Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

File:Benjamin von Block 003.jpg, 1684)]]

Born in Vienna, Joseph was educated strictly by Charles Theodore, Prince of Salm, and became a good linguist. Perhaps due to the influence of his formerly Protestant tutor he was a less devout Catholic than his parents and other relatives and developed into an adherent of the early Age of Enlightenment.{{Cite web |title=Reforming zeal in the Baroque: Joseph I |url=http://english.habsburger.net/module-en/reformeifer-im-barock-joseph-i |website=The World of the Habsburgs |publisher=english.habsburger.net |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111214122631/http://english.habsburger.net/module-en/reformeifer-im-barock-joseph-i |archive-date=December 14, 2011 |access-date=February 18, 2012}} He had two great enthusiasms: music and hunting.

Although Joseph was the first son and child born of his parents' marriage, he was his father's third son and seventh child. Previously, Leopold had been married to Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain, who had given him four children, one of whom survived infancy. He then married Claudia Felicitas of Austria, who gave him two short-lived daughters. Thus, Joseph had six half-siblings. In 1684, the six-year-old Archduke had his first portrait painted by Benjamin Block. At the age of nine, on 9 December 1687, he was crowned King of Hungary; and at the age of eleven, on 23 January 1690, King of the Romans.

In 1702, at the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Joseph saw his only military service. He joined the Imperial General, Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, in the Siege of Landau.{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Joseph I|display=Joseph I.|volume=15|page=514}}

File:Joseph I Holy Roman Emperor 002.jpg, 1702]]

Prior to his ascension, Joseph had surrounded himself with reform-hungry advisors and the young court of Vienna was ambitious in the elaboration of innovative plans. He was described as a "forward-looking ruler". The large number of privy councillors was reduced and attempts were made to make the bureaucracy more efficient. Measures were taken to modernize the central bodies and a certain success was achieved in stabilizing the chronically poor Habsburg finances. Joseph also endeavoured to strengthen his position in the Holy Roman Empire – as a means of strengthening Austria’s standing as a great power. When he sought to lay claim to imperial rights in Italy and gain territories for the Habsburgs, he even risked a military conflict with the Pope over the Duchy of Mantua. Joseph I was threatened with excommunication by Pope Clement XI on 16 June 1699.Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rudGAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA65 Misapprehension of Patrick Curties and James Doyle concerning the oath which the bishops of Ireland take to the Roman Pontiff], (1825) page 64

In Hungary, Joseph had inherited the kuruc rebellion from his father Leopold I: once again, nobles in Transylvania (Siebenbürgen) had risen against Habsburg rule, even advancing for a time as far as Vienna. Although Joseph was compelled to take military action, he refrained – unlike his predecessors – from seeking to teach his subjects a lesson by executing the leaders. Instead, he agreed to a compromise peace, which in the long term facilitated the integration of Hungary into the Habsburg domains. It was his good fortune to govern the Austrian dominions and to be head of the Empire, during the years in which his trusted general, Prince Eugene of Savoy, either acting alone in Italy or with the Duke of Marlborough in Germany and Flanders, was beating the armies of Louis XIV of France. During the whole of his reign, Hungary was disturbed by the conflict with Francis Rákóczi II, who eventually took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. The emperor reversed many of the authoritarian measures of his father, thus helping to placate opponents. He began the attempts to settle the question of the Austrian inheritance by a pragmatic sanction, which was continued by his brother Charles VI.

During the Rákóczi's rebellion (1703–1711) in the Kingdom of Hungary, Joseph's government was also faced with various religious and ethnic challenges. Significant portion of Hungarian nobility and people belonged to the Reformed Church (Calvinists). Hoping to gain full religious freedom and equality, Hungarian Calvinists were supportive for the Rákóczi's movement, thus forcing the imperial court in Vienna to reexamine some staunch pro-Catholic policies.{{sfn|Ingrao|1979|p=123-160}} In the same time, eastern and southern regions of the Kingdom were also inhabited by Eastern Orthodox Christians, mainly Serbs and Romanians. In order to secure their loyalty, Joseph issued (in 1706) official confirmation of religious liberties that were previously granted to Eastern Orthodox subjects by his father, late emperor Leopold I. In 1708, Joseph confirmed the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Krušedol.{{sfn|Ćirković|2004|p=149-150}}

