title: History of Austria

text: A new threat appeared in 862, the Hungarians, following the pattern of displacement from more eastern territories by superior forces. By 896 the Hungarians were present in large numbers on the Hungarian Plain from which they raided the Frankish domains. They defeated the Moravians and in 907 defeated the Bavarians at the Battle of Pressburg and by 909 had overrun the marches forcing the Franks and Bavarians back to the Enns River.


title: History of Austria

text: Bavaria became a Margraviate under Engeldeo (890–895) and was re-established as a Duchy under Arnulf the Bad (907–937) who united it with the Duchy of Carinthia, occupying most of the eastern alps. This proved short lived. His son Eberhard (937–938) found himself in conflict with the German King, Otto I (Otto the Great) who deposed him. The next Duke was Henry I (947–955), who was Otto's brother. In 955 Otto successfully forced back the Hungarians at the Battle of Lechfeld, beginning a slow reconquest of the eastern lands, including Istria and Carniola.


title: History of Austria

text: During the reign of Henry's son, Henry II (the Quarrelsome) (955–976) Otto became the first Holy Roman Emperor (962) and Bavaria became a duchy of the Holy Roman Empire. Otto I re-established the eastern march, and was succeeded by Otto II in 967, and found himself in conflict with Henry who he deposed, allowing him to re-organise the duchies of his empire.


title: History of Austria

text: Otto considerably reduced Bavaria, re-establishing Carinthia to the south. To the east, he established a new Bavarian Eastern March, subsequently known as Austria, under Leopold ("Luitpold"), count of Babenberg in 976. Leopold I, also known as Leopold the Illustrious ("Luitpold der Erlauchte") ruled Austria from 976 to 994.


title: History of Austria

text: The marches were overseen by a "comes" or "dux" as appointed by the emperor. These titles are usually translated as count or duke, but these terms conveyed very different meanings in the Early Middle Ages, so the Latin versions are to be preferred . In Lombardic speaking countries, the title was eventually regularized to "margrave" (German: "markgraf") i.e. "count of the mark".


title: History of Austria

text: The first recorded instance of the name 'Austria' appeared in 996, in a document of King Otto III written as "Ostarrîchi", referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In addition, for a long time the form "Osterlant" ("Ostland" or 'Eastland') was in use, the inhabitants being referred to as "Ostermann" or "Osterfrau". The Latinized name "Austria" applied to this area appears in the 12th Century writings in the time of Leopold III (1095–1136). (compare "Austrasia" as the name for the north-eastern part of the Frankish Empire). The term "Ostmark" is not historically certain and appears to be a translation of "marchia orientalis" that came up only much later.


title: History of Austria

text: The Babenbergs pursued a policy of settling the country, clearing forests and founding towns and monasteries. They ruled the March from Pöchlarn initially, and later from Melk, continually expanding the territory eastward along the Danube valley, so that by 1002 it reached Vienna. The eastward expansion was finally halted by the newly Christianized Hungarians in 1030, when King Stephen (1001–1038) of Hungary defeated the Emperor, Conrad II (1024–1039) at Vienna.


title: History of Austria

text: A 'core' territory had finally been established. The land contained the remnant of many prior civilisations, but the Bavarians predominated, except in the Lake Constance area to the west occupied by the Alemanni (Vorarlberg). Pockets of the Celto-Romanic population ("Walchen" or "Welsche") persisted, such as around Salzburg, and Roman place names persisted, such as Juvavum (Salzburg). In addition this population was distinguished by Christianity and by their language, a Latin dialect (Romansch). Salzburg was already a bishopric (739), and by 798 an archbishopric.


title: History of Austria

text: Although the Germanic Bavarians steadily replaced Romansch as the main language, they adopted many Roman customs and became increasingly Christianized. Similarly in the east, German replaced the Slavic language. The March of Austria's neighbours were the Duchy of Bavaria to the west, the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Poland to the North, the Kingdom of Hungary to the east and the Duchy of Carinthia to the south. In this setting, Austria, still subject to Bavaria was a relatively small player.


title: History of Austria

text: The Babenberg Margraves controlled very little of modern Austria. Salzburg, historically part of Bavaria became an ecclesiastical territory, while Styria was part of the Carinthian Duchy. The Babenbergs had relatively small holdings, with not only Salzburg but the lands of the Diocese of Passau lying in the hands of the church, and the nobility controlling much of the rest. However they embarked on a programme of consolidating their power base. One such method was to employ indentures servants such as the "Kuenringern" family as "Ministeriales" and given considerable military and administrative duties. They survived as a dynasty through good fortune and skill at power politics, in that era dominated by the continual struggle between emperor and papacy.


title: History of Austria

text: The path was not always smooth. The fifth Margrave, Leopold II 'The Fair' ("Luitpold der Schöne") (1075–1095) was temporarily deposed by the Emperor Henry IV (1084–1105) after finding himself on the wrong side of the Investiture Dispute. However Leopold's son, Leopold III 'The Good' ("Luitpold der Heilige") (1095–1136) backed Henry's rebellious son, Henry V (1111–1125), contributed to his victory and was rewarded with the hand of Henry's sister Agnes von Waiblingen in 1106, thus allying himself with the Imperial family. Leopold then concentrated on pacifying the nobility. His monastic foundations, particularly Klosterneuburg and Heiligenkreuz, led to his posthumous canonisation in 1458, and he became Austria's patron saint.


title: History of Austria

text: Leopold III was succeeded by his son, Leopold IV 'The Generous' ("Luitpold der Freigiebige") (1137–1141). Leopold further enhanced the status of Austria by also becoming Duke of Bavaria in 1139, as Leopold I. Bavaria itself had been in the hands of the Welf (Guelph) dynasty, who were pitted against the Hohenstaufen. The latter came to the imperial throne in 1138 in the person of Conrad III (1138–1152); the Duke of Bavaria, Henry the Proud, was himself a candidate for the imperial crown and disputed the election of Conrad, and was subsequently deprived of the Duchy, which was given to Leopold IV. When Leopold died, his lands were inherited by his brother Henry II (Heinrich Jasomirgott) (1141–1177).


title: History of Austria

text: In the meantime, Conrad had been succeeded as emperor by his nephew Frederick I Barbarossa (1155–1190), who was descended from both the Welfs and Hohenstauffens and sought to end the conflicts within Germany. To this end he returned Bavaria to the Welfs in 1156, but as compensation elevated Austria to a duchy through an instrument known as the Privilegium Minus. Henry II thus became Duke of Austria in exchange for losing the title of Duke of Bavaria.


title: History of Austria

text: Austria was now an independent dominion within the Holy Roman Empire, and Henry moved his official residence to Vienna that year.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1186 the Georgenberg Pact bequeathed Austria's southern neighbour, the Duchy of Styria to Austria upon the death of the childless Duke of Styria, Ottokar IV, which occurred in 1192. Styria had been carved out of the northern marches of Carinthia, and only raised to the status of Duchy in 1180. However the territory of the Duchy of Styria extended far beyond the current state of Styria, including parts of present-day Slovenia (Lower Styria), and also parts of Upper Austria (the Traungau, the area around Wels and Steyr) and Lower Austria (the county of Pitten, today's districts of Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen).


title: History of Austria

text: The second Duke of Austria, Henry II's son Leopold V the Virtuous ("Luitpold der Tugendhafte") (1177–1194) became Duke of these combined territories. Leopold is perhaps best known for his imprisonment of the British king, Richard I following the Third Crusade (1189–1192), in 1192 at Dürnstein. The ransom money he received helped finance many of his projects.


title: History of Austria

text: At that time, the Babenberg Dukes came to be one of the most influential ruling families in the region, peaking in the reign of Henry's grandson Leopold VI the Glorious ("Luitpold der Glorreiche") (1198–1230), the fourth Duke. under whom the culture of the High Middle Ages flourished, including the introduction of Gothic art.


title: History of Austria

text: On Leopold's death, he was succeeded by his son Frederick II the Quarrelsome ("Friedrich der Streitbare") (1230–1246). In 1238 he divided the land into two areas divided by the River Enns. That part above the Enns became "Ob(erhalb) der Enns" (Above the Enns) or 'Upper Austria' ("Oberösterreich"), although other names such as "supra anasum" (from an old Latin name for the river), and "Austria superior" were also in use. Those lands below the Enns or "unter der Enns" became known as Lower Austria ("Niederösterreich"). The Traungau and Steyr were made part of Upper Austria rather than Styria. Another of Frederick's achievements was a Patent of Protection for Jews in 1244.


title: History of Austria

text: However Frederick was killed in the Battle of the Leitha River against the Hungarians, and had no surviving children. Thus the Babenburg dynasty became extinct in 1246.


title: History of Austria

text: What followed was an "interregnum", a period of several decades during which the status of the country was disputed, and during which Frederick II's duchy fell victim to a prolonged power play between rival forces. During this time there were multiple claimants to the title, including Vladislaus, Margrave of Moravia son of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. King Wenceslaus aimed at acquiring the Duchy of Austria by arranging the marriage of Vladislaus to the last Duke's niece Gertrud, herself a potential heir and claimant.


title: History of Austria

text: According to the Privilegium Minus issued by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1156, the Austrian lands could be bequeathed through the female line. Vladislaus received the homage of the Austrian nobility, but died shortly afterwards, on 3 January 1247, before he could take possession of the duchy. Next came Herman of Baden in 1248. He also made claim by seeking Gertrud's hand but did not have the support of the nobility. Herman died in 1250, and his claim was taken up by his son Frederick, but his claim was thwarted by the Bohemian invasion of Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: In an attempt to end the turmoil a group of Austrian nobles invited the king of Bohemia, Ottokar II Přemysl, Vladislaus' brother, to become Austria's ruler in 1251. His father had attempted to invade Austria in 1250. Ottokar then proceeded to ally himself to the Babenbergs by marrying Margaret, Duke Frederick II's sister and daughter to Leopold VI, therefore making him a potential claimant to the throne, in 1252. He subdued the quarrelsome nobles and made himself ruler of most of the area, including Austria, Styria (which was previously under the rule of Hungary) as well as Carniola and Carinthia, both of which he had claimed by a dubious right of inheritance.


