Archduke Joseph, the seventh son of Leopold II and Maria Luisa of Spain, was born on 9 March 1776. His happy childhood in Florence among his numerous siblings provided him with an excellent education in languages, history, natural sciences, law, and ethics. His teenage years, however, were more turbulent: first because of Leopold’s accession to the Imperial throne and the family’s move to Vienna in 1790, and then due to the deaths of both parents only two years later.
Joseph devoted most of his life to civil service on behalf of his elder brother, Francis II, as Palatine of Hungary. This position required constant balancing between Hungarian national interests and the central authority of the Empire—often a difficult and confrontational task. Joseph made several efforts to improve the kingdom’s trade, as well as its educational and legislative conditions. Despite the deep-rooted distrust between the parties, he succeeded in protecting at least some Hungarian interests against the central government in Vienna.
Joseph lost his first wife shortly after childbirth. The same fate befell his second wife, although this time the twin infants survived. Only his third marriage, to Maria Dorothea of Wurttemberg, brought him a long and harmonious family life. One of their daughters, Marie Henriette, became Queen of the Belgians, and thus the mother of Princess Stephanie of Belgium, the future wife of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria.
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