On 30 October 1697, the
Nine Years' War (aka, War of the League of Augsburg) ended with the signing of the
Treaty of Ryswick. The treaty restored the duchies of Lorraine and Bar to the
House of Lorraine, as Leopold's mother had hoped; she died four days later in Vienna. On 17 August 1698, Duke Leopold made a triumphant entry into his capital
Nancy. He reconstructed and repopulated his war-stricken duchy, encouraging immigration. At the end of his reign the duchy was safe and prosperous. . In his foreign policy, Leopold tried to further good relations with France and to appease his powerful neighbor. On 13 October 1698 at the
Palace of Fontainebleau, Leopold married
Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans, the niece of Louis XIV, who had offered a dowry of 900,000
livres to the penniless Duke. Élisabeth Charlotte turned out to be a caring mother and gave birth to fourteen children, of whom only four survived into mature adulthood. Three of them died within a week in May 1711 due to a smallpox outbreak at the
Château de Lunéville, the country seat of the dukes of Lorraine. Despite Leopold's diplomatic attempts, his capital, Nancy, was occupied by foreign troops during the
War of the Spanish Succession (1700–1713). Fearing for his family, Leopold relocated the court to the
Château de Lunéville, where Leopold rebuilt the castle as the "Versailles of Lorraine". It was here that his first child Leopold was born in 1700. In 1703, the Duke introduced the
Code Léopold regulating the government of the Duchy. A number of crimes were punishable with death by burning, such as witchcraft, coin forgery, arson, and sexual acts "contrary to nature". Also, those guilty of aggravated theft of sacred objects from a church could be condemned to be burnt alive. He tried to install his eldest daughter, Élisabeth Charlotte Gabrièle of Lorraine, as Abbess of
Remiremont but failed due to the opposition of
Pope Clement XI. Leopold's marital life was troubled in 1708, when he took Anne-Marguerite de Lignéville, Princess of Beauvau-Craon as his mistress. Élisabeth Charlotte however, following her mother's advice, remained silent and continued to give her husband children. In 1708, Leopold had claimed the Duchy of
Montferrat as the closest relative of his cousin,
Charles III Gonzaga, erstwhile
Duke of Mantua, who had been deposed and then died without male issue. However, the Emperor had already promised Montferrat to the Dukes of Savoy but wishing to compensate the House of Lorraine, he gave the
Duchy of Teschen in
Silesia to Leopold. During the visit, Leopold, as a
foreign prince, received the style of
Royal Highness. In 1719, Leopold bought the County of
Ligny-en-Barrois from his cousin,
Charles Henry of Vaudemont. During his reign a new security system was put in place all around Lorraine. He tried to abolish
serfdom but the redemption payments were too high for the peasantry, even when Leopold halved it. On New Year's Eve 1719 he freed his own serfs without redemption, hoping in vain the
nobility would follow his example. In 1721, Leopold arranged for his eldest surviving son and heir, Leopold Clement, to receive an education at Vienna. He also intended to forge relations with Archduchess
Maria Theresa, the heiress of Emperor Charles VI. However, Leopold Clement died shortly afterwards at Lunéville and in his stead, the next eldest son
Francis Stephen went to Vienna, where he married Maria Theresa. Francis would become Emperor and his descendants, the House of
Habsburg-Lorraine, would rule Austria until 1918. In 1725, Leopold tried to arrange his daughter
Anne Charlotte to marry the young King Louis XV, but
Louis Henry, Duke of Bourbon, then prime minister, prevented a union with a descendant of the rival
House of Orléans. Then, Élisabeth Charlotte tried to arrange her daughter's marriage to her first cousin, the recently widowed
Louis, Duke of Orléans, but Louis refused. All proposals of marriage being either ignored or declined, Anne Charlotte later became Abbess of the monasteries Remiremont and Essen. In March 1729, Leopold caught a fever while walking at the Château at Ménil near Lunéville. He returned to Lunéville where he died on 27 March, aged 49. ==Ancestry==