LE'OPOLD I., Emperor of Germany, 1640-1705; b. Austria, son of Ferdinand III., of the house of Hapsburg, and of Maria Anna of Spain. He was educated for the church, but on the death of his brother in 1655 he ascended the throne of Hungary, and in 1637 was proclaimed king of Bohemia. In 1658, after the death of Ferdinand III., a contested election for emperor was decided in his favor and against Louis XIV. of France, notwithstanding that the latter had gained four of the electors over to his side. His reign, continuing through• the half century that followed, was remarkable for the number of important wars which occurred, making that period an eventful one for the continent of Europe, in all of which lie was prominently concerned. In 1657 he assumed the government of the hereditary states of the house of Austria, and, find ing that the Turks had invaded Hungary and Moravia, he made war on them, and with his gen., Montecnccoli, an Italian, completely routed them at the battle of St. Gothard, near Kenhausel, in 1664, after which a truce of 20 years was arranged. In July, 1683, he was defeated near Raab by an army of 200,000 men, the combined forces of the porte, under Kara Mustapha, and the disaffected Hungarian nobles, with Tekeli (whom they chose as their leader in 1682), who had joined the Turks, Louis XIV. secretly inciting the Turkish invasion. In Sept., 1683, with Sobieski of Poland, who marched from Cracow with 16,000 men, and the duke of Lorraine with 70,000 men of the imperial forces, who made a junction at the Danube, he fought a battle in the vicinity of the Austrian capital, defeated the Turks, who had captured it, saving Vienna, and ridding Hungary of the Turkish troops after a series of desperate encounters. In 1686 Buda
was retaken after a memorable siege. In 1687 the diet of Presburg acquiesced in the proposition to make the male line of the Hapsburgs hereditary in Hungary. In 1691 occurred the victory of Zalankernen. In 1697 he brought the Turkish war to a close, by gaining, with prince Eugene, a great victory near Zenta in Hungary, and obtained secure possession of Transylvania in 1699. In 1701 he renewed his alliance with Eng land and Holland, and in the following year a number of victories were won by his army under command of prince Eugene, and in 1704 the triumph of Blenheim in con nection with the allied powers. lie carried on three wars against Louis XIV., one fol lowed by the treaty of Nimwegen in 1678, one the peace of Rvswick in 1697, and the war of the Spanish succession, in which his son, the archduke Charles, laid claim to the throne made vacant by the death of Charles II. in 1700, and the termination of which, as well as that of the great Hungarian insurrection under Franz Rakoczy, he did not live to see. The most significant events of his reign were the establishment of a ninth electorate in favor of Earnest Augustus, duke of Brunswick-Lttheburg, who in 1692 became the fiyst elector of Hanover: the assumption of the regal title by Frederic, elector of Brandenburg and duke of Prussia, in 1701; and the establishment of a permanent diet, attended by the electors' representatives instead of the electors in person. He was married three times; his first wife was Margarita Theresa, a Spanish princess. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Joseph I.