Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/707

 JOSEPH JOSEPH II. 68T at length obliged to pay with their land for food from the public granaries, so that "Jo- seph bought all the land of Egypt for Pha- raoh," and the whole territory of the country, excepting that of the priests, was let to the population as tenants. The story of Joseph is one of the most interesting portions of the Mo- saic writings. He died at the age of 110 years, and left two sons, Manasseh and Ephrairu, who, being adopted by Jacob, took their place among the heads of the tribes of Israel. JOSEPH, the spouse of Mary the mother of Jesus Christ. He was of the tribe of Judah, and a descendant of David. Matthew and Luke give his genealogy, the .former making him the son of Jacob and descended from David through Solomon, and the latter calling his father Eli, and tracing his lineage through Nathan. This discrepancy is explained in vari- ous ways. Julius Africanus supposes that Ja- cob and Eli were brothers, and that, Eli dying without children, Jacob married his widow, who bore him Joseph. The child was thus the son of EH according to the Mosaic law, but of Jacob according to nature. Other commen- tators assume that the genealogy given by Luke is that of Mary. It is not known where Joseph was born. He was living at Nazareth, where, according to the received tradition, he followed the trade of a carpenter, when he was betrothed to Mary. Finding her preg- nant, he was minded to put her away; but being warned by an angel in a dream that she was with child of the Holy Ghost, he took her to himself, but knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son, who was called Jesus. Joseph is supposed to have died before the crucifixion of Christ, but there is little mention of him in the Scriptures. He is held in high honor in the Roman Catholic church, and March 19 is assigned as his festival. In painting he is represented as an aged man, with a lily or flowering branch. JOSEPH I., emperor of Germany, of the house of Hapsburg, eldest son of Leopold I. by his third wife, born July 26, 1678, died April 17, 1711. He was crowned king of Hungary in 1687, of Rome in 1690, and after the death of his father succeeded to the imperial throne of Germany in 1705. He inherited at the same time a double war, against 'Louis XIV. for the succession of his brother Charles to the throne of Spain, and in Hungary against the revolted patriots under Francis Rakoczy. He was wil- ling to make concessions to the Protestants of Hungary and other provinces, frequently at- tempted to negotiate with the insurgents, and readily yielded to the demands of Charles XII. of Sweden in behalf of the Protestants of Silesia, which country the young conqueror crossed on his march from Poland to Saxony without even asking the permission of the dis- tracted emperor. The victories of Marlbor- ough and Eugene in the war of the Spanish succession allowed Joseph, who had personally taken part in the siege of Landau, to send con- 457 VOL. ix. 44 siderable forces against the Hungarians, and dissensions which broke out in the camp of the latter slowly prepared a final triumph of the imperial arms. Shortly before the death of Joseph, Count Palffy succeeded in conclu- ding a treaty with the insurgents at Szatmar, in the absence of Rak6czy. Joseph was of a mild disposition, and exceedingly fond of cere- mony and of the chase. He founded the acad- emy of arts at Vienna, and a national bank. He was succeeded by Charles VI. JOSEPH II., emperor of Germany, elder son of Francis I. and Maria Theresa, born Marcli 13, 1741, died Feb. 20, 1790. When Joseph was born, his mother confided him and her rights under the pragmatic sanction to the pro- tection of the Hungarian nation, which gal- lantly responded to her confidence, and Prince Batthyanyi afterward took the principal charge of his education. Ambitious, but obstinate, Jo- seph gave proofs of considerable capacity. Lan- guages, mathematics, war, and music were the studies to which he devoted most of his zeal. He participated in none of the campaigns of the seven years' war, though this was waged in the years of his advanced youth, and though he admired no less the military glory of its hero, Frederick, than he did after its close his peaceful career. He successively married and lost within seven years a princess of Parma and a princess of Bavaria. His only daughter died in 1770 in her eighth year. Made titular king of Rome in 1764, he became emperor of Germany on the death of his father in the fol- lowing year ; but this was then little more than an empty title, and in the hereditary pos- sessions of his mother he received only the dignity of assistant without any real influence, though placed at the head of military affairs. He returned to the state 22,000,000 florins of bonds and all the estates which his father had purchased during his reign. He travelled ex- tensively incognito, traversing not only the countries which were to be ruled by his scep- tre, but also non-Austrian Germany, Italy, Spain, Holland, and France. He had an inter- view with Frederick in his camp at Neisse in Silesia (1769), a province which that king had wrested from the empire of Maria Theresa. Frederick in the following year repaid the visit at Neustadt in Moravia, where Joseph not only strove to display the perfections of his army, upon which he bestowed his principal cares, and into which he had introduced various lib- eral reforms, but also concerted with his guest the scheme of dismembering Poland jointly with Catharine II. of Russia. This extraordi- nary act was executed in 1772, and added Gali- cia and the Zips to the empire of Austria. A few years later Bukowina was taken from Tur- key. Bavaria, the elector of which died in 1777, was also to be annexed, but Frederick suddenly marched into Bohemia ; and Joseph, who eagerly grasped the opportunity of mea- suring his strength with that of the renowned conqueror, was compelled by the order of the