Our navigation bar is loading . . . . . .



Advertise on JCSM - Hear JCSM's Weekly Devotions via Podcast/RSS Feed! - Skip These Ads

You can advertise your site right here!Click here to learn more!

10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings by Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 JCSM's Top 1000 Christian Sites - Free Traffic Sharing Service! Join the Online Christ-Centered Ministries!

-

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

Click here and add this page to your favorites!

Return to the JCSM Study Center!

Encyclopedia Britannica



HOUSE

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 792 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: HOR-I25
HOUSE OF 791
power in Italy. A mass of northern Italy, including her former possessions in Milan and the neighbourhood, and also the lands recently forming the republic of Venice, was made into the kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia, and this owned the emperor of Austria as king. Across the Adriatic Dalmatia was added to the Habsburg monarchy, the population of which, it has been estimated, was increased at this time by over four millions.
The illiberal and oppressive character of the Austrian rule in Italy made it very unpopular; it was hardly less so in Hungary and Bohemia, and the advent of the year 1848 found the subject kingdoms eager to throw off the Habsburg yoke. The whole monarchy was quickly in a state of revolution, in the midst of which the emperor Ferdinand, who had succeeded his father Francis in 1835, abdicated, and his place was taken by his young nephew Francis Joseph. The position of the Habsburg monarchy now seemed desperate. But it was strong in its immemorial tradition, which was enough to make the efforts of the Frankfort parliament to establish German unity under Prussian hegemony abortive; it was strong also in the general loyalty to the throne of the imperial army; and its counsels were directed by statesmen who knew well how to exploit in the interests of the central power the national rivalries within the monarchy. With the crushing of the Hungarian revolt by the emperor Nicholas I. of Russia in 1849 the monarchy was freed from the most formidable of its internal troubles; in 1850 the convention ofOlmutz restored its influence in Germany.
Though the status quo was thus outwardly re-established, the revolutions of 1848 had really unchained forces which made its maintenance impossible. In Germany Prussia was steadily pre-paring for the inevitable struggle with Austria for the mastery; in France Napoleon III. was preparing to pose as the champion of the oppressed nationalities which had once more settled down sullenly under the Habsburg yoke. The alliance of the French emperor and the king of Sardinia, and the Italian war of 1859 ended in the loss of Lombardy to the Habsburgs. Seven years later the crushing defeat of
Koniggratz
  not only ended their long rule in Italy, based on the tradition of the medieval empire, by leading to the cession of Venetia to the new Italian kingdom, but led to their final exclusion from the German confederation, soon to become, under the headship of Prussia, the German empire.
By the loss of the predominance in Germany conceded to it by the treaties of Vienna, and by the shifting of its " centre of gravity " eastward, the Habsburg monarchy, however, perhaps gained more than it lost. One necessary result, indeed, was the composition (Ausgleich) with Hungary in 1867, by which the latter became an independent state (Francis Joseph being crowned king at Pest in June 1867) bound to the rest of the monarchy only by the machinery necessary for the carrying out of a common policy in matters of common
interest
 . This at least restored the loyalty of the Hungarians to the Habsburg dynasty; it is too soon yet to say that it secured permanently the essential unity of the Habsburg monarchy. By the system of the Dual Monarchy the rest of the Austrian emperor's dominions (Cis-Leithan) were consolidated under a single central government, the history of which has been mainly that of the rival races within the empire struggling for political predominance. Since the development of the constitution has been consistently in a democratic direction and the Slays are in a great majority, the tendency has been for the German elementstrong in its social status and tradition of predominanceto be swamped by what it regards as an inferior race; and a considerable number of Austrian " Germans " have learned to look not to their Habsburg rulers, but to the power of the German empire for political salvation. The tendency eastwards of the monarchy was increased when in 1878 the congress of Berlin placed Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austrian rule. Old ambitions were now revived at the expense of the Ottoman empire, the goal of which was the port of Salonica; and not the least menacing aspect of the question of the near East has been that the rivalry of Italy and the Habsburg monarchy has been transferred to the Balkan peninsula. Yet, in spite of internal
dissensions arising out of questions fundamentally insoluble, and in spite of the constant threat of external complications that may lead to war, the Habsburg monarchy as the result of the changes in the 19th and loth centuries is seemingly stronger than ever. The shadow of universal claims to empire and sonorous but empty titles have vanished, but so have the manifold rivalries and entanglements which accompanied the Habsburg rule in Italy and the Netherlands and Habsburg preponderance in Germany. The monarchy is stronger because its sphere is more defined; because as preserving the pax Romana among the jostling races of eastern Europe, it is more than ever recognized as an essential element in the maintenance of European peace, and is recognized as necessary and beneficial even by the ambitious and restless nationalities that chafe under its rule.
