WEBVTT 1 00:00:22.079 --> 00:00:26.679 Hello, and Welcome to Western SIEV Episode three hundred and thirty. 2 00:00:27.399 --> 00:00:35.320 House Austria, The House of Austria has generally been cast 3 00:00:35.479 --> 00:00:38.200 as the bad guy in the story of the Thirty 4 00:00:38.280 --> 00:00:45.399 Years War. The historian CV. Wedgwood's widely read history, published 5 00:00:45.439 --> 00:00:49.320 in nineteen thirty eight, The Year of Appeasement, portrays a 6 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:56.039 weak British ruler James, the first conciliating impending Habsburg dictatorship. 7 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:02.000 The Czech historian Joseph Pulenski experienced the Nazi occupation firsthand 8 00:01:02.359 --> 00:01:06.560 and explicitly compared the failure of the Western powers to 9 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:10.480 assist the Bohemian rebels in sixteen eighteen with the Munich 10 00:01:10.599 --> 00:01:17.680 Crisis over three centuries later. There's a German perspective and 11 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:23.719 old historical tradition that portrays the Emperor with his Catholic tyranny, 12 00:01:24.200 --> 00:01:29.840 seeking to extinguish forces of light and historical progress. It's 13 00:01:29.879 --> 00:01:33.319 also unfortunate that the best writing in English on this 14 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:38.439 period concentrates mostly on Spain, neglecting the Austrian branch, whose 15 00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:41.799 problems were central to the causes and of course the 16 00:01:41.959 --> 00:01:46.920 conclusion of the conflict. Now, the House of Austria's fortunes 17 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.159 had been a long time in the making. For much 18 00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:52.680 of the later Middle Ages, they had trailed behind the 19 00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:57.159 more powerful competitors in the struggle for influence within the Empire. 20 00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:03.239 Finally getting the imperial title in fourteen thirty eight thrust 21 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:08.360 the Habsburgs into center stage, but their real power actually 22 00:02:08.680 --> 00:02:12.680 derived from the rapid accumulation of additional provinces and kingdoms 23 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:16.919 between fourteen seventy seven and fifteen twenty six. Chief among 24 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:21.000 these was Spain, inherited in fifteen sixteen, as it was 25 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.960 on the cusp of conquering a new World empire. Upon 26 00:02:25.039 --> 00:02:28.520 the death of Charles the Fifth, the Habsburg domains were 27 00:02:28.520 --> 00:02:33.719 permanently divided. Charles's brother Ferdinand became Ferdinand the First, the 28 00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:37.439 Holy Roman Emperor, Duke of Austria, King of Bohemia, and 29 00:02:37.560 --> 00:02:42.520 King of Hungary. Charles's son, Philip, as we know, became 30 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:45.520 the King of Spain, the Netherlands, and a smattering of 31 00:02:45.599 --> 00:02:49.719 other territories in northern Italy, and of course, a vast 32 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:55.439 empire in the New World. Ferdinand faced a complex problem 33 00:02:56.039 --> 00:02:59.919 inherited in the empire, most of which he only ruled indirectly, 34 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:04.159 and which contributed comparatively little against the Turks, who had 35 00:03:04.199 --> 00:03:08.400 by now overrun much of Hungary. The Austrian state debt 36 00:03:08.759 --> 00:03:12.319 rose five times over Ferdinand's reign to reach ten million 37 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:16.240 florins by his death in fifteen sixty four, equivalent to 38 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:20.520 about five years worth of revenue. The cost of servicing 39 00:03:20.560 --> 00:03:24.719 the sum consumed one point five million florins per year, 40 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.879 while defense of the eastern frontier required another million. The 41 00:03:28.919 --> 00:03:32.240 emperor left a further one point five million in personal debts, 42 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:36.360 as well as owing his soldiers a million in pay arrears. 43 00:03:37.759 --> 00:03:42.479 Ferdinand's somewhat posthumous solution was further devolution. In his will, 44 00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:45.759 he entrusted the imperial title to his senior line, while 45 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:49.400 establishing two junior branches for his younger sons. In the 46 00:03:49.439 --> 00:03:52.719 short term, this allowed the dynasty to intensify its rule 47 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:56.960 by sharing the burden of government between the three archdukes. However, 48 00:03:57.439 --> 00:04:00.280 the costs of economy were lost as debts were lit 49 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:04.080 between the branches, forcing each to raise taxes to pay 50 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:09.400 off its share. As eldest son, Maximilian received Austria together 51 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:12.759 with the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns, and was accepted by 52 00:04:12.759 --> 00:04:16.480 the electors as the new emperor, but only the provinces 53 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:19.920 of Upper and Lower Austria were directly inherited, and though 54 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.000 they had a combined population of nine hundred thousand, they 55 00:04:23.079 --> 00:04:26.399 produced less revenue than the more populous kingdom of Bohemia. 