Leopold II

Monarchy and royalism 1797–1870 ○ Natural causes

Grand Duke of Tuscany who granted a constitution in 1848, fled to Gaeta and came back behind Austrian troops

Born in Florence in 1797 the son of Ferdinand III of Tuscany, he succeeded his father as grand duke in 1824. The mildest of the Italian despots of his day, he allowed a fair measure of press freedom and let political exiles from other states live in Tuscany. He instituted the National Guard in 1847, granted a constitution in February 1848 and sent regulars and volunteers to the Lombard campaign. He reluctantly accepted a democratic Montanelli–Guerrazzi ministry, but on 18 February 1849, the day a republic was proclaimed, he sailed for Gaeta. Austrian troops, sent at his request, entered Tuscany, and he returned on 28 July 1849; in 1852 he revoked the constitution. Expelled by a bloodless coup on 27 April 1859, he abdicated in favour of his son that July and died in Rome in 1870.

Also known as: Leopold II of Tuscany · Leopoldo II of Tuscany