#Maximilian of Austria

[redrosecut]

I didn't expect it beforehand but I really enjoyed this toxic relationship between Charlotte and Maximilian. Go, doom each other.

[sisionscreen]

Philip Froissant (Emperor Franz Joseph), Johannes Nussbaum (Archduke Maximilian), Devrim Lingnau (Empress Elisabeth) and Almila Bağrıaçık (Leontine von Apafi) behind the scenes of the second season of The Empress (2022).

[illustratus]

Emperor Maximilian I on an Alpine Ibex hunt by Franz Krammer

[little-candy-store-of-horrors]

"Bella gerunt alii, tu felix Austria nube!"

Day 6 of @spaus-week 's challenge

"Let others wage war, you, happy Austria, marry!" Was the political strategy of the Habsburgs, and marry did the House of Austria! Infamously, scandalously, sensationally. A mangled wreath of a family tree. We all know this horror story. And we all know the bitter end.

After Emperor Charles V&I divided his Spanish and Austrian inheritance ((also gained through his parents' and grandparents' marriages)) to his descendants and those of his younger brother Ferdinand I respectively, the Habsburg dynasty split into two branches. The Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs notoriously intermarried for generations, right up till Charles II of Spain whose heirless death in 1700 sparked the War of the Spanish Succession. The inbreeding and this informal Latin motto behind it has been blamed to hell and back for their implosion, for the physical ugliness that ran in this royal bloodline. But it is not to say the Habsburgs never went to war, nor that dynastic marriage was a political strategy unique to them! But they were, if anything, bloody successful at it seeing how they did rule half of Europe for 200 years, and then a lot of it in the Austrian line for another 200. Before anyone figured out inbreeding was bad it was considered a privilege to marry into the Habsburgs, with Louis XV claiming that Louis XVI's betrothal to Marie Antoinette was marrying the "Daughter of the Caesars", and Napoleon Bonaparte infamously ditching Josephine for Marie Louise. Charles II was a poor sod who took the fall and the mugs were wretched from the same ugly gene being passed around countless times*, but they did wear power and privilege well.

💅✨ Symbolism bc I'm a NERD and this my Category 10 autism event ✨💅 :

Charles V & Ferdinand I's joint portrait based on that propaganda woodcut, behind them the colours of the Habsburg flag.

The Spanish branch, comprising Charles V & I's descendants, is represented with a black background, and the Austrian branch, comprising Ferdinand I's descendants, gold, both colours pulled from their flag, a dynasty intertwined but split in two.

Round frames denote that the individual had no heirs.

Only the most influential ruler on both sides, the King of Spain and the Holy Roman Emperor, are represented as framed portraits, explaining Archduke Charles II's unframed depiction.

The unconventional placement of Charles II of Spain and Emperor Rudolf II's nameplates are a nod to their queerness: their intersexuality and bisexuality respectively.

Ferdinand III's portrait is lopsided because of the losses of the 30 Years War.

Cracks in Charles II's portrait: 🙃🙃🙃

[bronzebluemind]

there’s always a random unknown ösi doing damn good

[walzerjahrhundert]

Maximilian Liebenwein

Pages from one of his war sketchbooks, 1917

More of his World War I sketchbooks can be found here.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Double spiral staircase, an architectural and engineering marvel, is silently standing within a public building in old town of Graz in Strya, Austria.

Completed in 1438 under the guidance of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, the Burg of Graz was expanded by Frederick’s son, Emperor Maximilian, from 1494-1500.

When reopened, officials and civilians marvelled at "Doppelwendeltreppe," or “Double Spiral Staircase” that travelled two floors to top of tower.

This architectural masterpiece of 1499 has often been interpreted as a symbol of eternity.

Graz people call it "stairs of reconciliation."

If you go separate ways, you will at some point reunite.

Built by an unknown architect, the staircase has proven to stand the test of time. It is still used for official town purposes today. 

Double spiral staircases are not unheard of, though they are very rare.

This one is remarkable for hollow spindles, which feature a remarkable amount of dexterity in engineering.