56 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.720 The Habsburgs succeeded to Bohemia only after the death of 57 00:04:30.759 --> 00:04:35.279 their relations, the Jegalian dynasty in fifteen twenty six. The 58 00:04:35.319 --> 00:04:38.639 new rulers regarded their crown as hereditary, but had been 59 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.240 unable to persuade the local nobility to formally renounce the 60 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:46.639 theory of elective monarchy. Bohemia was a patchwork of five 61 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:51.000 district provinces, each with its own laws and government. As 62 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:55.360 a kingdom, Bohemia itself claimed precedents, including denying the other 63 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:59.399 four from participating and choosing their monarch. With around six 64 00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.879 hundred and five twty thousand inhabitants, the Margravate of Moravia 65 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.600 was around half the size of Bohemia, but shared more 66 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:10.759 with it than other provinces, including the predominance of the 67 00:05:10.759 --> 00:05:14.279 Czech language and, of course, the legacy of the hugh Sites. 68 00:05:15.480 --> 00:05:19.680 Habsburg authority was the weakest in Hungary. Hungary had only 69 00:05:19.720 --> 00:05:23.399 been acquired in fifteen twenty six, when the last representative 70 00:05:23.560 --> 00:05:26.800 of another branch of the Gegalians, died along with three 71 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:29.600 quarters of his army at the Battle of Mohawks against 72 00:05:29.600 --> 00:05:34.319 the Turks. The surviving Hungarian nobles divided sharply over whether 73 00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:38.560 to accept habsburg claims to the crumbling kingdom. The majority 74 00:05:38.560 --> 00:05:42.279 opposed a foreign ruler, preferring one of their own, whom 75 00:05:42.279 --> 00:05:45.879 they proclaimed king in accordance with their theory of elected monarchy, 76 00:05:46.759 --> 00:05:50.800 but the others accepted the Habsburgs, who granted wide concessions 77 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:55.439 to buy support. United resistance against the Turks collapsed, and 78 00:05:55.439 --> 00:05:58.600 the Ottomans captured over one hundred and twenty thousand square 79 00:05:58.680 --> 00:06:02.680 kilometers of the country, acquiring almost a million new subjects. 80 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:08.199 By fifteen forty one, the elected Hungarian king retreated northeast, 81 00:06:08.560 --> 00:06:13.319 creating his own state by combining largely autonous principalities of 82 00:06:13.600 --> 00:06:17.160 Transylvania and ruth Ninia, a region that today is actually 83 00:06:17.240 --> 00:06:20.600 part of Ukraine but was then known as Petranium and 84 00:06:20.720 --> 00:06:24.839 consisted of eight Hungarian counties east of the Zira River. 85 00:06:25.639 --> 00:06:29.199 This gave him around eighty thousand square kilometers of territory 86 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:32.920 with perhaps three quarters of a million subjects. He managed 87 00:06:32.920 --> 00:06:36.680 to secure Habsburg recognition as prince on the condition that 88 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.720 Transylvania would pass to them on his death. However, Transylvania 89 00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.439 is going to be continued to be a problem throughout 90 00:06:44.480 --> 00:06:48.319 the beginning of this story. Transylvania would emerge as an 91 00:06:48.319 --> 00:06:52.319 autonomous axis between Ottoman and Hungary, governed from Buddha and 92 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:57.600 the rumps Habsburg Kingdom based in Pratzlava. The influx of 93 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:02.000 refugees fleeing the Islamic advance gave the Habsburgs marginally more 94 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:05.160 subjects than either of the two parts, but the split 95 00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:08.079 deprived them of over two thirds of their former kingdom. 96 00:07:08.839 --> 00:07:12.439 Only the Croatians fully accepted the dynasty as their new ruler, 97 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:17.279 using this opportunity to enhance their own authority from the Hungarians. 