JOSEPH II

born March 13, 1741, Vienna died Feb. 20, 1790, Vienna Holy Roman emperor (176590), at first co-ruler with his mother, Maria Theresa (176580), and then sole ruler (178090) of the Austrian Habsburg dominions. An enlightened despot, he sought to introduce administrative, legal, economic, and ecclesiastical reformswith only measured success. Additional reading Pavel Mitrofanov, Joseph II: Seine politische und kulturelle Ttigkeit, 2 vol. (1910; orig. pub. in Russian, 1907), long considered the most basic work about the life and times of Joseph II; Correspondances intimes de l'Empereur Joseph II avec . . . le comte de Cobenzl et . . . le Prince de Kaunitz (1871), with introduction and notes by Sebastian Brunner, contains anecdotes and personal details that give a good picture of Joseph's life and personality; Francois Fejt, Un Habsbourg rvolutionnaire, Joseph II (1953; German trans., Joseph II., Kaiser und Revolutionr: Ein Lebensbild, 1956), a valuable biography; Saul K. Padover, The Revolutionary Emperor: Joseph the Second, 17411790 (1934), shows the significance of Joseph's reign in the context of German and European history; Harold W.V. Temperley, Frederic the Great and Kaiser Joseph, 2nd ed. (1968), a very good analysis of the contrast in character, temper, and significance between the two great opponents.