The Habsburgs- The History of a Dynasty

by Benjamin Curtis

  The fact that its traditional ideology and strategies have an almost undying validity for the dynasty can even be seen in the Habsburgs post-1918. Zita, Karl’s wife and the last Habsburg empress, never formally renounced her crowns. She was only allowed to reenter Austria in 1982, but was given an elaborate funeral in Vienna in 1989. Her son, Otto von Habsburg, was the rightful heir to the throne, had there been any throne to sit upon. After 1930 he took over as the official head of the house. Further evidence of how, for dynasties, tradition justifies itself, Otto did not renounce his succession claims in Austria until 1961, and he continued to act as the sovereign of the Austrian branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Through much of his career, he worked for pan-European causes, supporting European unification and serving for 20 years as an MP in the European Parliament. He died in 2011 at the age of 98. At his Vienna funeral, the Kaiserhymne, the old imperial anthem, was played before his body was laid to rest with his forebears in the Capuchin crypt. Otto’s son Karl, a businessman, politician, and former television quiz show host, became the next head of the family and continued to support pan-European and human rights causes.

  As the activities of the last several Habsburg heads have shown, the family’s supranational vocation has persisted. Indeed, the Habsburgs and their monarchy have often been cited as a model for the project of European unification. That comparison requires some caution. As the Habsburgs themselves found, it may be difficult for people to feel allegiance to an overarching, seemingly shallow identity when it is so much easier to console oneself with narrower national particularity. Some writers claim that cosmopolitanism such as the Habsburgs represented can never generate true loyalty.3 When we interrogate it more deeply, though, the Habsburg example reminds us that national allegiance was for centuries not an impediment to such a supranational state; it is only in the last 200 years that it has become so. It is therefore wrong to presume that this relatively young phenomenon of nationalism is eternal. The Habsburgs’ employment of the old strategies of dynastic aggrandizement may have few lessons to offer most people in the twenty-first century. But their aspiration to a multinational political order, transcending the small minds and restrictive confines of nationalism, is not only still relevant—it is worthwhile.

  NOTES

  Introduction

  1Wolfgang Reinhard, “Introduction,” in Reinhard, ed. Power Elites and State Building (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 6.

  2See Wolfgang Weber, “Dynastiesicherung und Staatsbildung: Die Entfaltung des frühmodernen Fürstenstaats,” in Weber, ed. Der Fürst: Ideen und Wirklichkeiten in der europäischen Geschichte (Cologne: Böhlau, 1998). Also Hermann Weber, “Die Bedeutung der Dynastien für die europäische Geschichte der Frühen Neuzeit,” in Zeitschrift für bayerische Landesgeschichte vol. 44, no. 1 (1981), 5–32.

  3I will note that this is by no means a comprehensive list of “the work of dynasties.” In particular, I devote little attention to another common strategy, the symbolic representation of the dynasty through art, and cover only superficially the ruling family’s relationships with other power elites in the aristocracy and the Church.

  4See Günther Kronenbitter, “Haus ohne Macht? Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand und die Krise der Habsburgermonarchie” in Weber, ed. (1998).

  5See Paula Sutter Fichtner, “Dynastic Marriage in Sixteenth-Century Habsburg Diplomacy and Statecraft: An Interdisciplinary Approach,” The American Historical Review vol. 81, no. 2 (April 1976), 243–65.

  6See Tanner (1993).

  7See i. a. Vocelka and Heller (1997) and David Armitage, ed. Theories of Empire, 1450–1800 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998).

  8See Rodney Bruce Hall, National Collective Identity: Social Constructs and International Systems (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999).

  9Yves-Marie Bercé, ed. Les monarchies (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1997) is a useful overview.

  10Wolfgang Reinhard, Geschichte der Staatsgewalt: eine vergleichende Verfassungsgeschichte Europas von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1999).

  11See Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital, and European States 990–1992 (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1992).

  12Weber (1998).

  13Hillay Zmora, Monarchy, Aristocracy, and the State in Europe, 1300–1800 (London: Routledge, 2001), 30.

  14J. H. Elliott, “A Europe of Composite Monarchies,” Past & Present, no. 137 (1992), 48–71.

  15Taylor (1948), 10.

  16I will admit to a few additional fudges. Popes and artists, for example, have retained their familiar, Anglicized names.

  1.From not so humble beginnings (c. 1000–1439)

  1Herm (1992), p. 33.

  2Günther Hödl, Habsburg und Österreich 1273–1493: Gestalten und Gestalt des österreichischen Spätmittelalters (Wien: Böhlau, 1988), 14.

