Joseph as heir and co-regent
Joseph was born in the midst of the early upheavals of the
War of the Austrian Succession. Maria Theresa gave orders that he was only to be taught as if he were amusing himself; the result was that Joseph acquired a habit of crude and superficial study. His real education was given to him through the writings of
Voltaire and the
Encyclopedists, and by the example of
Frederick the Great. His useful training was conferred by government officials, who were directed to instruct him in the mechanical details of the administration of the numerous states composing the
Austrian dominions and the Empire.
He was made a member of the constituted council of state (
Staatsrath) and began to draw up minutes (to which he gave the name of "Reveries") for his mother to read. These papers contain the germs of his later policy, and of all the disasters which 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,
Catherine of Russia, or his own brother and successor
Leopold II, all enlightened rulers of the
18th century stamp. He was a great influence on serfs but that did not last after his death.
Where Joseph differed from great contemporary rulers, and where he was very close akin to the
Jacobins, was in the fanatical intensity of his belief in the
power of the
state when directed by
reason, of his right to speak for the state uncontrolled by laws, and of the sensibility of his 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 mankind could meet with pardonable opposition.
Joseph was documented by contemporaries as being impressive, but not necessarily likeable. 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
Vergennes, who met Joseph when he was travelling incognito in
1777, judged him to be "ambitious and despotic."
Until the death of his mother in
1780, Joseph was never quite free to follow his own instincts. After the death of his father in
1765, he became emperor and was made co-regent by his mother in the Austrian dominions. As emperor, he had no real 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, by threatening to resign his place as co-regent, could induce his mother to abate her dislike for religious toleration. He could and did place a great strain on her patience and temper, as in the case of the first partition of
Poland and the
Bavarian War of
1778–1779, but in the last resort, the empress spoke the final word.
During these wars, Joseph traveled much. He met
Frederick the Great privately at
Neisse in
1769, and again at
Mährisch-Neustadt in
1770. On the second occasion, he was accompanied by
Count Kaunitz, whose conversation with Frederick may be said to mark the starting point of the first partition of Poland. To this and to every other measure which promised to extend the dominions of his house, Joseph gave hearty approval. Thus, he was eager to enforce Austria's claim on
Bavaria upon the death of the elector
Maximilian Joseph in
1777. In April of that year, he paid a visit to his sister the queen of
France, Marie Antoinette of Austria, traveling under the name of "Count Falkenstein." He was well received and much flattered by the Encyclopedists, but his observations led him to predict the approaching downfall of the French monarchy, and he was not impressed favorably by the French army or navy.
In
1778, he commanded the troops collected to oppose Frederick, who supported the rival claimant to Bavaria. Real fighting was averted by the unwillingness of Frederick to embark on a new war and by Maria Theresa's determination to maintain peace. In April
1780, Joseph paid a visit to
Catherine II of Russia, against the wish of his mother.
As the son of Francis I, Joseph succeeded him as titular Duke of
Lorraine and
Bar, which had been surrendered to France on his father's marriage, and titular King of
Jerusalem and Duke of Calabria (as a proxy for the
Kingdom of Naples).
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