His second son, Leopold, reigned in Tuscany
till, on the death of his elder brother on the 24th of December, 1789,
he was in his turn also called to ascend the imperial throne.
Thereupon the second son of Leopold became grand-duke in 1789, and
reigned as Ferdinand III. till 1824, when, on the 18th of June, his
son succeeded him as Leopold II. Now, though the sovereignty of
Tuscany was thus entirely and definitively separated from that of
Austria, all these princes were of the blood-royal of Austria, and
might in the course of Nature have succeeded to the imperial throne.
For this reason they were held, though only dukes of Tuscany, to be
entitled to the style and title "imperial and royal," according to the
custom of the House of Austria; and thus every grimy little
tobacco-shop and lottery-office in Tuscany, in the days when I first
knew it, in 1841, styled itself "imperial and royal."
The Tuscans had been greatly discontented when the arrangements of the
great powers of Europe, entered into without a moment's thought as to
the wishes of the population of the grand duchy on the subject, had
decided that they were to be ruled over by a German prince of whom
they knew absolutely nothing. It was not that the later Medici had
been popular, or either respected or beloved. The misgovernment of
especially the last two of the Medicean line had reduced the country
to the lowest possible social, moral and economical condition.
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