Austrian Monarch. From 1765 to 1790 he ruled the grand duchy of Tuscany where his constitutional reforms removed restrictions on industry and personal freedoms imposed by his Medici predecessors. These acts, which included a system of rational taxation and profitable public works, earned him the reputation of an "exemplar of democracy." By contrast, his short reign as Emperor, from 1790 to 1792, was over shadowed by revolutionary unrest in France, aggression by both Prussia and Russia and Belgian insurrection in the Austrian Netherlands. He is remembered for his diplomacy in settling these threats by subduing the Belgians in 1790 and reaching peace agreements with Prussia and Turkey in 1790 and 1791. His Declaration of Pillnitz in 1791 by which he expected to avoid war with France, however, resulted in the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars just weeks after his death.
Austrian Monarch. From 1765 to 1790 he ruled the grand duchy of Tuscany where his constitutional reforms removed restrictions on industry and personal freedoms imposed by his Medici predecessors. These acts, which included a system of rational taxation and profitable public works, earned him the reputation of an "exemplar of democracy." By contrast, his short reign as Emperor, from 1790 to 1792, was over shadowed by revolutionary unrest in France, aggression by both Prussia and Russia and Belgian insurrection in the Austrian Netherlands. He is remembered for his diplomacy in settling these threats by subduing the Belgians in 1790 and reaching peace agreements with Prussia and Turkey in 1790 and 1791. His Declaration of Pillnitz in 1791 by which he expected to avoid war with France, however, resulted in the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars just weeks after his death.
Bio by: Samuel Taylor Geer
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