The scene of Joseph and Karl Joseph’s boyish nagging is based on their true characters. The teenage Archdukes — aged sixteen and thirteen at the time of the narrative — embodied a classic brotherly rivalry between two quite opposite personalities. Joseph, destined one day to inherit the imperial throne and fully conscious of his exalted […]
What may appear as mere small talk around Archduke Leopold’s birthday dinner table in fact reflects the precarious situation on the theatre of war in early May 1757. A Prussian army of about 100,000 men, led by King Friedrich himself and three of his generals, advanced towards Prague. Thanks to Field Marshal Browne, the Austrian […]
In retrospect of the early days of The Case of Princess Schwarzenberg, I must admit that the death of the Prince, her husband, at a deer hunt in June 1732 was what first caught my attention. Hunting is, of course, intrinsically a dangerous entertainment, and accidents occurred in the past as they do in our […]
According to Count Khevenhüller’s Tagebuch, Marianne left the Hofburg for Hetzendorf on 2 May to spend the summer season there. This former hunting lodge was considered far more suitable for her convalescence than the vast, overcrowded, and noisy Schönbrunn. The cosy and compact Hetzendorf Palace has remained largely unchanged to this day, making it easy […]
Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, was executed on 16 October 1793. She was the youngest daughter of Maria Theresa and the sister of the Holy Roman Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II. As one of the most renowned historical figures recognised by a broad audience, every detail of her life and death has been repeatedly […]
Archduke Ferdinand and Maria Beatrice d’Este were married on 15 October 1771. She was the last descendant of several Italian dynasties. In some of their realms she was the legitimate heiress, but in the main principality, the Duchy of Modena, the Salic law excluded women from succession. Thus, an early agreement between the Houses of […]
Emperor Maximilian II passed away on 12 October 1576. He was the son of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anne of Bohemia. One of Maximilian’s main dilemmas throughout his life was his inner inclination towards Protestantism. For the heir of a strictly Catholic dynasty in the age of religious conflict, this was unsettling, to put it […]
Archduke Leopold V of Further Austria was born on 9 October 1586. Through his father, Charles II of Inner Austria, he was the grandson of Emperor Ferdinand I. Leopold’s mother, Maria Anna of Bavaria, was her husband’s niece. Their marriage produced two Queens of Poland, a Queen of Spain, and, of course, the future Emperor […]
Archduchess Maria Anna of Habsburg-Lorraine was born on 6 October 1738. She was the eldest surviving daughter of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephan. Two of her brothers, Joseph and Leopold, ascended the throne as Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. Probably the most renowned of her siblings was Maria Antonia — better known as Marie-Antoinette […]
Empress Anna of Tyrol was born on 4 October 1585. Her father, Archduke Ferdinand II of Further Austria — the second son of Emperor Ferdinand I and therefore the younger brother of Emperor Maximilian II — had quite a history. In his youth, he secretly married a bourgeois woman with whom he enjoyed a happy […]
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