title: History of Austria

text: Ottokar was a lawmaker and builder. Among his achievements was the founding of the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. Ottokar was in a position to establish a new empire, given the weakness of the Holy Roman Empire on the death of Frederick II (1220–1250) particularly after the Hohenstauffen dynasty was ended in 1254 with the death of Conrad IV and the ensuing "Imperial interregnum" (1254–1273). Thus Ottokar put himself forward as a candidate for the imperial throne, but was unsuccessful.


title: History of Austria

text: During the interregnum, Austria was the scene of intense persecution of heretics by the Inquisition. The first instances appear in 1260 in over forty parishes in the southern Danube region between the Salzkammergut and the Vienna Woods, and were mainly directed against the Waldensians.


title: History of Austria

text: Ottokar again contested the Imperial Throne in 1273, being almost alone in this position in the electoral college. This time he refused to accept the authority of the successful candidate, Rudolf of Habsburg (Emperor 1273–1291). In November 1274 the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg ruled that all crown estates seized since the death of the Emperor Frederick II (1250) must be restored, and that King Ottokar II must answer to the Diet for not recognising the new emperor, Rudolf. Ottokar refused either to appear or to restore the duchies of Austria, Styria and Carinthia with the March of Carniola, which he had claimed through his first wife, a Babenberg heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, Margrave Hermann VI of Baden.


title: History of Austria

text: Rudolph refuted Ottokar's succession to the Babenberg patrimony, declaring that the provinces must revert to the Imperial crown due to the lack of male-line heirs (a position that however conflicted with the provisions of the Austrian "Privilegium Minus"). King Ottokar was placed under the imperial ban; and in June 1276 war was declared against him, Rudolf laying siege to Vienna. Having persuaded Ottokar's former ally Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria to switch sides, Rudolph compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces to the control of the imperial administration in November 1276.


title: History of Austria

text: Ottokar having relinquished his territories outside of the Czech lands, Rudolph re-invested him with the Kingdom of Bohemia, betrothed his youngest daughter, Judith of Habsburg, (to Ottokar's son Wenceslaus II), and made a triumphal entry into Vienna. Ottokar, however, raised questions about the execution of the treaty, made an alliance with some Piast chiefs of Poland, and procured the support of several German princes, again including Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria. To meet this coalition, Rudolph formed an alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary and gave additional privileges to the Vienna citizens.


title: History of Austria

text: On 26 August 1278, the rival armies met at the Battle on the Marchfeld, northeast of Vienna, where Ottokar was defeated and killed. The Margraviate of Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolph's representatives, leaving Ottokar's widow Kunigunda of Slavonia, in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus II was again betrothed to Judith.


title: History of Austria

text: Rudolf was thus able to assume sole control over Austria, as Duke of Austria and Styria (1278–1282) which remained under Habsburg rule for over six centuries, until 1918.


title: History of Austria

text: Thus Austria and the Empire came under a single Habsburg crown, and after a few centuries (1438) would remain so almost continuously (see below) till 1806, when the empire was dissolved, obviating the frequent conflicts that had occurred previously.


title: History of Austria

text: Rudolf I spent several years establishing his authority in Austria, finding some difficulty in establishing his family as successors to the rule of the province. At length the hostility of the princes was overcome and he was able to bequeath Austria to his two sons. In December 1282, at the Diet of Augsburg, Rudolph invested the duchies of Austria and Styria on his sons, Albert I (1282–1308) and Rudolph II the Debonair (1282–1283) as co-rulers "jointly and severally", and so laid the foundation of the House of Habsburg. Rudolf continued his campaigns subduing and subjugating and adding to his domains, dying in 1291, but leaving dynastic instability in Austria, where frequently the Duchy of Austria was shared between family members. However Rudolf was unsuccessful in ensuring the succession to the imperial throne for the Dukes of Austria and Styria.


title: History of Austria

text: The conjoint dukedom lasted only a year until the Treaty of Rheinfelden ("Rheinfelder Hausordnung") in 1283 established the Habsburg order of succession. Establishing primogeniture, then eleven-year-old Duke Rudolph II had to waive all his rights to the thrones of Austria and Styria to the benefit of his elder brother Albert I. While Rudolph was supposed to be compensated, this did not happen, dying in 1290, and his son John subsequently murdered his uncle Albert I in 1308. For a brief period, Albert I also shared the duchies with Rudolph III the Good (1298–1307), and finally achieved the imperial throne in 1298.


title: History of Austria

text: On Albert I's death, the duchy but not the empire passed to his son, Frederick the Fair (1308–1330), at least not until 1314 when he became co-ruler of the empire with Louis IV. Frederick also had to share the duchy with his brother Leopold I the Glorious (1308–1326). Yet another brother, Albert II the Lame (1330–1358) succeeded Frederick.


title: History of Austria

text: The pattern of corule persisted, since Albert had to share the role with another younger brother Otto I the Merry (1330–1339), although he did attempt to unsuccessfully lay down the rules of succession in the "Albertinian House Rule" ("Albertinische Hausordnung"). When Otto died in 1339, his two sons, Frederick II and Leopold II replaced him, making three simultaneous Dukes of Austria from 1339 to 1344 when both of them died in their teens without issue. Single rule in the Duchy of Austria finally returned when his son, Rudolph IV succeeded him in 1358.


title: History of Austria

text: In the 14th century the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria, which had remained a small territory along the Danube, and Styria, which they had acquired with Austria from Ottokar. In 1335 Albert II inherited the Duchy of Carinthia and the March of Carniola from the then rulers, the House of Gorizia.


title: History of Austria

text: Rudolf IV the Founder (1358–1365) was the first to claim the title of Archduke of Austria, through the Privilegium Maius of 1359, which was actually a forgery and not recognized outside of Austria till 1453. However it would have placed him on a level footing with the other Prince-electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Rudolph was one of the most active rulers of his time, initiating many measures and elevating the importance of the City of Vienna.


title: History of Austria

text: At that time Vienna was ecclesiastically subordinate to the Diocese of Passau, which Rudolph subverted by founding St Stephen's Cathedral and appointing the provost as the Archchancellor of Austria. he also founded the University of Vienna ("Alma Mater Rudolphina"). He improved the economy and established a stable currency, the Vienna Penny ("Wiener Pfennig"). When he died in 1365 he was without issue and the succession passed to his brothers jointly under the Rudolfinian House Rules ("Rudolfinische Hausordnung").


title: History of Austria

text: In 1363, the County of Tyrol was acquired by Rudolph IV from Margaret of Tyrol. Thus Austria was now a complex country in the Eastern Alps, and these lands are often referred to as the Habsburg Hereditary Lands, as well as simply Austria, since the Habsburgs also began to accumulate lands far from their Hereditary Lands.


title: History of Austria

text: Almost the entire 15th Century was a confusion of estate and family disputes, which considerably weakened the political and economic importance of the Habsburg lands. It was not until 1453 in the reign of Frederick V the Peaceful (1457–1493) that the country (at least the core territories) would be finally united again. Rudolph IV's brothers Albert III the Pigtail and Leopold III the Just quarreled ceaselessly and eventually agreed to split the realm in the Treaty of Neuberg in 1379, which was to result in further schisms later. Altogether this resulted in three separate jurisdictions.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1379 Albert III retained Austria proper, ruling till 1395. He was succeeded by his son Albert IV (1395–1404) and grandson Albert V (1404–1439) who regained the imperial throne for the Habsburgs and through his territorial acquisitions was set to become one of the most powerful rulers in Europe had he not died when he did, leaving only a posthumous heir, born four months later (Ladislaus the Posthumous 1440–1457). Instead it was Ladislaus' guardian and successor, the Leopoldian Frederick V the Peaceful (1457–1493) who benefited. The Albertinian line having become extinct, the title now passed back to the Leopoldians. Frederick was so aware of the potential of being the young Ladislaus' guardian that he refused to let him rule independently upon reaching majority (12 in Austria at the time) and had to be forced to release him by the Austrian Estates (League of Mailberg 1452).


title: History of Austria

text: Leopold III took the remaining territories, ruling till 1386. He was succeeded by two of his sons jointly, William the Courteous (1386–1406) and Leopold IV the Fat (1386–1411). In 1402 yet another split in the Duchy occurred, since Leopold III had had four sons and neither Leopold IV or William had heirs. The remaining brothers then divided the territory.


title: History of Austria

text: Ernest the Iron (1402–1424) took Inner Austria, while Frederick IV of the Empty Pockets (1402–1439) took Further Austria. Once William died in 1406, this took formal effect with two separate ducal lines, the "Elder Ernestine Line" and "Junior Tyrolean Line" respectively.


title: History of Austria

text: The Ernestine line consisted of Ernest and a joint rule by two of his sons upon his death in 1424, Albert VI the Prodigal (1457–1463) and Frederick V the Peaceful (1457–1493). They too quarreled and in turn divided what had now become both Lower and Inner Austria upon the death of Ladislaus in 1457 and extinction of the Albertinians. Albert seized Upper Austria in 1458, ruling from Linz, but in 1462 proceeded to besiege his elder brother in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, seizing lower Austria too. However, since he died childless the following year (1463) his possessions automatically reverted to his brother, and Frederick now controlled all of the Albertinian and Ernestine possessions.


title: History of Austria

text: Frederick's political career had advanced in a major way, since he inherited the Duchy of Inner Austria in 1424. From being a Duke, he became German King as Frederick IV in 1440 and Holy Roman Emperor as Frederick III (1452–1493).


title: History of Austria

text: The Tyrolean line consisted of Frederick IV and his son, Sigismund the Rich (1439–1490). Frederick moved his court to Innsbruck but lost some of his possessions to Switzerland. Sigismund who succeeded him sold some of his lands to Charles the Bold in 1469 and was elevated to Archduke by Emperor Frederick III in 1477. He died childless, but in 1490, he abdicated in the face of unpopularity and Further Austria reverted to the then Archduke, Maximilian I the Last Knight (1490–1493), Frederick V's son who now effectively controlled all the Habsburg territory for the first time since 1365.


