Joseph II

Joseph II (1741-1790) , Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Hapsburg (Austrian) territories, generally considered the most typical embodiment of the Enlightenment spirit of the later 18th-century reforming monarchs known as the benevolent despots, or enlightened, despots. His career is notable for the scope of the reforms designed to modernize his empire, for the dedication with which he served the state, for the impetuosity with which he acted, and for the failure which dogged most of his projects.

Life

Joseph II was born on March 13, 1741, the eldest son of Maria Theresa and the future Holy Roman Emperor Francis I (r. 1745-1765). His youth coincided with the critical span of Austrian history marked by the mid-18th-century War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. In the course of this ordeal, the Hapsburg monarchy narrowly avoided dismemberment; it was fortunate to escape with the loss of no more than its richest province, Silesia. This wartime experience conditioned Joseph's entire outlook, instilling in him a passion for reform as a means of enhancing the strength and efficiency of his dominions, a love for the army, and the ambition to leave his mark in history as a military conqueror.

Personality

Although he was carefully trained for his future career, Joseph's education in some respects could scarcely be termed successful. Opinionated and obstinate, with a tendency to react strongly against his environment, he baffled his strict tutors. He was repelled from the first by the elaborate etiquette and frivolity that characterized the Vienna court, and all his life affected manners of extreme simplicity. From childhood he withdrew himself from ordinary human associations, and he complained in later life that he had never enjoyed an intimate friendship.

All his interests were of a pragmatic and serious bent, unrelieved by any touch of humor; he was often fanatical. His favorite reading became the works of the French Encyclopedists and of the Physiocrats, and this reading made him a rationalist with definite ideas on government. Monarchy was a profession to which he dedicated himself for the purpose of advancing the well-being of the state and the happiness and welfare of its subjects. Efficiency, unity, equality, uniformity, and absolute authority for the monarch became the goals which he sought to realize by means of good laws, justly executed.

Coregent with his mother, 1765-1780

In 1765, upon the death of Francis I, Joseph's mother Maria Theresa involved him actively in the government and bestowed the unprecedented status of coregent. A reformer herself, she always acted with a cautious respect for the conservatism of human nature and the strength of local prejudice. Her philosophy of government seemed too pedestrian for the impetuous Joseph, who sought to remake his heterogeneous inheritance at a stroke by a burst of rationalistic legislation. His mother rejected his approach; they quarrelled frequently and there was mediation by the chancellor, Prince Kaunitz, who served as the principal minister during both Joseph's and his mother's reigns.

Meantime, Joseph compensated for his frustration by extensive travel, a practice which he continued throughout his life and which contributed significantly to his knowledge of conditions in his dominions.

Emperor

When Maria Theresa died, November 29, 1780, Joseph found himself at 39 free at last, absolute ruler over the most extensive realm of Central Europe. He started issuing edicts --6,000 in all, plus 11,000 new laws designed to regulate and reorder every aspect of the empire. The spirit was benevolent and paternal. He intended to make his people happy, but strictly in accordance with his own criteria.

Joseph set about building a rational, centralized, and uniform government for his diverse lands, a hierarchy under himself as supreme autocrat. The personnel of government was expected to be imbued with the same dedicated spirit of service to the state that he himself had. It was recruited without favor for class or ethnic origins, and promotion was solely by merit. To further uniformity, the emperor made German the compulsory language of official business throughout the Empire. The Hungarian assembly was stripped of its prerogatives, and not even called together

Legal reform

The busy Joseph inspired a complete reform of the legal system, abolished brutal punishments and the death penalty in most instances, and imposed the principle of complete equality of treatment for all offenders. He ended censorship of the press and theatre.

In 1781 he began to extend full legal freedom to serfs. Rentals paid by peasants were to be regulated by officials of the crown and taxes were levied upon all income derived from land. The landlords, however, found their economic position threatened, and eventually reversed the policy.

To equalize the incidence of taxation, Joseph caused an appraisal of all the lands of the empire to be made so that he might impose a single and equalitarian tax on land.

Education and science

To produce a literate citizenry, elementary education was made compulsory for all boys and girls, and higher education on practical lines was offered for a select few. He sponsored the development of medical education and hospitals at Vienna, which made the city preeminent in the medical field in the next century.

Religion

Joseph's policy of religious toleration was the most advanced of any state in Europe. Calling himself the guardian of Catholicism, Joseph II struck vigorously at papal power. He tried to make the Catholic Church in his empire the tool of the state, independent of Rome. Clergymen were deprived of the tithe and ordered to study in seminaries under government supervision, while bishops had to take a formal oath of loyalty to the crown. As a man of the Enlightenment he ridiculed the contemplative monastic orders, which he considered unproductive. Accordingly, he suppressed a third of the monasteries (over 700 were closed) and reduced the number of monks and nuns from 65,000 to 27,000. Church courts were abolished and marriage was defined as a civil contract outside the jurisdiction of the Church. The number of holy days was cut down and ornamentation in houses of worship was subjected to state regulation. Traditions of anticlericalism were created and they persisted.

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Joseph's principal ambition was to acquire Bavaria, if necessary in exchange for Belgium (the Austrian Netherlands), but in 1778 and again in 1785 he was thwarted by King Frederick II of Prussia. This failure caused Joseph to seek territorial expansion in the Balkans, where he became involved in an expensive and futile war with the Turks.

Reaction

By 1790 rebellions had broken out in protest against his reforms in Belgium and Hungary, and his other dominions were restive under the burdens of his war with Turkey. His empire was threatened with dissolution, and he was forced to sacrifice some of his reform projects. His health shattered by overwork, alone, and unpopular in all his lands, the bitter emperor died February 20, 1790. He was not yet forty-nine. Joseph II rode roughshod over age-old aristocratic privileges, liberties, and prejudices, thereby creating for himself many enemies, and they triumphed in the end

Bibliography

• Padover, S. K. The Revolutionary Emperor, Joseph the Second, 1741-1790 (1934) online edition

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