98 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:22.240 The latter remained royalists, accepting Habsburg possession of the ancient 99 00:07:22.279 --> 00:07:26.399 crown of Saint Stephen, but insisting only on their rights 100 00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.279 not only to elect the king, but to oppose him 101 00:07:29.399 --> 00:07:32.759 if he broke the constitution. As a result, what we 102 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:37.839 did see throughout the sixteenth century was yes, increased Habsburg 103 00:07:38.000 --> 00:07:40.920 power over certain parts of the kingdom, but all of 104 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:45.560 that came at a cost, as the Habsburgs consistently granted 105 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:51.439 concessions as they tried to amalgamate a larger kingdom for themselves. 106 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:54.240 All of those concessions are going to play a role 107 00:07:54.519 --> 00:07:59.279 in the Thirty Years War to come. Now, state's early 108 00:07:59.399 --> 00:08:03.240 modern form of representative government could be found throughout all 109 00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:07.120 the Habsburg provinces and in many of the German territories 110 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:12.480 of the Empire. These were made up of the principal nobles, clergy, 111 00:08:12.519 --> 00:08:17.560 and important urban elites. You probably know the phrase estates 112 00:08:17.560 --> 00:08:20.279 from the Estates general because of the role that that 113 00:08:20.319 --> 00:08:24.519 will play in the French Revolution, and these were pretty similar. 114 00:08:24.600 --> 00:08:27.959 To be honest with you, The estate's purpose was to 115 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.079 give these groups of voice who might not otherwise have 116 00:08:31.160 --> 00:08:35.919 one in the government. Depending upon your perspective, the estates 117 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:38.360 were either an impediment to good government or they were 118 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:44.919 the liberal precursors to modern parliaments. To some, particularly Czech 119 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:49.879 and Hungarian writers, these were also the guardians of national traditions. 120 00:08:51.080 --> 00:08:53.759 The question, of course, was which was the better form 121 00:08:53.799 --> 00:08:58.840 of government, monarchy or estate representation. To answer that, however, 122 00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:01.919 we need to put aside our modern bias, given that 123 00:09:01.960 --> 00:09:05.200 the monarchy was a reality that was not going away. 124 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.720 The question then becomes whether the estates were a benefit 125 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:12.279 or a cost for the Habsburg monarchy. I think they 126 00:09:12.279 --> 00:09:15.679 were a benefit. The estates allowed the monarch to meet 127 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:20.200 with his most important but non peer subjects. The estates, 128 00:09:20.440 --> 00:09:23.279 along with the courts, also allowed a better avenue for 129 00:09:23.320 --> 00:09:29.080 settling disputes than the battlefield. Estates were corporate groups, not individuals, 130 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:32.799 and they mirrored the three part organization of medieval society 131 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:35.960 to that extent, they were kind of a carryover, which, 132 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:39.879 of course I mean the tripart priests, nobles and peasants, 133 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:43.039 those who pray, those who fight, those who work. Normally, 134 00:09:43.120 --> 00:09:46.679 clerical membership was expressed through the heads of major monastic 135 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:51.200 houses and the bishops, not your run of the mill priests. Altogether, 136 00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:55.480 clerics represented less than two percent of the total population 137 00:09:55.559 --> 00:09:58.120 of the Habsburg domains, so just the fact that they 138 00:09:58.120 --> 00:10:01.200 were given one whole estate meant that they were massively 139 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:06.519 over represented in the government. Noble representation was through qualifying 140 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:12.399 manorial estates. Commoner representation was generally limited to several crown 141 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:16.679 towns and cities. Thus, with the sole exception of Tyrol, 142 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:21.600 commoner representation in the estates was limited to urban dwellers 143 00:10:21.679 --> 00:10:24.960 in tyrole. Rural villages were allowed to send representatives, but 144 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:28.279 again that was very much the exception to the rule. 145 00:10:29.399 --> 00:10:33.279 The Habsburg estates initially emerged as a way for impartial 146 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:36.480 members of the kingdom to advise the king on matters 147 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:41.799 of policy. However, the Habsburg monarchs quickly grew tired of 148 00:10:41.799 --> 00:10:48.000 being told unpleasant truths. As a consequence, they developed their 149 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:50.759 own advisory bodies to tell them what they wanted to hear. 150 00:10:51.919 --> 00:10:56.120 King Ferdinand created a new Privy Council in fifteen twenty seven, 151 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:59.600 and he appointed men of ability as well as status. 