Speaker 1: Hello, and Welcome to Western SIEV Episode three hundred and thirty.
Speaker 1: House Austria, The House of Austria has generally been cast
Speaker 1: as the bad guy in the story of the Thirty
Speaker 1: Years War. The historian CV. Wedgwood's widely read history, published
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty eight, The Year of Appeasement, portrays a
Speaker 1: weak British ruler James, the first conciliating impending Habsburg dictatorship.
Speaker 1: The Czech historian Joseph Pulenski experienced the Nazi occupation firsthand
Speaker 1: and explicitly compared the failure of the Western powers to
Speaker 1: assist the Bohemian rebels in sixteen eighteen with the Munich
Speaker 1: Crisis over three centuries later. There's a German perspective and
Speaker 1: old historical tradition that portrays the Emperor with his Catholic tyranny,
Speaker 1: seeking to extinguish forces of light and historical progress. It's
Speaker 1: also unfortunate that the best writing in English on this
Speaker 1: period concentrates mostly on Spain, neglecting the Austrian branch, whose
Speaker 1: problems were central to the causes and of course the
Speaker 1: conclusion of the conflict. Now, the House of Austria's fortunes
Speaker 1: had been a long time in the making. For much
Speaker 1: of the later Middle Ages, they had trailed behind the
Speaker 1: more powerful competitors in the struggle for influence within the Empire.
Speaker 1: Finally getting the imperial title in fourteen thirty eight thrust
Speaker 1: the Habsburgs into center stage, but their real power actually
Speaker 1: derived from the rapid accumulation of additional provinces and kingdoms
Speaker 1: between fourteen seventy seven and fifteen twenty six. Chief among
Speaker 1: these was Spain, inherited in fifteen sixteen, as it was
Speaker 1: on the cusp of conquering a new World empire. Upon
Speaker 1: the death of Charles the Fifth, the Habsburg domains were
Speaker 1: permanently divided. Charles's brother Ferdinand became Ferdinand the First, the
Speaker 1: Holy Roman Emperor, Duke of Austria, King of Bohemia, and
Speaker 1: King of Hungary. Charles's son, Philip, as we know, became
Speaker 1: the King of Spain, the Netherlands, and a smattering of
Speaker 1: other territories in northern Italy, and of course, a vast
Speaker 1: empire in the New World. Ferdinand faced a complex problem
Speaker 1: inherited in the empire, most of which he only ruled indirectly,
Speaker 1: and which contributed comparatively little against the Turks, who had
Speaker 1: by now overrun much of Hungary. The Austrian state debt
Speaker 1: rose five times over Ferdinand's reign to reach ten million
Speaker 1: florins by his death in fifteen sixty four, equivalent to
Speaker 1: about five years worth of revenue. The cost of servicing
Speaker 1: the sum consumed one point five million florins per year,
Speaker 1: while defense of the eastern frontier required another million. The
Speaker 1: emperor left a further one point five million in personal debts,
Speaker 1: as well as owing his soldiers a million in pay arrears.
Speaker 1: Ferdinand's somewhat posthumous solution was further devolution. In his will,
Speaker 1: he entrusted the imperial title to his senior line, while
Speaker 1: establishing two junior branches for his younger sons. In the
Speaker 1: short term, this allowed the dynasty to intensify its rule
Speaker 1: by sharing the burden of government between the three archdukes. However,
Speaker 1: the costs of economy were lost as debts were lit
Speaker 1: between the branches, forcing each to raise taxes to pay
Speaker 1: off its share. As eldest son, Maximilian received Austria together
Speaker 1: with the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns, and was accepted by
Speaker 1: the electors as the new emperor, but only the provinces
Speaker 1: of Upper and Lower Austria were directly inherited, and though
Speaker 1: they had a combined population of nine hundred thousand, they
Speaker 1: produced less revenue than the more populous kingdom of Bohemia.
Speaker 1: The Habsburgs succeeded to Bohemia only after the death of
Speaker 1: their relations, the Jegalian dynasty in fifteen twenty six. The
Speaker 1: new rulers regarded their crown as hereditary, but had been
Speaker 1: unable to persuade the local nobility to formally renounce the
Speaker 1: theory of elective monarchy. Bohemia was a patchwork of five
Speaker 1: district provinces, each with its own laws and government. As
Speaker 1: a kingdom, Bohemia itself claimed precedents, including denying the other
Speaker 1: four from participating and choosing their monarch. With around six
Speaker 1: hundred and five twty thousand inhabitants, the Margravate of Moravia
Speaker 1: was around half the size of Bohemia, but shared more
Speaker 1: with it than other provinces, including the predominance of the
Speaker 1: Czech language and, of course, the legacy of the hugh Sites.
