Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard was born 5 May 1747, a son of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, which made him brother to Marie Antoinette and Joseph II. He became Grand Duke of Tuscany in 1765 and ruled there for a quarter-century as a moderate enlightened absolutist — he protected the Academy of Georgofili, and on 30 November 1786 he abolished the death penalty and torture, the first modern nation to do so. In 1790 he succeeded his brother Joseph as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria. He died 1 March 1792, two years i…