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Joseph II (13 March 1741 – 20 February 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Francis I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Leopold II, Maria Carolina of Austria, and Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma.
The monarchs of Prussia were members of the House of Hohenzollern who were the hereditary rulers of the former German state of Prussia from its founding in 1525 as the Duchy of Prussia. The Duchy had evolved out of the Teutonic Order , a Roman Catholic crusader state and theocracy located along the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea .
However, Joseph II again did not agree to a full exchange of all provinces within the Austrian Netherlands, and the agreement collapsed amidst tacit French opposition and overt Prussian hostility, with King Frederick II of Prussia raising the opposition by the Fürstenbund, an association of several Imperial princes.
Enlightened absolutism is the theme of an essay by Frederick the Great, who ruled Prussia from 1740 to 1786, defending this system of government. [5] When the prominent French Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire fell out of favor in France , he eagerly accepted Frederick's invitation to live at his palace.
Frederick II of Prussia was elated with his success; Prussia took most of Royal Prussia (except Gdańsk) that stood between its possessions in Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, as well as Ermland , northern areas of Greater Poland along the Noteć River (the Netze District), and parts of Kuyavia (but not the city of Toruń). [1]
Joseph II by Anton von Maron, 1775. Josephinism is a name given collectively to the domestic policies of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1765–1790). During the ten years in which Joseph was the sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy (1780–1790), he attempted to legislate a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of what liberals saw as an ideal Enlightened state.
The Meeting of Frederick II and Joseph II in Neisse in 1769 is an oil on canvas history painting by Adolph Menzel, executed in 1855–1857, showing the meeting of Frederick II of Prussia with Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor at Neisse on 25 August 1769. It is now in the Alte Nationalgalerie, in Berlin. [1]
Emperor Joseph's enlightened despot contemporaries, Catherine the Great of Russia and Frederick the Great of Prussia, both claimed to detest feudalism yet chose to appease their noble classes by strengthening the serfdom system during their years in power. Author T. K. E. Blemming describes the rulers' compromises, arguing that "in exchange for ...