The ships remained in the Austro-Hungarian fleet for the next twenty years, but severely reduced naval budgets owing to Hungarian disinterest in naval matters led to an uneventful career. In 1870, "Habsburg" was used in a show of force to try to prevent the Italian annexation of Rome while the city's protector, France, was distracted with the Franco-Prussian War, though the Italians took the city regardless. They were rearmed with newer guns in 1874 and again in 1882. Both ships were converted for secondary duties in 1886, "Erzherzog Ferdinand Max" becoming a tender to the gunnery training school from 1889 to 1908, while "Habsburg" was employed as a guard ship and a barracks ship in Pola until 1898, when she was stricken from the naval register and sold for scrap. "Erzherzog Ferdinand Max" remained in the inventory until 1916 when she too was broken up for scrap.