March 13, 1741: Birth of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Holy Roman Empire, Isabella of Parma, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

Joseph II (German: Joseph Benedikt Anton Michel Adam; March 13, 1741 – February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Franz I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France and Navarre. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism; however, his commitment to modernizing reforms subsequently engendered significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs.

Joseph married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. (The bride’s mother, Princess Louise Élisabeth, was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Navarre. Isabella’s father was Philip, Duke of Parma.) Joseph loved his bride, Isabella, finding her both stimulating and charming, and she sought with special care to cultivate his favor and affection. Isabella also found a best friend and confidant in her husband’s sister, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen.

The marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of a daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1762–1770), Just a few months short of her eighth birthday, Archduchess Maria Theresa became ill with pleurisy. Her father, by that time Holy Roman Emperor, did everything in his power to save her and attended her bedside even at night. However, the medicine in those days was highly undeveloped and Archduchess Maria Theresa died on January 23, 1770 from a very high fever.

Princess Isabella of Parma

In November 1763, while six months pregnant, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina, who died shortly after being born. Progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. 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 of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This marriage proved extremely unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. 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.

Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

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. Joseph never remarried.

On the death of his father, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I in 1765, he was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her hereditary dominions, Austria, Hungary and Bohemia until her own death in 1780. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

Joseph II (right) with his brother Peter Leopold, then Grand Duke of Tuscany, later Emperor Leopold II, by Pompeo Batoni, 1769, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

The death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 left Joseph free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all. He undertook the spread of education, the secularization 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, and the promotion of unity by the compulsory use of the German language (replacing Latin or in some instances local languages)—everything which from the point of view of 18th-century philosophy, the Age of Enlightenment, appeared “reasonable”.

Despite making some territorial gains, his reckless foreign policy badly isolated Austria. He has been ranked, with Catherine II the Great of Russia and Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. His reputation as an enlightened monarch was somewhat legendary, leading to false, but influential letters depicting him as a radical philosopher. His policies are now known as Josephinism. He was a supporter of the arts, and most importantly, of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.

In November 1788, Joseph returned to Vienna with ruined health and was left abandoned. 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, recognized that his servants could not, or would not, carry out his plans.

Joseph died on February 20, 1790. He is buried in tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. He asked that his epitaph read: “Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook.” Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II.

January 24, 1742: Election of Charles Albert of Bavaria as the Holy Roman Emperor.

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Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, Charles Albert of Bavaria, Clemens August of Bavaria, Elector of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Empire, House of Wittelsbach, Maria Theresa of Austria, Pragmatic Sanction

Charles VII Albert (April 7, 1697 – January 20, 1745) was the Prince-Elector of Bavaria from 1726 and Holy Roman Emperor from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745. A member of the House of Wittelsbach, Charles Albert was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become Holy Roman Emperor in three centuries, though he was connected to that house both by blood and by marriage. He was a great-great grandson of both Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and King Henri IV of France.

Charles Albert was born in Brussels, the son of Maximilian II Emanuel, Prince-Elector of Bavaria, and Theresa Kunegunda Sobieska, daughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland and Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d’Arquien.

His family was split during the War of the Spanish Succession and was for many years under house arrest in Austria. Only in 1715 was the family reunited. After attaining his majority in August 1715, he undertook an educational tour of Italy from 3 December 1715 until 24 August 1716. In 1717, he served with Bavarian auxiliaries in the Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718).

On 5 October 1722, Charles Albert married Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, whom he had met at the imperial court in Vienna. She was the younger daughter of the late Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In 1725 Charles Albert visited Versailles for the wedding of Louis XV of France, and established firm contacts with the French court.

In 1726, when his father died, Charles Albert became Duke of Bavaria and a Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire. He maintained good relations both with his Habsburg relatives and with France, continuing his father’s policies. In 1729 he instituted the knightly Order of St George. That year, he also started building the Rothenberg Fortress.

As son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, Charles Albert rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty after the death of Holy Roman Charles VI in 1740. With the treaty of Nymphenburg concluded in July 1741, Charles Albert allied with France and Spain against Austria.

During the War of the Austrian Succession Charles Albert invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were redirected to Bohemia instead and Prague was conquered in November 1741. Therefore, Charles Albert was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague, December 19, 1741 when the Habsburgs were not yet defeated.

