economic prosperity of the country, he granted hospitality to those who, persecuted elsewhere, sought refuge in Tuscany. In 1839, L. permitted the first congress of Italian scientists to be held in Pisa, a meeting that was not only academic but also political, in favor of the national idea. In 1848, L. granted a constitution and consented to Tuscan participation in the First War of Independence, but, unwilling to sanction the law on the Italian Constituent Assembly, he withdrew to Gaeta, where Pius IX was already present. Upon his return, he continued negotiations with the Holy See for the conclusion of a definitive concordat (some preliminary articles had already been agreed upon on 30 March 1848), signed on 25 Apr. 1851 in Rome. The ties of jurisdictional legislation established by Leopold I were partially relaxed to the benefit of good relations between State and Church. In 1859, having lost the Grand Duchy, L. settled in Austria. In 1869, he went to Rome to escape the harshness of the northern climate and died there a few weeks later.
LEOPOLD I, Emperor - Portrait. Engraving by Cristoforo A. Wagner.
political-administrative situation; the religious situation stabilized, Catholicism once again became exuberant and vital. Above all after the Turkish invasion of 1683, a grand cultural renewal took place: reconstruction and construction of churches, palaces, convents (J. B. Fischer, V. Erlach; J. Prandauer; L. V. ILDEBRANDO), sumptuously frescoed (the two Altomonte; J. M. Rotmayr; D. Gran; P. Troger); the court preacher, Fr. Abramo di S. Chiara, was the most famous sacred orator of the century; Italian opera made a triumphal entry (Burnacchini) into Vienna; in short, the Baroque face of Austria was created in this era.