The Austrian Aristocracy in the Age of Enlightenment Despotism

FAIN: FA-11280-75

Paul Bernard
Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Champaign, IL 61801-3620)

To conduct a detailed study of the public careers of a number of Austrian noblemen in the reigns of Maria Theresia and Joseph II (1740-1790). The chief aim of such a study is to explain why a large number of political aristocrat s should not only have failed to oppose measures that, ostensibly, seemed intended to diminish the influence of their class, but participated actively in their planning and implementation. Also the Austrian nobility will be compared with that of a number of other European countries.