title: History of Austria

text: The inquisition was also active under the Habsburgs, particularly between 1311 and 1315 when inquisitions were held in Steyr, Krems, St. Pölten and Vienna. The Inquisitor, Petrus Zwicker, conducted severe persecutions in Steyr, Enns, Hartberg, Sopron and Vienna between 1391 and 1402. In 1397 there were some 80–100 Waldensians burnt in Steyr alone, now remembered in a 1997 monument.


title: History of Austria

text: During the Habsburg Duchy, there were 13 consecutive Dukes, of whom four were also crowned King of Germany, Rudolf I, Albert I, Frederick the Fair, and Albert V (Albert II as King of Germany), although none were recognised as Holy Roman Emperors by the Pope.


title: History of Austria

text: When Duke Albert V (1404–1439) was elected as emperor in 1438 (as Albert II), as the successor to his father-in-law, Sigismund von Luxemburg (1433–1437) the imperial crown returned once more to the Habsburgs. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year (1438–1439), from then on, every emperor was a Habsburg (with only one exception: Charles VII 1742–1745), and Austria's rulers were also the Holy Roman Emperors until its dissolution in 1806.


title: History of Austria

text: Frederick V (Duke 1424 Archduke 1453, died 1493) the Peaceful (Emperor Frederick III 1452-–1493) confirmed the "Privilegium Maius" of Rudolph IV in 1453, and so Austria became an official archduchy of the Holy Roman Empire, the next step in its ascendancy within Europe, and Ladislaus the Posthumous (1440–1457) the first official archduke for a brief period, dying shortly after. The document was a forgery, purportedly written by the Emperor Frederick I and "rediscovered". Frederick had a clear motive for this. He was a Habsburg, he was Duke of Inner Austria in addition to being Emperor, and, up till the previous year, had been guardian of the young Duke of Lower Austria, Ladislaus. He also stood to inherit Ladislaus's title, and did so when Ladislaus died four years later, becoming the second Archduke.


title: History of Austria

text: The Austrian Archdukes were now of equal status to the other Prince Electors that selected the emperors. Austrian governance was now to be based on primogeniture and indivisibility. Later Austria was to become officially known as ""Erzherzogtum Österreich ob und unter der Enns"" (The Archduchy of Austria above and below the Enns). In 1861 it was again divided into Upper and Lower Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: The relative power of the emperor in the monarchy was not great, as many other aristocratic dynasties pursued their own political power inside and outside the monarchy. However Frederick, although lackluster, pursued a tough and effective rule. He pursued power through dynastic alliances. In 1477 Maximilian (Archduke and Emperor 1493–1519), Frederick's only son, married Mary, Duchess of Burgundy, thus acquiring most of the Low Countries for the family. The strategic importance of this alliance was that Burgundy, which lay on the western border of the empire, was demonstrating expansionist tendencies, and was at that time one of the richest and most powerful of the Western European nation states, with territories stretching from the south of France to the North Sea.


title: History of Austria

text: The alliance was achieved at no small cost, since France, which also claimed Burgundy, contested this acquisition, and Maximilian had to defend his new wife's territories from Louis XI, finally doing so upon Mary's death in 1482 at the Peace of Arras. Relationships with France remained difficult, Louis XI being defeated at the Battle of Guinegate in 1479. Matters with France were only concluded in 1493 at the Treaty of Senlis after Maximilian had become emperor.


title: History of Austria

text: which became a motto of the dynasty. Frederick's reign was pivotal in Austrian history. He united the core lands by simply outliving the rest of his family. From 1439, when Albert V died and the responsibilities for both of the core territories lay with Frederick, he systematically consolidated his power base. The next year (1440) he marched on Rome as King of the Romans with his ward, Ladislaus the last Albertinian duke, and when he was crowned in Rome in 1452 he was not only the first Habsburg but also the last German king to be crowned in Rome by the Pope.


title: History of Austria

text: The dynasty was now en route to become a world power. The concept of "pietas austriacae" (the divine duty to rule had originated with Rudolph I, but was reformulated by Frederick as AEIOU, "Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan" or "Austriae est imperare orbi universo" (Austria's destiny is to rule the world), which came to symbolise Austrian power. However, not all events proceeded smoothly for Frederick. The Austrian-Hungarian War (1477–1488) resulted in the Hungarian king, Matthias Corvinus setting himself up in Vienna in 1485 till his death in 1490. Hungary occupied the entire Eastern Austria. Frederick therefore found himself with an itinerant court, predominantly in the Upper Austrian capital of Linz.


title: History of Austria

text: Maximilian I shared rule with his father during the latter year of Frederick's reign, being elected King of the Romans in 1486. By acquiring the lands of the Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs in 1490 he finally reunited all the Austrian lands, divided since 1379. He also needed to deal with the Hungarian problem when Mathias I died in 1490. Maximilian reconquered the lost parts of Austria and established peace with Mathias's successor Vladislaus II at the Peace of Pressburg in 1491. However the dynastic pattern of division and unification would be one that kept repeating itself over time. With unsettled borders Maximilian found Innsbruck in the Tyrol a safer place for a capital, between his Burgundian and Austrian lands, although he was rarely in any place for very long, being acutely aware of how his father had been repeatedly besieged in Vienna.


title: History of Austria

text: Maximilian raised the art of dynastic alliance to a new height and set about systematically creating a dynastic tradition, albeit through considerable revisionism. His wife Mary, was to die in 1482, only five years after they were married. He then married Anne, Duchess of Brittany (by proxy) in 1490, a move that would have brought Brittany, at that time independent, into the Habsburg fold, which was considered provocative to the French monarchy. Charles VIII of France had other ideas and annexed Brittany and married Anne, a situation complicated further by the fact that he was already betrothed to Maximilian's daughter Margaret, Duchess of Savoy. Maximilian's son, Philip the Fair (1478–1506) married Joanna, heiress of Castile and Aragon in 1496, and thus acquired Spain and its Italian (Naples, Kingdom of Sicily and Sardinia), African, and New World appendages for the Habsburgs.


title: History of Austria

text: However "Tu felix Austria nube" was perhaps more romantic than strictly realistic, since Maximilian was not slow to wage war when it suited his purpose. Having settled matters with France in 1493, he was soon involved in the long Italian Wars against France (1494–1559). In addition to the wars against the French, there were the wars for Swiss independence. The Swabian War of 1499 marked the last phase of this struggle against the Habsburgs. Following defeat at the Battle of Dornach in 1499, Austria was forced to recognise Swiss independence at the Treaty of Basel in 1499, a process that was finally formalised by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. This was significant as the Habsburgs had originated in Switzerland, their ancestral home being Habsburg Castle.


title: History of Austria

text: In domestic policy, Maximilian launched a series of reforms at the 1495 Diet of Worms, at which the Imperial Chamber Court ("Reichskammergericht") was launched as the highest court. Another new institution of 1495 was the Reichsregiment or Imperial government, meeting at Nuremberg. This preliminary exercise in democracy failed and was dissolved in 1502. Attempts at creating a unified state were not very successful, but rather re-emerged the idea of the three divisions of Austria that existed prior to the unification of Frederick and Maximilian.


title: History of Austria

text: Short of funds for his various schemes he relied heavily on banking families such as the Fugger's, and it was these bankers that bribed the prince electors to choose Maximilian's grandson Charles as his successor. One tradition he did away with was the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope in Rome. Unable to reach Rome, due to Venetian hostility, in 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of Pope Julius II, took the title "Erwählter Römischer Kaiser" ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Thus his father Frederick was the last emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome.


title: History of Austria

text: Since Philip the Fair (1478–1506) died before his father, Maximilian, the succession passed to Philip's son, Charles I (1519–1521) who became the Emperor Charles V, on Maximilian's death in 1519. He reigned as emperor from 1519 to 1556, when in poor health he abdicated, dying in 1558. Although crowned by Pope Clement VII in Bologna in 1530 (Charles had sacked Rome in 1527) he was the last emperor ever to be crowned by a Pope. Although he eventually fell short of his vision of universal monarchy, Charles I is still considered the most powerful of all the Habsburgs. His Chancellor, Mercurino Gattinara remarked in 1519 that he was "on the path to universal monarchy ... unite all Christendom under one sceptre" bringing him closer to Frederick V's vision of AEIOU, and Charles' motto "Plus ultra" (still further) suggested this was his ambition.


title: History of Austria

text: Having inherited his father's possessions in 1506, he was already a powerful ruler with extensive domains. On Maximilian's death these domains became vast. He was now ruler of three of Europe's leading dynasties—the House of Habsburg of the Habsburg monarchy; the House of Valois-Burgundy of the Burgundian Netherlands; and the House of Trastámara of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon. This made him ruler over extensive lands in Central, Western, and Southern Europe; and the Spanish colonies in the Americas and Asia. As the first king to rule Castile, León, and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, he became the first King of Spain. His empire spanned nearly four million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas.


title: History of Austria

text: A number of challenges stood in Charles's way, and were to shape Austria's history for a long time to come. These were France, the appearance of the Ottoman Empire to its East, and Martin Luther (see below).


title: History of Austria

text: Following the dynastic tradition the Habsburgs' hereditary territories were separated from this enormous empire at the Diet of Worms in 1521, when Charles I left them to the regency of his younger brother, Ferdinand I (1521–1564), although he then continued to add to the Habsburg territories. Since Charles left his Spanish Empire to his son Philip II of Spain, the Spanish territories became permanently alienated from the northern Habsburg domains, although remained allies for several centuries.


title: History of Austria

text: By the time Ferdinand also inherited the title of Holy Roman Emperor from his brother in 1558 the Habsburgs had effectively turned an elective title into a "de facto" hereditary one. Ferdinand continued the tradition of dynastic marriages by marrying Anne of Bohemia and Hungary in 1521, effectively adding those two kingdoms to the Habsburg domains, together with the adjacent territories of Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia. This took effect when Anne's brother Louis II, King of Hungary and Bohemia (and hence the Jagiellon dynasty) died without heir at the Battle of Mohács in 1526 against Suleiman the Magnificent and the Ottomans. However, by 1538 the Kingdom of Hungary was divided into three parts:


title: History of Austria

text: Ferdinand's election to emperor in 1558 once again reunited the Austrian lands. He had had to cope with revolts in his own lands, religious turmoil, Ottoman incursions and even contest for the Hungarian throne from John Sigismund Zápolya. His lands were by no means the most wealthy of the Habsburg lands, but he succeeded in restoring internal order and keeping the Turks at bay, while enlarging his frontiers and creating a central administration.


