by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2023

The Holy Roman Empire was a limited elective monarchy composed of hundreds of kingdoms, principalities, duchies, counties, prince-bishoprics, and Free Imperial Cities in central Europe. The Holy Roman Empire was not really holy since, after Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1530, no emperors were crowned by the pope or a bishop. It was not Roman but rather German because it was mainly in the regions of present-day Germany and Austria. It was an empire in name only – the territories it covered were mostly independent each with its own rulers. The Holy Roman Emperor directly ruled over only his family territories, and could not issue decrees and rule autonomously over the Holy Roman Empire. A Holy Roman Emperor was only as strong as his army and alliances, including marriage alliances, made him, and his power was severely restricted by the many sovereigns of the constituent monarchies of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century, prince-electors, or electors for short, elected the Holy Roman Emperor from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Frequently but not always, it was common practice to elect the deceased Holy Roman Emperor’s heir. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy. No person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Holy Roman Emperor. However, the Holy Roman Emperor could and often did, while still alive, have a relative (usually a son) elected to succeed him after his death. This elected heir apparent used the title King of the Romans.

Learn more at Unofficial Royalty: What was the Holy Roman Empire?

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Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor was also King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, and King of Croatia from 1705 – 1711, and King of Hungary from 1687 – 1711. Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius was born in Vienna, then in the Archduchy of Austria, on July 26, 1678. He was the eldest of the ten children and the eldest of the three sons of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and his third wife and second cousin Eleonore Magdalena of Neuburg. Joseph’s paternal grandparents were Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor and the first of his three wives and his first cousin, Maria Anna of Austria. His maternal grandparents were Philipp Wilhelm, Count Palatine of Neuburg and Duke of Jülich-Berg and his second wife Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt.

Joseph had nine siblings but only four survived childhood:

• Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria (born and died 1679), died at birth
• Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria, Governor of the Austrian Netherlands (1680 – 1741), unmarried
• Archduke Leopold Joseph of Austria (1682 – 1684), died in early childhood
• Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1683 – 1754) married King João V of Portugal, had six children including two Kings of Portugal and one Queen Consort of Spain
• Archduchess Maria Theresia of Austria (1684 – 1696), died from smallpox at the age of 12
• Karl VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685 – 1740), married Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, had one son who died in infancy and three daughters, father of Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia, the only woman to rule the Habsburg lands in her own right
• Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria (1687 – 1703), died from smallpox at the age of 16
• Maria Magdalena of Austria, Governor of Tyrol (1689 – 1743), unmarried
• Maria Margaretha of Austria (1690 – 1691), died in infancy

Joseph’s father Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor had been married twice before to Margarita Teresa of Spain and Claudia Felicitas of Austria. From these two marriages, Leopold I had six children, however, all except the oldest daughter from his first wife, had died.

Joseph had one surviving half-sister from his father’s first marriage to Margarita Teresa of Spain:

• Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (1669 – 1692), married Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria, had three sons, none survived childhood

Joseph was educated by Karl Theodor Otto, Prince of Salm, Leopold I’s Oberhofmeister, the head of the imperial court and household, and also the first privy councilor, a position similar to a prime minister. When Joseph succeeded his father, Karl Theodor Otto remained Oberhofmeister and first privy councilor. Joseph was studious, multi-talented, and very intelligent. In 1687, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor gave his nine-year-old son the Kingdom of Hungary, one of the Habsburg hereditary lands, to rule over. In 1690, Joseph was elected King of the Romans, meaning he would be elected the next Holy Roman Emperor.

On February 24, 1699, in Vienna, Joseph married Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg, daughter of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate. Joseph began having affairs at the age of 15 with maids and noble women. Wilhelmine Amalie was very pious and had received a Catholic education from her great-aunt Louise Hollandine of the Palatinate who had converted to Roman Catholicism, became a nun, and later the abbess at the Cistercian Maubuisson Abbey in France. It was thought that the pious Wilhelmine Amalie, who was five years older than Joseph, would be a positive influence on Joseph and he would then stop having affairs.