Speaker 1: Habsburg authority was the weakest in Hungary. Hungary had only
Speaker 1: been acquired in fifteen twenty six, when the last representative
Speaker 1: of another branch of the Gegalians, died along with three
Speaker 1: quarters of his army at the Battle of Mohawks against
Speaker 1: the Turks. The surviving Hungarian nobles divided sharply over whether
Speaker 1: to accept habsburg claims to the crumbling kingdom. The majority
Speaker 1: opposed a foreign ruler, preferring one of their own, whom
Speaker 1: they proclaimed king in accordance with their theory of elected monarchy,
Speaker 1: but the others accepted the Habsburgs, who granted wide concessions
Speaker 1: to buy support. United resistance against the Turks collapsed, and
Speaker 1: the Ottomans captured over one hundred and twenty thousand square
Speaker 1: kilometers of the country, acquiring almost a million new subjects.
Speaker 1: By fifteen forty one, the elected Hungarian king retreated northeast,
Speaker 1: creating his own state by combining largely autonous principalities of
Speaker 1: Transylvania and ruth Ninia, a region that today is actually
Speaker 1: part of Ukraine but was then known as Petranium and
Speaker 1: consisted of eight Hungarian counties east of the Zira River.
Speaker 1: This gave him around eighty thousand square kilometers of territory
Speaker 1: with perhaps three quarters of a million subjects. He managed
Speaker 1: to secure Habsburg recognition as prince on the condition that
Speaker 1: Transylvania would pass to them on his death. However, Transylvania
Speaker 1: is going to be continued to be a problem throughout
Speaker 1: the beginning of this story. Transylvania would emerge as an
Speaker 1: autonomous axis between Ottoman and Hungary, governed from Buddha and
Speaker 1: the rumps Habsburg Kingdom based in Pratzlava. The influx of
Speaker 1: refugees fleeing the Islamic advance gave the Habsburgs marginally more
Speaker 1: subjects than either of the two parts, but the split
Speaker 1: deprived them of over two thirds of their former kingdom.
Speaker 1: Only the Croatians fully accepted the dynasty as their new ruler,
Speaker 1: using this opportunity to enhance their own authority from the Hungarians.
Speaker 1: The latter remained royalists, accepting Habsburg possession of the ancient
Speaker 1: crown of Saint Stephen, but insisting only on their rights
Speaker 1: not only to elect the king, but to oppose him
Speaker 1: if he broke the constitution. As a result, what we
Speaker 1: did see throughout the sixteenth century was yes, increased Habsburg
Speaker 1: power over certain parts of the kingdom, but all of
Speaker 1: that came at a cost, as the Habsburgs consistently granted
Speaker 1: concessions as they tried to amalgamate a larger kingdom for themselves.
Speaker 1: All of those concessions are going to play a role
Speaker 1: in the Thirty Years War to come. Now, state's early
Speaker 1: modern form of representative government could be found throughout all
Speaker 1: the Habsburg provinces and in many of the German territories
Speaker 1: of the Empire. These were made up of the principal nobles, clergy,
Speaker 1: and important urban elites. You probably know the phrase estates
Speaker 1: from the Estates general because of the role that that
Speaker 1: will play in the French Revolution, and these were pretty similar.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, The estate's purpose was to
Speaker 1: give these groups of voice who might not otherwise have
Speaker 1: one in the government. Depending upon your perspective, the estates
Speaker 1: were either an impediment to good government or they were
Speaker 1: the liberal precursors to modern parliaments. To some, particularly Czech
Speaker 1: and Hungarian writers, these were also the guardians of national traditions.
Speaker 1: The question, of course, was which was the better form
Speaker 1: of government, monarchy or estate representation. To answer that, however,
Speaker 1: we need to put aside our modern bias, given that
Speaker 1: the monarchy was a reality that was not going away.
Speaker 1: The question then becomes whether the estates were a benefit
Speaker 1: or a cost for the Habsburg monarchy. I think they
Speaker 1: were a benefit. The estates allowed the monarch to meet
Speaker 1: with his most important but non peer subjects. The estates,
Speaker 1: along with the courts, also allowed a better avenue for
Speaker 1: settling disputes than the battlefield. Estates were corporate groups, not individuals,
Speaker 1: and they mirrored the three part organization of medieval society
Speaker 1: to that extent, they were kind of a carryover, which,
Speaker 1: of course I mean the tripart priests, nobles and peasants,
Speaker 1: those who pray, those who fight, those who work. Normally,
Speaker 1: clerical membership was expressed through the heads of major monastic
Speaker 1: houses and the bishops, not your run of the mill priests. Altogether,
Speaker 1: clerics represented less than two percent of the total population
Speaker 1: of the Habsburg domains, so just the fact that they
Speaker 1: were given one whole estate meant that they were massively
Speaker 1: over represented in the government. Noble representation was through qualifying
Speaker 1: manorial estates. Commoner representation was generally limited to several crown
Speaker 1: towns and cities. Thus, with the sole exception of Tyrol,
Speaker 1: commoner representation in the estates was limited to urban dwellers
Speaker 1: in tyrole. Rural villages were allowed to send representatives, but
Speaker 1: again that was very much the exception to the rule.