  2.Austria’s destiny (1440–1519)

  1Dorothy Gies McGuigan, Familie Habsburg 1273–1918: Glanz und Elend eines Herrscherhauses (Berlin: Ullstein, 1966), 27.

  2Hödl (1988), 209.

  3Gerhard Benecke, Maximilian I: An Analytical Biography (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), 13.

  4Ibid., 252.

  5Ibid., 34.

  6Bérenger (1990), 141.

  7Manfred Hollegger, Maximilian I: Herrscher und Mensch einer Zeitenwende (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2005), 264.

  8Hermann Wiesflecker, Maximilian I. Die Fundamente des habsburgischen Weltreiches (Wien: Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, 1991), 152. See also Sharon L. Jansen, The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).

  9Eberhard Isenmann, “The Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages,” in Bonney, ed. (1999), 261.

  10Bérenger (1990), 139.

  3.The greatest generation (1516–64)

  1Alfred Kohler, Ferdinand I. 1503–1564: Fürst, König und Kaiser (Munich: C.H. Beck, 2003), 92.

  2Ibid., 103.

  3Lynch (1981)(a), 43.

  4Kamen (2005)(b), 76.

  5Martin van Gelderen, “Wie die Universalmonarchie der Volkssouveränität weichen mußte,” in Jussen, ed. (2005), 300.

  6Kamen (2005)(b), 72.

  7Bérenger (1990), 204.

  8Jansen (2002), 102.

  9Lynch (1981)(a), 68.

  10Vocelka and Heller (1997), 67.

  11Cited based on the original text, at http://text.habsburger.net/module/karl-v.-und-der-traum-von-der-universalmonarchie, accessed August 2012.

  4.The European superpower (1556–1621)

  1Kamen (2005)(a), 29.

  2José Luis Beltrán, “Un imperio sin emperador,” in García Cárcel, ed. (2003), 204.

  3Elliott (1970), 289.

  4Bennassar (2001), 22.

  5Lynch (1981)(b), 14.

  6Manuel Peña, “Felipe III: La búsqueda de la paz y el ‘remedio general,’” in García Cárcel, ed. (2003), 294.

  7Magdalena S. Sánchez, “Melancholy and Female Illness: Habsburg Women and Politics at the Court of Philip III,” Journal of Women’s History, vol. 8, no. 2 (1996), 89.

  8Lynch (1981)(b), 16.

  5.Division in faith and family (1564–1619)

  1Bérenger (1990), 249.

  2Kohler (2003), 301.

  3Paula Sutter Fichtner, Emperor Maximilian II (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001), 185.

  4Cited after Friedrich von Hurter, Geschichte Kaiser Ferdinands II und seiner Eltern, vol. 6 (Schaffhausen: Hurtersche Buchhandlung, 1853), 529.

  6.Endless war (1619–65)

  1R. A. Stradling, Philip IV and the Government of Spain 1621–1665 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 242.

  2Ibid., 269.

  3Cited after the text of Olivares’s “Gran memorial” of 1624, accessed October 2012 at www.guillermoperezsarrion.es/files/2011/07/1624OlivaresGranMemorial.pdf.

  4Kamen (2005)(b), 236.

  5Manuel Peña, “Felipe IV: España entre la realidad y la apariencia,” in García Cárcel, ed. (2003), 328.

  6Stradling
(1988), 270.

  7Lynch (1981)(b), 127.

  8Stradling (1988), 190.

  9Dieter Albrecht, “Ferdinand II,” in Schindling and Ziegler, eds (1990), 130.

  10Johann Franzl, Ferdinand II. Kaiser im Zwiespalt der Zeit (Graz: Verlag Styria, 1989), 227.

  11See Lothar Höbelt, Ferdinand III. Friedenskaiser wider Willen (Graz: Ares Verlag, 2008).

  12Elliott (1989), 123.

  13Ibid., 145.

  7.Rise and fall (1657–1705)

  1Cited after the original text at //www.archive.org/stream/generalcollectio00lond#page/290/mode/2up, accessed August 2012.

  2Bennassar (2001), 201.

  3Ibid., 200.

  4Lynch (1981)(b), 280.

  5Gonzalo Alvarez, Francisco C. Ceballos, and Celsa Quinteiro, “The Role of Inbreeding in the Extinction of a European Royal Dynasty,” PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 4 (2009), accessed at: es5174.doc10.1371/journal.pone.0005174, February 2011.

  6Gregorio Marañón, El conde-duque de Olivares (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1952), 230.