[archduchessofnowhere]

was there a reason why max didn't adopt an archduke to groom as a successor? not that i imagine any parent would have been happy to be separated from their child a whole ocean away in a shaky monarchy, but it seems like a better idea than showing favour to the previously deposed emperor's family.

He tried to do that too! Quoting Brigitte Hamann in her edition of the diary of Prince Carl Khevenhüller (an Austrian volunteer officer in Mexico):

Besides the Iturbide project there was, by the way, another effort to regulate the matter of the succession. In November of 1865 count Charles Bombelles addressed by order of Maximilian to his younger brother, archduke Karl Ludwig, who had three sons (Franz Ferdinand, Otto and Ferdinand), asking him if he would be willing to “give your approval to adopt one of your sons. The same prince would immediately travel, still in the course of the year 1866, to Mexico, as son and heir of the emperor and the empress of Mexico; and H.I.M the empress Charlotte would go to Vienna to collect him. Her Majesty would bring the necessary court so that from here only a nanny and a doctor should be sent over. In case the emperor Max still has a son, the prince would return to Austria endowed with an income worthy of his position”. Max exposed this wish to his brother “with the justificated hope of not allowing the House of Habsburg to lose the fruits of the gigantic work of an archduke of Austria” (1994, p. 144)

I must correct Hamann here though: in November of 1865 Karl Ludwig only had two sons, the not yet two-years-old Franz Ferdinand and six months-old baby Otto. Unsurprisingly, Karl Luwdig turned down his brother's proposal.

This was around the same time Max made the Iturbide boys princes, which likely means that his plan A was to adopt one of his nephews, and the Iturbides were more of a "backup" plan in case no Habsburg agreed to give his child in adoption. I don't know if he tried again later on; personally I think he may have had more luck had he asked one of his cousins instead.

SOURCE:

Hamann, Brigitte (1994). Con Maximiliano en México. Del diario del príncipe Carl Khevenhüller, 1864-1867 (translation by Angélica Scherp)

[skijumpingyeah]

ortner on the podium wow

[wandering-cemeteries]

Casket of Maximilian I of Mexico (1832-1867) (r. 1864-1867).

Maximilian, a Hapsburg Archduke, was chosen by Mexican monarchists to be the emperor of Mexico. He alienated his conservative backers by enacting liberal policies. His regime was propped up by French troops but they started to leave in 1866. The French had to leave because the United States stopped fighting itself and started to enforce the Monroe Doctrine (in which the US opposes European colonialism in the Western Hemisphere because that's the US's job). Left on his own, Maximilian was executed by the reestablished republican government.

Vienna, Austria

Feb. 2023

[juanaofcastilla]

La Corona Partida 2016

Raúl Mérida as Philip The Handsome

José Coronado as Emperor Maximilian I

Irene Escolar as Juana of Castile

Úrsula Corberó as Margaret of Austria

[sisionscreen]

Philip Froissant (Emperor Franz Joseph) and Johannes Nussbaum (Archduke Maximilian) behind the scenes of the second season of The Empress (2022).

[illustratus]

Combination Sallet and Bevor of Maximilian I by Lorenz Helmschmid, circa 1495. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Imperial Armoury

[lancastrianwasian]

Can we have a limited series about Margaret of Austria? She’s so interesting! Betrothed to the King of France, she was dumped by him in favor of her would-be stepmother. Then she was engaged to the Prince of Asturias, but he died, and afterward, she married the Duke of Savoy, who passed away three years later. After that, she became regent and governor of the Low Countries for her nephew, raising him and her nieces.

Get my girl her moment!

[bronzebluemind]

WILLST DU MICH VERARSCHEN

[postcard-from-the-past]

Archduke Franz Ferdinand Carl Ludwig Joseph Maria of Austria with his wife Sophie Marie Josephine Albina, Countess of Chotkow and Wognin, Duchess of Hohenberg, and wit their children: Princess Sophie Marie Franziska Antonia Ignatia Alberta of Hohenberg Maximilian Karl Franz Michael Hubert Anton Ignatius Joseph Maria, Duke of Hohenberg

Austrian vintage postcard, mailed in 1908 to Bordeaux, France