The Habsburgs- The History of a Dynasty by Benjamin Curtis

Author:Benjamin Curtis
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781441100535
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2013-07-18T04:00:00+00:00

Leopold I (1640–1705)

Leopold reigned for 47 years, longer than any other Habsburg of the early modern period. The ironic thing about him was that the outsized role he had to play as emperor and monarch—defending Germany from the French, defeating the Turks, grappling for the dynasty’s Spanish lands—was too big for the rather unassuming man himself. He managed in most cases to make the best of it, however. He has been described as one of the ugliest members of his line: since both his parents were Habsburgs, Leopold (Figure 7.1) was over-endowed with the family’s idiosyncratic physical attributes, namely a dramatically protuberant lip and jaw. He was fairly slight and never physically robust. He had originally been groomed for a Church career, but when his brother Ferdinand IV died, the succession fell to him. He remained a somewhat reluctant statesman, often preferring to spend time with his books and music. Like many of his family members, he was intelligent, diligent, and very pious. He was a talented composer, and perhaps undermined his own conscientious ruling by making sure that his musicians were paid first even when his court was strapped for funds. His almost slavish dedication to multiple masses per day, regular visits to monasteries, and frequent pilgrimages drew criticism even from the papal nuncio, since these devotions diverted so much time from his governing. But this ponderousness was a major facet of his character. He was patient to the point of inaction, a shy, deeply conservative personality who became more passive as he grew older. Never a visionary or inspiring leader, his regime confronted its late, serious trials less with alacrity than with indecision.

Because Ferdinand III had not completed arrangements for Leopold to succeed him in the Empire, in 1658 it fell to the young Leopold and his advisors to negotiate with the electors’ difficult conditions. The difficulty arose in part because at this time Felipe IV still had no legitimate son, which meant that Leopold could conceivably inherit the Spanish possessions. That in turn would have posed a major threat to the balance of power, and could have potentially pulled the Empire back into the conflict between Spain and France. Thus Leopold was forced to cancel his marriage plans with Felipe IV’s daughter María Teresa (who eventually married Louis XIV) and agree that he would remain neutral in the Spanish branch’s ongoing conflict with France. There had been some serious competition for the imperial title, including the Bavarian elector Ferdinand Maria and the long-shot Louis XIV. Hence at the outset of his reign, the 18-year-old Leopold occupied a feeble position in the Empire. A number of German princes then formed the so-called League of the Rhine with Louis XIV and Karl X of Sweden as a defensive alliance against Leopold, to prevent him from violating the terms of the Peace of Westphalia or the Empire’s neutrality. Already in his first two years as emperor Leopold was at war, drawn into a conflict in Poland in which he allied with Denmark and Brandenburg against Sweden.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.