Regesta of Emperor Frederick III. (1440-1493), vol. 40

The present volume is based on documents, charters and letters, in the Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv (i.e. the municipal and provincial archives of Vienna) from the reign of King Frederick III (14401451). With an estimated population of 20 000 to 25 000 inhabitants, Vienna exceeded all other towns of the Habsburg hereditary territories and, as their capital, was the centre of administration and power. In the light of later events (especially the siege of the imperial familiy in the Castle of Vienna in 1462), Frederick IIIs relationship with the city has generally been described as strained. This assumption, however, does not hold true on closer investigation of the records of the period. As a king, Frederick frequently took residence at Vienna with his counsellors present, his bailiffs offices near. Vienna was the seat of the sovereigns mint, many citizens of Vienna served at the Kings court. Due to its financial power, the city was in a position to grant considerable loans to the King and supplied troops as well as military equipment. Relations between the King and the city were manifold and often close. With regards to content, the focus of the so-called "Fredericiana" at Vienna is concentrated along the sovereigns obvious lines of action in the neighbourhood of the city in todays province of Lower Austria and in the border areas as well as in the city itself. As the predominant goal was to pacify the region, the city of Vienna had to supply troops on a regular basis for campaigns against feudal opponents and mercenary leaders operating along the Moravian and Hungarian borders. In contrast, the conflicts with his brother Albrecht VI as those with Bohemia and Hungary over the guardianship of Ladislaus (Postumus), one of the central issues of his politics, figure in only a few, albeit important, documents. As expected and hardly surprising for municipal records, the majority of documents relate to confirmations of rights and liberties, statutes regulating municipal matters and institutions, instructions regarding merchants, craftspeople and trade as well as financial issues and disputes of trade and ownership. More unusual and often quite touching are the numerous interventions of the King in favour of (male and female) Viennese citizens who found themselves in difficulties, such as heavy debts, disputes over guardianships or inheritance, escalating conflicts between neighbours and domestic violence. In some of these cases, the petitions to the King still exist and provide an insight into frequently acrimonious controversies. The Viennese records of Frederick IIIs reign as a king show him not only as head of the highest court of appeal and authority of justice, but above all, as an accessible and highly efficient ruler who acted to the benefit of the petitioners. His rule is dispayed as citizen-orientated, he seems to have been in touch with the people, highly active and remarkably vigorous. It was not as suggested in some diplomatic reports (Berger, 2020) marked by hesitancy, dilatoriness and delaying of conflicts to procure opacity. The numerous letters of recommendation and promotion by Frederick III are, however, specific to his reign as a king and may be interpreted as an expression of his good relations to the citizens of Vienna. From his reign as an emperor, documents of this kind are rare. After the Estates had unified in opposition in autumn 1451, Fredericks relationship with the city of Vienna changed fundamentally. The last, very harsh, letter by the King to the citizens of Vienna in this volume, after they had denounced their obedience to the King and seized his Castle at Vienna, has to been seen in the context of this turning point.