The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820

Teodora Shek Brnardić Croatian Institute of History

ARISTOCRATS AS ENLIGHTENED FATHERS The Paternal Authority of the Bohemian Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739-1805) and the Croatian Count Ivan Nepomuk Drašković (1740-1787)

Keszthely palace, 30 May 2019

HRZZ Project: European Origins of Modern Croatia: Transfer of Ideas in the Political and Cultural Field in the Eighteenth and the Nineteenth Centuries. IP-2018-10-2539 QUESTIONS How did the aristocrats in the Habsburg Monarchy exerted their paternal authority over their children?

What were the patterns of the parent-child relations?

How was the paternal authority exercised in public and how in private education?

- case studies of two members of the very old aristocratic families, Kinsky from Bohemia and Drašković from Croatia - Hausväter

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Introduction: the eighteenth century paternal authority

❑ Mirroring the image of the political and religious authority (the doctrine of the divine right)

❑ Traditional image – authoritarian and patriarchal

❑ From the 1750s and 1760s – „the craze for paternity”

❑ The sentimental aura of the fathers and a new familial imagery, the emotional intensification of the familial space (Ariès)

❑ Moral contract between parents (both fathers and mothers) and their children (theory of natural law). Leopold I, Grand Duke of Tuscany with his wife Maria Luisa and ❑ Paternal control – the only authority established by their children. Museum: Habsburg Portrait Gallery, Ambras Castle, Innsbruck. nature The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Count Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739-1805)

- Bohemian educational reformer, amateur scientist and military officer (Feldzeugmeister) - Local- und Oberdirektor at the Vater Kinsky Academy (1779 – 1805) - 1.500 cadets in 26 years - remained in the collective memory as Vater Kinsky

„The parental home is the cradle of good Bust of Vater Kinsky from gun metal in the Academy’s garden, Wiener Neustadt, unveiled education and public education must, in order on 4 October 1830 to fulfill its purpose, imitate the essence of the family life…” (Leitner von Leitnertreu, Geschichte der Wiener- Neustädter Militär-Akademie. 1852) Vaterhaus Theresian Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Married 27 July 1779 at the imperial pleasure palace Laxenburg near Vienna

Rennata von Trauttsmandorf (1741-1808) Franz Joseph Kinsky (1739-1805)

„[Married officers as teachers]… stay at home more. Are usually more serious, care more about the subject for which they are employed, have less wish to go on leave…” (Leitner von Leitnertreu, Geschichte der Wiener-Neustädter Militär-Akademie. 1852) Kinsky’s correspondence (mostly 1780s) - a couple of hundert letters (mostly German, French, and Italian) at the Kriegsarchiv in Vienna (unfortunately, Brandakten – burnt records) - fathers, mothers, relatives, friends - petitions, greeting letters

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Obwohle es mich außerst schmerzt, von Euer Hochgebohrn väterlicher Auffsicht (paternal supervision) beraubt zu seyn, so erheischet doch meine höchste Pflicht, für die durch so geraume Zeit in der Accademie, Insonderheit aber unter Hochdero Direction, gegönnte gnädigste Protection, all den heissesten Danck abzustatten, mit beyklebemter unterthänigster Bitte, mich auch in Abwesenheit zu Dero fürdaurender Schutz und Gnade, mich ferners anempfohlen seyn zu lassen. Cadet CARL JAKARDOVSKY von SUDITZ, June 1784. Durch diesen wenigen Zeilen wünschte ich das Glück zu haben Euer Hochgebohrn am Tag legen zu können, wie ich für die so väterliche Erziehung (paternal education) und so unverdient genoße Gnaden schuldigst danke; Nicht minder für das Glück welches ich itzt genüße, und ebenfalls Euer Hochgebohrn unschätzbahren Gütte und Gnade zu danken habe Cadet JOSEPH von KLOPSTEIN, September 1784.

Vous pardonnerez si je suis incommode, c’est pour mon fils que je parle, & que ne fait un père pour son enfant.

Lieutenant [Francis] Dillon, 1784 ?

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Count Ivan VIII Nepomuk Drašković (1740-1787)

- military officer - Croatian Freemasonic reformer, the founder and author of the so-called „Drašković Observance” or A Constitutional System for Freedom and Freemasonry in the United Province under the Hungarian Crown (1775) - loyal dissident - remained in the collective memory as „the father of the Croatian Freemasonry” and the „foster father“ of young officers in his regiments „Weinend sahen ihn manche junge Officiere ziehen, die er ausgebildet, ganz ausgerüstet zu ehrenvollem Masonic epitaph to Count Ivan Count Ivan VIII Nepomuk Drašković. Brote verhalf, sie im weitern Fortkommen mit Nepomuk Drašković. Croatian History Museum, HPM/PMH 2465. Beistand unterstützte, und die nun an ihm den ÖstA Wien, Vertrauliche Akte, Karton Nr.60/2, fol.90. zweiten Vater verloren…” (Trauerrede auf den Todesfall des Hochwürdigen Bruders Draskovich, gehalten in der Loge zur Grossmuth in Pest 57 23/III.87 von Bruder Jeszenovszky. 1787)

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Cousin (consanguineous) marriage approved by the Holy See

Marriage contract from 25 December 1766. Croatian State Archives, Zagreb.

Eleonora Malatinsky (1740?-1776) and Ivan Nepomuk Drašković 81740-1747). Portraits at the Trakošćan castle in Croatia. Correspondance of Ivan Nepomuk with his son Janko, 1783-87 - 30 letters: 20 from Janko, and 10 from Ivan Nepomuk (Croatian, Latin, German and French)

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Votre lettre m'a fait bien de la soie, parcque j'y ai vu votre contentement, je me donnerai toujours tant de peine pour que je puisse mériter entierement votre amour patérnel. Jusqu'apresent tot mon aplication a été pour l'amour de vous. Janko to Ivan Nepomuk, 25 April 1786

… akoli moje zapovidi pod punoma izverzsis, chekate moja ljubav, blagoszlov Bosii, postenje szvita za chast. Ivan Nepomuk to Janko, 6 November 1786

…neka mi szamo budu on otacz chili, koga kano dete bojal, kano dechecz prestimao y szada Count Janko Drašković in younger days. nerekuch stimam, y lyubim. Zato sze hochu kuliko mi bude moguche tako pod neszi, da Croatian History Museum, HPM/PMH nyima ikad sal nebu, daimadu za szina 26881

Janko to Ivan Nepomuk, 10 November 1786

…, ja schon sehe ich meinen wehrtensten Vattern hier, ich stelle mir schon jenes Vergnügen und jene Freide vor, die ich haben werde, wenn ich jenen zärtlichst die Hände küssen werde, dessen Daseyn mir bald endrissen geworden wäre, und dessen ich so sehr bedürfe, wessen Wohlseyn ich nicht aus Schmeicheley, sondern aus wahrer leidlichen Liebe, allen Schäzen der Weldt vorziehen . Janko to Ivan Nepomuk, 22 January 1787

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Conclusion

 Both counts grounded their paternal authority on sentiments rather than on iron discipline  Both counts shared the enlightened anthropological view of the parent- child relationship, grounded in the sentiments of love and gratitude  Both counts believed that family virtues love and gratitude could lead to public virtues  Alligance of their sons grounded on sentiments of respect, gratitude and love  Both counts established moral contract with their children (the discourse of duty)

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820 Thank you for your attention!

The Culture of the Aristocracy in the Habsburg Monarchy, 1750-1820