title: History of Austria

text: When Ferdinand died in 1564, the lands were once more divided up between his three sons, a provision he had made in 1554.


title: History of Austria

text: When Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517, he challenged the very basis of the Holy Roman Empire, Catholic Christianity, and hence Habsburg hegemony. After the Emperor Charles V interrogated and condemned Luther at the 1521 Diet of Worms, Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation spread rapidly in the Habsburg territories. Temporarily freed from war with France by the 1529 Treaty of Cambrai and the denouncement of the ban on Luther by the Protestant princes at Speyer that year, the Emperor revisited the issue next at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, by which time it was well-established.


title: History of Austria

text: With the Ottoman threat growing (see below), he needed to ensure that he was not facing a major schism within Christianity. He refuted the Lutheran position (Augsburg Confession) ("Confessio Augustana") with the Confutatio Augustana, and had Ferdinand elected King of the Romans on 5 January 1531, ensuring his succession as a Catholic monarch. In response, the Protestant princes and estates formed the Schmalkaldic League in February 1531 with French backing. Further Turkish advances in 1532 (which required him to seek Protestant aid) and other wars kept the emperor from taking further action on this front until 1547 when imperial troops defeated the League at the Battle of Mühlberg, allowing him to once more impose Catholicism.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1541 Ferdinand's appeal to the estates general for aid against the Turks was met by demand for religious tolerance. The triumph of 1547 turned out to be short lived with French and Protestant forces again challenging the emperor in 1552 culminating in the Peace of Augsburg in 1555. Exhausted, Charles started to withdraw from politics and hand over the reins. Protestantism had proved too firmly entrenched to enable it to be uprooted.


title: History of Austria

text: Austria and the other Habsburg hereditary provinces (and Hungary and Bohemia, as well) were much affected by the Reformation, but with the exception of Tyrol the Austrian lands shut out Protestantism. Although the Habsburg rulers themselves remained Catholic, the non-Austrian provinces largely converted to Lutheranism, which Ferdinand I largely tolerated.


title: History of Austria

text: The Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation was a conservative one, but one that did address the issues raised by Luther. In 1545 the long running Council of Trent began its work of reform and a Counter-Reformation on the borders of the Habsburg domains. The Council continued intermittently until 1563. Ferdinand and the Austrian Habsburgs were far more tolerant than their Spanish brethren, and the process initiated at Trent. However his attempts at reconciliation at the Council in 1562 was rejected, and although a Catholic counteroffensive existed in the Habsburg lands from the 1550s it was based on persuasion, a process in which the Jesuits and Peter Canisius took the lead. Ferdinand deeply regretted the failure to reconcile religious differences before his death (1564).


title: History of Austria

text: When Ferdinand I married into the Hungarian dynasty in 1521 Austria first encountered the westward Ottoman expansion which had first come into conflict with Hungary in the 1370s. Matters came to a close when his wife Anne's brother the young king Louis was killed fighting the Turks under Suleiman the Magnificent at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the title passing to Ferdinand. Louis' widow Mary fled to seek protection from Ferdinand.


title: History of Austria

text: The Turks initially withdrew following this victory, reappearing in 1528 advancing on Vienna and laying siege to it the following year. They withdrew that winter till 1532 when their advance was stopped by Charles V, although they controlled much of Hungary. Ferdinand was then forced to recognize John Zápolya Ferdinand and the Turks continued to wage war between 1537 and a temporary truce in 1547 when Hungary was partitioned. However hostilities continued almost immediately till the Treaty of Constantinople of 1562 which confirmed the 1547 borders. The Ottoman threat was to continue for 200 years.


title: History of Austria

text: Ferdinand I had three sons who survived to adulthood, and he followed the potentially disastrous Habsburg tradition of dividing up his lands between them on his death in 1564. This considerably weakened Austria, particularly in the face of the Ottoman expansion. It was not until the reign of Ferdinand III (Archduke 1590–1637) that they were reunited again in 1620—albeit briefly until 1623. It was not to be until 1665, under Leopold I that the Austrian lands were definitively united.


title: History of Austria

text: As the eldest son, Maximilian II and his sons were granted the "core" territories of Lower and Upper Austria. Ferdinand II dying without living issue, his territories reverted to the core territories on his death in 1595, then under Rudolf V (1576–1608), Maximilian II's son.


title: History of Austria

text: Maximilian II was succeeded by three of his sons none of whom left living heirs, so the line became extinct in 1619 upon the abdication of Albert VII (1619–1619). Thus Charles II's son Ferdinand III inherited all of the Habsburg lands. However he promptly lost Bohemia which rebelled in 1619 and was briefly (1619–1620) under the rule of Frederick I. Thus all the lands again came under one ruler again in 1620 when Ferdinand III invaded Bohemia, defeating Frederick I.


title: History of Austria

text: Although technically an elected position, the title of Holy Roman Emperor was passed down through Maximilian II and the two sons (Rudolf V and Mathias) that succeeded him. Albert VII was Archduke for only a few months before abdicating in favour of Ferdinand III, who also became emperor.


title: History of Austria

text: Rudolf V (Archduke, Emperor Rudolf II 1576–1612), Maximilian's eldest son, moved his capital from Vienna to the safer venue of Prague, in view of the Ottoman threat. He was noted as a great patron of the arts and sciences but a poor governor. Among his legacies is the Imperial Crown of the Habsburgs. He preferred to parcel out his responsibilities among his many brothers (of whom six lived to adulthood), leading to a great heterogeneity of policies across the lands. Among these delegations was making his younger brother Mathias, Governor of Austria in 1593.


title: History of Austria

text: In acquiring "Upper Austria" in 1595, his powers were considerably increased, since the remaining Inner Austria territories were in the hands of Ferdinand III who was only 17 at the time. However he handed over the administration to Maximilian III, another younger brother. In 1593 he instigated a new conflict with the Ottomans, who had resumed raids in 1568, in the so-called Long or Fifteen-Year War of 1593 to 1606. Unwilling to compromise, and envisioning a new crusade the results were disastrous, the exhausted Hungarians revolting in 1604. The Hungarian problem was further exacerbated by attempts to impose a counterreformation there. As a result, he handed over Hungary to Mathias who concluded the Peace of Vienna with the Hungarians, and Peace of Zsitvatorok with the Turks in 1606. As a result, Transylvania became both independent and Protestant.


title: History of Austria

text: These events led to conflict ("Bruderzwist") between the brothers. Melchior Klesl engineered a conspiracy of the archdukes to ensure Mathias' ascendancy. By 1608 Rudolf had ceded much of his territory to the latter. Further conflict led to Mathias imprisoning his brother in 1611, who now gave up all power except the empty title of emperor, dying the following year and being succeeded by Mathias.


title: History of Austria

text: Thus Mathias succeeded to the Archduchy in 1608, and became emperor in 1612, until his death in 1619. His reign was marked by conflict with his younger brother Maximilian III who was a more intransigent Catholic and backed the equally fervent Ferdinand II of "Inner Austria" as successor, having served as his regent between 1593 and 1595, before taking over "Upper Austria". The conflicts weakened the Habsburgs relative to both the estates and the Protestant interests. Mathias moved the capital back to Vienna from Prague and bought further peace from Turkey, by a treaty in 1615. Meanwhile, religious fervor in the empire was mounting, and even Klesl by now Bishop of Vienna (1614) and Cardinal (1615) was considered too moderate by extremist Catholics, including Ferdinand II. War was in the air, and the assault on two roral officials in Prague on 23 May 1618 (The Defenestration of Prague) was to spark all out war. Mathias, like his brother Rudolf, became increasingly isolated by Ferdinand who had imprisoned Klesl.


title: History of Austria

text: The next brother in line for succession in 1619 was Albert VII, but he was persuaded to step down in favour of Ferdinand II within a few months.


title: History of Austria

text: Religion played a large part in the politics of this period, and even tolerance had its limits faced with the incompatible demands of both camps. As the Archduke closest to the Turkish threat, Maximilian II was to continue his father's policy of tolerance and reconciliation, granting "Assekuration" (legalisation of Protestantism for the nobles) in 1571, as did Charles II with "Religionspazifikation" in 1572, while in distant Tyrol, Ferdinand II could afford to be more aggressive. Maximilian II's policies were continued by his sons, Rudolf V and Mathias. The strength of the Reformation in Upper Austria was blunted by internal schisms, while in Lower Austria Melchior Khlesl led a vigorous Catholic response, expelling Protestant preachers and promoting reconvertion. A further concession by Charles II in 1578, the "Brucker Pazifikation", met with more resistance.


title: History of Austria

text: The Catholic Revival started in earnest in 1595 when Ferdinand II, who was Jesuit-educated came of age. He had succeeded his father, Charles II in Inner Austria in 1590 and was energetic in suppressing heresy in the provinces which he ruled. Reformation Commissions initiated a process of forced recatholicisation and by 1600 was being imposed on Graz and Klagenfurt. Unlike previous Austrian rulers, Ferdinand II was unconcerned about the effect of religious conflict on the ability to withstand the Ottomans. The Counter-Reformation was to continue to the end of the Thirty Year War in 1648.


title: History of Austria

text: When the ultra-pious and intransigent Ferdinand II (1619–1637) was elected Emperor (as Ferdinand II) in 1619 to succeed his cousin Mathias, he embarked on an energetic attempt to re-Catholicize not only the Hereditary Provinces, but Bohemia and Habsburg Hungary as well as most of Protestant Europe within the Holy Roman Empire.


title: History of Austria

text: Outside his lands, Ferdinand II's reputation for strong headed uncompromising intolerance had triggered the religious Thirty Years' War in May 1618 in the polarizing first phase, known as the Revolt in Bohemia. Once the Bohemian Revolt had been put down in 1620, he embarked on a concerted effort to eliminate Protestantism in Bohemia and Austria, which was largely successful as was his efforts to reduce the power of the Diet. The religious suppression of the counter-reformation reached its height in 1627 with the Provincial Ordinance ("Verneuerte Landesordnung").


