Workshops (or ‘manufactories’, as they were known) and cottage industry were promoted by Maria Theresa and opposed by craftsmen. In ...

Many Habsburgs were noted for their piety and their devotion to the Catholic Church, so that we might almost talk ...

In the eighteenth century the Habsburg rulers saw themselves confronted with increasing energy consumption and congested traffic arteries. People were ...

In late medieval and early modern times, magic, alchemy and the veneration of the saints were an integral part of ...

In the Middle Ages there was no absolutely indispensible connection between reading and writing. Someone who could read was not ...

During the early modern era the House of Habsburg experienced a meteoric rise. Initially the leading role was taken by ...

The Habsburgs were always short of money: they filled their coffers with the help of taxes and private banks. It ...

It was not really a matter of pure philanthropy when Maria Theresia had some high customs tariffs abolished – more ...

In 1809, after divorcing his wife Josephine because she was no longer able to bear children, Napoleon set about finding ...

The members of the imperial family had no need to worry about money, at least if they kept to certain ...

‘Habsburg, single, interested in marriage, seeks ...’ – these might be the opening words of a Habsburg personal advertisement. However, ...

In the early modern period trade was conducted at a number of different regional levels. There were local markets, some ...

Medicine in the early modern era faced numerous challenges as thousands fell victim to pandemics such as bubonic plague and ...

In 1365 Duke Rudolf IV founded the University of Vienna. The Habsburg princes were of major importance for the history ...

The Habsburg family is known above all as a ruling dynasty. Over a period of several centuries it brought forth ...

The late Middle Ages saw some technical innovations which have had a lasting impact; today we cannot imagine life without ...

Employing craftsmen and artists at court was important to many dynasties. The objects they created embellished their rulers’ lavish lifestyles, ...

The world of the Habsburgs was a vast one – both geographically and metaphorically. The Habsburgs ruled over a great ...

Image cultivation, branding, etc., are terms which one would tend to associate more with modern communication culture. Yet when it ...

The bones of saints, as well as their hair and nails, were revered as relics, as were objects which had ...

During the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph the imperial Court was the yardstick against which the social life of the ...

In the Habsburg Monarchy, as it had been evolving from 1526, the imperial Court developed into the definitive integration platform ...

The Habsburg Monarchy came to an end in November 1918. The last emperor, Karl I, refused to abdicate and went ...

For several centuries, Habsburg politics were dominated by the dynasty’s conflicts with their neighbours to east and west. In the ...