Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

Born on 9 June 1640 in Vienna, Leopold received the traditional program of education in the liberal arts, history, literature, natural science and astronomy. He was particularly interested in music, as his father, Emperor Ferdinand III, had been. From an early age, Leopold showed an inclination toward learning. In addition to his native German, he became fluent in Latin, Italian and Spanish. Leopold disdained the German language and preferred to speak and read in Italian, which was the language most often spoken at his court and used in his official correspondence; in 1656, he founded an Italian literary academy in Vienna. Although some historians have noted this disdain of German to be exaggerated.

Likewise, he had received comprehensive ecclesiastical training as he had originally been selected for a career in the higher clergy. This plan, though, was dropped upon the 1654 death of his older brother, Ferdinand IV, King of the Romans, when Leopold became heir apparent. Nonetheless, Leopold's spiritual education had had a manifest impact on him. Leopold remained under the spell of his clerical education and Jesuit influence throughout his life. For a monarch, he was uncommonly knowledgeable about theology, metaphysics, jurisprudence and the sciences. He also retained his interest in astrology and alchemy, which he had developed under Jesuit tutors. A deeply religious and devoted person, Leopold personified the pietas Austriaca, or the loyal Catholic attitude of his house. On the other hand, his piety and education may have caused in him a fatalistic strain which inclined him to reject all compromise on denominational questions, which is not always considered a positive characteristic of a ruler.

Leopold was said to have typical Habsburg physical attributes, such as the prominent Habsburg lower jaw. Short, thin and of sick constitution, Leopold was cold and reserved in public and socially inept. However, he is also said to have been open with close associates. Coxe described Leopold in the following manner: "His gait was stately, slow and deliberate; his air pensive, his address awkward, his manner uncouth, his disposition cold and phlegmatic." Spielman argues that his long-expected career in the clergy caused Leopold to have "early adopted the intense Catholic piety expected of him and the gentle manners appropriate to a merely supporting role. He grew to manhood without the military ambition that characterised most of his fellow monarchs. From the beginning, his reign was defensive and profoundly conservative".

Elected king of Hungary in 1655, he followed suit in 1656 and 1657 in Bohemia and Croatia, respectively. In July 1658, more than a year after his father's death, Leopold was elected Holy Roman Emperor at Frankfurt in opposition to the French Cardinal Mazarin, who sought to place the Imperial Crown on the head of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria or some other non-Habsburg prince. To conciliate France, which had considerable influence in German affairs thanks to the League of the Rhine, the newly elected emperor promised not to assist Spain, then at war with France. This marked the beginning of a nearly 47-year reign characterised by a lasting rivalry with France and its king, Louis XIV. The latter's dominant personality and power completely overshadowed Leopold, even to this day, but Leopold was no less a warrior-king, given that the greater part of his public life was directed towards the arrangement and furtherance of wars.

On 12 December 1666, he married Margaret Theresa of Spain (1651–1673), daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, who was both his niece and his first cousin. She was depicted in Diego Velázquez's paintings sent from the court of Madrid to Leopold as he waited in Vienna for his fiancée to grow up. Leopold and Margaret Theresa had four children, all but one short-lived:

Archduke Ferdinand Wenzel (1667–1668)

Maria Antonia of Austria (1669–1692), who married Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria

Archduke Johann Leopold (1670)

Archduchess Maria Anna Antonia (1672)

His second wife was Claudia Felicitas of Austria, who died in 1676 at the age of 22. Neither of their two daughters survived:

Archduchess Anna Maria Josepha (1674)

Archduchess Maria Josepha Clementina (1675–1676)

His third wife was Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg. They had the following children:

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711), who married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg

Archduchess Maria Christina (1679)

Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1680–1741), Governor of the Austrian Netherlands

Archduke Leopold Joseph (1682–1684)

Archduchess Maria Anna (1683–1754) married John V of Portugal

Archduchess Maria Theresa (1684–1696)

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685–1740), who married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Archduchess Maria Josepha (1687–1703)

Archduchess Maria Magdalena (1689–1743)

Archduchess Maria Margaret (1690–1691)

Political changes

In 1692, the Duke of Hanover was raised to the rank of an elector, becoming the ninth member of the electoral college. In 1700, Leopold, greatly in need of help for the impending war with France, granted the title of King in Prussia to the Elector of Brandenburg. The net result of these and similar changes was to weaken the authority of the emperor over the princes of the empire and to compel him to rely more and more upon his position as ruler of the Austrian archduchies and of Hungary and Bohemia.