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/lp/cambridge-university-press/book-review-florence-after-the-medici-tuscan-enlightenment-1737-1790-22q1B5UI5c
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Center for Austrian Studies, University of Minnesota.
- ISSN
- 0067-2378
- eISSN
- 1558-5255
- DOI
- 10.1017/S006723782100028X
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
sR. J. W. Evans has characterized the early modern Habsburg Empire as “not a state but a mildly centripetal agglutination of bewilderingly heterogeneous elements,” and this conception of agglutination may also be extended beyond the core kingdoms and principalities of Central Europe. The early modern monarchy, especially following the abdication of Charles V in 1556, became a cousinly enterprise, not just in Spain and the Spanish possessions but also in Tyrol and Styria. Tuscany came late to the family agglutination, following the death of the last Medici grand duke, Gian Gastone, in 1737, when the principality fell to the house of Lorraine—that is, to Franz Stefan, who had married Maria Theresa in 1736. At Franz Stefan's death in 1765, Joseph succeeded his father as Holy Roman emperor and co-ruler with his mother in the family lands, but it was Leopold, the second son, who succeeded by “secundogeniture” as grand duke of Tuscany; he governed there for the next quarter century in what became perhaps the most exemplary demonstration of enlightened absolutism in Europe. There is no doubt that the two brothers, Joseph and Leopold as emperor and grand duke, respectively, between 1765 and 1790, must be understood as working
Journal
Austrian History Yearbook – Cambridge University Press
Published: May 1, 2021