The Austrian Nobility, 1600 – 1650: Between Court and Estates

Abstract

The Austrian nobility is here to be understood as the nobility of the Habsburg hereditary territories of Upper and Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. Salzburg will not be discussed, because until 1803 it was an independent ecclesiastical principality which anyway lacked any important noble estate; nor will the Tyrol and the Vorlande (Further Austria), where the position of the nobility in the estates’ structure was different. Within the lands which concern us there were differences too: in the territories along the Danube (Upper and Lower Austria) the nobility as an estate was divided into two curias, the Herrenstand (counts and barons) and the Ritter stand (knights), whereas in Styria, Carinthia and Carniola it formed only one curia.1 To a greater extent than in the other provinces the nobility of Lower and Upper Austria was personally closely connected: many families were resident in both territories. That resulted primarily from the slow and difficult formation of Upper Austria, ‘the land beyond the Enns’, as a distinct and independent territory. In Upper Austria, moreover, as well as in Carinthia and Carniola, the estates were able to enjoy a more independent position, as the sovereign did not personally reside in their capitals, but was represented by a Landeshauptmann who mediated between them.