Pierre Léopold Ier of Tuscany

Cet article, translated from Italian, studies the action of the future emperor Léopold II whereas he was large-duke of Tuscany. He supplements the article which is devoted to him as an emperor and does not make dual employment with him. A specialist will be able to deal thereafter with a possible fusion which requires good knowledge historiques.

Léopold II of Habsbourg-Lorraine (Vienna, May 5th, 1747 - March 1st, 1792) was emperor of the Holy roman Empire of 1790 to 1792 and, under the name of Pierre Léopold Ier, large-duke of Tuscany of 1765 to 1790.

Ninth of the 16 children of Marie-Therese and of the emperor François of Lorraine, it went up on the imperial throne in 1790, with died of his/her brother Joseph. As of its come to power it had to pacify the empire by revoking the most radical measurements instituted by his brother.

For the previous period, that where it controlled Tuscany, Léopold had acted in “enlightened monarch” typical and had expressed in its reforms a tendency to take account of the facts more than of the theory.

In its reforming work, it was pressed on civils servant of great value like Giulio Rucellai, Pompeo Neri, Francesco Maria Gianni, Angelo Tavanti.

The Large-Duke followed a liberal policy by approving the liberal proclamation of Sallustio Antonio Bandini of which it made publish the Discours on Maremme, remained new, and while making proceed to the allowance marshes of Maremme and Valley of Chiana. He introduced the freedom of the trade of the grains by abolishing the obstacles which obstructed the cereal cultures; but the capital event it was, after so many centuries, the abolition of the corporations which went back to the Middle Ages and which were the main obstacle with economic progress and social in the industrial activity. It introduced then a new customs tariff in 1781, on the basis of which all absolute prohibitions, for which one substituted customs tariffs, on a level were abolished much low besides than those which were then in force.

The transformation of the tax system was undertaken by Pierre Léopold 1st as of the first years of its reign and in 1769 was abolished the system of the general farm to leave room to the direct covering of the taxes. It on the other hand supported in a more hesitant way the policy of Tavanti, which at the end of 1781 wished thanks to the land register to take the land and buildings as bases of measurement for the tax imposition. Tavanti died in 1781, and after him Francesco Maria Gianni, her principal collaborator at this time, who had conceived a plan to eliminate the national debt by selling the revenue duties that the State had on the grounds of its subjects; one would have passed then to a system based exclusively on the indirect taxation; this operation, started in 1788, was not completed in 1790 when Léopold became Empereur.

It reformed certain aspects of the Tuscan legislation but its most important project should have been the drafting of a new code, that Pompeo Neri should have realized, but that the death of this last prevented from coming to a end; the constitution projects did not have a continuation either because of the departure for Vienna of the sovereign. He promoted an ecclesiastical legislation of jurisdictional type, by reorganizing the goods of the Church according to criteria of social utility and economic suitability for the interests of the State; the sovereign was open, moreover, with the tendencies Jansenists of part of the clergy Tuscan.

In the ecclesiastical field Pierre Léopold took as a starting point the principles of the juridictionalism, by removing the convents and by abolishing the bonds of mortmain. Towards the religious ground itself, Tuscany directed itself towards jansénisme, which the bishop of Pistoie Scipione de' Ricci represented, so much so that the Large-Duke made him organize a synod in its city in 1786 to reform the Tuscan ecclesiastical organization according to the principles Jansenists.

The program in 57 points resulting from this synod, in agreement with Pierre Léopold, touched with the patrimonial and cultural aspects and affirmed the autonomy of the local Churches compared to the Pope as well as the superiority of the Council, but the strong oppositions of the clergy and the people convainquirent it to give up this reform.

During the time 1779-1782 Pierre Léopold started a constitution project which was continued after 1790 to base the capacities of the sovereign on a contractual relation. There still this policy caused sharp oppositions, and the large-duke, who this year went up on the imperial throne, was constrained to give up.

But the most important reform of Pierre Léopold was the abolition of the capital punishment, which it introduced into the penal code of 1786. Tuscany was the first State to adopt the principles of Cesare Beccaria, most important representing Lights in Italy, which in its work Des offenses and of the peines claimed precisely the abolition of the capital punishment.

En1 790, with died of his/her brother Joseph II, it inherited an empire which had disturbed the radical reforms and often politically inappropriate of its predecessor, and with a greater flexibility, with a larger respect for the historical reality which had run up against the principles of rational government of Joseph II, it sought to find remedy for the revolt of the Austrian Netherlands. It went until looking with realism the events of the French revolution; judging that the political crisis of this country could have positive aspects, by giving to France this constitution which it had had itself the intention to give to Tuscany before its departure for Vienna.

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