Evolution of Maria Theresa’s Network of Advisors (1740-48)

In this research project I will examine the political advisors of Maria Theresa during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). These years witnessed a huge crisis of the monarchy and had a major impact on Maria Theresa and her post-war government. Strikingly, however, historians of the Austrian Monarchy have largely neglected this period. Nevertheless, some do cite a remarkable difference between the mind-set of pre-war and post-war statesmen, the latter often being heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and taking a more rational approach to politics, the most famous being the later State Chancellor Kaunitz. The premise of this research project is that during the war, a notable generational shift occurred, the consequences of which had a clear impact on Maria Theresa and her war policy. Therefore, the group of advisors surrounding her will be investigated. Not only will the background of these statesmen be analysed, but also their networks and mutual relations. Three subcategories are therefore distinguished, although these overlap in several ways: members of the Viennese Geheime Konferenz, the supreme advisory body during the war, several major Austrian diplomats serving abroad, and some influential members of Maria Theresas court. In order to analyse these personalities, their ideas, decisions, networks and influence, I will scrutinize diplomatic and official correspondence as well as documents produced by advisory institutions. Discourse and content analysis will be used to unravel rhetorical strategies, factions and opinions, and will be combined with methods related to the analysis of social networks. These will be used to focus on the ties between the different statesmen under consideration, and their relational behaviour, in order to profile not only the men concerned, but also the group of Maria Theresas confidants as a whole. This research project is innovative and important in several respects. Methodologically, it will help to test the applicability of network analysis methods to eighteenth-century political history and archival sources. As regards content, it will help to clarify the profiles of the men advising Maria Theresa at the beginning of her reign, as well as the gradual change in personnel and statesmanship during the war. More generally, this research project will help me to engage in debates concerning the nature of eighteenth-century government, the influence of the Enlightenment in state service, the kinship, friendship and other bonds between the political advisors, and the political and private goals these bonds served. Finally, the upcoming commemoration of Maria Theresa in 2017, with various exhibitions and other events, will give me the opportunity to disseminate these new findings to a larger audience.

This research project on the network of advisors of the young Maria Theresa and their gradually shifting profiles has revealed that the group of political advisors the queen relied on was extensive and limited at the same time, and that she began to alter its composition very quickly after her accession to the throne. Archival research showed that between October 1740 and December 1748, more than 160 men attended one or more meetings of the Geheime Konferenz, the highest advisory body in the Habsburg Monarchy. On the other hand, the investigations also revealed that a small group of conference members attended much more frequently than the rest. They also identified a small circle of close confidants of the queen and her spouse Francis Stephen as being highly influential, even in military matters. This group included Countess Fuchs, the Duke of Sylva-Tarouca, the secretary of the Geheime Konferenz Bartenstein, and Francis Stephens cabinet secretary François Joseph Toussaint. Another conclusion is that Maria Theresa shaped the group of advisors inherited from her father from the very beginning of her reign. She decided to no longer invite specific advisors to the Geheime Konferenz and settle important affairs outside of it. By doing so, she excluded statesmen she deemed too old or incapable. The project has thus helped to determine who gained and who lost influence in Viennas upper crust of decision-makers during the 1740s and how Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen modified this group during the War of the Austrian Succession. From a methodological point of view, it has become clear that the preserved correspondence is too fragmented to allow a solid network analysis for the entire group of councilors. While thousands of letters are preserved for certain actors such as the Counts of Harrach or Karl Johann Cobenzl, almost none can be found for others. I therefore decided to focus the project on the extensive letters of the Counts and Countesses Harrach and reconstruct how this family, which placed four scions in the highest political echelons during the 1740s, relied on male and female networks all across Europe to remain influential under the young Maria Theresas reign. The Harrachs can be considered representative for the Austro-Bohemian higher aristocracy as well as for the group of conference ministers that helped the queen steer the ship of state. 2,800 letters and other documents have been entered into a database so far, and they reveal that in order to defend their interests and maintain their influence at court and in Viennas administrative bodies, the Harrachs and others had to constantly adapt their ways of operating. They also needed to forge new allianceseven with men they deeply distrusted, such as Bartenstein. Nevertheless, the head of the family, Friedrich August, fell into disfavor in 1749 owing to his defense of the Estates interests and his opposition against the centralization plans of Haugwitz. This illustrates the generational shift that had slowly taken place during the 1740s and heralded the heyday of Enlightenment reformers like Haugwitz and Kaunitz.