Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz
Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz | |
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Friedrich Wilhelm Graf von Haugwitz (
Biography
In this position, Haugwitz presided over the hereditary lands of the Habsburg monarchy. After 1760, the chancery also dealt in the affairs of Bohemia.[3] The Directorium in publicis et cameralibus became a centralized agency established with the advisement of Haugwitz to deal with matters such as “international administration and taxation, public safety, social welfare, education, church matters, mining and commerce”.[4] It is clear from Maria Theresa's testament that Haugwitz was one of her most valued advisors. “He was truly sent to me by Providence, for to break the deadlock I needed such a man, honorable, disinterested, without predispositions, and with neither ambition nor hangers-on, who supported what was good because he saw it to be good…”[5]
Haugwitz’ father was a general in the service of Saxony.
In terms of compartmentalization, Haugwitz instituted a separation of judicial matters from political and fiscal matters by instituting a new High Court (Oberste Justizstelle).[9] Regional courts functioned directly beneath the Empress with each departmental chief supervising his own affairs.[10]
Haugwitz also focused on another important initiative to bring modern economic thought to students. Maria Theresa had established the Theresianum to train noble children for civil service. Through this institution, Haugwitz planned to bring about economic modernization. To catalyze this modernization and establish
In 1746, under the direction of Haugwitz, in an attempt to bring about economic centralization, the Directorium was established as a central agency to supervise the lands in the monarchy and make recommendations about economic improvements.[13] In 1749, the government established Representationen und Cammern as local offices of the Directorium chiefly as mechanisms for supervising tax policy.[9]
Because of this economic centralization, Haugwitz provided Emperor Joseph II with an unprecedented amount of information about the economies of the states over which he would reign. As part of Joseph II's education, he received an extensive overview of the economic makeup of each state. Such a report was unprecedented because it would traditionally have been viewed as an intrusion in the affairs normally reserved to the estates.[14] All of these reforms helped to bring about the eventual peak of mercantilism in the 1760s.[15]
Military reforms complimented Haugwitz's economic initiatives. Due to his belief in the need for “immediate supremacy of the sovereign over the army, and the maintenance of an adequate body of troops even in time of peace,” Haugwitz contributed to military reform in both funding and the development of a standing army.[16]
To protect the monarchy, Haugwitz recommended a standing army of 108,000 supported by contributions by the estates of 14 million
In addition to these military finance reforms, Haugwitz instituted reforms within the military. A policy quite close to conscription was established. Uniform dress was required of soldiers in order to foster national spirit. Haugwitz advocated the usage of Prussian fighting tactics. A training school was founded to train officers in these tactics.[19]
Despite the large-scale nature and depth of Haugwitz's reforms, their efficacy was not as great as he had intended. Haugwitz's attempt to transform the monarchy from a “feudal aristocracy” to a “well-organised-despotism” was incomplete. (Franck p. 190) The superior court system that established local judges, while initially an attempt at both centralization and organization brought about the opposite due to the tremendous autonomy of each departmental chief.[20] Furthermore, the reforms had limited scope, because they were not aimed at nor did they have any effect on Hungary, Transylvania, Austria, the Netherlands, or Lombardy.[21]
The beginning of the
Early in his career the composer Joseph Haydn was briefly in Count Haugwitz's employ, playing the organ in the Bohemian Chancellery chapel at the Judenplatz.[24]
Death
In the summer of 1765, he moved to one of his castles in Miroslavské Knínice, where, due to dysentery, his health worsened. He died on 30 August 1765.[2][25] His body was taken to Náměšť nad Oslavou, where he was buried on 1 September 1765 in the crypt of the Church of St. John the Baptist.[2] Later, his remains, along with those of his wife, were moved, on 19 February 1768, to a crypt in the Capuchin church near the castle in Náměšť.[2]
Footnotes
- ^ miroslavske-kninice.cz (in Czech)
- ^ ISBN 978-80-7275-093-1.
- ^ Robert A. Kann, History of the Habsburg Empire 1526-1918 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974), 173.
- ^ Grete Klingenstein, “Between Mercantalism and Physiocracy” in State and Society in Early Modern Austria, ed. Charles W. Ingrao (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue Research Foundation 1994), 204.
- ^ Maria Theresa, "Testament," in The Habsburg and Hohenzollern Dynasties in The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, ed. C.A. Macartney (New York: Walker and Company 1970), 118.
- ^ Maria Theresa (Bloomsbury Reader), Edward Crankshaw, 1969, chapter 7
- ^ crankshaw chapter 7
- ^ H.M. Scott, “Reform in the Habsburg Monarchy,” in Enlightened Absolutism Reform and Reformers in Later Eighteenth-Century Europe, ed. H.M. Scott (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1990), 152.
- ^ a b Scott, 154.
- ^ Reverend James Franck Bright, Maria Theresa 3rd ed. (London: Macmillan, 1920), 191.
- ^ Klingenstein, 204.
- ^ Klingenstein, 192.
- ^ Herman Freudenberger "Introduction" in State and Society in Early Modern Austria, ed. Charles W. Ingrao (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue Research Foundation, 1994), 144.
- ^ Klingenstein, 194.
- ^ Ingrao 144.
- ^ Bright, 68.
- ^ Bright, 68-72.
- ^ Olwen H. Hufton, Europe: Privilege and Protest 1730-1789, 2nd Ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), 119.
- G. P. Gooch, Maria Theresa and Other Studies (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1951), 5.
- ^ Bright, 191.
- ^ Scott, 155.
- ^ Longmans, 9.
- ^ Scott, 155-166.
- ^ Rita Steblin, 'Haydns Orgeldienste "in der damaligen Gräfl. Haugwitzischen Kapelle"', in: Wiener Geschichtsblätter 65/2000, p. 124-34.
- ^ Kotík, Jaromír (1999). Letopisy rodu Haugwitzů. Velká bíteš.
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