152 00:11:00.240 --> 00:11:04.879 Recognizing some good advice was necessary for a functioning kingdom, 153 00:11:05.799 --> 00:11:08.759 he broke this council into two one section from Bohemia 154 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:12.600 and another for Austria, which allowed the councilors the ability 155 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:17.320 to deal with local issues much much more effectively. This 156 00:11:17.480 --> 00:11:20.320 was important because the ability of central agencies to reach 157 00:11:20.360 --> 00:11:23.399 into localities was severely restricted by the very way in 158 00:11:23.399 --> 00:11:26.919 which the Empire had been constructed. The Habsburgs could appoint 159 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:30.919 a governor in those presidents without archduke, but had to 160 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:34.000 consult the estates when naming what was called a lord 161 00:11:34.039 --> 00:11:37.480 lieutenant and his deputy, who were really in charge of 162 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:41.039 the militia or military in the area. They could appoint 163 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:45.159 bailiffs and crown towns and stewards to manage the economic 164 00:11:45.440 --> 00:11:50.399 assets of their domains, but these rarely constituted more than 165 00:11:50.480 --> 00:11:56.759 five percent of each province. Virtually all other local administration 166 00:11:57.039 --> 00:12:01.480 remained in the hands of the nobility. In Bohemia, for example, 167 00:12:02.039 --> 00:12:05.519 the nobles ran the provincial court that resolved disputes between them, 168 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:09.679 They passed laws, and the exercised jurisdiction over the entire 169 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:14.200 rural population. The situation was even more extreme and hungry, 170 00:12:14.679 --> 00:12:18.759 where half the villages were owned by fifty aristocratic families 171 00:12:19.519 --> 00:12:21.960 and most of the rest belonged to the five thousand 172 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:26.000 or so gentry families. Only the royal towns fell under 173 00:12:26.039 --> 00:12:31.000 habsburg jurisdiction, but even the largest of these depocrine had 174 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:36.000 fewer than twenty thousand inhabitants. The king could not even 175 00:12:36.120 --> 00:12:39.840 name a governor, known here as a Palatin, but simply 176 00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:43.799 propose a candidate to the diet that chose who was 177 00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:48.159 to exercise royal prerogatives whenever the monarch was not physically present, 178 00:12:48.200 --> 00:12:52.159 which of course was most of the time. With the 179 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:56.679 majority of subjects living outside of crown lands and therefore 180 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:02.080 outside of crown jurisdictions, The estates become this vital link 181 00:13:02.440 --> 00:13:06.519 between the dynasty and the bulk of the population. It 182 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:10.840 was difficult to achieve anything without the estate's assistance, or 183 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:15.960 at the very least acquiescence. In particular, a state help 184 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:20.279 was essential to raising taxes. Since domain income covered only 185 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:25.480 a fraction of habsburg expenditures, Medieval monarchs had been expected 186 00:13:25.519 --> 00:13:28.639 to quote unquote, live off their own They were only 187 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:32.039 supposed to draw on their subject's resources in critical situations, 188 00:13:32.399 --> 00:13:37.399 really war and massive natural disasters. The states emerged in 189 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:41.080 Central Europe to facilitate these grants at a time when 190 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:45.879 rulers were assuming wider responsibilities. Throughout the fifteenth century, the 191 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:49.399 growing permanence of royal governments and the complexity of the 192 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:53.440 government problems that it was facing led to more frequent assemblies, 193 00:13:53.879 --> 00:14:00.679 gradually transforming intermittent taxation into regular, annual levies were compelled 194 00:14:00.679 --> 00:14:04.720 to create their own institutions, forming standing committees to liaison 195 00:14:04.840 --> 00:14:06.840 with the ruler when the diet was not in session, 196 00:14:07.480 --> 00:14:10.360 as well as a secretary to maintain records and a 197 00:14:10.399 --> 00:14:14.679 treasury to administer the taxes. Really what we're seeing here 198 00:14:15.120 --> 00:14:18.000 is the stress that gets put on these governments as 199 00:14:18.039 --> 00:14:22.639 we transition from a medieval structure to a modern structure. 