Emperor joseph ii biography

Holy Roman Emperor from to

"Joseph II" redirects here. For other uses, see Joseph II (disambiguation).

Joseph II (13 March – 20 February ) was Holy Roman Emperor from 18 August and sole ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 29 November 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. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the union of the Houses of Habsburg and Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine.

Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism like his brother Leopold II; however, his commitment to secularizing, liberalizing and modernizing reforms resulted in significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs. Meanwhile, despite making some territorial gains, his reckless foreign policy badly isolated Austria. He has been ranked with C

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Scientist of the Day - Joseph II, Holy långnovell Emperor

Joseph II, Holy långnovell Emperor, was born Mar. 13,   He fryst vatten best known to the modern public as the enlightened ruler who commissioned Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio in , and who then complained to Mozart (if the film Amadeus () be our guide) that there were "too many notes" (to which Mozart supposedly replied, "there are just as many as are required").  In addition to the roles, real and imagined, that he played in Mozart’s musical life, Joseph also crops up several times in the history of Enlightenment science.  Two months ago, we featured Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen as our forskare of the Day.  Von Kempelen was an  Austrian inventor who built a chess-playing automaton called "The Turk".  He presented it to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in , but it seems to have been put away and forgotten. Joseph succeeded his mother Maria Theresa in , and one of his first acts as sole Emperor

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Mozart &
Material Culture

Joseph II was an accomplished musician and his tastes informed musical life in Vienna during the s: he was partial to German opera and opera buffa, Harmoniemusik (music for wind bands) and simple, accessible church music; he disliked elaborate court music, opera seria and ballet. A supporter of Mozart, Joseph commissioned Die Entführung aus dem SerailK in and Der SchauspieldirektorK in and engaged Lorenzo Da Ponte as court poet, which in turn led to the composition or performance of Le nozze di FigaroK, Don Giovanni K and Così fan tutte K In December Joseph created a position for Mozart at court, as Royal and Imperial Chamber Musician (k. k. Kammermusikus), solely, as he wrote, ‘out of consideration that so rare a genius in the world of music should not be obliged to seek abroad for recognition and his daily bread'. Joseph’s musical predilections also explain why, in Vienna, Mozart composed no church music except the mass K (not, in a