In 1710, Joseph extended his father's edict of outlawry against the Romani (Gypsies) in the Habsburg lands. Per Leopold, any Romani who entered the kingdom was to be declared an outlaw by letters patent. If the same person returned to Bohemia a second time, they were to be "treated with all possible severity". Joseph ordered that in the Kingdom of Bohemia they were to have their right ears cut off; in the Margraviate of Moravia, the left ear was to be cut off; in Austria, they would be branded on the back with a branding iron, representing the gallows. These mutilations were to enable the authorities to identify Romani who had been outlawed and returned. Joseph's edict specified "that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever." Officials who failed to enforce the edict could be fined 100 Reichsthaler. Helping Romani was punishable by a half-year's forced labor. "Mass killings" of Romani were reported as a result.David Crowe (2004): A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (Palgrave Macmillan) {{ISBN|0-312-08691-1}} p.XI p.36-37

File:JosephI.01.jpg]]

During the smallpox epidemic of 1711, which killed Louis, Grand Dauphin and three siblings of the future Emperor Francis I, Joseph became infected. He died on 17 April in the Hofburg palace. He had previously promised his wife to stop having affairs, should he survive.

The Emperor was buried in the Imperial Crypt, resting place of the majority of the Habsburgs. His funeral took place on 20 April, in tomb no. 35 in Karl's Vault. His tomb was designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, decorated with pictures of various battles from the War of Spanish Succession. Josefstadt (the eighth district of Vienna) is named for Joseph.

On 24 February 1699, he married Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Vienna. They had three children and their only son died of hydrocephalus before his first birthday. Joseph had a passion for love affairs (none of which resulted in illegitimate children) and he caught a sexually transmittable disease, probably syphilis, which he passed on to his wife while they were trying to produce a new heir. This incident rendered her sterile. Their father, who was still alive during these events, made Joseph and his brother Charles sign the Mutual Pact of Succession, under which Joseph's daughters would have precedence over Charles's daughters, in case neither fathered a son. This ruling, which made no provision for the accession of Charles's daughter Maria Theresa, led to the War of Austrian Succession.

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| 1 = 1. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

| 2 = 2. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor

| 3 = 3. Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg

| 4 = 4. Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA100 |title=Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans |publisher=Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel |year=1768 |location=Bourdeaux |pages=100 |language=fr |trans-title=Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living}}

| 5 = 5. Maria Anna of Austria

| 6 = 6. Philip William, Elector Palatine

| 7 = 7. Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt

| 8 = 8. Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor{{NDB|5|85|86|Ferdinand III.|Eder, Karl|118532529}}

| 9 = 9. Maria Anna of Bavaria

| 10 = 10. Philip III of Spain{{BLKO |wstitle=Habsburg, Maria Anna von Spanien |volume=7 |page=23}}

| 11 = 11. Margaret of Austria

| 12 = 12. Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg{{NDB|20|384||Philipp Wilhelm|Fuchs, Peter|118742221}}

| 13 = 13. Magdalene of Bavaria

| 14 = 14. George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt{{Cite book |last1=Louda |first1=Jirí |title=Lines of Succession: Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe |last2=MacLagan |first2=Michael |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |year=1999 |edition=2nd |location=London |at=table 84}}

| 15 = 15. Sophia Eleonore of Saxony

}}

{{Habsburg family tree}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin|30em}}

• {{Cite book|last=Ćirković|first=Sima|author-link=Sima Ćirković|year=2004|title=The Serbs|location=Malden|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=978-1-4051-4291-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Wc-DWRzoeIC}}
• Herchenhahn, J. C. Geschichte der Regierung Kaiser Josephs I (1786–1789)
• {{Cite book|last=Hochedlinger|first=Michael|title=Austria's Wars of Emergence: War, State and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797|year=2013|location=London & New York|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-88793-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qbpACwAAQBAJ}}
• {{Cite book|last=Ingrao|first=Charles W.|author-link=Charles Ingrao|title=In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy|year=1979|location=West Lafayette|publisher=Purdue University Press|isbn=978-0-911198-53-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AAkNAAAAIAAJ}}
• Krones von Marchiand, F. Grundriss der Oesterreichischen Geschichte (1882)
• van Noorden,C. Europäische Geschichte im achtzehnten Jahrhundert (1870–1882).
• Wagner, F. Historia Josephi Caesaris (1746)

{{refend}}

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• {{DNB portal|118558390|TYP=| NAME =Joseph I}}
• [http://www.aeiou.at/aeiou.music.7.3/070304.htm Joseph I.: "Regina coeli"]
• [http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552898/Joseph_I_(Holy_Roman_Empire).html Joseph I (Holy Roman Empire) - MSN Encarta ] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060509014835/http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761552898/Joseph_I_(Holy_Roman_Empire).html Archived] 2009-10-31)[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/306340/Joseph-I]

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{{s-hou|House of Habsburg|26 July|1678|17 April|1711}}

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{{s-ttl|title=Holy Roman Emperor
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{{s-ttl|title=King of Hungary, Croatia and Slavonia|years=1687–1711|regent1=Leopold I|years1=1687–1705}}

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Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

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