200 00:14:22.679 --> 00:14:25.639 That's why this period is called the early Modern period. 201 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:30.159 The problem is we still very much have a medieval 202 00:14:30.440 --> 00:14:34.240 ethos that's governing how we think about what government is 203 00:14:34.279 --> 00:14:37.559 supposed to do, even as the problems that face those 204 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:43.080 governments have changed dramatically in the last hundred years. Now. 205 00:14:43.080 --> 00:14:44.519 The other thing that we have to talk about with 206 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:48.360 the Habsburgs is of course religion. Despite Protestant hopes that 207 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:53.679 this or that archduke might convert, the Habsburgs remained uniformly Catholic. 208 00:14:54.679 --> 00:14:59.039 Protestantism thus lacked the political support that produced the territorial 209 00:14:59.159 --> 00:15:04.480 churches elsewhere throughout the Empire. Converts in Habsburg domains were 210 00:15:04.519 --> 00:15:08.039 forced to build their organizations from the bottom up, making 211 00:15:08.080 --> 00:15:12.080 the nobility, not the dynasty, the key players there. But 212 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:16.879 Catholicism was also under severe pressure in many provinces. Nine 213 00:15:16.960 --> 00:15:21.320 to ten Lower Austrian nobles had embraced Lutheranism, as had 214 00:15:21.399 --> 00:15:24.879 eighty five percent of those living in Upper Austria, where 215 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.600 three quarters of the urban population and half of the 216 00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:32.399 peasants were Protestants. Around seventy percent of Inner Austria's population 217 00:15:32.759 --> 00:15:37.200 had also abandoned Catholicism, and only five out of one 218 00:15:37.279 --> 00:15:43.080 hundred and thirty five Styrian nobles remained Catholic. Though largely 219 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:47.799 the Slovian peasantry rejected what they saw as a German religion, 220 00:15:48.360 --> 00:15:52.639 sixteen of twenty two Styrian towns had accepted Lutheranism by 221 00:15:52.679 --> 00:15:58.080 fifteen seventy two. Now, the situation was quite different in Bohemia, 222 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:02.399 where agreements from fourteen thirty six and fourteen eighty five 223 00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:07.919 already recognized Utraquism alongside Catholicism. Remember this is sort of 224 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:12.799 an offshoot of yang Hus Utrichism was a modern development 225 00:16:12.840 --> 00:16:16.039 of the Husite faith, so called because it insisted that 226 00:16:16.039 --> 00:16:19.679 the faithful received the Eucharist in both the bread and 227 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:24.399 the wine, which in Latin is sub utrachai spasi, rather 228 00:16:24.440 --> 00:16:28.679 than the latter, the wine being exclusively reserved for the clergy. 229 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:34.120 Services were in Czech and the church lay outside episcopal jurisdiction, 230 00:16:34.360 --> 00:16:38.440 though the Utriquists compromised with Rome by sending their priests 231 00:16:38.480 --> 00:16:43.759 to Venice to be ordained. The Habsburgs confirmed these privileges 232 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:47.879 when they acquired Bohemia in fifteen twenty six, not least 233 00:16:47.879 --> 00:16:50.960 of which because Utrichism was at the time losing momentum 234 00:16:51.159 --> 00:16:54.879 and most Catholics hoped that its followers would soon rejoin them. 235 00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:58.559 Although a radical minority of Utricus split to become what 236 00:16:58.679 --> 00:17:02.000 we called the Unity of Breadth, refusing to submit to 237 00:17:02.120 --> 00:17:08.240 Rome or abandon the Hughsite's social ordeals and programs. Utruchism's 238 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:12.319 close ties to Czech culture restricted the spread of Lutheranism 239 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.480 in the German speaking population and even to some of 240 00:17:15.480 --> 00:17:19.880 the nobles. When the Czech nobility refused to back the 241 00:17:19.880 --> 00:17:23.000 Habsburgs and the Schmacaldic War back in fifteen forty seven, 242 00:17:23.480 --> 00:17:27.720 Ferdinand cracked down on the radical Revlin and initiated a 243 00:17:27.759 --> 00:17:32.319 program to revitalize the Catholic Church throughout Bohemia. A Jesuit 244 00:17:32.400 --> 00:17:35.960 college was founded in Prague in fifteen fifty six, and 245 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:39.880 an archbishop appointed there five years later after a vacancy 246 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:43.880 of a century and a half. The purpose of all this, 247 00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:46.200 and the reason that it matters, is to point out 248 00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:51.440 that while the Habsburgs themselves might have remained really quite 249 00:17:51.519 --> 00:17:57.119 viciously Catholic, the population at large, even in their