diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index ad71b6cfe..c5ae5c1a8 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -7,6 +7,11 @@ Release 1.2 (in development)
   Previously, if these values were not set, no output would be genereted by
   their respective builders.
 
+* The :rst:dir:`toctree` directive and the ``toctree()`` template function now
+  have an ``includehidden`` option that includes hidden toctree entries (bugs
+  #790 and #1047). A bug in the ``maxdepth`` option for the ``toctree()``
+  template function has been fixed (bug #1046).
+
 * PR#99: Strip down seealso directives to normal admonitions.  This removes
   their unusual CSS classes (admonition-see-also), inconsistent LaTeX
   admonition title ("See Also" instead of "See also"), and spurious indentation
diff --git a/doc/markup/toctree.rst b/doc/markup/toctree.rst
index 625fbb611..fe27e019d 100644
--- a/doc/markup/toctree.rst
+++ b/doc/markup/toctree.rst
@@ -126,6 +126,18 @@ tables of contents.  The ``toctree`` directive is the central element.
    intend to insert these links yourself, in a different style, or in the HTML
    sidebar.
 
+   In cases where you want to have only one top-level toctree and hide all other
+   lower level toctrees you can add the "includehidden" option to the top-level
+   toctree entry::
+
+      .. toctree::
+         :includehidden:
+
+         doc_1
+         doc_2
+
+   All other toctree entries can then be eliminated by the "hidden" option.
+
    In the end, all documents in the :term:`source directory` (or subdirectories)
    must occur in some ``toctree`` directive; Sphinx will emit a warning if it
    finds a file that is not included, because that means that this file will not
@@ -150,6 +162,8 @@ tables of contents.  The ``toctree`` directive is the central element.
    .. versionchanged:: 1.1
       Added numeric argument to "numbered".
 
+   .. versionchanged:: 1.2
+      Added "includehidden" option.
 
 Special names
 -------------
diff --git a/sphinx/directives/other.py b/sphinx/directives/other.py
index 3167d606f..75a199159 100644
--- a/sphinx/directives/other.py
+++ b/sphinx/directives/other.py
@@ -43,6 +43,7 @@ class TocTree(Directive):
         'maxdepth': int,
         'glob': directives.flag,
         'hidden': directives.flag,
+        'includehidden': directives.flag,
         'numbered': int_or_nothing,
         'titlesonly': directives.flag,
     }
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ class TocTree(Directive):
         subnode['maxdepth'] = self.options.get('maxdepth', -1)
         subnode['glob'] = glob
         subnode['hidden'] = 'hidden' in self.options
+        subnode['includehidden'] = 'includehidden' in self.options
         subnode['numbered'] = self.options.get('numbered', 0)
         subnode['titlesonly'] = 'titlesonly' in self.options
         set_source_info(self, subnode)
diff --git a/sphinx/environment.py b/sphinx/environment.py
index 4efea83de..a08d671ad 100644
--- a/sphinx/environment.py
+++ b/sphinx/environment.py
@@ -1514,6 +1514,8 @@ class BuildEnvironment:
         maxdepth = maxdepth or toctree.get('maxdepth', -1)
         if not titles_only and toctree.get('titlesonly', False):
             titles_only = True
+        if not includehidden and toctree.get('includehidden', False):
+            includehidden = True
 
         # NOTE: previously, this was separate=True, but that leads to artificial
         # separation when two or more toctree entries form a logical unit, so