AUSTRIA AS A GREAT POWER: 1519-1740 Ferdinand I. 1526-64.—Maximilian's grandson, Charles, king of Spain, 1516, emperor 1519, was also co-ruler of the Habsburg dominions in Eastern Germany, but relinquished them to his brother Ferdinand by the partitions of Worms (1521) and Brus sels (1522). When Louis II., king of Bohemia and Hungary, died childless (1526), Ferdinand claimed the succession to the two kingdoms in the name of his wife Anna, Louis's sister, and his own. The Bohemian Estates denied the validity of his title, and claimed the right themselves to elect their king. On Oct. 23, 1526, they then unanimously elected Ferdinand king of Bohemia, while demanding from him considerable diminutions of his sov ereign rights. Ferdinand admitted that the Estates had elected him of free will, but conceded only part of the limitations de manded. The Estates of the other lands of the Bohemian crown (Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia) recognized Ferdinand's title, through his wife. In Hungary the difficulties were greater. No alterna tive to election was recognized. The opposition elected John Zapolya, Voivode of Transylvania (Nov. 1526), while the Habs burg party elected Ferdinand (Dec. 1526) ; but he had to accept important restrictions on his sovereign rights. The diet of Croatia voted for Ferdinand, the Estates of Slavonia elected Zapolya. War broke out between the two candidates. Zapolya appealed for help to the Sultan Suleiman, who advanced and besieged Vienna in 1529. In 1538 peace was concluded at Grosswardein; Zapolya retained the title of king, with that part of Hungary then in his possession ; but on his death the whole kingdom was to fall to Ferdinand. When, however, Zapolya died (154o) his councillors secured the sultan's recognition and support for his son, John Sigismund. War broke out afresh, and the Turks occupied a great part of Hungary. Ferdinand even had to undertake to pay the sultan an annual tribute for the remnant of Hungary left him (1S47)• In the severe struggles in which Ferdinand's brother, Charles V., was involved with the Protestant princes of Germany and their allies abroad, Ferdinand did not directly intervene, although his sympathies were unfeignedly Catholic. Elected German king in 153o, he repeatedly advocated reconciliation between the two religious parties and attempted, although vainly, at the Council of Trent, to modify the demands of the Catholics. He was largely instrumental in the conclusion of the treaties of Passau (15 5 2 ) and Augsburg (15 5 5) • In 1556 he was crowned emperor in suc cession to Charles V.
Ferdinand's reign was of great and lasting importance for the internal administrative history of the Austrian districts. He continued the centralizing policy of Maximilian I., and gradually established a number of administrative bodies common to all his lands, assisted by the circumstance that the constitutions of the lands of the Hungarian and Bohemian crowns did not bind him to consult the Estates in many important questions; e.g., decision on war and peace, the raising and application of the regular in come from the crown property and revenues, etc. He thus pre pared the way for the efforts of his successors to rule their dif ferent kingdoms and lands on a common basis, and to create a real unity between them in foreign, military and financial respects. These central organs comprised the Privy Council (Geheimer Rat), created in 1527, for foreign affairs and general administra tion, the General Court Chancelry (Allgemeine Hofkanzlei) for execution of decisions taken by the Privy Council and the sov ereign, the Court Council of War (Hofkriegsrat), established 1556 to deal with military recruiting, equipment and supplies and main tenance of fortresses and arsenals, and the Court Treasury (Hof kammer), established 1527 as a central financial organ.
The development of the Habsburg power was severely ham pered by the fact that in the German-Austrian provinces, where the hereditary title of the dynasty was unquestioned, the principle of primogeniture was sanctioned neither by law nor tradition. Ferdinand I. himself only owed his possession of these territories to the principle that all male members of the Habsburg dynasty had a claim to the government and revenues of all territories. Despite his better judgment, Ferdinand could not free himself from the traditional view. To avoid a partition of the hereditary provinces, in his will (1543) he appointed his eldest son, Maxi milian, his successor in Hungary and Bohemia, and expressed the wish that his three sons should rule the German-Austrian terri tories without partition. Yet at last tradition proved too strong. In 1554 he decreed a partition of the Austrian dominions. Maxi milian, as eldest, received the duchies of Upper and Lower Austria and certain other smaller territories; Ferdinand, Tirol and the "Vorlande" ; Charles, Styria, including the county of Cilli, Carin thia, Carniola, Gorizia, Trieste and Austrian Istria. The revenues were to be divided as equally as possible between the three. On the extinction of the male line of any brother the survivors inherited his possessions. This partition came into force on Ferdi nand's death (1564). The resultant weakening of the dynasty was only temporary, as Tirol and the "Vorlande" reverted to the Styrian line in 1595 (definitively, after a new partition, 1665 ) and the Inner Austrian territories were united with the Duchy of Upper and Lower Austria in 1619.
