Leon was born and educated in Warsaw, and studied law and economics in Paris and Edinburgh from 1820 to 1824.

After the outbreak of the November Uprising in 1830, he left Russian Empire and took part in diplomatic missions of the Polish National Government in France and Great Britain.

After that, he returned and participated in the Uprising in the rank of an Artillery Captain, among others in the defence of Warsaw on 6 and 7 September.

In 1835 Russian authorities confiscated his estates in Congress Poland as punishment for his participation in the failed Uprising.

In 1858 after years of struggling to secure support in Vienna for his plans he was able to initiate the construction of the Carl Ludwig railway line connecting the railhead at Kraków with Lviv and Brody and linking Galicia with the rest of Europe.