The New International Encyclopædia/Joseph II.

​JOSEPH II. (1741–90). Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790. He was the son of the Emperor Francis I., of the House of Lorraine, and Maria Theresa, sovereign of the Austrian dominions and Queen of Hungary, and was born at Vienna, March 13, 1741, at a time when his mother’s fortunes were in their lowest state of depression. He early gave proof of excellent abilities. He was elected King of the Romans in 1764, and Maria Theresa associated him with herself in the government of the Austrian States; but for some time his actual share in it amounted to little more than the chief command of the army. In 1765 he succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor. On the death of Maria Theresa, in 1780, he inherited all her dignities and power. Joseph II. was a zealous reformer, having imbibed, like Frederick the Great, the principles of philosophy which prevailed in that age, but he worked unwisely, depending too much upon the exercise of authority. Deeply concerned for the welfare of his subjects, the Emperor set to work to abolish privilege and oppression throughout his dominions. He was the typical ‘benevolent despot’ of the age, and he sought to impose his reforms by force of his autocratic will, without considering the expediency of many of his radical measures and in total disregard of the sentiments ​of those whom supposedly his reforms were to benefit. As it was, he succeeded for the greater part in antagonizing his subjects in Hungary, in Bohemia, and in the Netherlands, and was compelled repeatedly to revoke many of his important measures of reform. Not the least of his blunders was his attempt to merge the heterogeneous nationalities of his realms into a centralized State. Nevertheless he contributed immensely to the permanent improvement of the administration and the system of taxation, and did much to develop commerce and industry. His liberal views in matters ecclesiastical aroused the bitter hostility of the clergy. As soon as he found himself in full possession of the government of Austria, he proceeded to declare himself independent of the Pope and to prohibit the publication of any new Papal bulls in his dominions without his placet regium. The further publication of the bulls Unigenitus and In cœna Domini was also prohibited. Besides this he suppressed no fewer than 700 convents, reduced the number of the regular clergy from 63,000 to 27,000, prohibited Papal dispensations as to marriage, and on October 13, 1781, published the celebrated Edict of Toleration, by which he allowed the free exercise of their religion to the Protestants and the adherents of the Greek faith in his dominions. Pope Pius VI. thought to change this policy by a personal interview with the Emperor, and for that purpose made a visit to Vienna in 1782; but, although he was quite unsuccessful in his object, he carried away with him the conviction that the people were utterly unprepared for the reforms which their sovereign sought to accomplish, a conviction the correctness of which the event abundantly proved. In 1788–89 Joseph II., in alliance with Russia, engaged in a war with Turkey, in which he was unsuccessful; and the vexation caused by this, and by the revolt in the Netherlands (1789–90), occasioned by the abolition of the ancient Constitution of Brabant, hastened his death, which took place February 20, 1790. Consult: Gross-Hoffinger, Lebens- und Regierungsgeschichte Josephs II. (4 vols., Stuttgart, 1835–37); Arneth, Joseph II. und Leopold von Toscana; ihr Briefwechsel, 1781–90 (Vienna, 1870); Brunner, Joseph II. (Freiburg, 1885); Schlitter, Pius VI. und Joseph II. (Vienna, 1894).