title: History of Austria

text: After several initial reverses, Ferdinand II had become more accommodating but as the Catholics turned things around and began to enjoy a long string of successes at arms he set forth the Edict of Restitution in 1629 in an attempt to restore the "status quo" of 1555 (Peace of Augsburg), vastly complicating the politics of settlement negotiations and prolonging the rest of the war. Encouraged by the mid-war successes, Ferdinand II became even more forceful, leading to infamies by his armies such as the Frankenburg Lottery ("Frankenburger Würfelspiel") (1625), suppression of the consequent Peasants' Revolt of 1626, and the Sack of Magdeburg (1631). Despite concluding the Peace of Prague (1635) with Saxony, and hence the internal, or civil, war with the Protestants, the war would drag on due to the intervention of many foreign states.


title: History of Austria

text: By the time of Ferdinand II's death in 1637, the war was progressing disastrously for the Habsburgs, and his son Ferdinand III (1637–1657) who had been one of his military commanders was faced with the task of salvaging the consequences of his father's extremism. Ferdinand III was far more pragmatic and had been considered the leader of the peace party at court and had helped negotiate the Peace of Prague in 1635. However, with continuing losses in the war he was forced to make peace in 1648 with the Peace of Westphalia, concluding the war. One of his acts during the latter part of the war was to give further independence to the German states ("ius belli ac pacis"—rights in time of war and peace) which would gradually change the balance of power between emperor and states in favour of the latter.


title: History of Austria

text: While its ultimate causes prove to be elusive, the war was to prove a roller-coaster as Habsburg over-reach led to it spreading from a domestic dispute to involve most of Europe, and which while at times appearing to aid the Habsburg goal of political hegemony and religious conformity, ultimately eluded them except in their own central territories.


title: History of Austria

text: The forced conversions or evictions carried out in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, together with the later general success of the Protestants, had greatly negative consequences for Habsburg control of the Holy Roman Empire itself. Although territorial losses were relatively small for the Habsburgs, the Empire was greatly diminished, the power of the ruler reduced and the balance of power in Europe changed with new centres emerging on the empire's borders. The estates were now to function more like nation states.


title: History of Austria

text: While deprived of the goal of universal monarchy, the campaigns within the Habsburg hereditary lands were relatively successful in religiously purification, although Hungary was never successfully re-Catholicized. Only in Lower Austria, and only among the nobility, was Protestantism tolerated. Large numbers of people either emigrated or converted, while others compromised as crypto-Protestants, ensuing relative conformity. The crushing of the Bohemian Revolt also extinguished Czech culture and established German as the tool of Habsburg absolutism. The Austrian monarchs thereafter had much greater control within the hereditary power base, the dynastic absolutism grip was tightened and the power of the estates diminished. On the other hand, Austria was much reduced in population and economic might and less vigorous and weakened as a nation-state.


title: History of Austria

text: The Baroque Austrian Monarchy was established. Despite the dichotomy between outward reality and inner conviction, the rest of the world saw Austria as the epitome of forcible conformity, and conflation of church and state.


title: History of Austria

text: In terms of human costs, the Thirty Years' wars many economic, social, and population dislocations caused by the hardline methods adopted by Ferdinand II's strict counter-reformation measures and almost continual employment of mercenary field armies contributed significantly to the loss of life and tragic depopulation of all the German states, during a war which some estimates put the civilian loss of life as high as 50% overall. Studies mostly cite the causes of death due to starvation or as caused (ultimately by the lack-of-food induced) weakening of resistance to endemic diseases which repeatedly reached epidemic proportions among the general Central European population—the German states were the battle ground and staging areas for the largest mercenary armies theretofore, and the armies foraged among the many provinces stealing the food of those people forced onto the roads as refugees, or still on the lands, regardless of their faith and allegiances. Both townsmen and farmers were repeatedly ravaged and victimized by the armies on both sides leaving little for the populations already stressed by the refugees from the war or fleeing the Catholic counter-reformation repressions under Ferdinand's governance.


title: History of Austria

text: The Austrian lands finally came under one archduchy in 1620, but Ferdinand II quickly redivided them in 1623 in the Habsburg tradition by parcelling out "Upper Austria" (Further Austria and Tirol) to his younger brother Leopold V (1623–1632) who was already governor there. Upper Austria would remain under Leopold's successors till 1665 when it reverted to the senior line under Leopold I.


title: History of Austria

text: Leopold V's son Ferdinand Charles succeeded him in Upper Austria in 1632. However he was only four at the time, leaving his mother Claudia de' Medici as regent till 1646.


title: History of Austria

text: Despite the setbacks of the Thirty Years' War, Austria was able to recover economically and demographically and consolidate the new hegemony often referred to as Austrian Baroque. By 1714 Austria had become a great power again. Yet the roots of Habsburg legitimacy, with its reliance on religious and political conformity, was to make it increasingly anachronistic in the Age of Enlightenment. Nevertheless, in the arts and architecture the baroque flourished in Austria. In peacetime Ferdinand III (1637–1657) proved to be a great patron of the arts and a musician.


title: History of Austria

text: Upon Ferdinand's death in 1657 he was succeeded by his son Leopold I (1657–1705), whose reign was relatively long. Meanwhile, in "Upper Austria" Ferdinand Charles (1632–1662) although also an arts patron ruled in an absolutist and extravagant style. His brother Sigismund Francis (1662–1665) succeeded him briefly in 1662, but dying without heir in 1665 his lands reverted to Leopold I. Thus from 1665 Austria was finally reunited under one archduchy.


title: History of Austria

text: Leopold I's reign was marked by a return to a succession of wars. Even before he succeeded his father in 1657, he was involved in the Second Northern War (1655–1660) a carry over from Sweden's involvement in the Thirty Years' War, in which Austria sided with Poland, defeating Transylvania, a Swedish ally and Ottoman protectorate.


title: History of Austria

text: At the end of that war the Ottomans overran Nagyvárad in Transylvania in 1660, which would mark the beginning of the decline of that principality and increasing Habsburg influence. In vain the Transylvanians appealed to Vienna for help, unaware of secret Ottoman-Habsburg agreements.


title: History of Austria

text: Fortunately for Austria, Turkey was preoccupied elsewhere during the Thirty Years' War when she would have been vulnerable to attack on her eastern flanks. It was not until 1663 that the Turks developed serious intentions with regard to Austria, which let to a disastrous event for the Ottoman army, being defeated at the Battle of Saint Gotthard the following year.


title: History of Austria

text: The terms, dictated by the need to deal with the French in the west, were so disadvantageous that they infuriated the Hungarians who revolted. To make matters worse, after executing the leaders, Leopold attempted to impose a counter-reformation, starting a religious civil war, although he made some concessions in 1681. Thus by the early 1680s Leopold was facing Hungarian revolt, backed by the Ottomans and encouraged by the French on the opposite flank.


title: History of Austria

text: Meanwhile, Austria became involved elsewhere with the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) which was concluded with the Treaties of Nijmegen giving the French considerable opportunities ("reunions"), indeed the activities of the French, now also a major power, distracted Leopold from following up his advantage with the Turks, and Austro-Ottoman relationships were governed by the Peace of Vasvár which would grant some twenty years relief. However the reunions bought a badly needed French neutrality while Austria kept watch to the east.The Ottomans next moved against Austria in 1682 in retaliation against Habsburg raids, reaching Vienna in 1683, which proved well fortified, and set about besieging it. The allied forces eventually proved superior and the lifting of the siege was followed by a series of victories in 1687, 1687 and 1697, resulting in the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699), Belgrade having fallen in 1688 (but recaptured in 1690). This provided Austrian hegemony over Austria and introduced a large number of Serbs into the Empire, who were to have a major impact on policies over the ensuing centuries.


title: History of Austria

text: With the eastern frontier now finally secured, Vienna could flourish ("Vienna gloriosa") and expand beyond its traditional limits. In the east Leopold was learning that there was little to be gained by harsh measures, which policy bought his acceptance and he granted the Hungarian diet rights through the "Diploma Leopoldianum" of 1691. However, on the military front, this merely freed up Austria to engage in further western European wars. Austria was becoming more involved in competition with France in Western Europe, fighting the French in the War of the League of Augsburg (1688–1697).


title: History of Austria

text: On the domestic front, Leopold's reign was marked by the expulsion of the Jews from Vienna in 1670, the area being renamed Leopoldstadt. While in 1680 Leopold adopted the so-called "Pragmatica", which re-regulated the relationship between landlord and peasant.


title: History of Austria

text: Most complex of all was the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), in which the French and Austrians (along with their British, Dutch and Catalan allies) fought over the inheritance of the vast territories of the Spanish Habsburgs. The ostensible cause was the future Charles III of Austria (1711–1740) claiming the vacant Spanish throne in 1701. Leopold engaged in the war but did not live to see its outcome, being succeeded by his Joseph I in 1705. Joseph's reign was short and the war finally came to an end in 1714 by which time his brother Charles III had succeeded him.


title: History of Austria

text: Although the French secured control of Spain and its colonies for a grandson of Louis XIV, the Austrians also ended up making significant gains in Western Europe, including the former Spanish Netherlands (now called the Austrian Netherlands, including most of modern Belgium), the Duchy of Milan in Northern Italy, and Naples and Sardinia in Southern Italy. (The latter was traded for Sicily in 1720). By the conclusion of the war in 1714 Austria had achieved a pivotal position in European power politics.


title: History of Austria

text: The end of the war saw Austria's allies desert her in terms of concluding treaties with the French, Charles finally signing off in the Treaty of Rastatt in 1714. While the Habsburgs may not have gained all they wanted, they still made significant gains through both Rastatt and Karlowitz, and established their power. The remainder of his reign saw Austria relinquish many of these fairly impressive gains, largely due to Charles's apprehensions at the imminent extinction of the House of Habsburg.


title: History of Austria

text: For Charles now had succession problems of his own, having only two surviving daughters. His solution was to abolish sole male inheritance by means of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. In 1703 his father Leopold VI had made a pact with his sons that allowed for female inheritance but was vague on details, and left room for uncertainty. The Pragmatic Sanction strengthened this and in addition made provision for the inseparability ("indivisibiliter ac inseparabiliter") of the Habsburg lands.


