Leopold, Duke of Lorraine
Joseph Leopold of Lorraine ( born September 11, 1679 Innsbruck, † March 27, 1729 in Luneville ) was 1690-1729 Duke of Lorraine.
Life
His parents were Charles V of Lorraine and Eleonora Maria Josepha, daughter of Emperor Ferdinand III. He grew up in Innsbruck with his mother, a woman Of outstanding intellect and great severity, while his father shone in the war against the Turks. When his father died in 1690, he was formally Duke of Lorraine and Bar, under the regency of his mother. These areas were still occupied French at that time.
He was sent to Vienna to be militarily trained by his uncle and godfather, Emperor Leopold I.. He grew up with his two cousins , Joseph and Charles, both of which once the imperial crown, as Joseph I and Charles VI. , Should wear. To them he was all his life close, personal, political and religious.
In 1694 he took part in the siege of Timisoara. During the Palatinate War of Succession he commanded 1697 troops on the Rhine. After the peace of Ryswick, he received the Duchy of Lorraine back from the French. However, he was forced to cede Longwy and Saarlouis.
He came in 1668 in his capital at Nancy. Politically, he remained neutral. In relation to the government organization he was based on the French model. He has promoted trade and commerce, among others, through the establishment of manufactories.
Despite its neutrality in the War of Spanish Succession was occupied by the troops of Louis XIV in 1702 Nancy. Leopold had to withdraw after Luneville. There he had the castle built new for the most part. A planned new castle in Nancy was not realized. Near the city, he had the castle La Malgrange build, which became his favorite residence next to the castle Luneville. Nevertheless, he also worked to bring the beautification and expansion of Nancy. He built a new cathedral. He also built the opera and renewed the fortifications. He founded an academy of sculpture and painting.
In 1710 he claimed the Duchy of Mantua as an inheritance, but could not prevail. In return he received the Duchy of Cieszyn Silesia. With the beginning of the reign of Louis XV. its relations with France improved again.
The Duke pursued a single-minded politics of marriage to marry one of his sons to a daughter of Charles IV. The education at the Viennese court should help. In 1723 Francis Stephen of Lorraine was able to travel to Austria to be educated there. Later he married the then Emperor's daughter Maria Theresa.
In March 1729 the very popular Duke crashed while hunting in a ditch and died a few days later, mourned by his subjects, at the age of only 49 years.
Progeny
Leopold married on October 13, 1698 in Fontainebleau Élisabeth Charlotte de Bourbon- Orléans ( 1676-1744 ), daughter of Philip I, Duke of Orléans and Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate. Their thirteen children were:
- Leopold (* 1699, † 1700)
- Elisabeth Charlotte ( * 1700, † 1711)
- Louise Christine ( * / † 1701)
- Marie Gabriele Charlotte ( * 1702, † 1711)
- Louis ( * 1704, † 1711)
- Josepha Gabriele (* 1705, † 1708)
- Gabriele Louise (* 1706, † 1709/10 )
- Leopold Clement Karl ( * 1707, † 1723)
- Francis Stephen (* 1708, † 1765 ), Emperor
- Eleonore (* / † 1710)
- Elisabeth Therese (* 1711, † 1741), Queen of Sardinia
- Karl Alexander (* 1712, † 1780), Duke
- Anna Charlotte ( * 1714, † 1773), Abbess of Remiremont and Sainte- Waudru in Mons, Koadjutorin in Essen and Thorn