Background
Joseph II was born on March 13, 1741, in Vienna, Austria, to Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria. He was the eldest child of his parents and had a younger sister Marie Antoinette and a brother Leopold II.
Joseph II was born on March 13, 1741, in Vienna, Austria, to Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Maria Theresa of Austria. He was the eldest child of his parents and had a younger sister Marie Antoinette and a brother Leopold II.
Joseph gained his education through the writings of Voltaire and the Encyclopédistes. He was also trained by government officials on the working of different state administrations of the Austrian dominions and the Holy Roman Empire.
Joseph began his career as a member of the constituted council of state. He aimed at relieving the peasants of feudal burden and remove restriction on trade and education.
Following his father’s death in 1765, Joseph was promoted to the rank of Holy Roman Emperor, and was known as Joseph II. He served as his mother’s co-regent and took to handling military and foreign affairs. However, the major power remained with his mother who exerted sovereign control over the dominions. This limited his ability to take decisions.
His mother’s death in 1780 made Joseph II the sole ruler of the Habsburg Lands. Immediately after becoming the Holy Roman Emperor, he took the government on a new course, but not before finishing the work of reform as started by his mother.
His foremost work as an Emperor was to consolidate an education system throughout the monarchy. He expanded elementary education making it compulsory for all children. For the underprivileged, he created scholarship programs that gave poor students equal opportunity for learning. He appointed best of scholars and scientists for the University of Vienna.
The other reforms that Joseph II quickly administered were secularization of the church lands and reduction of the religious order and clergy. He limited the power of the Catholic Church. His religious reform met with unpopularity by the public, as they condemned modernization.
In 1781, Joseph’s religious tolerance led to the establishment of the Patent of Tolerance according to which minority religions, such as Greeks, Protestants and Jews attained limited rights to worship freely.
The conflict with the Roman Catholic Church only brought forth difficulties in Joseph II’s reign. He established a training college for priest and deprived clergymen of tithe. Furthermore, he deprived bishops of their powers. Joseph closed more than 700 monasteries and reduced the number of monks by 27000 from the previous 65000. Contradictorily, he supported increase of bishoprics, parishes, and secular clergy. He reduced the number of holy days and changed the pattern in which the Mass was celebrated.
Joseph aimed at building a centralized and uniform government that came under the supreme autocrat, i.e., himself. The recruitment of the government officials was based on their fervent spirit of service to country and countrymen and their promotion being guaranteed only by merit. To promote a sense of unity in the kingdom, he introduced German as the compulsory language of the state.
He established a uniform system in managing state expenditure and revenue by accumulating all the state revenues, expenses and debts of the territories of the Austria crown within a uniform system.
On the legal front, Joseph II abolished death penalty and brutal punishment. Furthermore, he established a system in which all offenders were treated equally. He abolished serfdom and granted freedom of the press. Besides, he upgraded the value of the land to impose a single and egalitarian tax on land. However, this policy met with revolt from both landowners and peasantry.
In terms of foreign policy, Joseph II was an expansionist leader. During his decade-long reign, he aimed at making Habsburg the greatest monarchy of the European powers. He aimed at acquiring Bavaria but the same was opposed by the King of Prussia.
Joseph II reigning policies did not go too well with the public as the changes interfered with the age-old customs, causing unrest in the dominion. Right from religious issues to administrative policies and legal reforms, the nobility and the people were enraged by his egalitarian and despotic attitude.
By 1790, rebellion broke out in Belgium and Hungary against Joseph II’s reforms. There was restlessness in other parts of the dominion due to his war with the Ottomans. The threat of dissolution caused him to give up on some of his reforms.
On February 20, 1790, he breathed his last. His death was not mourned by public as he became a largely unpopular figure due to his radical reforms and choices. He was buried at tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.
Unlike his mother, Joseph believed in religious toleration and was keen on restricting the power of church.
Joseph II, during his reign, introduced in his dominion numerous policies that were fiercely opposed as the policies interfered with the age-old customs and beliefs. It was for his reforms that Joseph gained the reputation of an ‘enlightened despot’. Spanning over administrative, legal, economic and ecclesiastical field, the reforms though unprejudiced and liberal in structure, did not go too well with the citizens and were met with significant opposition. As such, towards the end of his rule, he failed to get his programmes implemented.
Quotations:
"Let my epitaph be, "Here lies Joseph, who failed in everything he undertook.""
"Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect."
"Beauty is always queen."
Joseph married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. (The bride's mother, Princess Louise Élisabeth was the eldest daughter of the incumbent King of France. Isabella's father was Philip, Duke of Parma.) Joseph loved his bride, Isabella, finding her both stimulating and charming, and she sought with special care to cultivate his favor and affection. (Isabella also found a best friend and confidant in her husband's sister, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen.)
The marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of a daughter, Maria Theresa. Isabella was fearful of pregnancy and early death (largely a result of the loss of her mother who had died young). Her own pregnancy proved especially difficult as she suffered symptoms of pain, illness and melancholy both during and afterward, though Joseph attended to her and tried to comfort her. She remained bedridden for six weeks after their daughter's birth. Almost immediately on the back of their newfound parenthood, the couple then endured two consecutive miscarriages—an ordeal particularly hard on Isabella—followed quickly by another pregnancy. Pregnancy was again provoking melancholy, fears and dread in Isabella. In November 1763, while six months pregnant, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina, who, having come too early, died shortly after being born. Progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. The loss of his beloved wife and their newborn child was devastating for Joseph, after which he felt keenly reluctant to remarry; though, he dearly loved his daughter and remained a devoted father to Maria Theresa.
For political reasons, and under constant pressure, in 1765, he relented and married his second cousin, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor and Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria. This marriage proved extremely unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. Though Maria Josepha loved her husband, she felt timid and inferior in his company. Lacking common interests or pleasures, the relationship offered little for Joseph, who confessed he felt no love (nor attraction) for her in return. He adapted by distancing himself from his wife to the point of near total avoidance, seeing her only at meals and upon retiring to bed. Maria Josepha, in turn, suffered considerable misery in finding herself locked in a cold, loveless union. Four months after the second anniversary of their wedding, Maria Josepha grew ill and died from smallpox. Joseph neither visited her during her illness nor attended her funeral, though he later expressed regret for not having shown her more kindness, respect or warmth. One thing the union did provide him was the improved possibility of laying claim to a portion of Bavaria, though this would ultimately lead to the War of the Bavarian Succession.