Joseph I.

Joseph I was born in Vienna on July 26, 1678, as the eldest son of Emperor Leopold I and Eleonore Magdalene of the Palatinate. He belonged to the House of Habsburg and was prepared from an early age for his future role as a ruler. In 1687, at the age of nine, he was crowned King of Hungary. In 1690, he was crowned King of the Romans. Following his father’s death, he ascended the imperial throne in 1705 and simultaneously became King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia. He ruled until his death in 1711. Joseph was regarded as versatile, intelligent, and skilled in languages. Like his father, he took a keen interest in music and composed works himself. At the same time, he was adventurous and physically daring: he tamed his own horses and often went hunting with his confidant Matthias von Lamberg. Contemporaries described him in his youth as especially handsome. Unlike his parents and his brother Charles VI, however, he displayed little personal piety. His education was shaped by different political and religious influences. His tutor, Karl Theodor Otto, Prince of Salm, was a former Protestant who advocated a stronger separation of church and state policy. Joseph’s religious instructor, Franz Ferdinand von Rummel, and his teacher of politics and history, Wagner von Wagnerfels, also supported ideas aimed at limiting clerical influence at the Viennese court. Joseph brought several Protestants into his entourage and consequently came into conflict with the Jesuits. He proved capable of defending himself forcefully against his opponents. He and his father repeatedly disagreed over the nature of rule, and Leopold also made it clear that he preferred Joseph’s brother Charles as his successor. When the War of the Spanish Succession broke out in 1701, Joseph became a member of the imperial cabinet and firmly supported the war against France. After taking part in the capture of the fortress of Landau, his father considered him politically and militarily mature. Joseph attended government meetings and even presided over the Council of Ministers in the emperor’s absence. When he was prevented from returning to the front because of the difficult situation in 1703, he turned increasingly to domestic politics. He held the leading officials of the Court Chamber and the Aulic War Council responsible for the financial and organizational problems. At the Viennese court, Joseph became the leading figure of the so-called Young Court, a group of young officials and military men demanding comprehensive reforms. Its members included, among others, Prince Eugene and Gundaker Starhemberg. In 1704, the reform party largely secured political dominance after successfully removing influential opponents. Joseph also headed the Mittelsdeputation, which was tasked with raising urgently needed funds. Wealthy nobles, Jews in the hereditary lands, and court officials were compelled to provide loans to the state. An attempt to establish a separate state bank, however, initially met with almost complete failure. Joseph was a determined opponent of France and took part in the Second Battle of Höchstädt and the second siege of Landau. At the end of 1704, he returned to Vienna because of his father’s serious illness, but after Leopold recovered, Joseph temporarily lost his political influence. In February 1705, he was even excluded from council meetings. Shortly before his father’s death, he once again assumed responsibility for the government and ascended the throne a few days later. As emperor, Joseph governed in a collegial manner and closely involved his advisers in decision-making. He reformed the administration of the court, reduced the Privy Council from 150 members to 33, and initially divided political deliberations among eight specialized conferences. These institutions were later consolidated again. An inner conference consisting of leading ministers and military figures was used to discuss important matters before they were considered by the larger body. One of his most urgent tasks was financing the War of the Spanish Succession. Joseph tightened administrative controls, made officials subject to taxation, reduced the number of employees, and introduced more precise oversight of revenues. Existing taxes were increased and new levies introduced. Members of the clergy were forced to make a “voluntary gift,” while nobles paid a so-called Contributio. As a result, the crown’s revenues rose substantially. Considerable sums also flowed to Vienna from Bavaria, the Rhineland territories, and the conquered Italian lands. The new city bank additionally helped reduce government debt. Another reform concerned the forced labor services imposed on peasants, known as Robot. On some crown estates in Silesia, Joseph allowed an experiment in which peasants could work the land they cultivated independently in return for a fixed rent. The model met resistance but soon led to higher tax revenues. In Moravia, the emperor also acted against abuses and ordered investigations to ensure that noble landowners complied with legal requirements. The war continued to dominate his entire reign. Under Prince Eugene, and with the support of English and Dutch allies, the Habsburg armies achieved significant successes. Joseph sought an actual victory over France and was more interested in expanding Habsburg power in Italy than in pursuing his brother Charles’s claims in Spain. The expansion in Italy even brought him into conflict with Pope Clement XI. At the same time, Joseph avoided involvement in the Great Northern War and in 1707 fulfilled obligations toward the Protestants in Silesia in response to the advance of the Swedish king Charles XII. During the Kuruc uprising, he fought the rebellion led by Francis II Rákóczi, who defended the rights and autonomy of Transylvania. After Rákóczi’s defeat and the Peace of Szatmár in 1711, Hungary and Transylvania remained under Habsburg rule. Joseph was not only a reformer but also a lavish-minded Baroque ruler. He founded the Kärntnertor Theater and the Joseph Academy of Sciences, had Vienna’s sewer system constructed, and rebuilt the Josefstadt, which had been destroyed. With the first design for Schönbrunn Palace, he sought to surpass Versailles and challenge Louis XIV as Europe’s most magnificent monarch. Despite chronic financial shortages, he spent large sums on festivities, music, gifts, and the maintenance of his court. In 1699, Joseph married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. The couple had three children: Maria Josepha, Maria Amalia, and Leopold Joseph, who died young. Joseph’s numerous extramarital relationships, including his long-standing affair with Marianne Pálffy, placed a strain on the marriage. Health problems also prevented the birth of further male heirs. His daughter Maria Josepha later married Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, while Maria Amalia married Charles Albert of Bavaria. In the spring of 1711, Joseph fell ill during a smallpox epidemic. Although he was already showing the first signs of the disease, he still went hunting on April 8. He died in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on April 17. Since he left no son, his brother succeeded him as Emperor Charles VI. The prospect that Charles might unite Spain and the Habsburg hereditary lands with the imperial title led the maritime powers to withdraw their support from the Habsburgs during the War of the Spanish Succession. Joseph was buried in the Imperial Crypt on April 20, 1711; in accordance with Habsburg tradition, his heart and internal organs were buried at other sites in Vienna.