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Joseph and his younger brother, Leopold
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").
Titles:
King of Hungary
King of Croatia and Slavonia
King of Bohemia
Archduke of Austria
King of Germany
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.