Speaker 1: The Habsburg estates initially emerged as a way for impartial
Speaker 1: members of the kingdom to advise the king on matters
Speaker 1: of policy. However, the Habsburg monarchs quickly grew tired of
Speaker 1: being told unpleasant truths. As a consequence, they developed their
Speaker 1: own advisory bodies to tell them what they wanted to hear.
Speaker 1: King Ferdinand created a new Privy Council in fifteen twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and he appointed men of ability as well as status.
Speaker 1: Recognizing some good advice was necessary for a functioning kingdom,
Speaker 1: he broke this council into two one section from Bohemia
Speaker 1: and another for Austria, which allowed the councilors the ability
Speaker 1: to deal with local issues much much more effectively. This
Speaker 1: was important because the ability of central agencies to reach
Speaker 1: into localities was severely restricted by the very way in
Speaker 1: which the Empire had been constructed. The Habsburgs could appoint
Speaker 1: a governor in those presidents without archduke, but had to
Speaker 1: consult the estates when naming what was called a lord
Speaker 1: lieutenant and his deputy, who were really in charge of
Speaker 1: the militia or military in the area. They could appoint
Speaker 1: bailiffs and crown towns and stewards to manage the economic
Speaker 1: assets of their domains, but these rarely constituted more than
Speaker 1: five percent of each province. Virtually all other local administration
Speaker 1: remained in the hands of the nobility. In Bohemia, for example,
Speaker 1: the nobles ran the provincial court that resolved disputes between them,
Speaker 1: They passed laws, and the exercised jurisdiction over the entire
Speaker 1: rural population. The situation was even more extreme and hungry,
Speaker 1: where half the villages were owned by fifty aristocratic families
Speaker 1: and most of the rest belonged to the five thousand
Speaker 1: or so gentry families. Only the royal towns fell under
Speaker 1: habsburg jurisdiction, but even the largest of these depocrine had
Speaker 1: fewer than twenty thousand inhabitants. The king could not even
Speaker 1: name a governor, known here as a Palatin, but simply
Speaker 1: propose a candidate to the diet that chose who was
Speaker 1: to exercise royal prerogatives whenever the monarch was not physically present,
Speaker 1: which of course was most of the time. With the
Speaker 1: majority of subjects living outside of crown lands and therefore
Speaker 1: outside of crown jurisdictions, The estates become this vital link
Speaker 1: between the dynasty and the bulk of the population. It
Speaker 1: was difficult to achieve anything without the estate's assistance, or
Speaker 1: at the very least acquiescence. In particular, a state help
Speaker 1: was essential to raising taxes. Since domain income covered only
Speaker 1: a fraction of habsburg expenditures, Medieval monarchs had been expected
Speaker 1: to quote unquote, live off their own They were only
Speaker 1: supposed to draw on their subject's resources in critical situations,
Speaker 1: really war and massive natural disasters. The states emerged in
Speaker 1: Central Europe to facilitate these grants at a time when
Speaker 1: rulers were assuming wider responsibilities. Throughout the fifteenth century, the
Speaker 1: growing permanence of royal governments and the complexity of the
Speaker 1: government problems that it was facing led to more frequent assemblies,
Speaker 1: gradually transforming intermittent taxation into regular, annual levies were compelled
Speaker 1: to create their own institutions, forming standing committees to liaison
Speaker 1: with the ruler when the diet was not in session,
Speaker 1: as well as a secretary to maintain records and a
Speaker 1: treasury to administer the taxes. Really what we're seeing here
Speaker 1: is the stress that gets put on these governments as
Speaker 1: we transition from a medieval structure to a modern structure.
Speaker 1: That's why this period is called the early Modern period.
Speaker 1: The problem is we still very much have a medieval
Speaker 1: ethos that's governing how we think about what government is
Speaker 1: supposed to do, even as the problems that face those
Speaker 1: governments have changed dramatically in the last hundred years. Now.
Speaker 1: The other thing that we have to talk about with
Speaker 1: the Habsburgs is of course religion. Despite Protestant hopes that
Speaker 1: this or that archduke might convert, the Habsburgs remained uniformly Catholic.
