Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Born 13 March 1741, Joseph was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I, making him the first Habsburg-Lorraine ruler when he became Holy Roman Emperor on 18 August 1765. He shared power with his mother until her death on 29 November 1780, then ruled alone and pushed harder: secularizing, liberalizing, modernizing at a pace that sparked widespread opposition and left most reforms unfinished. His foreign policy isolated Austria despite some territorial gains. He supported Mozart and Salieri, earned comparison to Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great as an Enlightenmen…