  7Charles W. Ingrao, In Quest and Crisis: Emperor Joseph I and the Habsburg Monarchy (West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1979), 8.

  8.Opulent stagnation (1705–40)

  1Ingrao (1979), 124.

  2Ingrao (1994), 149.

  3Charles Ingrao and Andrew Thomas, “Piety and Patronage: The Empresses-Consort of the High Baroque,” German History, vol. 20, no. 1 (2002), 38.

  4Vocelka and Heller (1997), 256.

  5Bérenger (1990), 447.

  9.Enlightenment and reform (1740–92)

  1Maria Theresia, Politisches Testament (1749–50), http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/deu/3_AustrianHabsburgEmpire_Doc.1_German.pdf, accessed August 2012.

  2Wandruszka (1964), 143.

  3Jean-Paul Bled, Marie-Thérèse d’Autriche (Paris: Fayard, 2001), 137.

  4Ibid., 191.

  5Derek Beales, Joseph II. Volume 1: In the Shadow of Maria Theresa 1741–1780 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 154.

  6Ibid., Enlightenment and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Europe (London: I.B. Tauris, 2005), 262.

  7Beller (2006), 103.

  8Maria Theresia, Politisches Testament.

  9T. C. W. Blanning, Joseph II (London: Longman, 1994), 56.

  10Elizabeth Manning, “The Politics of Culture: Joseph II’s German Opera,” History Today (January 1993), 16.

  11Hans Kluetung, “Der aufgeklärte Fürst,” in Weber, ed. (1988), 158.

  12Weissensteiner (2003), 13.

  13Ingrao (1994), 175.

  14Joseph II, “Errinerung an seine Staatsbeamten” (“Hirtenbrief”) (1783), www.jku.at/kanonistik/content/e95782/e95785/e95786/e95794/e104403/e104407/e98359/ErinnerunganseineStaatsbeamten.pdf, accessed August 2012.

  15Bérenger (1990), 530.

  10.Revolution and reaction (1792–1848)

  1Beller (2006), 116.

  2Weissensteiner (2003), 49.

  3Walter Ziegler, “Franz I. von Österreich,” in Schindling and Ziegler, eds (1990), 313.

  4Ibid., 316.

  5See Blanning (1994), 12.

  6Gerd Holler, Gerechtigkeit für Ferdinand. Österreichs gütiger Kaiser (Vienna: Amalthea, 1986), 158.

  7Weissensteiner (2003), 78.

  8Ernst Bruckmüller, Nation Österreich: Kulturelles Bewußtsein und gesellschaftlich-politische Prozesse (Vienna: Böhlau, 1996), 228.

  11.To succumb with honor (1848–1918)

  1See Otto Urban, “Navštěvy Františka Josefa 1. v Praze,” in Marta Ottlová and Milan Pospíšil, eds. Umění a civilizace jako divadlo světa (Prague: Ústav pro hudební vědu, 1993); and Hugh LeCaine Agnew, “The Flyspecks on Palivec’s Portrait,” in Laurence Cole and Daniel Unowsky, eds. The Limits of Loyalty: Imperial Symbolism, Popular Allegiances and State Patriotism in the Late Habsburg Monarchy (New York: Berghahn Books, 2007); and finally Alan Palmer, Twilight of the Habsburgs: The Life and Times of Emperor Francis Joseph (New York: Grove Press, 1994), 193.

  2Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs I. an seine Mutter, Franz Schnürer, ed. (Munich: Verlag Joseph Kösel und Friedrich Pustet, 1930), 166.

  3The term comes from Lothar Höbelt, Franz Joseph I. Der Kaiser und sein Reich. Eine politische Geschichte (Vienna: Böhlau, 2009).

  4Palmer (1994), 83.

  5Jean-Paul Bled, Franz Joseph (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992), 152.

  6Bérenger (1990), 670.

  7The classic English-language work is Carl Schorske, Fin-de-siècle Vienna (New York: Random House, 1979).

  8Palmer (1994), 224.

  9Herm (1992), 287.

  10Ibid., 294.

  11Bérenger (1990), 673.

  12See Pieter M. Judson, Guardians of the Nation: Activists on the Language Frontiers of Imperial Austria (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2006).

  13Sked (2001), 234.

  14Briefe Kaiser Franz Josephs I. an seine Mutter (1930), 358.

  15Weissensteiner (2003), 172.

  16Wandruszka (1964), 177.

  17Bled (1992), 211.

  18Bérenger (1990), 601.

  12.Conclusion

  1Gary B. Cohen, “Nationalist Politics and the Dynamics of State and Civil Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1867–1914,” Central European History, vol. 40, no. 2 (2007), 270.

