fjt_014422 - FRANCIS III of LORRAINE FRANÇOIS III de LORRAINE, second fils de Léopold et d’Elisabeth 1714

FRANCIS III of LORRAINE

François-Stéphane, Duke of Lorraine was born in 1708, he is the son of the Duke of Lorraine Léopold. He was raised in Vienna in the company of the future Empress Marie-Thérèse whom he married in 1736. By the Treaty of Vienna which ended the War of the Polish Succession, he ceded Lorraine to Stanislas Lesczynski, father-in-law of Louis XV in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. On the death of Emperor Charles VI, he disputed the imperial crown with Charles VII, supported by France, but only succeeded in gaining recognition in 1745. Mediocre, he reigned in the shadow of Marie-Thérèse, daughter of the late Emperor Charles VI who had no male child, and gave him little support. He left sixteen children including Joseph II of Austria, Leopold II of Tuscany and Marie-Antoinette.