Joseph II: An Imperial Reformer for the Austrian Netherlands

ISBN-13: 9789401185059 / Angielski / Miękka / 1974 / 338 str.

Walter W. Davis

Opis

It has been said that never has a monarch so narrowly missed "greatness" as did the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. An idealistic, sincere, and hardworking monarch whose ultilitarian bent, humanitarian instincts, and ambitious programs of reform in every area of public concern have prompted historians to term him an "enlightened despot," "revolutionary Emperor," "philosopher on a throne," and a ruler ahead of his time, Joseph has also been condemned for being insensitive to the phobias and follies of his subjects, essentially unrealistic, almost utopian, in establishing his goals, and dogmatic and overly precipitous in trying to achieve them. Efforts to analyze and explain the actions of this complex and controversial personality have involved a number of savants in investigations of "Josephinism" (or as I prefer to call it, "Josephism"), dealing in great detail with the motiva tions, substance, and influence of his innovations. The roots of Josephism run deep, but can be observed emerging here and there from the intellectual and political soil that nourished them, before joining the central trunk of the system formulated during the latter years of Maria Theresa's reign to grow to an ephemeral and stunted maturity under Joseph II."

Spis treści

I. The Emperor’s Legacy. Part one: The Political and Economic Legacy.- (1) The Austrian Netherlands — geographic description; (3) The Barrier Treaty and commerce, the Ostend Company, internal transit system, the fishing industry, wartime commercial prosperity, internal trade, provincial particularism, tariffs; (8) industry, government subsidies, royal manufacturers, home textile industries, metallurgical industries, mining, guilds, problems inhibiting industrialization; (11) agriculture, reclamation and conservation; (13) political rights, the Joyeuse Entrée, the estates, the municipal corporations, approval of subsidies; (16) fiscal affairs, sources of revenue, expenditures, borrowing, the government lottery, fiscal reforms; (20) judicial system, Great Council of Malines, the Council of Brabant, the councils of Hainaut, the Council of Flanders, the councils of Luxemburg, Namur, and Guelders, feudal courts; (22) administration — municipal, provincial, the central government; Austrian administrators and administrative bodies — the governor-general, the minister plenipotentiary, the Supreme Council of the Lowlands in Vienna; the administrative reorganization of 1757 in Vienna, the administrative machinery in Brussels — the State and War Secretariat, the Council of State, the Privy Council, the Finance Council and the treasurer-general, the Chamber of Accounts, subsidiary commissions — the Commission of Administration and the Business of Subsidies, the Commission for Charitable Lending Associations, the Monetary Commission, the Water Commission, the Royal Commission of Studies; influence of the nobility, governmental centralization.- II. The Emperor’s Legacy. Part Two: The Religious, Cultural, and Intellectual Legacy.- (32) Religious currents in Belgium in the eighteenth century, Jansenism, Maria Theresa’s independent stance toward Rome, dissolution of the Jesuit Order, Maria Theresa’s intolerance of religious dissidents; (36) intellectual awakening in the latter half of the century, the roles of Charles de Cobenzl and Charles of Lorraine, relaxation of censorship, founding of the Imperial and Royal Academy of Sciences and Letters, institution of public libraries, music and the theater, Brussels’ salons, patronage of the fine arts, architecture, the French influence, the Flemish vs. Walloon language question; (43) education, the role of the church, primary schools, secondary schools, the University of Louvain, boarding schools, proposed educational reforms at all levels, results; (48) attempted reforms in criminal law, (58) evaluation of Maria Theresa’s rule in the Netherlands.- III. The Emperor: His Motivations, Character, and Intellectual Heritage.- (59) Character of Joseph II, contrast with Maria Theresa, Joseph and Maria Theresa’s similarity of purpose; (63) education of Joseph II, his cultural and intellectual interests, the intellectual milieu of Vienna — anticurial sentiments; (69) origins of “state ecclesiasticism,” Jansenism in France and the Austrian Lowlands, “Febronianism,” anticurialism in the hereditary lands, Jansenist currents from Bohemia, early anticurialism in Vienna, traditional political reasons for opposing Rome, anticurial currents from the Italian states, state ecclesiasticism in Tuscany and Lombardy, the role of Kaunitz, Muratori and his influence, Maguald Ziegelbauer, the Societas incognitorum in terris austriacis, anti-Jesuit currents and the suppression of the order, Jansenism in university circles, Gerhard Van Swieten and censorship, Kaunitz and state restriction or regulation of church authority, anticurialism in Viennese court circles, the philosophers and the church — Hobbes, Pufendorf, Thomasius, Leibniz, Wolff: (96) French “philosophism,” Joseph II’s visit to France (1777) and his impressions, other currents of “enlightenment”; (100) Freemasonry and its influence, the Illuminati, Austrian freemasonry and Joseph’s attitudes toward it; (102) Sonnenfels and populationist theories, Joseph’s attitude toward Cameralism and agrarian theories, comparison of Maria Theresa’s economic policies with Joseph’s, the general welfare as a determinant of Imperial policies in every sphere — religious, economic, educational, judicial, social; (III) utilitarianism and Joseph II.- IV. The Emperor, the Lowlands, and the Nations.- (114) Joseph II assumes authority in the Belgian provinces, his visit of 1781; (120) the Scheldt question and the barrier fortresses, Dutch resistance and French perfidy, the Bavarian exchange schemes, the Fürstenbund, the Treaty of Fontainebleau (Nov. 8, 1785) and its results.- V. The Economic Reformer.