• 15/05/2022
• By wizewebsite
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Joseph II he caught it from all sides. He had to marry a woman who disgusted him<

The diary brings the second part of a series about the fates of Maria Theresa's descendants.

Joseph II he was born to Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen of Lorraine as the fourth child in a row, but two of his older sisters died before he was born. On the one hand, he was a prayed child - he was a male heir to the throne. On the other hand, it meant a very difficult life for him.

Even at his early age, Joseph II. he has very good preconditions for the position of monarch. "He was educated very thoroughly and rigorously, his intelligence has been evident since he was little," recalls the Britannica encyclopedia. Just for fun, as a six-year-old he could read and write in several languages. According to the Deutsche Biographie server, he even soon outgrew his teachers.

Joseph II he was also interested in politics. In his case, it was a necessity, but he took a very proactive approach.

Like his siblings, Joseph II. he got along better with his father than with his mother. Not only did they differ in some areas, Joseph II lived until Maria Theresa's death. in its shadow and tow.

Unrequited love

Nor Joseph II. he did not escape his mother's marriage policy. He married for the first time at the age of nineteen and Isabela Parmská, who was the same age, was chosen for him. Although it was a political marriage, the next Habsburg monarch immediately fell in love with his beautiful and bright wife. "Not only did she have intellect, she also had a very good education, which was not typical of women at the time," says Habsburger.

But even in this case, Joseph II did not. luck. Isabela Parmská had a complicated nature and did not return feelings to her wife. "She has been very melancholic since childhood and apparently depressed. She was even haunted by premonitions of death. While she did not return Joseph's feelings, she became very close to Archduchess Maria Kristina, Joseph's sister. Preserved correspondence shows that their relationship was very intimate, perhaps even lesbian, "outlines the Habsburger website.

Nevertheless, Isabela tried to be Josef's good wife, and he allegedly never knew that she was just pretending to get her role. She was expecting a baby five times, of which she miscarried three times. But in the end, the future ruler lost the illusion of a happy marriage. After three years together, Isabela herself died of smallpox, and their two descendants subsequently died at an early age. Joseph's death overwhelmed her, whom he believed loved him as much as he loved him.

"We shared justice and joy fairly, so we had the happiest days together. I was robbed of it all. No princess, no woman was like her. It was I who owned the treasure I lost when I was 22, "he wrote of his wife after her death.

An unnoticed wife

Disasters on Joseph II. they began to roll one after the other. Just two years after the death of a beloved woman, his father died suddenly and he became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but it further ruined the relationship with his mother. "Even though he was the co-ruler of Maria Theresa, his mother still had real power in her hands," Biography recalls. Maria Theresa may have been a progressive ruler, but the novelties that Joseph II wanted to introduce did not smell like her. And she still had the main say in the family. Mother and son did not agree, for example, on religious freedoms and Joseph II. he suffered in the shadow of Maria Theresa.

But not only that. The disputes did not take place only on a political level, but his mother also pushed him into another inconvenience - a second political marriage. And as if he didn't have enough to deal with women anymore, either with the mother he was arguing with or with the grief he had left in his heart after his first wife's death, he got a new one.

Maria Theresa wished that Joseph, as emperor, would finally give birth to the heirs of the monarchy, and so, despite the protests, she forced him into another political marriage. This time with his second cousin Maria Josefa Bavarian.

But this marriage ended in disaster. Joseph II he was no longer able to love after Isabella's death, and the bride was no longer a dazzling beauty. "In contemporary sources, Marie Josefa is described as physically unattractive and somewhat slowed down. But also as loving and sweet. Although she tried to win over Josef's affection, he systematically ignored her. The marriage was probably never fulfilled, "says the Habsburger server.

Some sources state that Joseph II. not only did he refuse to have sex with his second wife, but he went so far as to carefully avoid places where he could meet her - he practically bypassed the wing where she lived. In the end, as with Josef's first marriage, smallpox ended the humiliating union. "Marie Josefa fell ill and died unnoticed by her husband," Habsburger writes.

When Maria Theresa proposed another marriage, Joseph II. he resisted her. Otherwise, however, he remained in her tow until the death of his mother, and after her death in 1780, when he took over the government, he tended to rest.

He fully committed his reign. He resigned his private life and worked twelve hours a day. He was quite popular with his subjects, but he had to overcome a lot of political losses - he had to cancel many of his reforms shortly after his release. He died after ten years on the throne, and reworking appears to have contributed to his death.

Children of Maria Theresa Marie Alžběta (1737–1740) Marie Anna (1738–1789) Marie Karolína (1740–1741) Josef II. (1741–1790) Marie Kristina (1742–1798) Marie Alžběta (1743–1808) Karel Josef (1745–1761) Marie Amálie (1746–1804) Leopold II. (1747–1792) Marie Karolína (1748–1748) Johann Gabriel (1750–1762) Marie Josefa (1751–1767) Marie Karolína (1752–1814) Ferdinand Karel (1754–1806) Marie Antoinette (Marie Antonie) Maxmilián František (1756 –1801), Archbishop, Elector of Cologne