Introduction
The year 1653 was crucial in the history of the Duchy of Cieszyn. After 363 years of rule by the Cieszyn Piast dynasty their last representative, Duchess Elisabeth Lucretia, died. After her death came the time of the Habsburg dynasty’s rule over the Duchy, and it was not much shorter: it lasted for 265 years. The Habsburgs took over as Bohemian Kings because as far back as 1327 – after the rulers of the Duchy of Cieszyn had paid a feudal tribute to the Bohemian Kings - the Duchy had become part of St Vaclav’s Crown. The Habsburgs got the Bohemian crown in 1526 and from then the bonds between them and the Cieszyn Dukes tightened more and more. After the death of Elisabeth Lucretia the inheritance – in the form of an expired fiefdom got into the hands of the Bohemian Kings, that is, the Habsburgs who, at the same time, had the titles of Roman Emperors of the German Nation. Thus when they started to run their new land they appeared in a double role, i.e. as fiefdom lords and private owners. The first of the Habsburgs who ruled over the Duchy of Cieszyn was Ferdinand IV (1633-1654), the king of Germany and Hungary. He got it from his father, Emperor Ferdinand III (1608- 1657) but died of smallpox shortly after that and the Emperor took the Duchy back. Neither Ferdinand III nor his followers, i.e. the lords of the Cieszyn acres, the emperors Leopold I (1640-1705), Joseph I (1678-1711) or Charles VI (1685-1740) were really interested in their newly acquired Duchy. They treated it like one of many provinces that bring income or, quite often, as a land subject to exchanges and donation, which was in accordance with the dynastic policy of the Habsburgs. The manifestation of this policy was the setting up, on what had been Piast estates, of a so-called Komora Cieszyńska (in 1654), an institution whose aim was to run the property, efficiently and centrally, on behalf of the Duke. The best example of this was the Emperor Charles VI’s decision (in 1722) to grant the Duchy of Cieszyn to his faithful ally, duke Leopold-Lothringen (1679-1729), in exchange for the small Italian Duchy of Monferrato (on the Po river, between Turin and Milan) that he had lost during the Spanish war of succession. His son, Francis Stephen-Lothringen (1708-1765) became, in 1736, the husband of the future Empress Maria Theresa, daughter of the last ‘genuine Habsburg’, the Emperor Charles VI.
That marriage started the Habsburg-Lothringen dynasty and their progeny ruled over Cieszyn and the Duchy until 1918. Francis Stephen-Lothringen became the emperor in 1745 and took the name Francis I and co-ruler with his wife. The emperor died in 1765 and he endowed his eldest son, the Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790) with the Duchy of Cieszyn as his own personal fiefdom. Joseph II ran the monarchy together with his mother until she died in 1780. He was the first Habsburg who interested himself in his Cieszyn properties that comprised the so-called Komora Cieszyńska by visiting it in 1766, 1773 and 1787. He stayed at Baron Jan Beess von Chrostin’s house, at the corner of Głęboka and Zamkowa (64 Głęboka street). Since then the house has been called The Emperor’s House (Kaiserhaus). In April of that year the archduchess Maria Christina (1742-1798), Joseph II’s sister and the beloved daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa, got married to a Saxon Duke, Albert Casimir (1738-1822) who was a son of August III, a Polish king and a Saxon Elector. On the occasion of the wedding Maria Theresa bought back the Duchy of Cieszyn from her son and on May 31st, 1766 she granted it, as a wedding present, to her daughter and her son-in-law, who took the title of Cieszyn and Saxonic Duke. Duke Albert Casimir was born in 1738 in Moritzburg near Dresden. Since his m other, Maria Josephine, belonged to the Habsburgs, he had resided at the Viennese court from his adolescence where he was received very warmly by the Empress Maria Theresa. During his long life he played a lot of different court- military- and political functions. From 1760 he was a General-Lieutenant in the Austrian army, in 1765- 1780 – the Emperor’s Deputy in Hungary, and from 1781 to 1791 – Governor-General in the Austrian Netherlands. It was there, too, that he, together with his wife, developed an unusual passion for collecting through buying up 30.000 drawings and engravings in Italy, France, England and other countries – produced by 14.000 outstanding artists. As a result of this, the world’s largest collection of graphic art came into existence. The collection is still in existence in Vienna and it is named ‘Albertina’ after its founder. In 1794 Duke Albert Casimir was appointed Field Marshal of the Reich. However, for political reasons, he resigned from this function shortly after and in 1795 he retired. After the death of his wife Maria Christina in 1798 he became the only Fiefdom Lord of the Duchy of Cieszyn. He substantially enlarged the number of properties of the Austrian Monarchy by buying, at the end