LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Apr Books, Manuscripts & Autographs #658  / 

25442

Leopold I Document Signed c.1700

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:75.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Leopold I Document Signed c.1700
<B>Leopold I Document Signed</B></I> "<I>Leopold</B></I>" in gold ink as Holy Roman Emperor, four pages in German, 8.25" x 12.75", n.d., n.p., with full paper seal. Leopold I Hapsburg (1640 - 1705), Holy Roman Emperor, was the second son of the emperor Ferdinand III. Intended for the Church, he received a good education but his prospects were changed by the death of his elder brother Ferdinand IV, in 1654 of smallpox, when he became his father's heir. The last thing Leopold wanted was to rule. He was hideous and under-sized, his bones stunted, his teeth broken by scurvy. He was painfully shortsighted. In him the Hapsburg lip and chin were exaggerated to the point of caricature. He was pathologically shy. He would have liked to have gone into a monastery, and, indeed, from early childhood he had been intended for the Church. Instead of this he was called upon not merely to wear the crown but to carry Austria into the new course determined by the outcome of the Thirty Years' War and to defend his personal Empire against the two most formidable adversaries in the world: France, arrogant and triumphant under Louis XIV, and the Ottoman Turks in their last and most terrible bid to break into Europe. In fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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