Speaker 1: Protestantism thus lacked the political support that produced the territorial
Speaker 1: churches elsewhere throughout the Empire. Converts in Habsburg domains were
Speaker 1: forced to build their organizations from the bottom up, making
Speaker 1: the nobility, not the dynasty, the key players there. But
Speaker 1: Catholicism was also under severe pressure in many provinces. Nine
Speaker 1: to ten Lower Austrian nobles had embraced Lutheranism, as had
Speaker 1: eighty five percent of those living in Upper Austria, where
Speaker 1: three quarters of the urban population and half of the
Speaker 1: peasants were Protestants. Around seventy percent of Inner Austria's population
Speaker 1: had also abandoned Catholicism, and only five out of one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty five Styrian nobles remained Catholic. Though largely
Speaker 1: the Slovian peasantry rejected what they saw as a German religion,
Speaker 1: sixteen of twenty two Styrian towns had accepted Lutheranism by
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy two. Now, the situation was quite different in Bohemia,
Speaker 1: where agreements from fourteen thirty six and fourteen eighty five
Speaker 1: already recognized Utraquism alongside Catholicism. Remember this is sort of
Speaker 1: an offshoot of yang Hus Utrichism was a modern development
Speaker 1: of the Husite faith, so called because it insisted that
Speaker 1: the faithful received the Eucharist in both the bread and
Speaker 1: the wine, which in Latin is sub utrachai spasi, rather
Speaker 1: than the latter, the wine being exclusively reserved for the clergy.
Speaker 1: Services were in Czech and the church lay outside episcopal jurisdiction,
Speaker 1: though the Utriquists compromised with Rome by sending their priests
Speaker 1: to Venice to be ordained. The Habsburgs confirmed these privileges
Speaker 1: when they acquired Bohemia in fifteen twenty six, not least
Speaker 1: of which because Utrichism was at the time losing momentum
Speaker 1: and most Catholics hoped that its followers would soon rejoin them.
Speaker 1: Although a radical minority of Utricus split to become what
Speaker 1: we called the Unity of Breadth, refusing to submit to
Speaker 1: Rome or abandon the Hughsite's social ordeals and programs. Utruchism's
Speaker 1: close ties to Czech culture restricted the spread of Lutheranism
Speaker 1: in the German speaking population and even to some of
Speaker 1: the nobles. When the Czech nobility refused to back the
Speaker 1: Habsburgs and the Schmacaldic War back in fifteen forty seven,
Speaker 1: Ferdinand cracked down on the radical Revlin and initiated a
Speaker 1: program to revitalize the Catholic Church throughout Bohemia. A Jesuit
Speaker 1: college was founded in Prague in fifteen fifty six, and
Speaker 1: an archbishop appointed there five years later after a vacancy
Speaker 1: of a century and a half. The purpose of all this,
Speaker 1: and the reason that it matters, is to point out
Speaker 1: that while the Habsburgs themselves might have remained really quite
Speaker 1: viciously Catholic, the population at large, even in their ancestral
Speaker 1: domains is a lot more varied. In Bohemia, in particular,
Speaker 1: the religious spectrum was a lot more varied than it
Speaker 1: was in Austria. Catholics were less than fifteen percent of
Speaker 1: the population. The rest were divided between all these various
Speaker 1: sects of Protestantism. Calvinists, however, only made up three percent
Speaker 1: of the population. They were more entrenched to be fair
Speaker 1: amongst the elites, and so they did have a disproportionate
Speaker 1: level of influence. Calvinism was stronger in Hungary, though, where
Speaker 1: Lutheranism had long been regarded as just frankly to German
Speaker 1: to be accepted. Wherever you saw new faiths spreading throughout
Speaker 1: the empire, that meant that the nobility was open to change.
Speaker 1: Without the support of the nobility, evangelical movements had little
Speaker 1: to no chance. Interestingly, to use a modern term. In
Speaker 1: many areas, the Protestants split the vote. By that, I
Speaker 1: mean that there were so many Protestant faiths that, even
Speaker 1: though compared to the whole Catholics were in the minority,
Speaker 1: compared to any one other Protestant faith, Catholics were still
Speaker 1: the majority party. The rights of those Protestant minorities depended
Speaker 1: upon those estates, and more than anything else, on the
Speaker 1: power of the purse. The emperor needed the money that
Speaker 1: these communities could vote him, and he did not forget that.
