Austria Territorial Expansion, Division, and Consolidation
Figure 2. Europe in the Sixteenth Century
The Habsburgs also increased their influence and power
through strategic alliances ratified by marriages. Owing to
premature deaths and/or childless marriages within the Burgundian
and Spanish dynasties into which his grandfather, Maximilian I
(r. 1493-1519), and his father had married, Emperor Charles V (r.
1519-56) inherited not only the Hereditary Lands but also the
Franche-Comté and the Netherlands (both of which were French
fiefs) and Spain and its empire in the Americas.
Challenged on his western borders by France and on his
eastern borders by the Turkish Ottoman Empire, Charles V divided
his realm geographically in 1522 to achieve more effective rule.
Retaining the western half under his direct control, he entrusted
the eastern half, the Hereditary Lands, to his brother, Ferdinand
(r. 1522-64). Although Ferdinand did not become Holy Roman
Emperor until 1556 when Charles V abdicated, this territorial
division effectively created two branches of the Habsburg
Dynasty: the Spanish Habsburgs, descended through Charles V, and
the Austrian Habsburgs, descended through Ferdinand
(see
fig. 2).
In addition to the lands he received from his brother,
Ferdinand also increased his territorial reach by marrying into
the Jagiellon family, the royal family of Hungary and Bohemia.
When his brother-in-law, King Louis, died fighting the Turks at
the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Ferdinand claimed the right of
succession. Although the diets representing the nobility of
Bohemia (and its dependencies of Moravia and Silesia) did not
acknowledge Ferdinand's hereditary rights, they formally elected
him king of Bohemia. As king of Bohemia, he also became an
elector-prince of the Holy Roman Empire. In Hungary and in the
subordinate Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia-Dalmatia, however,
Ferdinand faced the rival claim of a Hungarian nobleman and the
reality of the Turkish conquest of the country. He was able to
assert authority only over the northern and western edges of the
country, which became known as Royal Hungary. His Hungarian rival
became a vassal of the Turks, ruling over Transylvania in eastern
Hungary. The rest of Hungary became part of the Ottoman Empire in
1603.
Although Ferdinand undertook various administrative reforms
in order to centralize authority and increase his power, no
meaningful integration of the Hereditary Lands and the two newly
acquired kingdoms occurred. In contrast to the authority of kings
of Western Europe, where feudal structures were already in
decline, Ferdinand's authority continued to rest on the consent
of the nobles as expressed in the local diets, which successfully
resisted administrative centralization.
Data as of December 1993
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