ABSTRACT
Leopold, the third son of Maria Theresa, was forty-three years of age when Joseph's death called him from Florence to Vienna. Under Leopold's rule, Tuscany had been orderly, peaceful and prosperous; and he had carried out, though on a smaller scale and with rather more success, much the same measures of domestic reform that Joseph II had attempted in Austria. Leopold came to the Austrian throne with the fixed determination to make peace as soon as possible, since he saw that it was badly wanted and was an essential preliminary to putting the internal affairs of his dominions on a sound basis. Leopold was thus able to devote his energies to the resettlement of Hungary and to the reassertion of Austrian authority in Belgium. On November 15th, Leopold was crowned at Pressburg. Leopold had begun by repealing Joseph's land-tax and new laws as to land-tenure. He then summoned assemblies in the various provinces to discuss further measures.
