fwo_1015930 - AUTRICHE - BOHÈME - LÉOPOLD Ier 3 Kreuzer 1697 Prague

AUSTRIA - BOHEMIA - LEOPOLD I

(1640-05/05/1705)

Leopold I was born in Vienna on June 8, 1640 from the union of Ferdinand III and Marie-Anne, daughter of Philip III of Spain. He had to fight the Turks and owed the safeguard of Vienna only to the intervention of the King of Poland Jean Sobieski in 1683. He launched a counter-offensive which enabled him to recover Hungary, Transylvania and Banat, but he experienced several defeats against the troops of Louis XIV who forced him to sign the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678 and that of Ryswick in 1697. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Leopold I allied himself with England and The Netherlands. He died in Vienna on May 5, 1705 and was succeeded by his son Joseph I. Leopold I was King of Bohemia from 1656 until his death in 1705.