Leopold I, (born June 9, 1640, Vienna, Austria—died May 5, 1705, Vienna), Holy Roman emperor (1658–1705). Son of Ferdinand III, Leopold was a devout Catholic destined for the church, but, when his elder brother died unexpectedly (1654), he became heir apparent to the Austrian Habsburg lands. He was crowned successively king of Hungary (1655) and of Bohemia (1656), and with his father’s death Leopold became emperor in 1658. During his lengthy reign Austria emerged from a series of struggles to become a great European power. In 1683 the Turks besieged Vienna and were repulsed; war continued until the Turks were defeated and ceded control of Hungary in the Treaty of Carlowitz (1699). Leopold also entered into the War of the Grand Alliance, but the unfavourable peace treaty ceded Strasbourg to France. He was drawn into the War of the Spanish Succession, and he died before its end. His third marriage, to Eleonore of Palatinate-Neuburg, was a happy union that produced 10 children, including the future emperors Joseph I and Charles VI.
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