A few words must be said about the cadet branches of the Habsburg family. When, in 1765, Francis I. died and Joseph II. became emperor, the grand-duchy of Tuscany passed by
special
  arrangement not to Joseph, but to his younger brother
Leopold
 . Then in 1791, after
Leopold
  had succeeded Joseph as emperor, he handed over the grand-duchy to his second son, Ferdinand (17691824). In 18o1 this prince was deposed by Napoleon and Tuscany was seized by France. Restored to the Habsburgs in the person of Ferdinand in 1814, it remained under his rule, and then under that of his son Leopold (17971870), until the rising of 18J9, when the Austrians were driven out and the grand-duchy was added to the kingdom of Sardinia. A similar fate attended the duchy of Modena, which had passed to the Habsburgs through the marriage of its heiress Mary Beatrice of Este (d. 1829) with the archduke Ferdinand (17541806), brother of the emperor Leopold II. From 1814 to 1846 this duchy was governed by Ferdinand's son, Duke Francis IV., and from 1846 to 1859 by his grandson, Francis V. This family became extinct on the death of Francis V. in 1875.
In addition to his successor Francis II., and to Ferdinand, grand-duke of Tuscany, the emperor Leopold II. had eight sons, five of whom, including the archduke John (17821859), who saw a good deal of service during the Napoleonic Wars and was chosen regent (Reichsverweser) of Germany in 1848, have now no living male descendants. Thus the existing branches of the family are descended from Leopold's five other sons. The descendants of Leopold, the dispossessed grand-duke of Tuscany, were in 1909 represented by his son, Ferdinand (b. 1835), who still claimed the title of grand-duke of Tuscany, and his son and grandsons; by the numerous descendants of the archduke Charles Salvator (18391892); and by the archduke Louis Salvator (b. 1847), a great traveller and a voluminous writer. The grand-duke's fourth son was the archduke John Nepomuck Salvator, who, after serving in the Austrian army, resigned all his rights and titles and under the name of Johann Orth took command of .a sailing vessel. He is supposed to have been drowned off the coast of South America in 1891, but reports of his continued existence were circulated from time to time after that date. Of the emperor Leopold's other sons the archduke Charles, perhaps the most distinguished soldier of the family, left four sons, including Albert, duke of Teschen (18171895), who inherited some of his father's military ability. Charles's family was in 1909 represented by his grandsons, the sons of the archduke Charles Ferdinand (18181874). The archduke Joseph (17761847), palatine of Hungary, was represented by a grandson, Joseph
Augustus
  (b. 1872), and the archduke Rainer (178318J3), viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, by a son Rainer (b. 1827), and by several grandsons.
The eldest and reigning branch of the family was in 1909 represented by the emperor Francis Joseph, whose father was the archduke Francis Charles (18021878), and whose grandfather was the emperor Francis II. Francis Joseph's only son Rudolph died in 1889; consequently the
heir
  to the Habsburg monarchy was the emperor's nephew Francis Ferdinand (b. 1863), the eldest of the three sons of his brother Charles Louis (18331896). In 1875 Francis Ferdinand inherited the wealth of the Este family and took the title of archduke of Austria-Este; in 1900 he contracted a morganatic marriage with
Sophia
 , countess of
Chotek, renouncing for his sons the succession to the monarchy. Thus after Francis Ferdinand this would pass to the sons of his brother, the archduke Otto (18651906). One of the emperor's three brothers was Maximilian, emperor of Mexico from 1863 to 1867.
With the exception of Charles V. the Habsburgs have produced no statesmen of great ability, while several members of the family have displayed marked traces of insanity. Nevertheless they secured, and for over 350 years they kept, the first place among the potentates of Europe; a dignity in origin and theory elective becoming in practice hereditary in their house. This position they owe to some extent to the tenacity with which they have clung to the various lands and dignities which have passed into their possession, but they owe it much more to a
series
  of fortunate marriages and opportune deaths. The union of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, of Philip the Handsome and
Joanna
  of Spain, of Ferdinand and Anna of Hungary and Bohemia; the death of Ottakar of Bohemia, of John, the only son of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, of Louis of Hungary and Bohemiathese are the corner-stones upon which the Habsburg monarchy has been built.
For the origin and early history of the Habsburgs see G. de Roo, Annales rerum ab Austriacis Habsburgicae gentis principibus a Rudolpho I. usque ad Carolum V. gestarum (
Innsbruck
 , 1592, fol.); M. Herrgott, Genealogia diplomatica augustae gentis Habsburgicae (Vienna, 17371738) ; E. M. Furst von Lichnowsky, Geschichte des Hauses Habsburg (Vienna, 18361844) ; A. Schulte, Geschichte der Habsburger in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (
Innsbruck
 , 1887); T. von Liebenau, Die Anfange des Hauses Habsburg (Vienna, 1883) ; W. Merz, Die Habsburg (Aarau, 1896); W. Gisi, Der Ursprung der Hauser Zahringen and Habsburg (1888) ; and F. Weihrich, Stammtafel zur Geschichte des Hauses Habsburg (Vienna, 1893). For the history of the Habsburg monarchy see Langl, Die Habsburg and die denkwurdigen Statten ihrer Umgebung (Vienna, 1895) ; and E. A. Freeman, Historical Geography of Europe (1881). Two English books on the subject are J. Gilbart-Smith, The Cradle of the Hapsburgs (1907); and A. R. and E. Colquhoun, The Whirlpool of Europe, Austria-Hungary and the Hapsburgs (1906). (A. W. H. *)