Maximilian's attitude towards the religious question (see REFORMATION) seemed likely to affect decisively the destinies of both Austria and Germany. He had been educated in a more or less Protestant atmosphere. Charles V.'s plan to secure the impe rial succession for his son Philip had brought Maximilian in oppo sition to the Spanish Habsburgs, and confirmed his conciliatory feelings towards the Protestants. Consequently, Protestantism spread widely through the old estates of Austria, particularly the nobles. However, the antagonism between the two Protestant creeds in Germany, consideration for dynastic tradition, his family connections with the Catholic dynasties of France and Spain, and also purely political motives combined to keep Maximilian, per sonally, true to Catholicism. He therefore accorded the Prot estant nobles religious liberty only, but not a legal establishment of their church. Even so, on his death the Protestants formed an overwhelming majority in most of his lands.
Rudolph's brother, Ernest, as governor of Upper and Lower Austria, was more successful in defending the Catholic faith against the repeated assaults of the Protestant preachers; espe cially after finding in Melchior Klesl (q.v.) an ardent advocate of the policy of Catholic restoration, who applied the religious edicts ruthlessly. Klesl's severity led to unrest in Upper Austria, which presently turned into a social struggle against the landed proprietors ; this spread into Lower Austria and was suppressed with difficulty and only imperfectly. The counter-reformation proved most successful in Inner Austria. The Archduke Charles, needing the help of the Estates against the Turks, at first had to make concessions (Brucker Libell 1578), but the counter-ref ormation soon set in strongly, its headquarters being the Jesuit university of Graz. Charles's son Ferdinand succeeded his father as independent ruler in 1596 and carried on his work. Commis sions appointed by him eradicated Protestantism among the townspeople and peasants. Obstinate heretics were forced to emigrate. In a few years the majority of the population was thus restored to Catholicism.
The success of the counter-reformation in Austria inspired the Government to attempt a similar reaction in Bohemia, Moravia and Hungary ; but their efforts failed, especially after Stephen Bocskay (q.v.) became leader of the anti-Habsburg party. The towns and nobles of Upper Hungary joined him, as Archduke Matthew, as representative of his brother Rudolph, persecuted the Protestants and attempted to infringe the rights of the Hun garian diet. Bocskay allied himself with the Sultan; the imperial troops were repulsed and several towns conquered by the Turks. Simultaneously the discontented Protestant Estates in Austria formed a league in defence of their religious and political liberties, the unrest among the Bohemian Estates grew, and anti-Habsburg feeling increased among the evangelical Estates of the empire. The emperor's insanity had become increasingly obvious since 1598; his brother thought energetic action imperative to save the territory and repute of the dynasty. Rudolph proved obsti nate in the main question, but empowered Matthew to treat with the Turks and Bocskay. By the treaty of Vienna (June 1606), Transylvania remained under the suzerainty of the Hungarian king, but Bocskay was recognized as prince and his dominions enlarged. The Hungarian Estates (magnates, nobles and free towns) and royal markets were guaranteed free practice of their religion. In Nov. 1606 the negotiations with the Turks were con cluded at Szitvatorok. The territorial status quo was accepted, but the sultan for the first time recognized the emperor as his equal.
As the emperor, whose health had further deteriorated, refused to recognize his brothers' arrangements, the archdukes deter mined to recognize Matthew as head of the house (April 1607). Rudolph objected ; a family quarrel broke out. After complex negotiations, the Hungarian, Austrian and Moravian Estates agreed with Matthew to maintain peace on the basis of the treaties concluded by him in 1606. Rudolph, however, refused to grant these demands. War seemed inevitable, but a compact was con cluded at Lieben, Bohemia (June 1608), whereby Rudolph re signed Hungary, Moravia and Austria to Matthew and promised him the succession to the Bohemian crown, while Matthew re nounced his share of the Tirol and the Vorlande in his brother's favour.