  2The term is originally Josef Redlich’s, in his Das österreichische Staats- und Reichsproblem (Leipzig: Der Neue Geist Verlag, 1920), vii.

  3See, for example, various essays in Martha Nussbaum and Joshua Cohen, eds. For Love of Country? (Boston: Beacon Press, 2002).

  SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

  The scholarly literature on the Habsburgs is vast. Because of space limitations, this is not an exhaustive bibliography of all sources consulted in the research for this book. Instead I have listed major, mostly recent sources, and noted selected works relevant for specific chapters.

  General

  Beller, Steven. (2006). A Concise History of Austria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Bennassar, Bartolomé. (2001). La España de los Austrias (1516–1700). Barcelona: Crítica.

  —. (2006). La monarquía española de los Austrias: conceptos, poderes y expresiones sociales. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.

  Bennassar, Bartolomé and Bernard Vincent. (2001). Le temps de l’Espagne: XVIe—XVIIe siècles. Paris: Hachette.

  Bennassar, Bartolomé, Christian Hermann, et. al. (2001). Le premier âge de l’État en Espagne (1450–1700). Paris: CNRS éditions.

  Bérenger, Jean. (1990). Histoire de l’empire des Habsbourg 1273–1918. Paris: Fayard.

  Brauneder, Wilhelm and Lothar Höbelt. (1996). Sacrum Imperium: Das Reich und Österreich, 996–1806. Vienna: Amalthea.

  Cartledge, Bryan. (2012). The Will to Survive: A History of Hungary. New York: Columbia University Press.

  Coreth, Anna. (2004). Pietas Austriaca. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press.

  Čornejová, Ivana, Jiří Rak, and Vít Vlnas. (1995). Ve stínu tvých křídel . . . Habsburkové v českých dějinách. Prague: Grafoprint-Neubert.

  Duindam, Jeroen. (2003). Vienna and Versailles: The Courts of Europe’s Dynastic Rivals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  Elliott, J. H. (1970). Imperial Spain 1469–1716. London: Penguin Books.

  —. (1989). Spain and its World 1500–1700. New Haven: Yale University Press.

  Erbe, Michael. (2000). Die Habsburger 1493–1918: Eine Dynastie im Reich und in Europa. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer.

  Evans, R. J. W. (1979). The Making of the Habsburg Monarchy 1550–1700. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  —. (2006). Austria, Hungary, and the Habsburgs: Essays on Central Europe, c.1683–1867. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Fichtner, Paula Sutter. (2003). The Habsburg Monarchy, 1490–1848: Attributes of Empire. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

  —. (2008). Terror and Toleration: The Habsburg Empire Confronts Islam, 1526–1850. London: Reaktion Books.

  García Cárcel, Ricardo
, ed. (2003). Historia de España Siglos XVI y XVII: La España de los Austrias. Madrid: Cátedra.

  Gonda, Imre and Emil Niederhauser. (1978). A Habsburgok: egy európai jelenség. Budapest: Gondolat.

  Good, David F. (1984). The Economic Rise of the Habsburg Monarchy 1750–1914. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Herm, Gerhard. (1992). Aufstieg, Glanz und Niedergang des Hauses Habsburg. Düsseldorf: ECON Verlag.

  Hochedlinger, Michael. (2003). Austria’s Wars of Emergence: War, State, and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797. Harlow: Longman.

  Huss, Frank. (2008). Der Wiener Kaiserhof: eine Kulturgeschichte von Leopold I. bis Leopold II. Gernsbach: Katz.

  Ingrao, Charles W. (1994). The Habsburg Monarchy 1618–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  —, ed. (1994). State and Society in Early Modern Austria. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press.

  Kamen, Henry. (2003). Empire: How Spain Became a World Power 1492–1763. New York: HarperCollins.

  —. (2005)(a). Golden Age Spain. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

  —. (2005)(b). Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict. London: Pearson Longman.

  Kann, Robert A. (1974). A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Komlos, John. (1989). Nutrition and Economic Development in the Eighteenth-Century Habsburg Monarchy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

  Königsberger, Helmut Georg. (1971). The Habsburgs and Europe 1516–1660. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

  Lockyer, Roger. (1993) Habsburg and Bourbon Europe 1470–1720. Harlow: Longman.

  Lynch, John. (1981)(a). Spain under the Habsburgs. Volume I: Empire and Absolutism 1516–1598. Oxford: Blackwell.

  —. (1981)(b). Spain under the Habsburgs. Volume II: Spain and America 1598–1700. Oxford: Blackwell.