Birthday Greetings #7

Happy birthday to Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor 1658-1705. A younger son of emperor Ferdinand III Leopold was originally intended for the church but when his older brother died he found himself at the head of the Habsburg family domains and in 1685 was elected Holy Roman Emperor after his fathers death. By this time the Holy Roman Empire was little more than lines on a map as all of the collection of statelets that comprised it tended to do whatever they wanted. The emperor couldn't guarantee to get their attention much less their obedience. Despite this events played into Leopold's hands somewhat as a series of wars with France and the Ottomans (along with judiciously granted concessions) encouraged at least some of the states to fall in line with their imperial "master".

Leopold might be better known if he hadn't lived at the time when Louis XIV was sun kinging around France. As it was Leopold got into three wars with France over various issues but essentially due to the fact that most people thought the King of France was quite powerful enough already. Fortunately for Leopold "most people" included Britain (once they got over Charles II's infatuation with Louis and dumped an appropriately Protestant monarch on the throne). In addition to military support Britain provided the perennially broke Habsburgs with the money needed to maintain armies and fight wars. Honours were divided in the first two conflicts but in the third, the War of the Spanish Succession, the House of Habsburg came out a clear winner although Leopold was dead by the time it was over.

When he wasn't occupied with France Leopold spent his time dealing with the other two problems that never went away for the Habsburgs. Rebellion in Hungary and war with the Ottoman Turks. Leopold had defeated (not personally, he never commanded his armies in the field) the Turks early in his reign but had let them down lightly in the peace talks because he needed his army to fight one of his wars with France. Hungary at this time was split in two; most of it was ruled by semi independent Turkish pashas who ultimately owed allegiance to the Sultan in Constantinople. The northern strip was still under Habsburg control but this control was exercised through a self willed Magyar nobility who essentially remained loyal to the Habsburgs as long as the Habsburgs didn't tell them what to do. Leopold's victory over the Turks first delighted and then disgusted the Magyars as it seemed he threw away the fruits of victory in a shameful peace. Nothing loathe they decided to continue the war on their own account. When Leopold tried to stop them they rose in revolt.

The revolt was quickly crushed but Leopold went too far and attempted to make the Hungarian nobility pay for his occupying force. Furthermore he forbade them from simply passing the costs onto the Hungarian peasantry which was their normal reaction to royal taxation. Grim faced Catholic priests also descended on a Hungary at least partly Calvinist and it wasn't long before most of Hungary was in an uproar again. The next peace treaty was far more conciliatory.

Then the Ottomans invaded, marched on Vienna (with a goodly proportion of the Magyar nobility cheering discreetly in the background) and besieged it for several months. Leopold fled his capital but persuaded the Polish king to take it back for him. With victory over the Turks Leopold's army pursued and reconquered pretty much all of Hungary for the first time in over a century.

Flushed with victory Leopold then got into another war with Louis XIVs France. Fortunately for the House of Habsburg something unusual happened; they got a military genius to command their army. In 1683 a nineteen year old member of some pissant Italo-French nobility asked Louis XIV for command of a company in the French army. Louis refused, "the request was modest, not so the petitioner" was his comment later. In what some might consider an overreaction the petitioner turned his back on his king and offered his sword to Leopold. His name was Eugene of Savoy and he would prove to have the ability to back up his opinion of himself. He fought at the siege of Vienna, won a staggering victory against the Turks at the Battle of Zenta and then returned to command Imperial forces on the Rhine where he combined with the British Duke of Marlborough in one of the most successful military partnerships of all time. Leopold contented himself with cheering them on from the sidelines.

When he wasn't organising wars, crushing Hungarians and selling Protestant preachers as galley slaves (look it up) Leopold wrote music and attempted to bring some order to the rather chaotic administration of his lands. He dismissed his chancellor for corruption but even the audit committee found itself unable to disentangle the web of corruption and was forced to make guesses as to the amount of money the chancellor had actually stolen.

Leopold died in 1705 while the War of the Spanish Succession was still going on. There was some talk of posthumously christening him Leopold the Great in recognition of the conquests made in his name but eventually everyone decided on Leopold the More or Less Good Enough.