This dispute had greatly increased the power of the Estates, whose demands the two Habsburgs were obliged to concede. In March 1609 Matthew concluded a compact with the Estates of Hungary, Austria and Moravia; the guarantees given by Maxi milian II. were taken as basis and extended in favour of the Prot estants. In Sept. 1609 Rudolph signed a royal patent (Majes tatsbrief ), assuring liberty of conscience to all inhabitants of Bohemia, and granting certain further rights to the nobles, knights and free cities. Yet the discords between Matthew and Rudolph and between them and the Estates continued. The formation of the Protestant Union (16o8) and Catholic League (1609) in the empire reacted on conditions in the Habsburg dominions. The great danger for the imperial power lay in the fact that each of these federations sought supporters abroad—the Union France, the League Spain and the pope. The fatal fraternal struggle in the Habsburg territories thus led to increased agitation among the Estates, reinforced in Bohemia by nationalist feeling. In Hungary Matthew, who had succeeded his brother as emperor in 1612, was involved in new struggles with Bethlen Gabor (q.v.) and the Turks, and, receiving insufficient support from the Estates, was forced to recognize Bethlen as Prince of Transylvania and pro long the peace of Szitvatorok for 20 years (1615) . The danger of a combination of the Estates of Matthew's dominions against the crown was averted by increasing and irreconcilable differences between the Estates of Hungary, Bohemia and Austria. The in ternal conflicts in the Habsburg dominions, however, prevented Matthew from active intervention in European politics, to the detriment of his prestige in the empire and Europe.
By his victory on the White Mountain (Nov. 8, 162o) Ferdi nand forced his opponent to flee and became master of the situa tion. He acted against his enemies with extraordinary severity; their estates were confiscated ; many were forced to emigrate ; the Catholic religion was restored. Meanwhile Ferdinand seized the opportunity to establish an autocratic and centralized system and crush the excessive power of the Estates. To secure the fu ture a radical alteration of the constitution was planned. The V erneuerte Landesordnung issued on March 10, 1627, as royal de cree for the Bohemian lands greatly increased the sovereign's prerogatives. Elsewhere in the Habsburg dominions Catholicism and autocracy triumphed similarly. The interdependence of re ligious and economic motives was particularly obvious in the Peasant War of 1625 (q.v.).
While the Jesuitical and autocratic system was everywhere victorious over Protestantism and the power of the Estates west of the March and Leitha, the general situation, conditions in Germany, consideration for Bethlen Gabor, and fear of Turkish intervention prevented the imperial government from acting with equal vigour in Hungary. Here, too, Catholicism made great progress; yet the sovereign's position remained quite different in Hungary and in the rest of his dominions. Henceforward the political individuality of the German and Bohemian provinces was repressed, while their relations to the dynasty were broadly uniform. The Hungarians, on the other hand, preserved their separate status.
The Thirty Years' War seemed at first likely to end in victory for the emperor and the complete triumph of Catholicism. The situation changed, however, when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden entered the struggle (1630), and still more with the participation of France (1635). The war ceased to be a religious one, and became essentially a struggle between the two branches of the Habsburg dynasty and France for continental supremacy. It was still raging when Ferdinand died (1637).
Strangely enough, Ferdinand, who had done so much to strengthen the imperial power and centralize its authority, could not quite throw off the idea of a partition of his dominions. Al though in a will dated 1621 he maintained the principle of pri mogeniture and decreed the indivisibility of the dominions united under him, soon after he abandoned the principle of indivisibility, and granted his brother Leopold Tirol and the Vorlande. This new Tirolean secundogeniture became extinct, however, in the male line in 1665, whereupon all Austrian lands were again united.
Momentous for the administration of the Habsburg possessions was the establishment by Ferdinand of a special "Austrian Chan celry," side by side with the imperial chancelry (1620). This organ became also the family chancelry for the German line of the Habsburgs, and dealt with "all matters affecting the Austrian lands and serreta of the Archducal house." Gradually relations with foreign powers came to be regulated by the "Austrian Court Chancelry" under a "Court Chancellor." Thus the Austrian dominions were permanently distinguished from the imperial.
A change came with the intervention of William III. of Orange, king of England since Feb. 1689. In May 1689 the "Grand Al liance" was formed between the emperor and the States General, William III. as king of England, adhering. The allies gained, in deed, no decisive victory over Louis XIV., and were eventually parted by the skilful French diplomacy ; yet the Peace of Ryswick (1697) was a defeat for France. The changed situation appeared more clearly when Louis XIV., disregarding his agreements with England and the States General, claimed (I loo) the whole Span ish succession for his grandson, Philip of Anjou, on the strength of Charles II.'s will. The "Grand Alliance," concluded in 1701, won a succession of decisive victories under the brilliant commander ship of Marlborough and Prince Eugene. (See SPANISH SUCCES