Joseph and Wilhelmine Amalie had three children but their only son died from hydrocephalus before his first birthday:

• Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria (1699 – 1757), married Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, had fourteen children
• Archduke Leopold Joseph of Austria (1700 – 1701), died in infancy
• Archduchess Maria Amalie of Austria (1701 – 1756), married Karl VII, Holy Roman Emperor, Prince-Elector of Bavaria, had seven children

Joseph did not stop his affairs, and the affairs combined with the death of his only son took a toll on his marriage. Joseph contracted a venereal disease, probably syphilis, and probably passed the disease to his wife. The venereal disease was most likely the reason for the failure of the couple to produce more children. Without male heirs, a succession crisis developed over who would inherit the Habsburg hereditary lands of Bohemia, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary. The Holy Roman Emperor was not inherited but was elected by the prince-electors, or electors for short, from among the sovereigns of the constituent states.

Joseph’s father Holy Roman Leopold I was still alive and he devised the Mutual Pact of Succession, a succession device secretly signed by Joseph and his younger brother Karl in 1703. The Mutual Pact of Succession stated that the Habsburg hereditary lands would be inherited by the brothers’ respective male heirs. However, if one brother should fail to have a son, the other one would succeed him in all the Habsburg hereditary lands. If both brothers died without sons, the daughters of Joseph, the elder brother, would have absolute precedence over the daughters of Karl, the younger brother, and the eldest daughter of Joseph would ascend to the thrones of all the Habsburg hereditary lands.

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor died, aged sixty-four, on May 5, 1705, in Vienna, then in the Archduchy of Austria, and his 27-year-old son Joseph succeeded him in the Habsburg hereditary lands and was elected Holy Roman Emperor. His father had left him with the War of the Spanish Succession (1701 – 1715). The death of the last Spanish Habsburg King, Leopold’s childless nephew King Carlos II of Spain resulted in the War of the Spanish Succession in which Leopold and then his son Holy Roman Joseph I unsuccessfully sought to give Leopold’s younger son Karl the entire Spanish inheritance, disregarding the will of the late Carlos II who had named 16-year-old Philippe of France, Duke of Anjou, the second son of Louis, Le Grand Dauphin of France, and the grandson of Carlos’ half-sister Maria Teresa of Austria, Infanta of Spain and her husband King Louis XIV of France, as his successor. However, Philippe of France did reign in Spain as King Felipe V, the first King of Spain from the House of Bourbon that still reigns in Spain.

Joseph’s reign lasted just six years. During the smallpox epidemic in 1711, which killed Louis, Le Grand Dauphin of France, the only surviving child and heir of King Louis XIV of France, and three siblings of the future Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Joseph also became ill with smallpox. He died, aged thirty-two, on April 17, 1711, at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Joseph had promised his wife that if he survived, he would stop having affairs. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I was buried in the Imperial Crypt at the Capuchin Church in Vienna. His tomb, designed by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt, is decorated with images of various battles from the War of Spanish Succession.

Joseph’s brother Karl succeeded him as the ruler of the Habsburg hereditary lands and was elected Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI. However, Karl’s only son had died in infancy and upon his death, the Habsburg hereditary lands should have gone to Joseph’s daughter Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria as declared in the Mutual Pact of Succession. However, Karl VI’s Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 annulled the Mutual Pact of Succession and made his daughter Maria Theresa the heir to the Habsburg hereditary lands instead of Joseph’s daughter Maria Josepha. When Karl died in 1740, Maria Theresa’s succession to the Habsburg hereditary lands led to the War of Austrian Succession (1740 – 1748), resulting in the eventual confirmation of Maria Theresa’s Habsburg titles.

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Works Cited

• Flantzer, Susan. (2023) Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Archduke of Austria, King of Croatia, Duke of Teschen, King of the Romans, Archduke of Further Austria, and Prince of Transylvania, Unofficial Royalty. Available at: https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/leopold-i-holy-roman-emperor-king-of-hungary-king-of-bohemia-archduke-of-austria-king-of-croatia-duke-of-teschen-king-of-the-romans-archduke-of-further-austria-and-prince-of-transylv/ (Accessed: 19 July 2023).
• Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_I,_Holy_Roman_Emperor (Accessed: 19 July 2023).
• Joseph I. (HRR) (2023) Wikipedia (German). Available at: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_I._(HRR) (Accessed: 19 July 2023).
• Mutual Pact of Succession (2023) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_Pact_of_Succession (Accessed: 19 July 2023).
• Wheatcroft, Andrew. (1995) The Habsburgs. London: Viking.
• Wilson, Peter H. (2016) Heart of Europe – A History of the Holy Roman Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.