The City and The Crown

Vienna and the Imperial Court, 1600-1740
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-1-55753-665-5
Verlag: Purdue University Press

Buch, Englisch, 280 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 241 mm

Reihe: Central European Studies

Spielman presents the role of the Habsburg court in the rise of Vienna the early modern period. His study clearly shows the extraordinarily complex web of interrelationships and interdependencies between the court, its servants, and the city as each strove to protect its privileges. The author's innovative approach consists in identifying the specific role that the court quartering system played in the expansion of the government's involvement in the development of the city. In so doing, Spielman ties in the two approaches traditionally used in histories of early modem Germany and Austria: the growth of the modem bureaucracy and the development of the Baroque.From the time of the first court quarterbook in 1563 to the end of the quartering system in 1781, Vienna's population increased threefold. The city faced war, siege, and plague. Specific topics included in this study full of fascinating details culled from archival sources, are the expulsion of the Jews in 1669, the Bubonic Plague of the seventeenth century, the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683, and the building boom of the early eighteenth century with its development of the suburbs.These historical events are interpreted in the light of the city's desire to keep a healthy tax base, the crown's attempts to use privilege to influence the development of the city, the court servant's pressing need for adequate housing, and townspeople's attempts to avoid quartering them. The author includes examples to illustrate certain points, thus presenting faithful picture of daily life in Vienna, from the wealthiest of the nobility to artisans to unruly soldiers against whom the city came to need protection.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Über Autor(innen)

John P. Spielman is the author of Leopold I of Austria and coeditor of Quellen und Darstellungen aus deutscher Geschichte.