He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742, also with the vote of King George II of Great Britain, Prince-Elector of Hanover, Charles Albert became Holy Roman Emperor upon his coronation on February 12, 1742. His brother Clemens August of Bavaria, Archbishop and Prince-Elector of Cologne, who generally sided with the Austria Habsburg-Lorraine faction in the disputes over the Habsburg succession, cast his vote for his brother and personally crowned him emperor at Frankfurt. Charles VII Albert was the second Wittelsbach emperor after Ludwig IV and the first Wittelsbach king of Germany since the reign of Rupert.

Shortly after the coronation most of Charles VII Albert’s territories were overrun by the Austrians, and Bavaria was occupied by the troops of Maria Theresa. The emperor fled Munich and resided for almost three years in the Palais Barckhaus in Frankfurt. Most of Bohemia was lost in December 1742 when the Austrians allowed the French under the Duc de Belle-Isle and the Duc de Broglie an honourable capitulation. Charles VII Albert was mocked as an emperor who neither controlled his own realm, nor was in effective control of the empire itself, though the institution of the Holy Roman Emperor had largely become symbolic in nature and powerless by that time.

The new commander of the Bavarian army, Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff, fought Austria in a series of battles in 1743 and 1744. In 1743 his troops and their allies took Bavaria and Charles VII was able to return to Munich in April for some time. After the allied French had to retreat after defeats to the Rhine, he lost Bavaria again. The new campaign of Frederick II of Prussia during the Second Silesian War finally forced the Austrian army to leave Bavaria and to retreat back into Bohemia. In October 1744 Charles VII regained Munich and returned. Under the mediation of the former Vice-Chancellor Friedrich Karl von Schönborn, the emperor then sought a balance with Vienna, but at the same time negotiated unsuccessfully with France for new military support.

Suffering severely from gout, Charles VII Albert died at Nymphenburg Palace on January 20, 1745. His brother Prince Clemens August once again leaned towards Austria. In Bavaria, Charles VII Albert’s eldest son succeeded as Maximilian III Joseph Prince-Elector of Bavaria and made peace with Austria. With the Treaty of Füssen Austria recognized the legitimacy of Charles VII Albert’s election as Holy Roman Emperor. Charles VII Albert is buried in the crypt of the Theatinerkirche in Munich.

After the decisive defeat in the Battle of Pfaffenhofen on April 15 Maximilian III Joseph quickly abandoned his father’s imperial pretenses and made peace with Maria Theresa in the aforementioned Treaty of Füssen, in which he agreed to support her husband, Grand Duke Franz Stefan of Lorraine and Tuscany, in the upcoming imperial election. On September 13, 1745, Franz Stefan was elected Holy Roman Emperor in succession to Charles VII Albert and his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria, made him co-regent of her hereditary Habsburg dominions.

An interesting note is that among the many offspring of Charles VII Albert and his wife, Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, was Maria Josepha of Bavaria who married Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II the son and successor of her father’s successor Holy Roman Emperor Franz I Stefan his wife, Maria Theresa of Austria.

December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz-Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany.

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Austria, Bavaria, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, Holy Roman Empire, Maria Therea of Austria, War of the Austrian Succession

Franz I (December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife Maria Theresa effectively executed the real powers of those positions. They were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty. From 1728 until 1737 he was Duke of Lorraine.

Franz-Stephen was born in Nancy, Lorraine (now in France), the oldest surviving son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate, daughter of Carl I Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Simmern branch of the House of Wittelsbach, and Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Franz-Stephen was connected by blood to the with the Habsburgs through his grandmother Eleonore, who was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III. He was very close to his brother Carl-Alexander and sister Anne Charlotte.

Franz I Stephen, Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany

Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the House of Habsburg with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz-Stephen’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Emperor Karl adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law. Franz-Stephen was brought up in Vienna with Maria Theresa with the understanding that they were to be married, and a real affection arose between them.

When the War of the Polish Succession broke out in 1733, France used it as an opportunity to seize Lorraine, since France’s prime minister, Cardinal Fleury, was concerned that, as a Habsburg possession, it would bring Austrian power too close to France.

A preliminary peace was concluded in October 1735 and ratified in the Treaty of Vienna in November 1738. Under its terms, Stanisław I, the father-in-law of King Louis XV of France and the losing claimant to the Polish throne, received Lorraine, while Franz-Stephen, in compensation for his loss, was made heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, which he would inherit in 1737.

On January 31, 1736 Franz-Stephen agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Carl-Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine. On February 1, Maria Theresa sent Franz-Stephen a letter: she would withdraw from her future reign, when a male successor for her father appeared.

