Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/363

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LEOPOLD I. (ANHALT-DESSAU) LEOSTHENES 357 He escaped to Naples in February, 1849, and returned to Florence in July at the request of Ms subjects, but not before the arrival of Aus- trian troops. Despite his tolerant disposition and his sympathy with letters and art, his sub- sequent reign incurred great popular odium. He declined to join the cause of Italy in 1859, and only abdicated in favor of his son, Ferdi- nand IV. (July 21), after his flight from Flor- ence (April 27), when it was too late to save his dynasty. His dominions were added to those of Victor Emanuel, March 22, 1860. He spent the rest of his life chiefly at his chateau of Brandeis in Bohemia. LEOPOLD I., prince of Anhalt-Dessau (popu- larly known as the old Dessauer), a German soldier, born in Dessau, June 3, 1676, died there, April 7, 1747. On the death of his father, John George II., in 1693, he succeed- ed him as commander of a Prussian regiment ; and having participated in the capture of Na- mur by William III. of Orange (1695), he was made major general. On attaining his major- ity in 1698 he assumed the rule of his princi- pality, and soon afterward married, despite his mother's objections, a druggist's daugh- ter, who bore him nine children, and who was elevated by the emperor Leopold I. to an equal rank with her husband. In his admin- istration he endeared himself to the masses of the people, notwithstanding his bluffness and domineering disposition; but he was ex- acting toward the rich, and imposed heavy taxes upon landed proprietors and upon Jews. His military genius was displayed in many bat- tles in 1702, and especially on Sept. 20, 1703, in his masterly retreat at Hochstadt, and in the celebrated battle of Aug. 13, 1704, near the same town, known in English history as that of Blenheim; and to him alone belongs the merit of compelling the surrender of the strong fortress of Landau. In 1705-'7 he won new laurels under Prince Eugene, particularly du- ring the hot contests at the bridge of Cassano in 1705, in the lines of Turin, which was cap- tured in 1706, and in the assault on Toulon and the taking of Susa in 1707. In 1709 he was with the Prussian crown prince, the future king Frederick William I., at the battle of Malpla- quet. Soon afterward he was placed, at Prince Eugene's request, in command of the Prussian subsidiary troops, and took several French towns, cooperating with Marlborough in 1711 at Arras in defeating the French general Vil- lars. At the end of the following year he became general field marshal and privy coun- cillor of war. After the death of Frederick I. (1713) his influence increased under the new king Frederick William I. as the foremost authority in military affairs. He invented the iron ramrod and the equal step ; and Carlyle calls him the inventor of modern military tac- tics, who drilled the Prussian infantry to be the wonder of the world. In 1715, during the warfare with Charles XII. of Sweden rel- ative to Pomerania, he was commander-in- chief of a considerable army, and effected a landing and successfully intrenched himself on the island of Rtigen, ending the contest by driving the Swedish king from Stralsund (Dec. 15) and by the conquest of that strong- hold. In 1725 he fought a bloodless duel with Gen. Grimkow, a partisan of England and the Hanover treaty ; and Grimkow was for a time in the ascendant in the king's favor. Du- ring the detention of the crown prince at Kiis- . trin in 1730-'31 Leopold befriended him, and assisted him in his military studies. Imme- diately after the death of Frederick William I. (1740) Leopold had an interview with Fred- erick II., expressing a hope that he would have the same authority as in the late reign. The king replied that he would not deprive him of his functions, but as to authority he said with flashing eyes : " I know of none there can be but what resides in the king that is sovereign." The army of 70,000 men, how- ever, which he found at the opening of his reign, had been raised to its high state of effi- ciency through Leopold's exertions. Though the latter incurred Frederick's displeasure by disapproving of the campaign of 1741 against Austrian Silesia, early in April he formed a camp of 36,000 men to be ready both against Saxony and Hanover ; and in the beginning of 1742 he reenforced the king with 20,000 men, joining him together with his son at Chrudim (April 17), and received a preference over General Schwerin as commander at Troppau, but incurred another sharp rebuke by not strictly following his sovereign's orders. In the winter of 1744-'5 he succeeded Frederick as commander-in-chief of the Silesian army, de- feated the Austrians at Neustadt and near Ja- gerndorf , repelling their invasion of Silesia, and returning at the end of February to Berlin to receive the thanks of the king and to mourn over his wife, who had died Feb. 7. In March he was again called upon to operate against Saxony ; and after forming his memorable camp at Dieskau he ended the war and at the same time his military career by the decisive battle of Kesselsdorf, Dec. 15, 1745, which was followed by the capture and the peace of Dres- den. His son and successor, LEOPOLD II. MAX- IMILIAN, a gallant warrior, died Dec. 16, 1751 ; and his other sons Moritz and Dietrich, the former likewise a soldier to the last, died re- spectively in 1760 and 1769. See the life of Leopold I. by Varnhagen von Ense in Biogra- phische Denkmale (5 vols., Berlin, 1824-'30 ; new ed., 1874). LEOSTHENES, an Athenian general, who commanded the confederate Greek forces in the Lamian war, 323 B. 0. He probably ac- quired his high military reputation as a leaded of mercenaries in the Persian service. He col- lected and led back to Greece those Hellenic soldiers who had been warring ^ against the Macedonians, and had been disbanded by command of Alexander. On the death of that conqueror, the Athenians resolved to make one