The ''Erblande'' ("Hereditary Lands") of the
House of Habsburg
The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...
formed the
Alpine
Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to:
Places Europe
* Alps, a European mountain range
** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range
Australia
* Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village
* Alpine National Pa ...
heartland of the
Habsburg monarchy
The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...
.
[Kann, ''Habsburg Empire'', 1–4.] They were the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs within the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
from before 1526. The ''Erblande'' were not all unified under the head of the dynasty prior to the 17th century. They were divided into several groupings: the
Archduchy of Austria
The Archduchy of Austria (german: Erzherzogtum Österreich) was a major Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, principality of the Holy Roman Empire and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy was centered at th ...
,
Inner Austria
Inner Austria (german: Innerösterreich; sl, Notranja Avstrija; it, Austria Interiore) was a term used from the late 14th to the early 17th century for the Habsburg hereditary lands south of the Semmering Pass, referring to the Imperial duchies ...
, the
County of Tyrol
The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised pr ...
, and
Further Austria
Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (german: Vorderösterreich, formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-we ...
.
[Ingrao, ''Habsburg Monarchy'', 5–9.]
The ''Erblande'' did not include either the
Lands of the Bohemian Crown
The Lands of the Bohemian Crown were a number of incorporated states in Central Europe during the medieval and early modern periods connected by feudal relations under the Bohemian kings. The crown lands primarily consisted of the Kingdom of B ...
or the
Lands of the Hungarian Crown
The "Lands of the Hungarian Crown"Laszlo PéterHungary's Long Nineteenth Century: Constitutional and Democratic Traditions in a European Perspective BRILL, 2012, pp. 51–56 was the titular expression of Hungarian pretensions to the various territo ...
, since both monarchies were elective when the Habsburg
Ferdinand I was elected to their thrones in 1526. Ferdinand divided the ''Erblande'' between his three heirs in 1564 and they were not reunited until 1665.
[ The ''Erblande'' were gathered into the ]Austrian Circle
The Austrian Circle (german: Österreichischer Reichskreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire. It was one of the four Imperial Circles created by decree after the 1512 Diet at Cologne, twelve years after the original six Circles w ...
in 1512. This ensured a direct connection between the junior lines of the Austrian Habsburgs and the Empire after 1564, since throughout this period the Austrian Habsburgs exercised only one vote in the Council of Princes
The Imperial Diet ( la, Dieta Imperii Comitium Imperiale; german: Reichstag) was the deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire. It was not a legislative body in the contemporary sense; its members envisioned it more like a central forum where it ...
.[Winkelbauer, "Separation and Symbiosis", 174.]
Both the Bohemian and Hungarian nobilities lost their rights of royal election through defeat in battle. Following his victory in the Battle of White Mountain
), near Prague, Bohemian Confederation(present-day Czech Republic)
, coordinates =
, territory =
, result = Imperial-Spanish victory
, status =
, combatants_header =
, combatant1 = Catholic L ...
(1620) over the Bohemian rebels, Ferdinand II promulgated a Renewed Constitution (1627) that established hereditary succession. In his will and testament of 1621, Ferdinand II tried to establish the principle of primogeniture to ensure that the ''Erblande'' would not be divided again as in 1564. Following the Battle of Mohács
The Battle of Mohács (; hu, mohácsi csata, tr, Mohaç Muharebesi or Mohaç Savaşı) was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and thos ...
(1687), in which Leopold I reconquered almost all of Hungary from the Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
, the emperor held a diet in Pressburg to establish hereditary succession in the Hungarian kingdom.[Kann, ''Habsburg Empire'', 55–57.] Although the term ''Erblande'' was often extended to include Bohemia (which lay within the Holy Roman Empire) after 1627, it was never used to describe Hungary, even after 1687.[Hochedlinger, ''Austria's Wars'', xvii.]
Notes
Sources
*Hochedlinger, Michael. ''Austria's Wars of Emergence: War, State and Society in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1683–1797''. Routledge, 2013.
*Ingrao, Charles W. ''The Habsburg Monarchy, 1618–1815''. 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
*Kann, Robert A. ''A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526–1918''. University of California Press, 1974.
*Winkelbauer, Thomas. "Separation and Symbiosis: The Habsburg Monarchy and the Empire in the Seventeenth Century". In Robert Evans and Peter Wilson (eds.), ''The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806: A European Perspective''. Brill, 2012. pp. 167–184.
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House of Habsburg
Regions of Europe
Austrian Circle