End of Article: HOUSE


If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
<a href="http://jcsm.org/StudyCenter/Encyclopedia/HOR_I25/HOUSE.html">
HOUSE
</a>


(Previous)
HOURS, CANONICAL
(Next)
HOUSE (O. Eng. hiss, a word common to Teutonic ...



 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries

The JCSM Study CenterAmerica's Christian FoundationSkeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and ExplainedNKJV Web Hosting and Services
JCSM's Sermons, Debates and the Bible on MP3The Online Christ-Centered MinistriesDo You Have A Web Site?  Your Ad Could Be Here!Seminary Notes and PapersThe Picturesque Photo Albums


Jesus Christ Saves Ministries, P.O. Box 70696, Pasadena, CA 91117

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-present.


Kingdom Debt Solutions - Be Debt Free! Sport Logos - Quality Athletic Equipment The JCSM Study Center Your Ad Could Be Here! Launch A Successful Internet Organization or Business! Learn Guitar, Bass, or Piano in San Diego county!

You can advertise your site right here!

Free & Cheap Cell Phones  |  Cheap Long Distance Phone Service Carriers  |  Talk America Local Phone Service  |  Ztel & MCI - Unlimited Long Distance
Compare Cell Phone Plans & Companies  | 
International Calling Cards & Prepaid Phone Cards  |  Voice Over IP Broadband Internet Phone Service  |  Wireless Phone Plans & Cheap Cell Phones

Dr. Jason Gastrich

Jason Gastrich, Ph.D.

 

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries is directed by Dr. Jason Gastrich.  It was founded in 1997 and it exists to bring people into a life-changing and productive relationship with Jesus Christ.  JCSM offers over 200,000 free web pages, discussion boards, weekly html and mp3 devotionals, free email accounts, and much more.

Jesus Christ Saves Ministries
P.O. Box 9297
San Diego, CA  92169
1-877-850-3878 or Email

JCSM is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. Copyright © 1997-2008.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Online First Aid and CPR Certification  .  The Online Christ Centered Ministries  .  The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: Corrected and Explained  .  The Inerrancy Discussion Board  .  Free Email Accounts  .  Home Equity Loans  .  JasonGastrich.com  .  The Missions, Apologetics, and Creation Bible Conference  .  Young Earth Creation Science  .  San Diego Music Lessons  .  10,000 Wise Quotes and Spiritual Sayings  .  Gastrich.net  .  Maximizing the Internet: 12 Keys to Success  .  Louisiana Baptist University  .  NKJV Web Hosting and Services  .  Michael Newdow  .  San Diego Soccer Training  . Christian Guitar Lessons  .  Jesus Christ Saves Ministries  .  Eternal Security