ancestral 250 00:17:57.160 --> 00:18:01.640 domains is a lot more varied. In Bohemia, in particular, 251 00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:04.119 the religious spectrum was a lot more varied than it 252 00:18:04.200 --> 00:18:07.960 was in Austria. Catholics were less than fifteen percent of 253 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.480 the population. The rest were divided between all these various 254 00:18:12.519 --> 00:18:17.240 sects of Protestantism. Calvinists, however, only made up three percent 255 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:20.960 of the population. They were more entrenched to be fair 256 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:24.079 amongst the elites, and so they did have a disproportionate 257 00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:30.039 level of influence. Calvinism was stronger in Hungary, though, where 258 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.680 Lutheranism had long been regarded as just frankly to German 259 00:18:33.759 --> 00:18:38.920 to be accepted. Wherever you saw new faiths spreading throughout 260 00:18:38.920 --> 00:18:43.079 the empire, that meant that the nobility was open to change. 261 00:18:43.160 --> 00:18:46.519 Without the support of the nobility, evangelical movements had little 262 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:51.319 to no chance. Interestingly, to use a modern term. In 263 00:18:51.400 --> 00:18:55.759 many areas, the Protestants split the vote. By that, I 264 00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:59.240 mean that there were so many Protestant faiths that, even 265 00:18:59.240 --> 00:19:01.880 though compared to the whole Catholics were in the minority, 266 00:19:02.359 --> 00:19:07.160 compared to any one other Protestant faith, Catholics were still 267 00:19:07.160 --> 00:19:13.039 the majority party. The rights of those Protestant minorities depended 268 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.759 upon those estates, and more than anything else, on the 269 00:19:16.799 --> 00:19:21.039 power of the purse. The emperor needed the money that 270 00:19:21.079 --> 00:19:24.640 these communities could vote him, and he did not forget that. 271 00:19:25.799 --> 00:19:30.200 Protestant nobles, however, faced not only opposition from Catholics but 272 00:19:30.240 --> 00:19:33.359 from other Protestant groups, and to really lay it on 273 00:19:33.920 --> 00:19:39.160 from changing economic times. The wealth of the nobility largely 274 00:19:39.240 --> 00:19:43.799 came from the agrarian economy that produced rye oates, wheat 275 00:19:43.799 --> 00:19:48.920 and barley. Mining was somewhat significant in Tyrol and part 276 00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:52.640 of Inner Austria, but the Habsburgs remained in control of 277 00:19:52.680 --> 00:19:56.400 a lot of that. Textile production continued to grow in 278 00:19:56.480 --> 00:20:00.160 Upper Austria, Bohemia and western Moravia, while horse breeding was 279 00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:04.079 important in other parts of Moravia and obviously in Hungary. 280 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:08.000 All these activities required land in labor, and these, in 281 00:20:08.039 --> 00:20:12.640 turn were controlled through various feudal jurisdictions. Like the Habsburgs, 282 00:20:13.039 --> 00:20:15.640 most lords managed only a small part of their property 283 00:20:15.720 --> 00:20:19.720 directly as domains, leasing the rest to tenant farmers in 284 00:20:19.759 --> 00:20:24.519 return for fixed rents. Rising inflation made this less attractive 285 00:20:24.559 --> 00:20:27.559 in the later sixteenth century, but it was difficult to 286 00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:30.599 force peasants to just pay more, since they often owed 287 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:34.039 obligations to multiple landlords, and they could play one off 288 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:38.200 against the other. The Habsburgs were also extending the right 289 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.519 of appeal to peasants as a means of inserting themselves 290 00:20:41.759 --> 00:20:47.000 as arbitras of the rural world, intervening between landlords and peasants, 291 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:51.119 except in Hungary, where the diet which was sort of 292 00:20:51.119 --> 00:20:55.039 their representative government, prevented this outright. In fifteen fifty six, 293 00:20:56.119 --> 00:21:00.640 the rising urban population of northwestern Europe stimulated the demand 294 00:21:00.799 --> 00:21:05.039 for grain, creating new opportunities for Eastern and Central European landlords. 