Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; 5 May 1747 – 1 March 1792) was the 44th Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.[1] He was a son of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma, and Emperor Joseph II. Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism.[2] He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Unusually for his time, he opposed the death penalty and torture and abolished it in Tuscany on 30 November 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so. This act has been commemorated since 2000 by a regional custom known as the Feast of Tuscany, held every 30 November.[3][4] Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him "one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown".[5]
For other uses, see Leopold II (disambiguation).Leopold II
30 September 1790 – 1 March 1792
9 October 1790
Frankfurt Cathedral
- Maria Christina of Austria & Albert Casimir, Duke of Teschen (1790-1792)
18 August 1765 – 22 July 1790
5 May 1747
Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
1 March 1792 (aged 44)
Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
- Maria Theresa, Queen of Saxony
- Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
- Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany
- Archduchess Maria Anna
- Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
- Archduke Alexander Leopold, Palatine of Hungary
- Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary
- Archduchess Maria Clementina, Duchess of Calabria
- Archduke Anton Victor
- Archduchess Maria Amalia
- Archduke Johann
- Archduke Rainer Joseph
- Archduke Louis
- Archduke Rudolf
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Leopold as Grand Duke of Tuscany together with his family
Coronation in Frankfurt am Main 9 October 1790. Silver strike of a coronation coin with Leopold's motto "pietate et concordia" above the Imperial Regalia.
As a patron of the arts, Leopold II had an impact on the arts and culture of both Tuscany and Vienna. He was particularly passionate about Italian opera as practiced in the city of Florence. While the Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790, he was a major patron of the composer Tommaso Traetta and subsidized the costs of staging many new innovative operas by that composer; including the first staging in Florence of Traetta's 1763 masterwork Ifigenia in Tauride. He also was a patron of the opera singers Giovanni Manzuoli, Giusto Fernando Tenducci, and Tommaso Guarducci.[16]
Upon his succession to Holy Roman Emperor in 1790, Leopold II brought his passion for Florentine opera to the Vienna court, and brought with him many of the musicians and opera singers he enjoyed in Tuscany to Vienna. Many of the previously active singers, librettists, and composers at the Vienna court, such as librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, were dismissed by Leopold II as he significantly changed the staffing of artists in the Vienna court.[16]
Before Leopold II opera buffa had been the center of the Vienna court, but after his succession and by Leopold's direction opera seria and ballet became the central repertoire of both the Burgtheater and Kärntnertortheate.[16] Following this shift, Mozart, who had previously written the opera buffas The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) with Da Ponte, created the opera seria La clemenza di Tito which was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia for the festivities that accompanied Leopold's coronation as king of Bohemia in Prague on 6 September 1791.[17] This shift toward opera seria and ballet continued in Vienna beyond Leopold II's reign decades into the 19th century.[16]
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