Editing Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (section)

==Youth==
[[File:Archduke Peter Leopold, later Leopold II, 1762 by Liotard.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''Young Leopold drawing fortifications'', [[Jean-Étienne Liotard]], 1762]] 

Leopold was born in [[Vienna]] as his parents' third son. Initially selected for a clerical career, he received an education with a focus on [[theology]]. In 1753, he was engaged to [[Maria Beatrice d'Este, Duchess of Massa|Maria Beatrice d'Este]], heiress to the [[Duchy of Modena]]. 

The marriage was never consummated and Maria Beatrice instead married Leopold's brother, [[Ferdinand, Duke of Breisgau|Archduke Ferdinand]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Leopold II |url=https://www.biography.com/people/leopold-ii-9379672 |website=Biography |language=en-us |access-date=2018-10-04}}</ref>

Upon the early death of his older brother [[Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria (1745–1761)|Archduke Charles]] in 1761, the family decided that Leopold was going to succeed his father as [[Grand Duke of Tuscany]]. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a [[secundogeniture]], a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an [[appanage]]. On 5 August 1765, Leopold married [[Maria Luisa of Spain|Maria Luisa]], daughter of King [[Charles III of Spain]] and [[Maria Amalia of Saxony]]; however, they were already married by proxy on 16 February 1764 in [[Madrid]], more than a year before their in-person marriage. Upon the death of his father, Francis I, on 18 August 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany.