Editing History of Austria (section)

=== Archduchy of Austria: Becoming a Great Power (1453–1564) ===
{{Main|Archduchy of Austria}}

==== Frederick V (1453–1493): Elevation of the duchy ====
Frederick V (Duke 1424 Archduke 1453, died 1493) the Peaceful ([[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Frederick III]] 1452-–1493) confirmed the ''Privilegium Maius'' of Rudolph IV in 1453, and so Austria became an official [[archduchy]] of the Holy Roman Empire, the next step in its ascendancy within Europe, and [[Ladislaus the Posthumous]] (1440–1457) the first official archduke for a brief period, dying shortly after. The document was a forgery, purportedly written by the Emperor [[Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick I]] and "rediscovered". Frederick had a clear motive for this. He was a Habsburg, he was Duke of Inner Austria in addition to being Emperor, and, up till the previous year, had been guardian of the young Duke of Lower Austria, Ladislaus. He also stood to inherit Ladislaus's title, and did so when Ladislaus died four years later, becoming the second Archduke.

The Austrian Archdukes were now of equal status to the other [[Prince-elector|Prince Electors]] that selected the emperors. Austrian governance was now to be based on primogeniture and indivisibility. Later Austria was to become officially known as "''Erzherzogtum Österreich ob und unter der Enns''" (The Archduchy of Austria above and below the Enns). In 1861 it was again divided into [[Upper Austria|Upper]] and [[Lower Austria]].

The relative power of the emperor in the monarchy was not great, as many other aristocratic dynasties pursued their own political power inside and outside the monarchy. However Frederick, although lackluster, pursued a tough and effective rule. He pursued power through dynastic alliances. In 1477 [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian]] (Archduke and Emperor 1493–1519), [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick's]] only son, married [[Mary of Burgundy|Mary]], [[Duchy of Burgundy|Duchess of Burgundy]], thus acquiring most of the [[Low Countries]] for the family. The strategic importance of this alliance was that Burgundy, which lay on the western border of the empire, was demonstrating expansionist tendencies, and was at that time one of the richest and most powerful of the Western European nation states, with territories stretching from the south of France to the [[North Sea]].

The alliance was achieved at no small cost, since France, which also claimed Burgundy, contested this acquisition, and Maximilian had to defend his new wife's territories from [[Louis XI]], finally doing so upon Mary's death in 1482 at the [[Treaty of Arras (1482)|Peace of Arras]]. Relationships with France remained difficult, Louis XI being defeated at the [[Battle of Guinegate (1479)|Battle of Guinegate]] in 1479. Matters with France were only concluded in 1493 at the [[Treaty of Senlis]] after Maximilian had become emperor.

This and Maximilian's later dynastic alliances gave rise to the saying:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hare |first=Christopher |url=https://archive.org/details/highpuissantprin00hare |title=The high and puissant princess Marguerite of Austria, princess dowager of Spain, duchess dowager of Savoy, regent of the Netherlands |date=1907 |publisher=Harper & Brothers |page=[https://archive.org/details/highpuissantprin00hare/page/48 48]}}</ref>
<blockquote>''Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube'',<br/>
''Nam quae Mars aliis, dat tibi regna Venus''{{Efn|Let others wage war, but thou, O happy Austria, marry; for those kingdoms which Mars gives to others, Venus gives to thee}}</blockquote>

which became a motto of the dynasty. Frederick's reign was pivotal in Austrian history. He united the core lands by simply outliving the rest of his family. From 1439, when Albert V died and the responsibilities for both of the core territories lay with Frederick, he systematically consolidated his power base. The next year (1440) he marched on Rome as [[King of the Romans]] with his ward, Ladislaus the last Albertinian duke, and when he was crowned in Rome in 1452 he was not only the first Habsburg but also the last German king to be crowned in Rome by the Pope.{{Sfn|Beller|2006|p=37}}

The dynasty was now en route to become a world power. The concept of ''pietas austriacae'' (the divine duty to rule) had originated with Rudolph I, but was reformulated by Frederick as [[A.E.I.O.U.|AEIOU]], ''Alles Erdreich ist Österreich untertan'' or ''Austriae est imperare orbi universo'' (Austria's destiny is to rule the world), which came to symbolise Austrian power.{{Sfn|Beller|2006|p=37}} However, not all events proceeded smoothly for Frederick. The [[Austrian-Hungarian War (1477–1488)]] resulted in the Hungarian king, [[Matthias Corvinus]] setting himself up in [[Siege of Vienna (1485)|Vienna in 1485]] till his death in 1490. Hungary occupied the entire Eastern Austria. Frederick therefore found himself with an itinerant court, predominantly in the Upper Austrian capital of [[Linz]].

==== Maximilian I (1493–1519): Reunification ====
[[File:Albrecht Dürer - Portrait of Maximilian I - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|[[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] by [[Albrecht Dürer]] 1519]]
Maximilian I shared rule with his father during the latter year of Frederick's reign, being elected King of the Romans in 1486. By acquiring the lands of the Tyrolean line of the Habsburgs in 1490 he finally reunited all the Austrian lands, divided since 1379. He also needed to deal with the Hungarian problem when [[Mathias Corvinus|Mathias I]] died in 1490. Maximilian reconquered the lost parts of Austria and established peace with Mathias's successor [[Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary|Vladislaus II]] at the [[Peace of Pressburg (1491)|Peace of Pressburg]] in 1491. However the dynastic pattern of division and unification would be one that kept repeating itself over time. With unsettled borders Maximilian found [[Innsbruck]] in the [[County of Tyrol|Tyrol]] a safer place for a capital, between his Burgundian and Austrian lands, although he was rarely in any place for very long, being acutely aware of how his father had been repeatedly besieged in Vienna.

Maximilian raised the art of dynastic alliance to a new height and set about systematically creating a dynastic tradition, albeit through considerable revisionism. His wife Mary, was to die in 1482, only five years after they were married. He then married [[Anne of Brittany|Anne, Duchess of Brittany]] (by proxy) in 1490, a move that would have brought [[Brittany]], at that time independent, into the Habsburg fold, which was considered provocative to the French monarchy. [[Charles VIII of France]] had other ideas and annexed Brittany and married Anne, a situation complicated further by the fact that he was already betrothed to Maximilian's daughter [[Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy|Margaret]], Duchess of [[House of Savoy|Savoy]]. Maximilian's son, [[Philip I of Castile|Philip the Fair]] (1478–1506) married [[Joanna of Castile|Joanna]], heiress of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]] in 1496, and thus acquired Spain and its Italian ([[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], [[Sicily|Kingdom of Sicily]] and [[Kingdom of Sardinia|Sardinia]]), African, and New World [[Spanish Empire|appendages]] for the Habsburgs.

However ''Tu felix Austria nube'' was perhaps more romantic than strictly realistic, since Maximilian was not slow to wage war when it suited his purpose. Having settled matters with France in 1493, he was soon involved in the long [[Italian Wars]] against France (1494–1559). In addition to the wars against the French, there were the wars for [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss]] independence. The [[Swabian War]] of 1499 marked the last phase of this struggle against the Habsburgs. Following defeat at the [[Battle of Dornach]] in 1499, Austria was forced to recognise [[Old Swiss Confederacy|Swiss]] independence at the [[Treaty of Basel (1499)|Treaty of Basel]] in 1499, a process that was finally formalised by the [[Peace of Westphalia]] in 1648. This was significant as the Habsburgs had originated in [[Switzerland]], their ancestral home being [[Habsburg Castle]].

In domestic policy, Maximilian launched a series of reforms at the 1495 [[Diet of Worms (1495)|Diet of Worms]], at which the [[Reichskammergericht|Imperial Chamber Court]] was launched as the highest court. Another new institution of 1495 was the [[Reichsregiment]] or Imperial government, meeting at [[Nuremberg]]. This preliminary exercise in democracy failed and was dissolved in 1502. Attempts at creating a unified state were not very successful, but rather re-emerged the idea of the three divisions of Austria that existed prior to the unification of Frederick and Maximilian.{{Sfn|Erbe|2000|pp=19–30}}

Short of funds for his various schemes he relied heavily on banking families such as the [[Fugger]]'s, and it was these bankers that bribed the prince electors to choose Maximilian's grandson Charles as his successor. One tradition he did away with was the centuries-old custom that the Holy Roman Emperor had to be crowned by the Pope in Rome. Unable to reach Rome, due to Venetian hostility, in 1508, Maximilian, with the assent of [[Pope Julius II]], took the title ''Erwählter Römischer Kaiser'' ("Elected Roman Emperor"). Thus his father Frederick was the last emperor to be crowned by the Pope in Rome.

==== Charles I and Ferdinand I (1519–1564) ====

[[File:Titian - Portrait of Charles V Seated - WGA22964.jpg|thumb|left|[[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles I]], attrib. [[Lambert Sustris]] 1548, [[Museo del Prado]], [[Madrid]], [[Spain]]]]
Since Philip the Fair (1478–1506) died before his father, Maximilian, the succession passed to Philip's son, [[Emperor Charles V|Charles I]] (1519–1521) who became the Emperor Charles V, on Maximilian's death in 1519. He reigned as emperor from 1519 to 1556, when in poor health he abdicated, dying in 1558. Although crowned by [[Pope Clement VII]] in [[Bologna]] in 1530 (Charles had [[Sack of Rome (1527)|sacked Rome]] in 1527) he was the last emperor ever to be crowned by a Pope. Although he eventually fell short of his vision of universal monarchy, Charles I is still considered the most powerful of all the Habsburgs. His Chancellor, [[Mercurino Gattinara]] remarked in 1519 that he was "on the path to universal monarchy&nbsp;... unite all Christendom under one sceptre"<ref>Bérenger Jean. ''A History of the Habsburg Empire 1273–1700'', Harlow 1994, p.&nbsp;144–145.</ref> bringing him closer to Frederick V's vision of AEIOU, and Charles' motto ''Plus ultra'' (still further) suggested this was his ambition.{{Sfn|Beller|2006|p=45}}

Having inherited his father's possessions in 1506, he was already a powerful ruler with extensive domains. On Maximilian's death these domains became vast. He was now ruler of three of Europe's leading dynasties—the [[House of Habsburg]] of the [[Habsburg monarchy]]; the [[House of Valois-Burgundy]] of the [[Burgundian Netherlands]]; and the [[House of Trastámara]] of the Crowns of [[Crown of Castile|Castile]] and [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]]. This made him ruler over extensive lands in Central, Western, and Southern Europe; and the [[Spanish colonization of the Americas|Spanish colonies]] in the Americas and Asia. As the first king to rule Castile, [[Kingdom of León|León]], and Aragon simultaneously in his own right, he became the first [[King of Spain]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=9 May 2023 |title=Charles V &#124; Biography, Reign, Abdication, & Facts |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-V-Holy-Roman-emperor |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref> His empire spanned nearly four million square kilometers across Europe, the Far East, and the Americas.<ref>{{Cite web |date=31 August 2023 |title=Maximilian I &#124; Holy Roman emperor |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maximilian-I-Holy-Roman-emperor |website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>

A number of challenges stood in Charles's way, and were to shape Austria's history for a long time to come. These were France, the appearance of the [[Ottoman Empire]] to its East, and [[Martin Luther]] (see below).

Following the dynastic tradition the Habsburgs' hereditary territories were separated from this enormous empire at the [[Diet of Worms]] in 1521, when Charles I left them to the regency of his younger brother, [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand I]] (1521–1564), although he then continued to add to the Habsburg territories. Since Charles left his Spanish Empire to his son [[Philip II of Spain]], the Spanish territories became permanently alienated from the northern Habsburg domains, although remained allies for several centuries.

By the time Ferdinand also inherited the title of Holy Roman Emperor from his brother in 1558 the Habsburgs had effectively turned an elective title into a ''de facto'' hereditary one. Ferdinand continued the tradition of dynastic marriages by marrying [[Anne of Bohemia and Hungary]] in 1521, effectively adding those two kingdoms to the Habsburg domains, together with the adjacent territories of [[Moravia]], [[Silesia]] and [[Lusatia]]. This took effect when Anne's brother [[Louis II of Hungary|Louis II, King of Hungary and Bohemia]] (and hence the [[Jagiellon dynasty]]) died without heir at the [[Battle of Mohács]] in 1526 against [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] and the Ottomans. However, by 1538 the [[Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867)|Kingdom of Hungary]] was divided into three parts:
* The Kingdom of Hungary (Royal Hungary) (today Burgenland, parts of Croatia, mostly Slovakia and parts of present-day Hungary) recognised the Habsburgs as Kings.
* [[Ottoman Hungary]] (the center of the country).
* [[Eastern Hungarian Kingdom]], later the Principality of Transylvania under counter kings to the Habsburgs, but also under Ottoman protection.

Ferdinand's election to emperor in 1558 once again reunited the Austrian lands. He had had to cope with revolts in his own lands, religious turmoil, Ottoman incursions and even contest for the Hungarian throne from [[John Sigismund Zápolya]]. His lands were by no means the most wealthy of the Habsburg lands, but he succeeded in restoring internal order and keeping the Turks at bay, while enlarging his frontiers and creating a central administration.

