Question

Why did the reforms introduced by Austrian ruler Joseph II make him unpopular with the

aristocracy?

Answer 1

Opponents of the reforms blamed them for revealing Protestant tendencies, with the rise of Enlightenment rationalism and the emergence of a liberal class of bourgeois officials. Joseph's enlightened despotism included also the Patent of Toleration, enacted in 1781, and the Edict of Tolerance in 1782.