Terme de Glossaire

Joseph II

In 1714 the Netherlands passed under the crown of the Austrian Hapsburgs. The Emperor from 1780, Joseph II (1741-1790), known as an ‘enlightened despot’, attacked traditions under the guise of modernising the Netherlands. The clergy became subject to the state, the administrative and justice systems were modernised, convents and pilgrimages were suppressed, the persecution of non-Catholics was brought to an end, and civil marriage and divorce were instituted. Imposed too brutally, Joseph II’s reforms led to the Brabant Revolution of 1787-1790.

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