- (134) Joseph II’s utilitarian economic views, Joseph requires an inventory of the government’s assets and expenses (January 11, 1781), his inability to undertake immediate reforms; (137) Belgian neutrality during hostilities involving neighboring states brings commercial prosperity, Imperial measures to stimulate or maintain commerce, privately financed commercial ventures, endeavors to establish trade with the United States of America; (146) liberalization of traffic in grains; (148) tariffs and protectionism, customs administration; (150) internal traffic; (152) liberalization of marketing regulations and regulation of the guilds; (154) government encouragement of industries; (159) government encouragement of agriculture, conservation measures; (162) concluding remarks.- VI. The General Welfare.- (163) Joseph II’s concern for the public welfare, police regulations, assistance to the indigent, workhouses for the indolent, gambling prohibitions; (165) measures in behalf of public health; (166) state censorship policies; (173) welfare programs, care of orphans, medical care, insane asylums; (175) regulation of charitable, religious brotherhoods, supervision and regulation of freemasonry; (176) medical training and the establishment of hospitals, — difficulties in implementing the Emperor’s programs; (179) attempted educational reforms, the elementary schools, certification of teachers, secondary schools, attempt to streamline educational administration; (185) resistance to Joseph’s innovations by the University of Louvain, failure of government efforts to renovate legal studies, the furor over the general seminaries, estimate of the Emperor’s educational innovations.- VII. The Religious Reformer.- (189) Joseph II’s views concerning the role of religion within the state: his sympathy for some Febronian principles, political Jansenism, and those opposed to the Jesuits; (193) Joseph and religious toleration, religious minorities in Belgium, policies undertaken in behalf of Protestants and Jews, episcopal protests; (199) Imperial measures designed to insure the independence of the Belgian church from Rome, episcopal complaints; (200) Pius VI’s visit to Vienna; (202) suppression of “useless” or “unnecessary” religious houses and plans to reorganize the parishes, protests, the case of the Bollandisls; (212) further restriction of papal prerogatives in Belgium and governmental regulation of clerical activities; (217) replacement of the episcopal seminaries by two government-supervised general seminaries, protests and opposition.- VIII. The Political Reformer.- (220) The Austrian regime’s desire for administrative centralization, supervision of public officials, secret agents, Joseph II considers fusing the Belgian Privy Council and the Secretariat of State and War; (223) question of the church’s right to grant asylum, the abolition of torture, other judicial measures, study commission considers revamping the entire legal system, Joseph II determines to institute a new system of justice; (228) the revolutionary administrative and judicial diplomas (Jan. 1, 1787), description of the “new order,” opposition, Joseph’s distress.- IX. Reaction and Revolution.- (236) Opposition to administrative and judicial reorganization mounts, weakness of the governors-general, disaffection becomes widespread, the governors-general suspend the decrees of Jan. 1, 1787; (240) reaction of the Emperor, recall of the governors-general and the minister plenipotentiary, appointment of General Murray as military governor, convocation of delegates from the Belgian estates in Vienna, Joseph refuses to bargain and stipulates “indispensable preliminaries” to any concessions; (243) Murray attempts to implement the royal will but capitulates to the Brussels citizenry (Sept. 21, 1787), Joseph’s diplomatic woes and involvement in war against the Turks preclude a decisive response; (245) General d’Alton assumes Murray’s command and Count Trauttmansdorff is appointed minister plenipotentiary — neither is given overall authority but order is temporarily restored; (246) trouble at the general seminary at Louvain, clerical opposition, discontent among the peasants and the urban workers, dissatisfaction among segments of the nobility, reasons for the general unrest; (250) temporary pacification of the country, return of the governors-general, continued incidents and refusal of subsidies by some of the provincial estates (Nov. 1788), abrogation of the Joyeuse Entrée; (252) the religious issue, determined opposition of Archbishop Frankenberg and the Belgian episcopacy; (254) news of events in France and their impact; (254) revolution in Liège and its influence upon Belgium; (257) mobilization of a patriots’ army under Jean André Van der Mersch, Jean François Vonck and the Pro aris et focis society, establishment of revolutionary headquarters in Liège and the United Provinces, Henri Van der Noot’s search for foreign assistance, alliance of the Vonckists with Van der Noot’s partisans, the “Manifesto of the People of Brabant” (Oct. 24, 1789), patriot victories at Turnhout and Ghent, general rebellion, departure of the governors-general; (260) wrangling between D’Alton and Trauttmansdorff, the latter belatedly receives full powers, the collapse of the Imperial regime and the withdrawal to Luxemburg, Van der Noot and his partisans enter Brussels in triumph, disappointment of the Vonckists, bewilderment of the Emperor.- X. The End of a Dream.- (265) The disillusioned Emperor; the disillusioned Vonckists; (266) declaration of Belgian independence, institution of the United Belgian States; (268) the new government, political struggle between the Vonckists and the statists, attitudes of the nations, Prussia lends token support to the revolutionary government, humiliation of Van der Mersch and failure of Vonck to seize the initiative, pro-French factions, Van der Noot’s partisans suppress their rivals by mob action, flight of the democrats; (272) death of Joseph II, failure of his programs and the reasons; (277) accession of Leopold II to the Habsburg throne, assessment of him, his appeal to the Belgian estates, rejection of his overtures, the changing situation, the Convention of Reichenbach (July 27, 1790), the Austrian restoration, repudiation of Joseph II’s reforms; (282) final assessment of Joseph II’s reign in the Austrian Netherlands.