FERDINAND III., grand duke of Tuscany, and archduke of Austria, was b. at Florence, 6th May, 1769. In 1790, he succeeded his father, Leopold II., in the govern ment of Tuscany, when the latter obtained the imperial throne at the death of the emperor Joseph II., Leopold's brother. F.'s rule in Tuscany was one of combined mildness and ability; and during his reign were inaugurated many judicial, economical, and legislative reforms: commerce was protected and encouraged; hospitals and asylums founded, good roads opened through the state, and the greatest attention bestowed on the welfare of his subjects, which an enlightened and good prince could •exercise. A lover of peaceful progress, he remained strictly neutral in the first coali tion against France, and was the first sovereign in Europe to recognize and treat diplo matically with the French republic in 1792. In 1793, intimidated by the combined menaces of the Russian and British cabinets, F. was constrained to relinquish his neutral policy, and become a passive. member of the coalition formed by the above governments against France. In 1795, on the French occupation of Piedmont, he
speedily reassumed friendly relations with France. In 1797, in order to save his states f rain annexation to the Cisalpine republic, F. concluded a treaty with Bonaparte on most unfavorable terms; undertaking to pay a war-levy to France, and to transfer to the museum of Paris some of the chief master-pieces of the Florentine galleries, includ ing the " Venus de' Medici." Owing to the continued intrigues of France in his states, F. was forced to seek an Austrian alliance, which furnished Bonaparte with a pretext for declaring war simultaneously against Austria and Tuscany. In 1799, F. retired to Vienna, leaving the French troops in occupation of Tuscany. In 1801, at the peace of Luneville, he was forced to renounce all claim on Tuscany. In 1814, the peace of Paris reinstated him in Tuscany, and even restored his artistic treasures. He died 17th June, 1824, leaving his states to his son Leopold II.