Speaker 1: Protestant nobles, however, faced not only opposition from Catholics but
Speaker 1: from other Protestant groups, and to really lay it on
Speaker 1: from changing economic times. The wealth of the nobility largely
Speaker 1: came from the agrarian economy that produced rye oates, wheat
Speaker 1: and barley. Mining was somewhat significant in Tyrol and part
Speaker 1: of Inner Austria, but the Habsburgs remained in control of
Speaker 1: a lot of that. Textile production continued to grow in
Speaker 1: Upper Austria, Bohemia and western Moravia, while horse breeding was
Speaker 1: important in other parts of Moravia and obviously in Hungary.
Speaker 1: All these activities required land in labor, and these, in
Speaker 1: turn were controlled through various feudal jurisdictions. Like the Habsburgs,
Speaker 1: most lords managed only a small part of their property
Speaker 1: directly as domains, leasing the rest to tenant farmers in
Speaker 1: return for fixed rents. Rising inflation made this less attractive
Speaker 1: in the later sixteenth century, but it was difficult to
Speaker 1: force peasants to just pay more, since they often owed
Speaker 1: obligations to multiple landlords, and they could play one off
Speaker 1: against the other. The Habsburgs were also extending the right
Speaker 1: of appeal to peasants as a means of inserting themselves
Speaker 1: as arbitras of the rural world, intervening between landlords and peasants,
Speaker 1: except in Hungary, where the diet which was sort of
Speaker 1: their representative government, prevented this outright. In fifteen fifty six,
Speaker 1: the rising urban population of northwestern Europe stimulated the demand
Speaker 1: for grain, creating new opportunities for Eastern and Central European landlords.
Speaker 1: In the sixteenth century, they expanded their domains by purchase
Speaker 1: for closing or just simple eviction, while intensifying feudal jurisdiction
Speaker 1: to force dependent peasants to work for them. This is
Speaker 1: similar to what we saw in Russia, which was kind
Speaker 1: of almost a re entrenchment of serfdom. It's not going
Speaker 1: to go quite that far in a lot of Central Europe,
Speaker 1: but certainly the peasantry in Central Europe was much, much,
Speaker 1: much less free than it was in Western now. This process,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, has been labeled second serfdom since it
Speaker 1: emerged around fifteen hundred, just as medieval serfdom declined elsewhere
Speaker 1: in Europe. It was very pronounced in Poland, Hungary, Bohemia,
Speaker 1: parts of Austria and northeastern Germany, but it was never uniform. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: when combined with inflation, demographic and environmental change, the spread
Speaker 1: of this new I'll call it a manorial economy grew
Speaker 1: increasingly oppressive, and it symbolized almost a commercialization of the
Speaker 1: rural world. Lords began to exploit forests and other assets
Speaker 1: in their domains in new ways, for example, charging peasants
Speaker 1: for collecting firewood or letting their pigs root in the
Speaker 1: forest for food. The changes fueled tensions within the elite,
Speaker 1: as some lords were just better placed to seize these
Speaker 1: new opportunities than others. The situation was the most extreme
Speaker 1: and hungry, where around fifty magnate families accumulated forty one
Speaker 1: percent of the entire country, creating economies of scale, winning
Speaker 1: clients among the gentry and peasants through their ability to
Speaker 1: pay for private armies to combat banditry, and honestly, at
Speaker 1: times even act as a bulwark against the Ottoman Turks.
Speaker 1: The decline of the Hungarian gentry was paralleled in Bohemia,
Speaker 1: where the number of knights fell by nearly a third
Speaker 1: in the five decades before sixteen eighteen, the year the
Speaker 1: war begins, wealth became increasingly concentrated, to the point where
Speaker 1: a quarter of the country was held by only eleven
Speaker 1: aristocratic families. Peasant resentment exploded first in Austria in fifteen
Speaker 1: ninety five, and then this unrest spread to western parts
Speaker 1: of Lower Austria the following year. Heavy Handed attempts to
Speaker 1: reimpose Catholic priests in some Protestant parish provided a trigger,
Speaker 1: but the underlying causes were honestly economic, and protests were
Speaker 1: soon directed against the Lutheran nobles who dominated the estates.
Speaker 1: So it's clearly at this stage at least was not
Speaker 1: a religion thing. Peasants called for what they referred to
Speaker 1: as Swiss freedom, demanding representation in the estates as well
Speaker 1: as the abolition of taxes and dews. Now, the key
Speaker 1: to this is that the emergency that was prompted by
Speaker 1: all of these various peasant rebellions and the inability of
Speaker 1: the local nobles to deal with these, only highlighted the
Speaker 1: nobility's growing dependence on the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs duly
Speaker 1: put down all these rebellions, executing the ring leaders while
Speaker 1: rewarding those who had protested through quote unquote proper legal channels.
Speaker 1: But honestly, nor was the king deaf to the peasant's complaints.