They married on February 12, 1736, in the Augustinian Church, Vienna. The (secret) treaty between the Emperor Carl VI and Franz-Stephen was signed on May 4, 1736. In January 1737, the Spanish troops withdrew from Tuscany, and were replaced by 6,000 Austrians. On January 24, 1737 Franz-Stephen received the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from his father-in-law. Until then, Maria Theresa was Duchess of Lorraine. In 1744 Franz-Stephen’s brother Carl-Alexander married the younger sister of Maria Theresa, Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. In 1744 Carl became governor of the Austrian Netherlands, a post he held until his death in 1780.

Carl VII Albert of Bavaria, Holy Roman Emperor

As son-in-law of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, Carl-Albert of Bavaria rejected the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and claimed the German territories of the Habsburg dynasty after the death of emperor Carl VI in 1740. After the two year War of the Austrian Succession he was elected as Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII from January 24, 1742 until his death in 1745. As a member of the House of Wittelsbach, Carl VII was the first person not born of the House of Habsburg to become emperor in three centuries, though he was connected to that house both by blood and by marriage. Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II was his great-great grandfather.

Since a woman could not be elected Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa wanted to secure the imperial office for her husband, but Franz-Stephen did not possess enough land or rank within the Holy Roman Empire. In order to make him eligible for the imperial throne and to enable him to vote in the imperial elections as elector of Bohemia (which she could not do because of her sex), Maria Theresa made Franz-Stephen co-ruler of the Austrian and Bohemian lands on November 21, 1740.

Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria, Empress Consort of the Holy Roman Empire

It took more than a year for the Diet of Hungary to accept Franz-Stephen as co-ruler, since they asserted that the sovereignty of Hungary could not be shared. Despite her love for him and his position as co-ruler, Maria Theresa never allowed her husband to decide matters of state and often dismissed him from council meetings when they disagreed.

The Treaty of Breslau of June 1742 ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia. With the First Silesian War at an end, the Queen Maria Theresa soon made the recovery of Bohemia her priority. French troops fled Bohemia in the winter of the same year. On May 12, 1743, Maria Theresa had herself crowned Queen of Bohemia in St. Vitus Cathedral.

Prussia became anxious at Austrian advances on the Rhine frontier, and Friedrich II of Prussia again invaded Bohemia, beginning a Second Silesian War; Prussian troops sacked Prague in August 1744. The French plans for the war fell apart when Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII Albert died in January 1745.

Franz-Stephen was elected Holy Roman Emperor on September 13, 1745 as Franz I. Prussia recognised Francis as emperor, and Maria Theresa once again recognised the loss of Silesia by the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745, ending the Second Silesian War.

Although Franz was the Holy Roman Emperor, his wife Maria Theresa was the sovereign in her own right in the Habsburg hereditary lands of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

Franz was well content to leave the wielding of power to his able wife. He had a natural fund of good sense and brilliant business capacity and was a useful assistant to Maria Theresa in the laborious task of governing the complicated Austrian dominions, but he was not active in politics or diplomacy. However, his wife left him in charge of the financial affairs, which he managed well until his death. Heavily indebted and on the verge of bankruptcy at the end of the Seven Years’ War, the Austrian Empire was in a better financial condition than France or England in the 1780s. He also took a great interest in the natural sciences. He was a member of the Freemasons.

Franz was a serial adulterer, many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Maria Wilhelmina, Princess of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on 18 August 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Maria Theresa and Franz I had sixteen children, amongst them the last pre-revolutionary queen consort of France, their youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette (1755–1793), who married King Louis XVI of France and Navarre. Franz was succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions as their sovereign until her own death in 1780.

This date in History: June 27, 1743. George II of Great Britain leads troops at the Battle of Dettingen during the War of the Austrian Succession.

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Battle of Dettingen, Elector of Bavaria, Elector of Hanover, Frederick the Great, George II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Empire, King Frederick II of Prussia, King George II of Great Britain, Pragmatic Sanction, War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) involved most of the powers of Europe over the issue of Archduchess Maria Theresa’s succession to the Habsburg Monarchy.

The immediate cause of the War of the Austrian Succession was the death of Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI (1685–1740) and the inheritance of the Habsburg Monarchy, often collectively referred to as ‘Austria’ (see Map).