of the 18th century, many villages from impoverished Cieszyn noblemen. He was also a precursor of industry in his properties. He founded, in 1772, a steelworks and a foundry in Ustroń; in 1779 – a textile workshop in a new quarter (Saska Kępa) of Cieszyn, and in 1806 – a steelworks in BASZKA near Frýdek. He also planned the rebuilding of the Cieszyn castle, where he intended to place his collection. These plans were thwarted by the unexpected death of Maria Christina. For his beloved wife he established a splendid pyramidal sepulchre, made of Carraran marble, in the church of the Augustinian Order in Vienna. The tomb was made by a well-known Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. He himself settled down in his palace in Vienna (Augustinerbastei) where he also placed his library and the collection of art. During Duke Albert Casimir’s time, in 1775, an International Fair started in Cieszyn. Its aim was to help the newly-annexed Galicia to integrate with the remaining countries of the monarchy. In the same year the construction of the ‘Emperor’s road’ started. It connected Vienna with Lvov through Cieszyn and Bielsko. Also, permanent postal connections were introduced. In 1779 there was a Peace Congress in Cieszyn which ended the ‘Bavarian War of Succession.’ Once again Cieszyn was in the centre of European interest when, in 1805, after the defeat of the Austrian army in the war with Napoleon, it was a temporary capital of the monarchy for a few weeks because the court that fled from Vienna moved to Cieszyn. It is also worth mentioning that the Duke was the founder of the first modern waterworks in Vienna in 1805 – which have functioned until today as the Albertinian Waterworks (Albertinische Wasserleitung). Duke Albert Casimir o f Saxe- Teschen died in 1822, leaving the Duchy of Cieszyn to his adopted son, Archduke Charles Ludwig Habsburg (1771-1847). One of the first undertakings of the Archduke was the creation, in 1826, of an indivisible fidei-commission of Cieszyn landed property (apart from Frýdek) which, from then on, was supposed to be inherited solely by his male descendants. Charles Ludwig, an Austrian Archduke and Cieszyn Duke, was the third son of Leopold II, Duke of Tuscany and, from 1790, the Emperor, and Maria Louisa of Spain. He was born in Florence in 1771 and he spent his youth in Tuscany. At the age of 20 he was adopted by his aunt Maria Christina and her husband Albert Casimir and thus he became the inheritor of the Duchy of Cieszyn. He moved to his adoptive parents in Brussels where he studied war tactics and strategy. He dedicated himself to a military career and as early as in 1793 he was appointed Major-General – and Governor of the Netherlands. In 1796 he gained the rank of Field Marshal and the post of General Commander of the Austrian army in Southern Germany where, after a few battles, he pushed the French army over the Rhine. In the following year he was transferred to Northern Italy. However, he was forced to withdraw with his army to Styria. The internal conflicts within the Austrian General Staff and with the Russian staff of generals were the reasons why he left the military service in 1800. However, not for a long time. The defeats of the Austrian army forced the Emperor to put Charles Ludwig in charge of the Ministry of War and Admiralty and to confer the title of Field Marshal on him. This made it easier for him to carry out, in 1801-1805, the reform of the army. He continued to fight with Napoleon within the anti-French coalition. In 1805 he stopped the French expansion in Italy. His greatest success was to defeat Napoleon himself in the battle of Aspern near Vienna fought on 21st and 22nd of May 1809. He was the victor of Aspern. In 1860 his triumph was commemorated in the form of an equestrian monument on The Square of Heroes at the Viennese Hofburg. However, on July 6th 1809, he was defeated at the battle of Wagram, during which he was wounded. He withdrew to Znojmo and, after a battle that was not decisive and without the Emperor’s consent, he signed cease-fire with Napoleon. This was the reason for dismissing him from all his military posts. The Archduke, soured, went to Cieszyn where he spent all autumn. Still for a short time, in 1815, he became commander of a fortress in Mainz. Also in the same year he married Duchess Henriette Alexandra of Nassau-Weilburg (1797-1829), due to whom Austria and Cieszyn Silesia have adopted the custom of a Christmas tree, brought here from her home, the Duchy of Nassau. In 1822 when the archduke took over, after his adoptive father, the Duchy of Cieszyn, he became one of the richest Habsburgs. He expanded his estates, among other things that he did was purchase (in 1838) the Żywiec county together with a steelworks in Węgierska Górka. He developed and modernized his factories and in 1836 he founded a new steelworks in Třinec. In 1842 he started a foundry there, and in the Ustroń steelworks – a rolling-mill, in 1845. Also, in 1838 a new, Archduke brewery came into being.
The Archduke was the only Habsburg who lived in Cieszyn for an extended period of time. He took up the idea that had not been realized by Duke Albert Casimir – to rebuild the Cieszyn castle and, in 1838-1840 he erected a classicistic Hunters’ Palace together with an Orangery, according to a design by his court architect, Józef Kornhäusel. Charles Ludwig died in Vienna in 1847, leaving the Duchy of Cieszyn to his eldest son, the archduke Albert (Albrecht) Frederic Rudolph Habsburg (1817- 1895). He was born in Vienna in 1817 and in his childhood and adolescence he received a military upbringing. He went up the ladder of a military career fast. In 1840, as Major-General, he became commander of a brigade in Graz, in 1844 he was commander-inchief in Moravia, and he was the commanding general in 1845, for Upper and Lower Austria and Salzburg, in 1851-1860 he was a military governor of Hungary. In 1863 he became a Field Marshal. He became famous during the war campaign in Italy where, on June 24th 1866, he won the battle of Custoza against the Italian army. It was there that he gained the nickname: ‘The victor of Custoza’ (Sieger von Custoza) and his deed was commemorated by an equestrian monument that was erected in 1899 and p ut on the Augustine Tower in Vienna. In the war between Austria and Prussia in 1866 he took command over the Austrian northern army. As a sign of appreciation of his contribution he was appointed, in 1869, General Inspector of the Army. During his war campaigns he used a special tent from Custoza, called ‘Custozazelt’ which was then inherited, with all its rich equipment and service, by the Emperor Franz Joseph I. The Emperor thought highly of his cousin as a guardian of the conservative values of the family and made him his trusted paladin. Archduke Albert inherited the Duchy on the eve of the most essential (in the history of Cieszyn Silesia) social and economic changes that were started by the events of the Spring of Nations in 1848. These also aroused the Polish national spirit in Cieszyn Silesia. The reaction of the Austrian authorities, in the form of the introduction of neoabsolute rules in 1851, stopped – for many years - the development of social and national activity, the Polish national life included. After the failure of this policy towards the end of 1859 and after the introduction of constitutional rule, numerous Polish organizations of social, cultural, religious, educational and economic character started to emerge. With their activity they contributed to the regaining of independence in 1918. As Cieszyn Duke Albrecht proved to be a foreseeing host and an energetic entrepreneur who contributed to the economic growth of his properties. He expanded his holdings by buying, in 1862, the ‘Gabriela’ mine in Karviná, and the ‘Karol’ steelworks in Kończyce near Ostrava. In numerous sawmills the wood from the Beskids was processed, linen-spinning factories and weaving-mills functioned, and also flour-mills, spirit distilleries, oil press factories and creameries that produced butter that was popular all over the monarchy and exported to the Middle East. It was called Teebutter ‘Teschner erzherzogliche Butter’, ‘Cieszyn Archduke Butter’. The Cieszyn brewery was one of the biggest in Austria, which prompted the Archduke to found, in 1856, another brewery in Żywiec. The founding of a modern sugarfactory in Chybie in 1885 was the culmination of these economic successes. Since he was the owner of so much wealth, the Archduke Albrecht engaged himself in charity activities by supporting, among other things, the building of a Catholic church in Třinec, an evangelical Silesian Hospital in Cieszyn and the Church of Jesus’ Heart in the Cieszyn Avenues of Albrecht. The Archduke Albrecht married, in 1844, Duchess Hildegard of Bavaria (1825-1864), however, he did not have any male descendants with her. It is for this reason that the Cieszyn properties were inherited by his brother Karl Ferdinand’s son, archduke Frederic (Friedrich) Maria Albrecht Habsburg (1856- 1936). Like his paternal uncle, from his youth Friedrich was trained to perform military functions. Together with his military education, he was educated in the fields of mining, steelworking and agriculture since he was the inheritor of the grand Cieszyn fortune. He started his military service in 1874 and, going up the ladder of a military career quickly, he became the commanding general of the 5th Army in Bratislava. Duchess Isabella of Croy-Dülmen (1865-1931) became Friedrich’s wife in 1874 with whom he had 8 daughters and one son. In 1895, after the death of uncle Albrecht, he became the owner of Komora Cieszyńska and from that time, while attaching extreme importance to the economic development of his properties, he was a frequent visitor there. He resided mostly in his castles in Cieszyn and Frýdek, he also often stayed in his Hunting Lodge in Wisła where he organized hunts for wood grouse. In 1905, from a great part of his property, he formed an Austrian joint stock company – of M ining and Steelworks (Österreichische Berg-und Hüttengesellschaft), with the capital of 25 million crowns and he became the main shareholder. Its emergence enhanced the economic efficiency of his properties to an even greater extent and huge incomes made the archduke Frederic one of the richest people in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. In the same year (1905) he became the General Inspector of the Army and he moved from Bratislava to his palace in Vienna where the ‘Albertina’ collection of graphic art was situated and which he developed by obtaining works by Dürer, Raphael and Rembrandt. In 1907 the Emperor put the Archduke in charge of the function of Chief Commander of the Territorial Defence Army. However, after the conflict with the heir to the throne, archduke Franz Ferdinand, he resigned from his military functions, in the summer of 1914. The death of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and the outbreak of World War I brought Friedrich to the peak of power. He got the rank of the Field Marshal and he was made commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian army. Thanks to this Cieszyn became, in 1914-1916, the headquarters of the General Staff (AOK – Armeeoberkomando). After the death of Franz Josef I in 1916 the young emperor Karl I became the main commander of the army. Friedrich became his deputy; however, not for long because in 1917 he was dismissed. After the end of the First World War, in 1918, he lost his properties in Cieszyn Silesia. The wealth of Komora Cieszyńska, on the basis of a peace contract with St. Germain, was taken over by the newly created (recreated) countries of Poland and Czechoslovak. Archduke Friedrich died on his Hungarian estate in Mosonmagyarovar in 1936.
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Today the name of the Habsburgs evokes mixed feelings. On the one hand – a feeling of dislike and disapproval when the topics of their role during the partitions of Poland or the Germanizing policy are raised. On the other hand – a feeling of liking and melancholy, especially in the provinces that used to be under their rule. Besides Galicia, Cieszyn Silesia also belonged to that group. Even today, in many houses in Cieszyn, numerous tokens of remembrance from the Emperor’s and King’s times are kept with fondness in family archives. They are: medals and awards received by a great-grandfather who served in the Austrian army, officer licences - written on parchment scroll, or conferment of a doctor’s degree. Also, stamps with twoheaded eagles from old letters and golden coins that are placed under a plate on the Christmas Eve table remind us of the good times of the monarchy. In the old photograph albums with family photographs the first few pages are taken by the photographs of Emperor Franz Joseph I, our gracious Emperor and his high-born family. The Habsburgs’ portraits were placed not only in family albums; they were also hung in townspeople’s drawing rooms where the ‘Emperor’s Hymn’ by Haydn was played with great pleasure. Today portraits of the goodnatured emperor Franz Joseph are returning to Cieszyn cafés and restaurants, reminding us of the good, old, peaceful Austrian times. Memories lighten the past and make it take on many new colours. So… what was it really like, what was the real relationship between Cieszyn and the Habsburg dynasty? Then, let’s take a stroll in Cieszyn and Czech Cieszyn - along the route of Cieszyn Dukes from the Habsburg dynasty.
CIESZYN DUKES FROM THE HABSBURG AND HABSBURG-LORRAINE DYNASTY
King Ferdinand IV - 1653 – 1654
Emperor Ferdinand III - 1654 – 1657
Emperor Leopold I - 1657 – 1705
Emperor Joseph I - 1705 – 1711
Emperor Karl VI - 1711 – 1722
Leopold, Duke of Lorraine - 1722 – 1729
Emperor Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine - 1729 – 1765
Emperor Joseph II - 1765 – 1766
Archduchess Marie Christine and Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen - 1766 - 1798 - 1822
Archduke Karl (Charles) Ludwig - 1822 – 1847
Archduke Albrecht (Albert) - 1847 – 1895
Archduke Friedrich - 1895 – 1918
Photographs: Dominik Dubiel, Paweł Halama, Daniel Hryciuk, Magdalena Jańczuk, Renata Karpińska, Mariusz Makowski, Joanna Rzepka-Dziedzic, Anna Szostok-Fedrizzi, Henryk Tesarczyk
Translation from Polish: Lucyna Krzanowska and John Whitewood
Reproductions of exhibits, documents and photographs from the collections of:
- Museum of Cieszyn Silesia in Cieszyn,
- Cieszyn Historical Library,
- Cieszyn Branch of the State Archive in Katowice,
- Cieszyn Town Council,
- Museum of Beskidy in Frýdek-Mistek,
- private collection of Mariusz Makowski
- H. Wawreczka, J. Spyra, M. Makowski, ‘Cieszyn i Czeski Cieszyn na starych widokówkach i fotografiach’, WART, Nebory 1999