Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Maria Carolina of Austria, and Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.
Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism like his brother Leopold II; however, his commitment to secularising, liberalising and modernising reforms resulted in significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs. Meanwhile, despite making some territorial gains, his reckless foreign policy badly isolated Austria. He has been ranked with Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. False but influential letters depict him as a somewhat more radical philosophe than he probably was. His policies are now known as Josephinism. He was a supporter of the arts, particularly of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri. He died with no known surviving legitimate offspring and was succeeded by his younger brother Leopold II.
Early life Joseph II was the son of Maria Theresa and Francis I. He was born on Monday, 13 March 1741, at two in the morning, in Vienna's Hofburg, the Habsburg dynasty's principal house and administrative center. The following day, Joseph Benedict Augustus Johann Anton Michael Adam was baptised by the papal nuncio with the help of no fewer than sixteen other prelates. The godfathers, Pope Benedict XIV and Augustus III of Poland, were represented by delegates. He had 15 siblings, of whom six died before their adolescence.
Education Joseph II received a comprehensive and carefully structured education befitting his status as Maria Theresa's eldest son and heir. Joseph's early education was supervised by a group of distinguished teachers selected by Maria Theresa, including, most notably, Pater Anton von Weger and Karl Joseph Batthyány, serving as Joseph's Hofmeister, who were entrusted with overseeing his education. In addition to these principal figures, several other tutors played important roles in Joseph's education. Johann Wilhelm Höller Franz and Bernhard Weickhart were responsible for instruction in Latin and classical studies, providing a foundation in historical and philosophical texts. Jean Bréquin, a Frenchman, was tasked with teaching Joseph mathematics. A great deal of his education focused on history, taught by State Secretary Christoph von Bartenstein.
Marriages and children
Despite being an inevitable political arrangement, Joseph's marriage, which occurred when he was nineteen, ended up being a pleasant one for the duration. The marriage was linked to the Diplomatic Revolution, also known as the Austro-French Alliance of 1756. Madame de Pompadour, Louis XV's mistress, and Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, the Austrian chancellor, collaborated on it. Louis XV proposed that Joseph, the heir to the Austrian throne, wed his granddaughter Isabella of Parma in order to solidify this Habsburg-Bourbon alliance. Joseph, who admired Isabel's appearance when he saw her portrait, was also thrilled, as was Maria Theresa. The wedding was lavishly celebrated in June 1760. The service was conducted at the Augustinian church by Borromeo, the papal legate.
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 early loss of her mother. Her own pregnancy proved especially difficult as she suffered from pregnancy depression, though Joseph attended to her and tried to comfort her.
In 1763, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina (b. d. 22 November 1763), who died shortly after being born. Isabella died soon afterwards. The loss of his beloved wife and their newborn child was devastating for Joseph, after which he felt keenly reluctant to remarry.
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, Holy Roman Empress. 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. Joseph never remarried.
Co-ruler
Joseph was made a member of the State Council and began to draw up minutes for his mother to read. These papers contain the germs of his later policy and of all the disasters that finally overtook him. He was a friend to religious toleration, anxious to reduce the power of the church, to relieve the peasantry of feudal burdens, and to remove restrictions on trade and knowledge. In these, he did not differ from Frederick, or his own brother and successor Leopold II, all enlightened rulers of the 18th century. He tried to liberate serfs, but that did not last after his death.
Where Joseph differed from great contemporary rulers, and was akin to the Jacobins, was in the intensity of his belief in the power of the state when directed by reason. As an absolutist ruler, however, he was also convinced of his right to speak for the state uncontrolled by laws, and of the wisdom of his own rule. He had also inherited from his mother the belief of the House of Austria in its "August" quality and its claim to acquire whatever it found desirable for its power or profit. He was unable to understand that his philosophical plans for the moulding of humanity could meet with pardonable opposition.
Joseph was documented by contemporaries as being impressive, but not necessarily likable. In 1760, his arranged consort, the well educated Isabella of Parma, was handed over to him. Joseph appears to have been completely in love with her, but Isabella preferred the companionship of Joseph's sister, Marie Christine of Austria. The overweening character of the Emperor was obvious to Frederick II of Prussia, who, after their first interview in 1769, described him as ambitious and as capable of setting the world on fire. The French minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, who met Joseph when he was traveling incognito in 1777, judged him to be "ambitious and despotic". In August 1765 his father died after a seizure. In a letter to his former tutor Batthyany, Joseph — now automatically becoming emperor — expressed sorrow and self-pity at the death of his father.
As emperor, the nominal head of the venerable but inert institution known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, he had little true power. Joseph was only allowed to have as much power during his mother's lifetime as Maria Theresa, the Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Bohemia and Hungary, felt comfortable giving him. The actual power was held by Maria Theresa, who ruled the Austrian hereditary dominions. Maria Theresa took the extraordinary decision to make her son co-regent because she felt she could no longer continue running the government alone. Joseph had no power save in the army, treasury, and court administration. This was limited, though, as his mother had the last say on all significant issues. Although Joseph had a little more influence in military matters, he prudently avoided using it since he feared his mother's rage and always showed deference to her authority.
As co-regent alongside his mother, Empress Maria Theresa, from 1765 onward, Joseph II quickly became involved in the financial administration of the Habsburg Monarchy, recognizing the urgent need to reform and rationalize the state and court budget. The Austrian fiscal system at the time was notoriously inefficient and weighed down by the costs of maintaining a sprawling imperial court, a vast bureaucracy, and a large standing army. Joseph, influenced by Enlightenment ideals of efficiency and utility, advocated for a more centralised and accountable approach to public finance.
One of his priorities was to gain a clearer understanding of the monarchy's financial state, which had long been obscured by a patchwork of regional accounts and a lack of standardized procedures. Joseph pressed for the creation of more systematic and transparent bookkeeping practices, insisting on detailed and regular financial reports from court and government departments. He also sought to reduce unnecessary expenditure at court, curbing lavish spending on ceremonies, festivities, and personal privileges that had characterized the reign of his father, Francis I, and earlier Habsburg rulers.
Joseph initiated reductions in the size and costs of the imperial household, cut down on the number of court officials and servants, and attempted to limit the extravagance of court life. He championed the idea that the monarchy should serve the state, not vice versa, and that royal resources were to be used for the common good rather than for personal luxury. Furthermore, Joseph advocated for the reform of tax collection, pushing for a more equitable distribution of the tax burden and greater efficiency in revenue gathering.
In the mid-18th century, the Jesuit order had become a target of suspicion and criticism throughout Europe, seen by many rulers as too independent, too influential in education, and insufficiently loyal to secular authority. Joseph shared these Enlightenment-inspired concerns regarding the Jesuits as a barrier to modernising reforms, particularly in education and church-state relations. When Pope Clement XIV formally dissolved the Society of Jesus in 1773, the Habsburg Monarchy, under Maria Theresa's rule with Joseph's strong encouragement, moved quickly to implement the papal brief. Joseph had already been pressing for greater state control over education and religious institutions, and the papal suppression provided the perfect opportunity.
As Joseph's power became more and more cemented, he focused on foreign affairs. Joseph played a key role in the negotiations and the subsequent integration of Galicia into the Habsburg Monarchy following the First Partition of Poland in 1772. His co-regency period also saw important legal and educational reforms initiated under Maria Theresa's leadership, with Joseph's support. The 1774 General School Ordinance (Allgemeine Schulordnung) established a standardised, state-controlled school system, reflecting Enlightenment ideals about education and citizenship.