About Me
Joseph II (right) with his brother and successor Leopold II (left)
Joseph II (Josef Benedict August Johannes Anton Michel Adam) (March 13, 1741 – February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790. He was the eldest son of the empress Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I. Joseph was one of the so-called "enlightened monarchs" (also referred to as "enlightened despots").
The Empress, Maria Theresa.
His Manner & Appearance:
Joseph II was of an exceedingly lively and ardent temper, and found it very difficult to submit quietly to being kept in his mother's leading strings. He was obstinate, sometimes quite intractable, so that she used to call him "Der Starrkopf" (the stubborn one). She repeatedly said, "I teach my son music that his disposition may be softened. My Joseph is not docile; he is mulish."
To his inferiors he was kind, condescending, benevolent, and gracious. To those who were to command him, and to his tutors, he showed himself impatient and capricious. Scholars and artists he treated with every consideration. To the fair sex he always paid great deference. He liked to dally with those women whom he considered beautiful; but to all he was kind, civil, and affable, and exceedingly engaging and amiable in his conversation. In conversation, especially with ladies, his manners were affable and agreeable. He was so gallant and attentive as even to place chairs for the ladies with his own hand, or to close the window when they were in a draught; and he told them little anecdotes and stories with the most cheerful humor. In Vienna he often liked to mingle unknown with the people, finding out what they thought of their emperor.
His gestures and speech were lively and quick, just as his actions; but the tone of his voice was rather grating and nasal. When he was angry or impatient, he curled his upper lip, looked straight and with glistening eyes before him, jingled the money in his pocket, or walked up and down the room with long strides, rubbing his hands together; sometimes he would stamp the floor with his foot. He was impetuous and it was said of him that, "Joseph always takes the second step without the first."
He was a fine, healthy-looking man, slight, and not much above the middle height. The expression of his features was grave, but kind; his face was oval, his complexion clear, his glance spirited, good-tempered, and fascinating; there was something very winning about his smile, and his teeth were white and regular; his forehead was high and arched, his nose aquiline, and both of these features were very nobly formed. Even the marks left in his face by small pox imparted to him a more manly expression. His eyes, his most characteristic feature, were light blue, or, as it was fashionable then to call it, "Imperial blue"; his noble but energetic, quick, and even sometimes willful disposition was fully reflected in them.
His usual residence was in the first story (2nd, U.S.) of the Hofburg, in the same wing as the Hall of Knights (Rittersaal). He inhabited three rooms overlooking the Bastei. The first, his sleeping room, with the alcove where his bed stood, had green damask wall fabric with gilt moldings; here hung the portrait of Catherine the Great, dressed in red and gold brocade, a present from herself. Next was a room painted green; here hung the portrait of the King of Prussia in a blue uniform, in the act of taking off his hat. This opened into a sitting room, or rather, a private writing room, with mechanical tables (the Chancellery of the Imperial Cabinet was just underneath this room, and all of the papers were raised by machinery through the floor to the side of the Emperor. In the fine season his favorite residence was a small villa in the Augarten. Laxenburg, where he was often seen kneeling at the village church in the midst of the peasantry, was another favorite residence of his. Schönbrunn he never inhabited for any length of time.
The death of Maria Theresa on November 27, 1780, left Joseph free. He immediately directed his government on a new course, full speed ahead. He proceeded to attempt to realize his ideal of an enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all. The measures of emancipation of the peasantry which his mother had begun were carried on by him with feverish activity. The spread of education, the secularisation of church lands, the reduction of the religious orders and the clergy in general to complete submission to the lay state, the issue of the Patent of Tolerance (1781) providing limited guarantee of freedom of worship, the promotion of unity by the compulsory use of the German language—everything which from the point of view of 18th century philosophy appeared "reasonable"—were undertaken at once. He strove for administrative unity with characteristic haste to reach results without preparation.
His anticlerical and liberal innovations induced Pope Pius VI to pay him a visit in July 1782. Joseph received the pope politely and showed himself a good Catholic, but refused to be influenced. On the other hand, Joseph was very friendly to Freemasonry, as he found it highly compatible with his own Enlightenment philosophy, although he apparently never joined the Lodge himself. Joseph's feelings towards religion are reflected in a witticism he once spoke in Paris. While being given a tour of the Sorbonne's library, the archivist took Joseph to a dark room containing religious documents, and lamented the lack of light which prevented Joseph from being able to read them. Joseph put the man at rest by saying "Ah, when it comes to religion, there is never much light."
Multiple interferences with old customs began to produce unrest in all parts of his dominions. Meanwhile, Joseph threw himself into a succession of foreign policies, all aimed at aggrandisement, and all equally calculated to offend his neighbours—all taken up with zeal, and dropped in discouragement. He endeavoured to get rid of the Barrier Treaty, which debarred his Flemish subjects from the navigation of the Scheldt. When he was opposed by France, he turned to other schemes of alliance with Russia for the partition of Turkey and Venice. These plans also had to be given up in the face of the opposition of neighbours, and in particular of France. Then Joseph resumed his attempts to obtain Bavaria—this time by exchanging it for Belgium—and only provoked the formation of the Fürstenbund, organized by the king of Prussia.
In addition, Joseph abolished serfdom in 1781. Later, in 1789, he decreed that peasants must be payed in cash payments rather than labor obligations. These policies were violently rejected by both the nobility and the peasants, since their barter economy lacked money.
Finally, Joseph joined Russia in an attempt to pillage Turkey. It began on his part in an unsuccessful and discreditable attempt to surprise Belgrade in time of peace, and was followed by the ill-managed campaign of 1788. He accompanied his army, but showed no capacity for war; the low point of this campaign was the extraordinary incident known as the Battle of Karansebes, in which the Austrian army ran away from an imaginary Turkish army. In November 1788, he returned to Vienna with ruined health, and during 1789, was a dying man. The concentration of his troops in the east gave the malcontents of Belgium an opportunity to revolt. In Hungary, the nobles were in all but open rebellion, and in his other states, there were peasant risings and a revival of particularist sentiments. Joseph was left entirely alone. His minister Kaunitz refused to visit his sick-room and did not see him for two years. His brother Leopold remained at Florence. At last, Joseph, worn out and broken-hearted, recognised that his servants could not, or would not, carry out his plans. On January 30, 1790, he formally withdrew all his reforms, and he died on February 20, 1790. He is buried in tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.
Joseph II married twice, first Isabella, daughter of Philip, duke of Parma. They had a daughter, named Maria Theresa after his mother, but this child died young. After her death on November 27, 1763, a political marriage was arranged with Josepha (d. 1767), daughter of Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria (the emperor Charles VII). The second marriage proved extremely unhappy. Joseph was succeeded by his brother Leopold II because he had left no surviving children.
Josef with two of his sisters.
Like many of the "enlightened monarchs" of his time, Joseph was a lover and patron of the arts. He was known as the "music king" and steered Austrian high culture towards a more Germanic orientation. He commissioned the German-language opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail from Mozart. The young Ludwig van Beethoven was commissioned to write a funeral cantata for him, but it was not performed due to its technical difficulty.