295 00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:08.799 In the sixteenth century, they expanded their domains by purchase 296 00:21:08.839 --> 00:21:13.559 for closing or just simple eviction, while intensifying feudal jurisdiction 297 00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:17.240 to force dependent peasants to work for them. This is 298 00:21:17.279 --> 00:21:19.519 similar to what we saw in Russia, which was kind 299 00:21:19.519 --> 00:21:22.319 of almost a re entrenchment of serfdom. It's not going 300 00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:24.839 to go quite that far in a lot of Central Europe, 301 00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:28.720 but certainly the peasantry in Central Europe was much, much, 302 00:21:28.799 --> 00:21:32.880 much less free than it was in Western now. This process, 303 00:21:32.920 --> 00:21:35.759 as I mentioned, has been labeled second serfdom since it 304 00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:39.799 emerged around fifteen hundred, just as medieval serfdom declined elsewhere 305 00:21:39.839 --> 00:21:44.160 in Europe. It was very pronounced in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, 306 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:49.640 parts of Austria and northeastern Germany, but it was never uniform. Nonetheless, 307 00:21:49.640 --> 00:21:54.279 when combined with inflation, demographic and environmental change, the spread 308 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:57.880 of this new I'll call it a manorial economy grew 309 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:03.160 increasingly oppressive, and it symbolized almost a commercialization of the 310 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:08.720 rural world. Lords began to exploit forests and other assets 311 00:22:08.759 --> 00:22:12.839 in their domains in new ways, for example, charging peasants 312 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:16.480 for collecting firewood or letting their pigs root in the 313 00:22:16.480 --> 00:22:21.319 forest for food. The changes fueled tensions within the elite, 314 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:24.559 as some lords were just better placed to seize these 315 00:22:24.599 --> 00:22:29.200 new opportunities than others. The situation was the most extreme 316 00:22:29.240 --> 00:22:33.799 and hungry, where around fifty magnate families accumulated forty one 317 00:22:33.839 --> 00:22:39.480 percent of the entire country, creating economies of scale, winning 318 00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:42.839 clients among the gentry and peasants through their ability to 319 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:47.240 pay for private armies to combat banditry, and honestly, at 320 00:22:47.279 --> 00:22:50.440 times even act as a bulwark against the Ottoman Turks. 321 00:22:51.559 --> 00:22:55.319 The decline of the Hungarian gentry was paralleled in Bohemia, 322 00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:58.480 where the number of knights fell by nearly a third 323 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:01.359 in the five decades before sixteen eighteen, the year the 324 00:23:01.400 --> 00:23:06.680 war begins, wealth became increasingly concentrated, to the point where 325 00:23:06.680 --> 00:23:10.200 a quarter of the country was held by only eleven 326 00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:16.240 aristocratic families. Peasant resentment exploded first in Austria in fifteen 327 00:23:16.359 --> 00:23:20.519 ninety five, and then this unrest spread to western parts 328 00:23:20.680 --> 00:23:24.400 of Lower Austria the following year. Heavy Handed attempts to 329 00:23:24.440 --> 00:23:28.680 reimpose Catholic priests in some Protestant parish provided a trigger, 330 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:33.359 but the underlying causes were honestly economic, and protests were 331 00:23:33.400 --> 00:23:36.640 soon directed against the Lutheran nobles who dominated the estates. 332 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:38.839 So it's clearly at this stage at least was not 333 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:43.039 a religion thing. Peasants called for what they referred to 334 00:23:43.079 --> 00:23:46.720 as Swiss freedom, demanding representation in the estates as well 335 00:23:46.720 --> 00:23:51.759 as the abolition of taxes and dews. Now, the key 336 00:23:51.799 --> 00:23:55.079 to this is that the emergency that was prompted by 337 00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:58.920 all of these various peasant rebellions and the inability of 338 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:02.680 the local nobles to deal with these, only highlighted the 339 00:24:02.680 --> 00:24:08.119 nobility's growing dependence on the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs duly 340 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:12.000 put down all these rebellions, executing the ring leaders while 341 00:24:12.039 --> 00:24:17.119 rewarding those who had protested through quote unquote proper legal channels. 342 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:22.480 But honestly, nor was the king deaf to the peasant's complaints. 343 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:26.640 He went ahead and restricted peasant label service to two 344 00:24:26.680 --> 00:24:31.359 weeks per year in fifteen ninety eight. There was actually, 345 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:35.599 by the way, a lot of cooperation between Catholic and 346 00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:39.559 Protestant peasants throughout the uprising, underscoring the difficulty of linking 347 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:44.359 religious and political liberty. Now Ultimately, one of the driving 348 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:49.319 factors of the Thirty Years War was the Habsburg relationship 349 00:24:49.400 --> 00:24:54.160 to Catholicism. The leading members of the Habsburg family essentially 350 00:24:54.240 --> 00:24:58.079 