title: History of Austria

text: This was to form the legal basis for the union with Hungary and to legitimise the Habsburg monarchy. It would be confirmed by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 and would last to 1918. He then needed to strengthen the arrangement by negotiating with surrounding states. Internal negotiation proved to be relatively simple and it became law by 1723.


title: History of Austria

text: Charles was now willing to offer concrete advantages in territory and authority in exchange for other powers' worthless recognitions of the Pragmatic Sanction that made his daughter Maria Theresa his heir. Equally challenging was the question of the heir apparent's marital prospects and how they might influence the European balance of power. The eventual choice of Francis Stephen of Lorraine in 1736 proved unpopular with the other powers, particularly France.


title: History of Austria

text: War continued to be part of European life in the early 18th century. Austria was involved in the War of the Quadruple Alliance and the resulting 1720 Treaty of The Hague was to see the Habsburg lands reach their greatest territorial expansion. War with France had broken out again in 1733 with the War of the Polish Succession whose settlement at the Treaty of Vienna in 1738 saw Austria cede Naples and Sicily to the Spanish Infante Don Carlos in exchange for the tiny Duchy of Parma and Spain and France's adherence to the Pragmatic Sanction. The later years of Charles's reign also saw further wars against the Turks, beginning with a successful skirmish in 1716–1718, culminating in the Treaty of Passarowitz. Less successful was the war of 1737–1739 which resulted in the Austrian loss of Belgrade and other border territories at the Treaty of Belgrade.


title: History of Austria

text: On the domestic front military and political gains were accompanied by economic expansion and repopulation ("Schwabenzug"), as Austria entered the period of High Baroque with a profusion of new buildings, including the Belvedere (1712–1783) and Karlskirche (1716–1737), exemplified by the great architects of the period, such as Fischer, Hildebrandt and Prandtauer. However the Habsburgs' finances were fragile. They had relied on Jewish bankers such as Samuel Oppenheimer to finance their wars, and subsequently bankrupted him. However the financial system in Austria remained antiquated and inadequate. By the time of Charles' death in 1740 the treasury was almost depleted.


title: History of Austria

text: Habsburg religious intolerance, once unquestioned in the core lands became the subject of more intense scrutiny by 1731 when 22,000 suspected crypto-Protestants were expelled from Salzburg and the Salzkammergut. Similar intolerance was displayed to the Jewish population in Bohemia and surrounding areas under the Familianten ("Familiantengesetze") in 1726 and 1727. Worse would have followed had there not also been a realisation that there were economic consequences and that some accommodation was required to the more rationalist ideas of western Europe. Among these was cameralism which encouraged economic self-sufficiency in the nation state. Thus domestic industries such as the "Linzer Wollzeugfabrik" were founded and encouraged, but often such ideas were subjugated by vested interests such as aristocracy and church. Rationalist emphasis on the natural and popular were the antithesis of Habsburg elitism and divine authority. Eventually external powers forced rationalism on Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: By the time of his death in 1740, Charles III had secured the acceptance of the Pragmatic Sanction by most of the European powers. The remaining question was whether it was realistic in the complicated power games of European dynasties.


title: History of Austria

text: Charles III died on 20 October 1740, and was succeeded by his daughter Maria Theresa. However she did not become Empress immediately, that title passing to Charles VII (1742–1745) the only moment in which the imperial crown passed outside of the Habsburg line from 1440 to 1806, Charles VII being one of many who repudiated the 1713 Pragmatic Sanction. As many had anticipated all those assurances from the other powers proved of little worth to Maria Theresa.


title: History of Austria

text: On 16 December 1740 Prussian troops invaded Silesia under King Frederick the Great. This was the first of three Silesian Wars fought between Austria and Prussia in this period (1740–1742, 1744–1745 and 1756–1763). Soon other powers began to exploit Austria's weakness. Charles VII claimed the inheritance to the hereditary lands and Bohemia, and was supported by the King of France, who desired the Austrian Netherlands. The Spanish and Sardinians hoped to gain territory in Italy, and the Saxons hoped to gain territory to connect Saxony with the Elector's Polish Kingdom. France even went so far as to prepare for a partition of Austria.


title: History of Austria

text: Austria's allies, Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Russia, were all wary of getting involved in the conflict; ultimately, only Britain provided significant support. Thus began the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), one of the more confusing and less eventful wars of European history, which ultimately saw Austria holding its own, despite the permanent loss of most of Silesia to the Prussians. That represented the loss of one of its richest and most industrialised provinces. For Austria the War of Succession was more a series of wars, the first concluding in 1742 with the Treaty of Breslau, the second (1744–1745) with the Treaty of Dresden. The overall war however continued until the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748).


title: History of Austria

text: In 1745, following the reign of the Bavarian Elector as Emperor Charles VII, Maria Theresa's husband Francis of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, was elected Emperor, restoring control of that position to the Habsburgs (or, rather, to the new composite house of Habsburg-Lorraine), Francis holding the titular crown until his death in 1765, but his empress consort Maria Theresa carrying out the executive functions. The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 applied to the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs and Archduchy of Austria but not the position of Holy Roman Emperor, which could not be held by women, thus Maria Theresa was Empress Consort not Empress Regnant.


title: History of Austria

text: For the eight years following the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle that ended the War of the Austrian Succession, Maria Theresa plotted revenge on the Prussians. The British and Dutch allies who had proved so reluctant to help her in her time of need were dropped in favour of the French in the so-called Reversal of Alliances ("bouleversement") of 1756, under the advice of Kaunitz, Austrian Chancellor (1753–1793). This resulted in the Treaty of Versailles of 1756. That same year, war once again erupted on the continent as Frederick, fearing encirclement, launched a pre-emptive invasion of Saxony and the defensive treaty became offensive. The ensuing Third Silesian War (1754–1763, part of the larger Seven Years' War) was indecisive, and its end saw Prussia holding onto Silesia, despite Russia, France, and Austria all combining against him, and with only Hanover as a significant ally on land.


title: History of Austria

text: The end of the war saw Austria, poorly prepared at its start, exhausted. Austria continued the alliance with France (cemented in 1770 with the marriage of Maria Theresa's daughter Archduchess Maria Antonia to the Dauphin), but also facing a dangerous situation in Central Europe, faced with the alliance of Frederick the Great of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia. The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 caused a serious crisis in east-central Europe, with Prussia and Austria demanding compensation for Russia's gains in the Balkans, ultimately leading to the First Partition of Poland in 1772, in which Maria Theresa took Galicia from Austria's traditional ally.


title: History of Austria

text: Over the next several years, Austro-Russian relations began to improve. When the War of Bavarian Succession (1778–1779) erupted between Austria and Prussia following the extinction of the Bavarian line of the Wittelsbach dynasty, Russia refused to support Austria, its ally from the Seven Years' War, but offered to mediate and the war was ended, after almost no bloodshed, on 13 May 1779, when Russian and French mediators at the Congress of Teschen negotiated an end to the war. In the agreement Austria received the Innviertel from Bavaria, but for Austria it was a case of "status quo ante bellum". This war was unusual for this era in that casualties from disease and starvation exceeded wounds, and is considered the last of the Cabinet Wars ("Kabinettskriege") in which diplomats played as large a part as troops, and as the roots of German Dualism (Austria–Prussia rivalry).


title: History of Austria

text: Although Maria Theresa and her consort were Baroque absolutist conservatives, this was tempered by a pragmatic sense and they implemented a number of overdue reforms. Thus these reforms were pragmatic responses to the challenges faced by archduchy and empire, not ideologically framed in the Age of Enlightenment as seen by her successor, Joseph II.


title: History of Austria

text: The collision with other theories of nation states and modernity obliged Austria to perform a delicate balancing act between accepting changing economic and social circumstances while rejecting their accompanying political change. The relative failure to deal with modernity produced major changes in Habsburg power and Austrian culture and society. One of the first challenges that Maria Theresa and her advisers faced was to restore the legitimacy and authority of the dynasty, although was slowly replaced by a need to establish the needs of State.


title: History of Austria

text: Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms, with the assistance of her advisers, notably Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten. Many reforms were in the interests of efficiency. Her financial reforms considerably improved the state finances, and notably introduced taxation of the nobility for the first time, and achieved a balanced budget by 1775. At an administrative level, under Haugwitz she centralised administration, previously left to the nobility and church, along Prussian models with a permanent civil service. Haugwitz was appointed head of the new "Directorium in publicis und cameralibus" in 1749. By 1760 it was clear this was not solving Austria's problems and further reform was required. Kaunitz' proposal for a consultative body was accepted by Maria Theresa. This Council of State ("Staatsrat") was to be based on the French Conseil d'État which believed that an absolutist monarch could still be guided by Enlightenment advisors. The council was inaugurated in January 1761, composed of Kaunitz the state chancellor ("Staatskanzler"), three members of the high nobility ("Staatsminister"), including von Haugwitz as chair ("Erster Staatsminister"), and three knights ("Staatsrat"), which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council of state lacked executive or legislative authority. This marked Kaunitz' ascendency over von Haugwitz. The Directory was abolished and its functions absorbed into the new united Austrian and Bohemian chancelleries ("Böhmisch-Österreichische Hofkanzlei") in 1761.


title: History of Austria

text: While Von Haugwitz modernised the army and government, van Swieten reformed health care and education. Educational reform included that of Vienna University by Swieten from 1749, the founding of the Theresianum (1746) as a civil service academy as well as military and foreign service academies. An Education Commission ("Studienhofkommission") was established in 1760 with a specific interest in replacing Jesuitical control, but it was the papal dissolution of the order in 1773 that accomplished this. The confiscation of their property enabled the next step. Aware of the inadequacy of bureaucracy in Austria and, in order to improve it, Maria Theresa and what was now referred to as the Party of Enlightenment radically overhauled the schools system. In the new system, based on the Prussian one, all children of both genders from the ages of 6 to 12 had to attend school, while teacher training schools were established. Education reform was met with hostility from many villages and the nobility to whom children represented labour. Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of all those opposed. Although the idea had merit, the reforms were not as successful as they were expected to be; in some parts of Austria, half of the population was illiterate well into the 19th century. However widespread access to education, education in the vernacular language, replacement of rote learning and blind obedience with reasoning was to have a profound effect on the relationship between people and state.