Speaker 1: He went ahead and restricted peasant label service to two
Speaker 1: weeks per year in fifteen ninety eight. There was actually,
Speaker 1: by the way, a lot of cooperation between Catholic and
Speaker 1: Protestant peasants throughout the uprising, underscoring the difficulty of linking
Speaker 1: religious and political liberty. Now Ultimately, one of the driving
Speaker 1: factors of the Thirty Years War was the Habsburg relationship
Speaker 1: to Catholicism. The leading members of the Habsburg family essentially
Speaker 1: became convinced that the future of the dynasty depended on
Speaker 1: restoring Catholicism as the basis of their political power and
Speaker 1: political loyalty. The goal was not unrealistic given the continued
Speaker 1: presence of a Catholic minority in the estates and deep
Speaker 1: divisions amongst the Protestants, the majority of whom remained loyal
Speaker 1: subjects despite the religious differences. The religious freedoms that were
Speaker 1: put out in the fifteen seventies had been granted as
Speaker 1: special privileges to the nobles and towns of individual provinces,
Speaker 1: and had yet to be accepted by all members of
Speaker 1: each estate as integral parts of their corporate rights. The
Speaker 1: estates lacked a platform to coordinate a response to the
Speaker 1: dynasty because there was no such thing as the Estates
Speaker 1: General in the Holy Roman Empire. There was no such
Speaker 1: thing as a grand General Assembly, and that, my friends,
Speaker 1: is going to be key now here. The partition of
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty four actually worked the dynasty's advantage because it
Speaker 1: reinforced the practice of negotiating with each province of the
Speaker 1: empire separately, and it ensured that the General Austrian Diet
Speaker 1: never reassembled until after the early sixteenth century. Ultimately, why
Speaker 1: the Habsburgs were successful, and what they really realized more
Speaker 1: than anything else, was that the disparate parts of the
Speaker 1: empire could be made to work against each other. The
Speaker 1: Habsburgs could be a united corporate power, a united front,
Speaker 1: and then they could deal with each portion of the
Speaker 1: empire separately, and by doing that they could maximize their power.
Speaker 1: And by preventing the provinces from coordinating with one another,
Speaker 1: which they didn't want to do anyway, it limited the
Speaker 1: ability of different parts of the Empire to fight back
Speaker 1: against expanding sovereignty on the part of the Habsburgs, so
Speaker 1: getting into the machinations of the dynasty a little bit,
Speaker 1: Rudolph I succeeded the Emperor max Amilion to the Holy
Speaker 1: Roman Empire throne in fifteen seventy six. Rudolph was an
Speaker 1: unfortunate leader. He was indecisive. Now by all accounts, he
Speaker 1: was extremely intelligent and very cultured, but all this left
Speaker 1: with him an inflated sense of his own majesty and
Speaker 1: a personality that could be described as nicely aloof. He
Speaker 1: was an avid art collector and keenly interested in the sciences,
Speaker 1: but he grew frustrated quickly if his initiatives failed to
Speaker 1: achieve immediate success. He refused to marry Philip the Second's
Speaker 1: daughter in Spain, and instead lived his entire life with
Speaker 1: his mistress Katrina Estrada, with whom he had at least
Speaker 1: six children, as an art and Catholic. In fifteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: he decided he would make a big show of his
Speaker 1: faith by supporting a planned Corpus Christie procession throughout Vienna.
Speaker 1: Protestant shopkeepers who refused to move their stalls were simply
Speaker 1: shoved aside by imperial bodyguards when a jug of milk
Speaker 1: was knocked over. The resulting milk war, which lasted from
Speaker 1: fifteen seventy nine to fifteen eighty, left the emperor permanently altered. Look.
Speaker 1: He may never have been clinically insane, certainly, there's some
Speaker 1: sources that say that he was. But Rudolf was close
Speaker 1: at times throughout the rest of his life to mental instability.
Speaker 1: At the very very least, what we can say is
Speaker 1: Rudolf suffered from severe and acute bouts of depression. Two
Speaker 1: years later, Rudolf got even more isolated when he moved
Speaker 1: his court to Prague, shutting himself away in the palace there,
Speaker 1: high above the city, refusing to see anyone for days
Speaker 1: and leaving important documents unsigned. In September fifteen ninety one,
Speaker 1: as he was experimenting with a variety of chemicals, something
Speaker 1: went wrong. He burned his cheek and his beard. He
Speaker 1: killed his master of horse, who had the mass fortune
Speaker 1: of being standing next to him, and the accident plunged
Speaker 1: him deeper into depression, and he shut himself way now
Speaker 1: for months at a time. His persistent refusal to marry
Speaker 1: caused mounting discontent among his relations. Philip the Second arranged
Speaker 1: the betrothal of his daughter Isabella to another of the
Speaker 1: emperor's brother, the Archduke Albert, in fifteen ninety seven, in
Speaker 1: order to try to maintain some sort of contact and
Speaker 1: some sort of hope that the dynasty would move forward.
