He also briefly served as a patron for Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Joseph was born as the first son of Johann I, Prince of Schwarzenberg and Countess Maria Eleonora von Oettingen-Wallerstein and succeeded his father in 1789.

In 1798 he bought the Stubenbach and Gutwasser estates with the attached domains of Stachau, Altstadln and Neustadln.

In 1802 he ceded to his younger brother Karl Philipp, who later became Field Marshal, the second majorate of the Princely House and part of the family property, including Orlík Castle.

His wife Pauline died in 1810 in a fire during a ball in the garden of the Austrian embassy in Paris in honor of Napoleon's marriage to Marie-Louise of Austria.