title: History of Austria

text: Other reforms were in civil rights which were defied under the "Codex Theresianus", begun in 1752 and finished in 1766. Specific measures included abolition of torture, and witch burning. Also in industrial and agrarian policy along cameralist lines, the theory was to maximise the resources of the land to protect the integrity of the state. Widespread problems arising from war, famine unrest and abuse made implementation of landlord-peasant reforms both reasonable and reasonable. Maria Theresa and her regime had sought a new more direct link with the populace, now that administration was no longer to be farmed out, and this maternalism combined with cameralist thinking required taking a closer interest in the welfare of the peasantry and their protection, which transpired in the 1750s. However these had been more noted than observed. In the 1770s more meaningful control of rents became practical, further eroding privilege.


title: History of Austria

text: While reforms assisted Austria in dealing with the almost constant wars, the wars themselves hindered the implementation of those reforms.


title: History of Austria

text: A pious Catholic, her reforms which affected the relation between state and church in favour of the former, did not extend to any relaxation of religious intolerance, but she preempted Pope Clement XIV's suppression of the Jesuits in 1773 by issuing a decree which removed them from all the institutions of the monarchy. There was both a suspicion of their excesses and of their tendency to political interference which brought them into conflict with the progressive secularisation of culture. Thus they were removed from control of censorship in 1751, and the educational reforms threatened their control over education. She was hostile to Jews and Protestants but eventually abandoned efforts for conversion, but continued her father's campaign to exile crypto-Protestants (mainly to Transylvania as in 1750). In 1744 she even ordered the expulsion of Jews, but relented under pressure by 1748. In her later years though she took some measures to protect the Jewish population.


title: History of Austria

text: Maria Theresa had a large family, sixteen in all, of whom six were daughters that lived to adulthood. They were only too aware that their fate was to be used as political pawns. The best known of these was the tragic figure of Maria Antonia (1755–1793).


title: History of Austria

text: When Maria Theresa's consort Francis died in 1765, he was succeeded by his son Joseph II as emperor (1765–1790) because of male primogeniture. Joseph was also made co-ruler or co-regent with his mother. Joseph, 24 at the time, was more ideologically attuned to modernity and frequently disagreed with his mother on policy, and was often excluded from policy making. Maria Theresa always acted with a cautious respect for the conservatism of the political and social elites and the strength of local traditions. Her cautious approach repelled Joseph, who always sought the decisive, dramatic intervention to impose the one best solution, regardless of traditions or political opposition. Joseph and his mother's quarrels were usually mediated by Chancellor Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz who served for nearly 40 years as the principal minister to both Maria Theresa and Joseph.


title: History of Austria

text: Joseph frequently used his position as leverage, by threatening resignation. The one area he was allowed more say on was in foreign policy. In this, he showed similar traits to Austria's arch-enemy Frederick II of Prussia (1740–1786), also his intellectual model. He was successful in siding with Kaunitz in Realpolitik, undertaking the first partition of Poland in 1772 over his mother's principled objections. However his enthusiasm for interfering in Bavarian politics by invoking his ties to his former brother in law, Maximilian III, ended Austria in the War of Bavarian Succession in 1778. Although largely shut out of domestic policy, he used his time to acquire knowledge of his lands and people, encouraged policies he was in accord with and made magnanimous gestures such as opening the Royal Parks of Prater and Augarten to the public in 1766 and 1775 ("Alles für das Volk, nichts durch das Volk"—Everything for the people, nothing by the people).


title: History of Austria

text: On her husband's death Maria Theresa was therefore no longer empress, the title of which fell to her daughter-in-law Maria Josepha of Bavaria until her death in 1767 when the title fell vacant. When Maria Theresa died in 1780 she was succeeded in all her titles by Joseph II.


title: History of Austria

text: As the first of the Habsburg-Lorraine ("Habsburg-Lothringen") Dynasty Joseph II was the archetypical embodiment of The Enlightenment spirit of the 18th century reforming monarchs known as the "enlightened despots". When his mother Maria Theresa died in 1780, Joseph became the absolute ruler over the most extensive realm of Central Europe. There was no parliament to deal with. Joseph was always positive that the rule of reason, as propounded in the Enlightenment, would produce the best possible results in the shortest time. He issued edicts—6,000 in all, plus 11,000 new laws designed to regulate and reorder every aspect of the empire. The spirit was benevolent and paternal. He intended to make his people happy, but strictly in accordance with his own criteria.


title: History of Austria

text: "Josephinism" (or Josephism) as his policies were called, is notable for the very wide range of reforms designed to modernize the creaky empire in an era when France and Prussia were rapidly upgrading. Josephinism elicited grudging compliance at best, and more often vehement opposition from all sectors in every part of his empire. Failure characterized most of his projects. Joseph set about building a rational, centralized, and uniform government for his diverse lands, a pyramid with himself as supreme autocrat. He expected government servants to all be dedicated agents of Josephinism and selected them without favor for class or ethnic origins; promotion was solely by merit. To impose uniformity, he made German the compulsory language of official business throughout the Empire. The Hungarian assembly was stripped of its prerogatives, and not even called together.


title: History of Austria

text: As President of the Court Audit Office ("Hofrechenkammer"), Count Karl von Zinzendorf (1781–1792) introduced Appalt, a uniform system of accounting for state revenues, expenditures, and debts of the territories of the Austrian crown. Austria was more successful than France in meeting regular expenditures and in gaining credit. However, the events of Joseph II's last years also suggest that the government was financially vulnerable to the European wars that ensued after 1792. Joseph reformed the traditional legal system, abolished brutal punishments and the death penalty in most instances, and imposed the principle of complete equality of treatment for all offenders. He ended censorship of the press and theatre.


title: History of Austria

text: To equalize the incidence of taxation, Joseph ordered a fresh appraisal of the value of all properties in the empire; his goal was to impose a single and egalitarian tax on land. The goal was to modernize the relationship of dependence between the landowners and peasantry, relieve some of the tax burden on the peasantry, and increase state revenues. Joseph looked on the tax and land reforms as being interconnected and strove to implement them at the same time. The various commissions he established to formulate and carry out the reforms met resistance among the nobility, the peasantry, and some officials. Most of the reforms were abrogated shortly before or after Joseph's death in 1790; they were doomed to failure from the start because they tried to change too much in too short a time, and tried to radically alter the traditional customs and relationships that the villagers had long depended upon.


title: History of Austria

text: In the cities the new economic principles of the Enlightenment called for the destruction of the autonomous guilds, already weakened during the age of mercantilism. Joseph II's tax reforms and the institution of "Katastralgemeinde" (tax districts for the large estates) served this purpose, and new factory privileges ended guild rights while customs laws aimed at economic unity. The intellectual influence of the Physiocrats led to the inclusion of agriculture in these reforms.


title: History of Austria

text: In 1781–82 he extended full legal freedom to serfs. Rentals paid by peasants were to be regulated by imperial (not local) officials and taxes were levied upon all income derived from land. The landlords saw a grave threat to their status and incomes, and eventually reversed the policy. In Hungary and Transylvania, the resistance of the landed nobility was so great that Joseph compromised with halfway measures—one of the few times he backed down. After the great peasant revolt of Horea, 1784–85, however, the emperor imposed his will by fiat. His Imperial Patent of 1785 abolished serfdom but did not give the peasants ownership of the land or freedom from dues owed to the landowning nobles. It did give them personal freedom. Emancipation of the Hungarian peasantry promoted the growth of a new class of taxable landholders, but it did not abolish the deep-seated ills of feudalism and the exploitation of the landless squatters.


title: History of Austria

text: Capital punishment was abolished in 1787, although restored in 1795. Legal reforms gained comprehensive "Austrian" form in the civil code ("ABGB: Allgemeine Bürgerliche Gesetzbuch") of 1811 and have been seen as providing a foundation for subsequent reforms extending into the 20th century. The first part of the ABGB appeared in 1786, and the criminal code in 1787. These reforms incorporated the criminological writings of Cesare Beccaria, but also first time made all people equal in the eyes of the law.


title: History of Austria

text: To produce a literate citizenry, elementary education was made compulsory for all boys and girls, and higher education on practical lines was offered for a select few. He created scholarships for talented poor students, and allowed the establishment of schools for Jews and other religious minorities. In 1784 he ordered that the country change its language of instruction from Latin to German, a highly controversial step in a multilingual empire.


title: History of Austria

text: By the 18th century, centralization was the trend in medicine because more and better educated doctors requesting improved facilities; cities lacked the budgets to fund local hospitals; and the monarchies wanted to end costly epidemics and quarantines. Joseph attempted to centralize medical care in Vienna through the construction of a single, large hospital, the famous Allgemeines Krankenhaus, which opened in 1784. Centralization worsened sanitation problems causing epidemics a 20% death rate in the new hospital, which undercut Joseph's plan, but the city became preeminent in the medical field in the next century.


title: History of Austria

text: Joseph's Catholicism was that of Catholic Reform and his goals were to weaken the power of the Catholic Church and introduce a policy of religious toleration that was the most advanced of any state in Europe. In 1789 he issued a charter of religious toleration for the Jews of Galicia, a region with a large, Yiddish-speaking, traditional Jewish population. The charter abolished communal autonomy whereby the Jews controlled their internal affairs; it promoted "Germanization" and the wearing of non-Jewish clothing.


title: History of Austria

text: Probably the most unpopular of all his reforms was his attempted modernization of the highly traditional Roman Catholic Church. Calling himself the guardian of Catholicism, Joseph II struck vigorously at papal power. He tried to make the Catholic Church in his empire the tool of the state, independent of Rome. Clergymen were deprived of the tithe and ordered to study in seminaries under government supervision, while bishops had to take a formal oath of loyalty to the crown. He financed the large increase in bishoprics, parishes, and secular clergy by extensive sales of monastic lands. As a man of the Enlightenment he ridiculed the contemplative monastic orders, which he considered unproductive, as opposed to the service orders. Accordingly, he suppressed a `` of the monasteries (over 700 were closed) and reduced the number of monks and nuns from 65,000 to 27,000. Church courts were abolished and marriage was defined as a civil contract outside the jurisdiction of the Church. Joseph sharply cut the number of holy days and reduced ornamentation in churches. He greatly simplified the manner of celebration. Critics alleged that these reforms caused a crisis of faith, reduced piety and a decline in morality, had Protestant tendencies, promoted Enlightenment rationalism and a class of liberal bourgeois officials, and led to the emergence and persistence of anti-clericalism. Many traditional Catholics were energized in opposition to the emperor.