Speaker 1: Their marriage two years later only deepened Rudolph's suspicions towards
Speaker 1: Spain and finally forced him to confront the frustrations of
Speaker 1: his own personal life. He grew obsessed with astrology, and
Speaker 1: his paranoia continued to expand as the new century dawned,
Speaker 1: especially as Rudolph interpreted Tico Brahe's predictions for September of
Speaker 1: sixteen hundred to mean that there was a plot to
Speaker 1: assassinate him. Rudolf's mood swings became increasingly violent, and he
Speaker 1: lashed out at his courtiers, even injuring one of them.
Speaker 1: Rudolf's moved to Pra and the subsequent nervous breakdown heightened
Speaker 1: the forces that were holding the empire together. As the
Speaker 1: Austrian government steadily devolved, neither he nor his successor Matthias
Speaker 1: after fifteen ninety five was able to devote really any
Speaker 1: time to the Catholic renewal, which now fell ironically to
Speaker 1: the son of a Lutheran baker from Vienna, Melchior Kessel.
Speaker 1: Kessel converted to Catholicism while a student at Vienna University
Speaker 1: and rose, thanks to Jesuit and Habsburg patronage, to become
Speaker 1: chief chancellor of his former college by fifteen eighty and
Speaker 1: then the Bishop of Werner Neustadt in fifteen eighty eight
Speaker 1: and that of Vienna a decade later. Kessel is an
Speaker 1: important figure in the path to the Thirty Years War
Speaker 1: because it's his efforts to drive Catholicism that are going
Speaker 1: to make some of the confessional differences more acute when
Speaker 1: the war breaks out. Vessel targeted Vienna as its first
Speaker 1: location for this Catholic revival because that's where Protestant at
Speaker 1: the moment was spreading the most. The milk Wore riot
Speaker 1: that I mentioned earlier was used as a pretext to
Speaker 1: install a Catholic city council and withdraw permission to use
Speaker 1: the Assembly Hall for Lutheran services, while those worshiping outside
Speaker 1: the city were fined. A year after he was formally
Speaker 1: appointed chancellor of the university, of Vienna, Kessel ruled that
Speaker 1: only Catholics could graduate. He then worked with new councilors
Speaker 1: to transfer to the Church around ninety of the twelve
Speaker 1: hundred houses within the city walls for use as places
Speaker 1: of worship or education. The Catholic presence in the city
Speaker 1: was further boosted by the return of court after Rudolph
Speaker 1: died in sixteen twelve. Courtiers, nobles and their servants squeezed
Speaker 1: the city dwellers for the more desirable properties around the
Speaker 1: more central portions of the town, especially in the inflationary
Speaker 1: years of the sixteen twenties, when rich Catholics were able
Speaker 1: to purchase homes throughout Vienna depaced coins. The number of
Speaker 1: Catholics had already quadrupled from the time of Rudolph's ascension
Speaker 1: to about eight thousand by fifteen ninety four. The collapse
Speaker 1: of the peasant protests by fifteen ninety eight encouraged Kessel
Speaker 1: to extend his activities of proselytizing Catholicism all the way
Speaker 1: into the countryside. Upper Austrian lord lieutenants were sent with
Speaker 1: an armed escorts to install forcibly Catholic parish priests and
Speaker 1: to close Protestants estates throughout the countryside. The following year,
Speaker 1: Kessel led twenty three thousand Lower Austrian pilgrims to Styria,
Speaker 1: initiating what by sixteen seventeen became an annual event. Impressive
Speaker 1: as these efforts may seem to change the faith of
Speaker 1: Austria and to effectively turn back the clock, they did
Speaker 1: little good. As late as sixteen hundred, seventy five percent
Speaker 1: of the fifty thousand people living in Vienna were still Protestant.
Speaker 1: Catholic efforts to evangelies were more successful in Inner Austria,
Speaker 1: their religious and political loyalty developed more systematically. The Catholic
Speaker 1: strategy was really one of trying to explain that all
Speaker 1: the concessions that had been made previously during the time
Speaker 1: of Luther in around fifteen forty seven were essentially temporary,
Speaker 1: that those were the limits of any new rights that
Speaker 1: would be granted to Protestantism. This wasn't an evolving thing.