Europe after the Treaty of Vienna (1738), Habsburg Monarchy in gold

Background

The 1703 Mutual Pact of Succession between Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and his sons Archduke Joseph and Archduke Carl agreed that if the Habsburgs became extinct in the male line, their possessions would go first to female heirs of Joseph, then those of Carl. Since Salic law excluded women from the inheritance, this required approval by the various Habsburg territories and the Imperial Diet.

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I died in 1711, leaving two daughters, Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia and his brother Carl succeeded his elder brother as Holy Roman Emperor Emperor Carl VI, King of Bohemia (as Carl II), King of Hungary and Croatia, Serbia and Archduke of Austria (as Carl III).

Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI

Carl VI became the last male Habsburg in the direct line. In April 1713, he issued the Pragmatic Sanction, permitting female inheritance but then placing his own hypothetical daughters ahead of Joseph I’s. It’s interesting to note that at this juncture Carl suspected he wouldn’t have any male heirs.

On August 1, 1708, the future Holy Roman Emperor Carl VI married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the eldest daughter of Ludwig-Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen.

When Carl’s daughter Maria Theresa was born in 1717, ensuring her succession dominated the rest of his reign. In 1719 Carl VI required his nieces Maria Joseph and Maria Amalia to renounce their rights in Maria Theresa’s favour in order to marry Friedrich-August of Saxony and Carl-Albert of Bavaria respectively. Carl VI hoped these marriages would secure his daughter’s position since neither Saxony or Bavaria could tolerate the other gaining control of the Habsburg inheritance but his actions undermined the logic of the settlement.

A family issue became a European one due to tensions within the Holy Roman Empire, caused by dramatic increases in the size and power of Bavaria, Prussia and Saxony, mirrored by the post 1683 expansion of Habsburg power into lands previously held by the Ottoman Empire. Further complexity then arose from the fact that the theoretically elected position of Holy Roman Emperor, which had been held by the Habsburgs since 1437, would be lost by the Habsburgs after the death of Emperor Carl VI.

Bavaria and Saxony refused to be bound by the decision of the Imperial Diet, while in 1738 France agreed to back the ‘just claims’ of Carl-Albert of Bavaria, despite previously accepting the Pragmatic Sanction in 1735. Attempts to offset this involved Austria in the 1734-1735 War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Turkish War of 1735–1739, and it was weakened by the losses incurred. Compounded by the failure to prepare Maria Theresa for her new role, many European statesmen were sceptical that the Austrian lands could survive the contest that would follow Carl VI death, which finally occurred on October 20, 1740.

Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungry and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria

Immediately after her accession, a number of European sovereigns who had recognised Maria Theresa as heir broke their promises. Elector Carl-Albert of Bavaria, married to Maria Theresa’s deprived cousin Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, coveted portions of her inheritance. Maria Theresa did secure recognition from King Carlo-Emmanuel III of Sardinia, who had not accepted the Pragmatic Sanction during her father’s lifetime, in November 1740.

In December the War of the Austrian Succession began when King Friedrich II of Prussia invaded the Duchy of Silesia and requested that Maria Theresa cede it, threatening to join her enemies if she refused. Maria Theresa decided to fight for the mineral Rich province.

Elector Carl-Albert of Bavaria invaded Upper Austria in 1741 and planned to conquer Vienna, but his allied French troops under the Duc de Belle-Isle were redirected to Bohemia instead and Prague was conquered in November 1741. So Carl-Albert was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague (December 19, 1741) when the Habsburgs were not yet defeated. He was unanimously elected “King of the Romans” on January 24, 1742, also with the vote of King George II of Great Britain (in his capacity as the Imperial Elector of Hanover) and became Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII upon his coronation on February 17, 1742.

Holy Roman Emperor Carl VII, Elector of Bavaria

One important battle of the War of the Austrian Succession was the Battle of Dettingen which took place on June 27, 1743 at Dettingen on the River Main, Holy Roman Empire. The British forces, in alliance with those of Hanover and Hesse, defeated a French army under the duc de Noailles. King George II of Great Britain, Imperial Elector of Hanover, commanded his troops in the battle, and this marked the last time a British monarch personally led his troops on the field. The battle straddled the river about 18 miles east of Frankfurt, with guns on the Hessian bank but most of the combat on the flat Bavarian bank. The village of Dettingen is today the town of Karlstein am Main, in the extreme northwest of Bavaria.

King George II of Great Britain at the Battle of Dettingen.

George II, King of Great Britain and Ireland and Imperial Elector of Hanover.