title: History of Austria

text: The Habsburg Empire developed a policy of war and trade as well as intellectual influence across the borders. While opposing Prussia and Turkey, Austria was friendly to Russia, though tried to remove Romania from Russian influence.


title: History of Austria

text: In foreign policy, there was no Enlightenment, only hunger for more territory and a willingness to undertake unpopular wars to get the land. Joseph was a belligerent, expansionist leader, who dreamed of making his Empire the greatest of the European powers. Joseph's plan was to acquire Bavaria, if necessary in exchange for Belgium (the Austrian Netherlands). Thwarted by King Frederick II of Prussia in 1778 in the War of Bavarian Succession, he renewed his efforts again in 1785 but Prussian diplomacy proved more powerful. This failure caused Joseph to seek territorial expansion in the Balkans, where he became involved in an expensive and futile war with the Turks (1787–1791), which was the price to be paid for friendship with Russia.


title: History of Austria

text: The Balkan policy of both Maria Theresa and Joseph II reflected the Cameralism promoted by Prince Kaunitz, stressing consolidation of the border lands by reorganization and expansion of the military frontier. Transylvania had been incorporated into the frontier in 1761 and the frontier regiments became the backbone of the military order, with the regimental commander exercising military and civilian power. "Populationistik" was the prevailing theory of colonization, which measured prosperity in terms of labor. Joseph II also stressed economic development. Habsburg influence was an essential factor in Balkan development in the last half of the 18th century, especially for the Serbs and Croats.


title: History of Austria

text: The nobility throughout his empire disliked Joseph's taxes, egalitarianism, despotism and puritanism. In Belgium and Hungary, his attempts to subordinate everything to his own personal rule in Vienna were not well received. Even commoners were affected by Joseph's reforms, such as a ban on baking gingerbread because Joseph thought it bad for the stomach, or a ban on corsets. Only a few weeks before Joseph's death, the director of the Imperial Police reported to him: "All classes, and even those who have the greatest respect for the sovereign, are discontented and indignant."


title: History of Austria

text: In Lombardy (in northern Italy) the cautious reforms of Maria Theresa in Lombardy had enjoyed support from local reformers. Joseph II, however, by creating a powerful imperial officialdom directed from Vienna, undercut the dominant position of the Milanese principate and the traditions of jurisdiction and administration. In the place of provincial autonomy he established an unlimited centralism, which reduced Lombardy politically and economically to a fringe area of the Empire. As a reaction to these radical changes the middle class reformers shifted away from cooperation to strong resistance. From this basis appeared the beginnings of the later Lombard liberalism.


title: History of Austria

text: By 1788 Joseph's health but not his determination was failing. By 1789 rebellion had broken out in protest against his reforms in Belgium (Brabant Revolution) and Hungary, and his other dominions were restive under the burdens of his war with Turkey. His empire was threatened with dissolution, and he was forced to sacrifice some of his reform projects. The emperor died on 20 February 1790 at 48, mostly unsuccessful in his attempts to curtail feudal liberties.


title: History of Austria

text: Behind his numerous reforms lay a comprehensive program influenced by the doctrines of enlightened absolutism, natural law, mercantilism, and physiocracy. With a goal of establishing a uniform legal framework to replace heterogeneous traditional structures, the reforms were guided at least implicitly by the principles of freedom and equality and were based on a conception of the state's central legislative authority. Joseph's accession marks a major break since the preceding reforms under Maria Theresa had not challenged these structures, but there was no similar break at the end of the Josephinian era. The reforms initiated by Joseph II had merit despite the way they were introduced. They were continued to varying degrees under his successors. They have been seen as providing a foundation for subsequent reforms extending into the 20th century.


title: History of Austria

text: Joseph's death proved a boon for Austria, as he was succeeded by his younger brother, Leopold II, previously the more cautiously reforming Grand Duke of Tuscany. Leopold knew when to cut his losses, and soon cut deals with the revolting Netherlanders and Hungarians. He also managed to secure a peace with Turkey in 1791, and negotiated an alliance with Prussia, which had been allying with Poland to press for war on behalf of the Ottomans against Austria and Russia. While restoring relative calm to what had been a crisis situation on his accession in 1790, Austria was surrounded by potential threats. While many reforms were by necessity rescinded, other reforms were initiated including more freedom of the press and restriction on the powers of the police. He replaced his brother's police minister, Johann Anton von Pergen, with Joseph Sonnenfels an advocate of social welfare rather than control.


title: History of Austria

text: Leopold's reign also saw the acceleration of the French Revolution. Although Leopold was sympathetic to the revolutionaries, he was also the brother of the French queen. Furthermore, disputes involving the status of the rights of various imperial princes in Alsace, where the revolutionary French government was attempting to remove rights guaranteed by various peace treaties, involved Leopold as Emperor in conflicts with the French. The Declaration of Pillnitz, made in late 1791 jointly with the Prussian King Frederick William II and the Elector of Saxony, in which it was declared that the other princes of Europe took an interest in what was going on in France, was intended to be a statement in support of Louis XVI that would prevent the need from taking any kind of action. However, it instead inflamed the sentiments of the revolutionaries against the Emperor. Although Leopold did his best to avoid war with the French, he died in March 1792. The French declared war on his inexperienced eldest son Francis II a month later.


title: History of Austria

text: Vienna and Austria dominated European music during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, typified by the First Viennese School ("Wiener Klassik"). This was the era of Haydn, and Mozart's Vienna period extended from 1781 to 1791 during which he was court composer. Opera, particularly German opera was flourishing. Mozart wrote many German operas including the Magic Flute. Initially the pillars of the establishment—the monarchy, such as Joseph II and to a lesser extent his mother, the aristocracy and the religious establishment were the major patrons of the arts, until rising middle class aspirations incorporated music into the lives of the bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the Baroque was evolving into the less grandiose form, the Rococo.


title: History of Austria

text: The virtual abolition of censorship under van Swieten also encouraged artistic expression and the themes of artistic work often reflected enlightenment thinking.


title: History of Austria

text: Francis II (1792–1835) was only 24 when he succeeded his father Leopold VII in 1792, but was to reign for nearly half a century and a radical reorganisation of European politics. He inherited a vast bureaucracy created by his uncle whose legacy of reform and welfare was to last throughout the next two centuries. The image of the monarch had profoundly changed, as had the relationship between monarch and subject. His era was overshadowed by events in France, both in terms of the evolving Revolution and the onset of a new form of European warfare with mass citizen armies. Austria recoiled in horror at the execution of Francis' aunt Maria Antonia in 1793 (despite futile attempts at rescue and even negotiation for release), leading to a wave of repression to fend off such dangerous sentiments influencing Austrian politics. At the same time Europe was consumed by the French Revolutionary (1792–1802) and Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). The French Revolution effectively ended Austria's experiment with modernity and reform from above, and marked a retreat to legitimacy.


title: History of Austria

text: Francis started out cautiously. The bureaucracy was still Josephist and the legal reforms under the guidance of Sonnenfels resulting in the Criminal Code of 1803 and the Civil Code of 1811. On the other hand, he restored Pergen to his position of Chief of Police. The discovery of a Jacobin plot in 1794 was a catalyst to the onset of repression. The leaders were executed or imprisoned, but there was little evidence of a tangible threat to the Habsburgs. Suppression of dissent with the Recensorship Commission of 1803 created a void in cultural and intellectual life, yet some of the world's greatest music comes from this time (see below). There were still elements of Josephism abroad, and Stadion, the foreign minister with his propagandist Friedrich von Gentz was able to appeal to popular nationalism to defeat Napoleon.


title: History of Austria

text: What exactly such nationalism actually represented is difficult to precisely identify—certainly it was directed to German culture within the Habsburg lands, but it is not clear to what degree it differentiated between 'Austrian' and 'German'. Certainly many of those such nationalism appealed to were German romantics such as Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel, such that patriotism rather than true nationalism appeared to be the goal. Cultural museums were established and citizens militia ("Landwehr") established—but in the German-speaking lands.


title: History of Austria

text: Josephism remained alive and well in the other members of Francis' generation. Archduke Johann (1782–1859) was a nationalism advocate who was behind the "Landwehr" movement, and with Joseph Hormayr incited revolt in Bavarian occupied Tyrol, while Archduke Charles carried out reform of the military. A statue to Joseph was even set up in Josephsplatz in 1807 to rally the populace. In this way the Archdukes' centralism contrasted with Stadion's decentralisation and attempt to give more say to the estates. Nevertheless, such nationalism was successful in rebuilding Austria throughout its various military and political setbacks of the French wars.


title: History of Austria

text: Following Austria's resounding defeat in 1809, Francis blamed reform, and removed the Archdukes from their position. Stadion was replaced by Metternich, who, although a reformer, placed loyalty to the monarch above all. The "Landwehr" was abolished, and following the discovery of yet another planned Tyrolean uprising Hormayr and Archduke Johann were interned, and Johann exiled to Styria.


title: History of Austria

text: France declared war on Austria on 20 April 1792. The increasing radicalization of the French Revolution (including the execution of the king on 21 January 1793), as well as the French occupation of the Low Countries, brought Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Spain into the war, which became known as the War of the First Coalition. This first war with France, which lasted until 1797, proved unsuccessful for Austria. After some brief successes against the utterly disorganized French armies in early 1792, the tide turned, and the French overran the Austrian Netherlands in the last months of 1792. By the Battle of Valmy in September it was evident to Austria and their Prussian allies that victory against France would elude them, and Austria suffered a further defeat in November at Jemappes, losing the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium). While the Austrians were so occupied, their erstwhile Prussian allies stabbed them in the back with the 1793 Second Partition of Poland, from which Austria was entirely excluded. This led to the dismissal of Francis's chief minister, Philipp von Cobenzl, and his replacement with Franz Maria Thugut in March 1793.