became convinced that the future of the dynasty depended on 351 00:24:58.160 --> 00:25:02.759 restoring Catholicism as the basis of their political power and 352 00:25:02.799 --> 00:25:08.519 political loyalty. The goal was not unrealistic given the continued 353 00:25:08.559 --> 00:25:12.200 presence of a Catholic minority in the estates and deep 354 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:16.000 divisions amongst the Protestants, the majority of whom remained loyal 355 00:25:16.039 --> 00:25:21.119 subjects despite the religious differences. The religious freedoms that were 356 00:25:21.119 --> 00:25:23.839 put out in the fifteen seventies had been granted as 357 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:28.079 special privileges to the nobles and towns of individual provinces, 358 00:25:28.599 --> 00:25:31.119 and had yet to be accepted by all members of 359 00:25:31.160 --> 00:25:35.599 each estate as integral parts of their corporate rights. The 360 00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:38.920 estates lacked a platform to coordinate a response to the 361 00:25:39.000 --> 00:25:42.799 dynasty because there was no such thing as the Estates 362 00:25:42.880 --> 00:25:45.519 General in the Holy Roman Empire. There was no such 363 00:25:45.599 --> 00:25:49.319 thing as a grand General Assembly, and that, my friends, 364 00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:52.440 is going to be key now here. The partition of 365 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:56.880 fifteen sixty four actually worked the dynasty's advantage because it 366 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:01.240 reinforced the practice of negotiating with each province of the 367 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:06.000 empire separately, and it ensured that the General Austrian Diet 368 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:11.559 never reassembled until after the early sixteenth century. Ultimately, why 369 00:26:11.640 --> 00:26:14.400 the Habsburgs were successful, and what they really realized more 370 00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:16.960 than anything else, was that the disparate parts of the 371 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:20.279 empire could be made to work against each other. The 372 00:26:20.319 --> 00:26:25.359 Habsburgs could be a united corporate power, a united front, 373 00:26:25.960 --> 00:26:29.640 and then they could deal with each portion of the 374 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:35.160 empire separately, and by doing that they could maximize their power. 375 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:39.200 And by preventing the provinces from coordinating with one another, 376 00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:43.039 which they didn't want to do anyway, it limited the 377 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:46.240 ability of different parts of the Empire to fight back 378 00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:51.319 against expanding sovereignty on the part of the Habsburgs, so 379 00:26:52.279 --> 00:26:54.480 getting into the machinations of the dynasty a little bit, 380 00:26:54.680 --> 00:26:58.680 Rudolph I succeeded the Emperor max Amilion to the Holy 381 00:26:58.759 --> 00:27:03.000 Roman Empire throne in fifteen seventy six. Rudolph was an 382 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:08.079 unfortunate leader. He was indecisive. Now by all accounts, he 383 00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:11.200 was extremely intelligent and very cultured, but all this left 384 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:13.839 with him an inflated sense of his own majesty and 385 00:27:14.200 --> 00:27:19.039 a personality that could be described as nicely aloof. He 386 00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:22.559 was an avid art collector and keenly interested in the sciences, 387 00:27:23.279 --> 00:27:26.559 but he grew frustrated quickly if his initiatives failed to 388 00:27:26.599 --> 00:27:31.079 achieve immediate success. He refused to marry Philip the Second's 389 00:27:31.160 --> 00:27:34.160 daughter in Spain, and instead lived his entire life with 390 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:37.759 his mistress Katrina Estrada, with whom he had at least 391 00:27:37.960 --> 00:27:42.960 six children, as an art and Catholic. In fifteen seventy seven, 392 00:27:43.160 --> 00:27:45.200 he decided he would make a big show of his 393 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:49.880 faith by supporting a planned Corpus Christie procession throughout Vienna. 394 00:27:50.480 --> 00:27:54.319 Protestant shopkeepers who refused to move their stalls were simply 395 00:27:54.359 --> 00:27:58.720 shoved aside by imperial bodyguards when a jug of milk 396 00:27:58.839 --> 00:28:02.160 was knocked over. The resulting milk war, which lasted from 397 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:08.759 fifteen seventy nine to fifteen eighty, left the emperor permanently altered. Look. 398 00:28:08.839 --> 00:28:11.480 He may never have been clinically insane, certainly, there's some 399 00:28:11.519 --> 00:28:15.799 sources that say that he was. But Rudolf was close 400 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:18.839 at times throughout the rest of his life to mental instability. 401 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:22.519