Speaker 1: They had been granted those rights temporarily and they could
Speaker 1: be taken back. Really, rather than revoking existing privileges for
Speaker 1: the Protestants, what the Archdukes of Austria would do was
Speaker 1: insist on a strictly Catholic interpretation of them, banning all
Speaker 1: Protestant activities that were not expressly written and sanctioned under
Speaker 1: the law. They had no desire to crush the estates
Speaker 1: since they couldn't govern without them. Instead, Protestant members were
Speaker 1: to be isolated by denying them for their favors, while
Speaker 1: loyal Catholic subjects were to be rewarded and promoted. Here,
Speaker 1: the Habsburgs could draw on their uncontested archducal, royal and
Speaker 1: imperial prerogatives to simply ennoble and legitimize children and confer
Speaker 1: degrees and honors upon Catholic families, while they didn't do
Speaker 1: the same to Protestant ones. The estates were effectively self
Speaker 1: governing corporations and could choose who they wanted to admit
Speaker 1: to them, but it was up to the Habsburgs to
Speaker 1: ennoble people, and so if they didn't create someone as
Speaker 1: a knight, they weren't eligible for the estate, and as
Speaker 1: a result, by controlling the regulations for membership, what the
Speaker 1: Austrian Habsburgs were able to do was essentially limit the
Speaker 1: pool who could apply to be part of the Estates.
Speaker 1: It was a very effective strategy a significant number of
Speaker 1: Austria and noble families died out during the sixteen century,
Speaker 1: creating a further opportunity for the Habsburgs to increase the
Speaker 1: proportion of loyal Catholic subjects. For example, forty new families
Speaker 1: joined the inner Austrian nobility between sixteen sixty and sixteen twenty,
Speaker 1: mainly from Italy actually, and sixteen of these were able
Speaker 1: to get a states membership. Further efforts were made to
Speaker 1: make Catholicism more attractive by ensuring a better educated, disciplined,
Speaker 1: and more numerous clergy that paid more attention to the
Speaker 1: needs of ordinary folk. This is actually what Luther had
Speaker 1: just wanted when he started the Reformation in the first place.
Speaker 1: Pope Gregory was persuaded to support this plan and began
Speaker 1: to encourage other rulers throughout Europe to participate. Now, if
Speaker 1: the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph the Second was an important
Speaker 1: player in the lead up to the Thirty Years War,
Speaker 1: which he was, so was the Archduke of Austria Ferdinand,
Speaker 1: who came of age in fifteen ninety five. Ferdinand was
Speaker 1: an arch an ultra Catholic, and he also fancied himself
Speaker 1: a bit of a legal scholar. Thus, his desire to
Speaker 1: expand the Catholic faith was tempered a little bit by
Speaker 1: his reluctant to violate the Constitution. He believed that he
Speaker 1: was an quote unquote absolute prince, but refused Machiavelli's suggestion
Speaker 1: that the ends justify the means. Ferdinand believed that princes
Speaker 1: should rule through Christian principles, not by those he meant
Speaker 1: Catholic principles. When he ascended the throne, Ferdinand reverted to
Speaker 1: the old princely oath rather than the fifteen sixty four
Speaker 1: modified version, which had been adopted because it was less
Speaker 1: offensive to Protestants. Then, in sixteen oh nine, Ferdinand modified
Speaker 1: the law so that public offices could only be held
Speaker 1: by Catholics. Clearly, as we can already see, the battle
Speaker 1: lines are being drawn, this change in attitude was felt
Speaker 1: acutely in bohem where the powder keg would ultimately explode
Speaker 1: in sixteen eighteen. Between fifteen fifty and sixteen hundred, so
Speaker 1: many Bohemian noble families went extinct that the share of
Speaker 1: crown lands expanded from around one percent to ten percent. Moreover,
Speaker 1: seven major Catholic land owning families died out between fifteen
Speaker 1: ninety seven and sixteen eleven, and their wealth passed to
Speaker 1: largely more militant Catholics, determined to use their power to
Speaker 1: advance their faith. Like in Austria, these militant Catholics use
Speaker 1: their power and influence to exclude Protestants to positions of power.
Speaker 1: For example, in fifteen ninety four, all key government posts
Speaker 1: in Moravia had been occupied by Protestants. A decade later, however,
Speaker 1: the entire government was Catholic. The problem with this was
Speaker 1: that in Bohemia, Catholics were outnumbered in most areas three
Speaker 1: to one, so they were becoming a ruling minority, and
Speaker 1: an unpopular one at that. The people look to their
Speaker 1: emperor for guidance, but Rudolph, secluded and increasingly depressed, was
Speaker 1: no help in the end. As we're going to see
Speaker 1: next week, it was the long war with the Ottomans
Speaker 1: that's going to finally provoke crisis after sixteen oh six.
Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed the show, check out the links in
Speaker 1: the show notes to Western SIB two point zero, and
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