When Ferdinand died in 1564, the lands were once more divided up between his three sons, a provision he had made in 1554.{{Sfn|Beller|2006|p=5}}

==== Austria in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation (1517–1564) ====
===== Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation (1517–1545) =====
[[File:HolyRomanEmpire 1618.png|250px|thumb|Much of eastern Austria adopted [[Lutheranism]] until Counter-Reformational efforts changed it in the late 16th century.]]
When [[Martin Luther]] posted his [[ninety-five theses]] to the door of the [[Castle Church]] in [[Wittenberg]] in 1517, he challenged the very basis of the Holy Roman Empire, Catholic Christianity, and hence Habsburg hegemony. After the [[Emperor Charles V]] interrogated and condemned Luther at the 1521 [[Diet of Worms]], Lutheranism and the Protestant [[Reformation]] spread rapidly in the Habsburg territories. Temporarily freed from war with France by the 1529 [[Treaty of Cambrai]] and the denouncement of the ban on Luther by the [[Protestation at Speyer|Protestant princes at Speyer]] that year, the Emperor revisited the issue next at the [[Diet of Augsburg]] in 1530, by which time it was well-established.[[File:Hans Bocksberger der Aeltere 001.jpg|thumb|Archduke Ferdinand I, 1521–1564|394x394px]]

With the Ottoman threat growing (see below), he needed to ensure that he was not facing a major schism within Christianity. He refuted the Lutheran position ([[Augsburg Confession]]) with the [[Confutatio Augustana]], and had Ferdinand elected [[King of the Romans]] on 5 January 1531, ensuring his succession as a Catholic monarch. In response, the Protestant princes and estates formed the [[Schmalkaldic League]] in February 1531 with French backing. Further Turkish advances in 1532 (which required him to seek Protestant aid) and other wars kept the emperor from taking further action on this front until 1547 when imperial troops defeated the League at the [[Battle of Mühlberg]], allowing him to once more impose Catholicism.

In 1541 Ferdinand's appeal to the estates general for aid against the Turks was met by demand for religious tolerance. The triumph of 1547 turned out to be short lived with French and Protestant forces again challenging the emperor in 1552 culminating in the [[Peace of Augsburg]] in 1555. Exhausted, Charles started to withdraw from politics and hand over the reins. Protestantism had proved too firmly entrenched to enable it to be uprooted.

Austria and the other Habsburg hereditary provinces (and Hungary and Bohemia, as well) were much affected by the Reformation, but with the exception of [[Tyrol (federal state)|Tyrol]] the Austrian lands shut out Protestantism. Although the Habsburg rulers themselves remained Catholic, the non-Austrian provinces largely converted to Lutheranism, which Ferdinand I largely tolerated.

===== Counter-Reformation (1545–1563) =====
The Catholic response to the Protestant Reformation was a conservative one, but one that did address the issues raised by Luther. In 1545 the long running [[Council of Trent]] began its work of reform and a [[Counter-Reformation]] on the borders of the Habsburg domains. The Council continued intermittently until 1563. Ferdinand and the Austrian Habsburgs were far more tolerant than their Spanish brethren, and the process initiated at [[Trento|Trent]]. However his attempts at reconciliation at the Council in 1562 was rejected, and although a Catholic counteroffensive existed in the Habsburg lands from the 1550s it was based on persuasion, a process in which the Jesuits and [[Peter Canisius]] took the lead. Ferdinand deeply regretted the failure to reconcile religious differences before his death (1564).{{Sfn|Beller|2006|p=53}}

==== The arrival of the Ottomans (1526–1562) ====
{{Main|Ottoman–Habsburg wars|Ottoman–Hungarian Wars}}
When [[Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor|Ferdinand I]] married into the Hungarian dynasty in 1521 Austria first encountered the westward [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] expansion which had first come into conflict with Hungary in the 1370s. Matters came to a close when his wife [[Anne of Bohemia and Hungary|Anne]]'s brother the young king [[Louis II of Hungary|Louis]] was killed fighting the Turks under [[Suleiman the Magnificent]] at the [[Battle of Mohács]] in 1526, the title passing to Ferdinand. Louis' widow [[Mary of Hungary (governor of the Netherlands)|Mary]] fled to seek protection from Ferdinand.

The Turks initially withdrew following this victory, reappearing in 1528 advancing on [[Vienna]] and laying [[Siege of Vienna (1529)|siege to it]] the following year. They withdrew that winter till 1532 when their advance was stopped by [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]], although they controlled much of Hungary. Ferdinand was then forced to recognize [[John Zápolya]]. Ferdinand and the Turks continued to wage war between 1537 and a temporary truce in 1547 when Hungary was partitioned. However hostilities continued almost immediately till the Treaty of Constantinople of 1562 which confirmed the 1547 borders. The Ottoman threat was to continue for 200 years.