Empress and Empire: Ceremonials, Media, and Rulership

When discussions in scholarship and journalism turn to empresses, especially in Austria, only two women are actually associated with the title: Maria Theresa and Elisabeth, referred to as Sissi. Yet after the Middle Ages, a long line of women bore this title and thereby acquired powers of rulership and symbolic importance within the framework of the Holy Roman Empire, hence far beyond the borders of the Habsburg monarchy. These princesses of early modern Europe the highest ranking women in Europe`s aristocratic society have hardly received any scholarly attention, nor do they play any role whatsoever in public historical consciousness. This is due to many reasons, one of which, however, is that traditional scholarship on the history of the old empire for a long time dealt exclusively with law, institutions, and institutionalized politics. Signs of significant change have appeared only during the last decade, with researchers attributing greater relevance to symbols and rituals, communication and networks, for the survival and workings of the empire. But the role of princesses in general and of the empress in particular has thus far not been systematically studied. The project seeks to remedy this lacuna by pursuing three main objectives. First, it will create an inventory of public communications about the empress, which as far as possible will include all self-contained printed texts and printed pictures, as well as samples of newspaper reporting. Second, on the basis of this inventory the project will inquire into the image of the empress drawn at various different levels of public perception and discourse: by jurists and political scientists, by officials and diplomats, and in the reporting about the empress`s major ceremonial appearances in the empire. With respect to the latter, the project will concentrate on coronations of empresses and their entry processions at Imperial Diets. Third, the project will examine whether and what kinds of contacts existed between the empress and other princesses participating in or attending Imperial Diets. In so doing, the project proceeds from the assumption that an empress, as her dynasty`s female representative, was entitled to a certain scope of action, one that she also exploited, for example, by actively participating in the representation of the empire and dynasty and by organizing networks with other princesses. The project will thus contribute not only to the history of the Holy Roman Empire but also to an understanding of the workings of dynastic rulership that takes women into account. In addition, the project will for the first time systematically inquire into the media perception of empresses in the early modern period.

When people talk about empresses today, most of them, especially in Austria, actually think of only two women: Maria Theresa and Elisabeth, called Sissi. But since the Middle Ages there have been a long line of women, also and especially from the House of Habsburg, who bore this title in the Holy Roman Empire. However, they have been forgotten by the public as well as by historical research. The aim of the project was to investigate the role of these hitherto largely unknown Habsburg women in and for the Empire between 1550 and 1750 - did they have sovereign powers, did they influence political decisions? At the end of our investigations it can be stated that the empresses were present to a much greater extent than previously known. This is true on several different levels, for legal debates as well as for media coverage of the imperial house. It also applies to the design and media presentation of the coronations of empresses, several of which took place in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it also applies to the activities of empresses and networks within the empire and beyond. The coronation of the empress provided an opportunity for all those involvedthe imperial couple, the electors, court officials, princes and princesses of the empireto present themselves to the public of the empire and to affirm their rank and status. Thus, the coronations were always "performances of the empire", in which the order and constitution of the empire were presented and established. At the same time, they provided an opportunity to depict gender hierarchies before a large public, since there was lively coverage of these events in the media, i.e. in newspapers, pamphlets and books. Last but not least, in connection with the coronations, numerous pictorial representations were created, which were collected and evaluated for the first time in the now completed project. It has also been shown for the first time that long before Maria Theresa, empresses had various tasks to perform in the context of imperial rule in the empire. Like their princely contemporaries throughout Europe, they and their husband formed a working couple in which both took on specific tasks. Their role as intercessors and brokers, who were able to establish contacts, promote negotiations, arrange marriages and influence appointments, was of central importance. To this end, empresses not only gave audiences, but above all maintained extensive networks of correspondence in which greetings and petitions were conveyed as well as messages. Even if in early modern times rule was primarily understood as the right of men, the empresses were undoubtedly active in the context of imperial rule, both in the Austrian hereditary lands and in the Holy Roman Empire.