The Life of Joshua II of Austria

Hi! My name is Joseph Benedikt Anton Michael Adam, or known simply as Joseph II of Austria. I am placed and bestowed by heaven to be the eldest son of Maria Theresa and Francis I. I am a proponent of enlightened absolutism and I advocated religious toleration before the law among my dominions, the Habsburg lands. Out of all the offspring of my dear, beloved mother Maria Theresa, I was the most difficult to manage. During my childhood life, my mother attempted to frighten me with matters concerning the spiritual-world which ultimately brought a foundation to my religious skepticism as I matured. After the miserable death of my parents, I succeeded them as ruler of Austria. Before my coronation as ruler of Austria, an attempt to bolster the 1756 defensive pact was made through the union of Princess Isabella of Parma, the daughter of Philip, the Duke of Parma, and I, the ruler of the Habsburg lands. Unfortunately, my beloved child, Maria Theresa, at age seven, suddenly and dramatically died of pleurisy-an inflammation in the lungs. In addition, my wife, the lovely, intelligent, and beautiful Princess Isabella of Parma died a year before my coronation in Frankfurt on April 3, 1704. I was reluctant to re-marry after that sorrowful experience. For political reasons, however, I married Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the empress of the Holy Roman Empire, who unfortunately, died two years later from smallpox. One can clearly see the accounts of my tragic background concerning my family life. However, despite these circumstances, I was passionate and intensified by my belief in the power of the state directed by reason. In my reform system, I abolished brutal punishments and in most instances, the horrendous death penalty. In my reform system, I imposed a principle of complete equality of treatment and I ended censorship n the field of entertainment. As I endeavored to propose the greatest system of amends, I spectacularly extended the full legal freedom to serfs. However, the arrogant landlords who found their economic positions threatened, reversed my policy measures-the tax owed to a landlord were to be regulated by the authorities. I was discontent with the resistance from the landlords and issued the Imperial Patent that abolished serfdom. I viewed this proposal as the best solution despite the endurance of feudalism. In my effort to achieve a bonding relationship with the peasantry, I imposed a single-tax on the land and increased state revenues. Perplexed I was when my reforms were met with resistance from the nobility, peasantry, and some officials. As a proud supporter of the Enlightenment , I accomplished new economic principles-tax reforms and the Katastralgemeinde(tax districts for the larger residences)-that called for the destruction of the independent guilds. In the fields of education and medicine, I established schools for the Jews and other religious minorities and I constructed scholarships for the talented impoverished students. I reversed the country's language from Latin to German-considered a disputable step in my era. In addition to  my educational amends, I created an improved, single, and large hospital centered in Vienna, in response to the different physicians' requests for larger, advanced facilities. My reforms in the medical field, tragically, worsened the sanitary conditions and increased the mortality rate to 20 percent. Despite these unfortunate occurrences, my policy of religious toleration was the most advanced in Europe. My policies were exceptional, but many of my endeavors faced extreme opposition, especially from the traditional Catholic Church. I tried to make the Catholic Church a tool of the state by requiring the bishop to swear an oath of loyalty to the crown and depriving the clergy from the tithe. As a supporter of the Enlightenment, I reduced the number of nuns and monks in the monasteries from sixty-five thousand to twenty-seven thousand. Most of my reforms were met with unrest,opposition, and animosity. I could not comprehend why my amends were made with dissatisfaction and I expressed my sorrows and griefs in my message for my gravestone,"Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook."