When the Piast dynasty became extinct, the Habsburgs took over the rule of the Duchy of Cieszyn, and therefore Cieszyn, too. Cieszyn managed to win the status of royal town for itself, and from 1659 it also possessed the right to send its own deputies to the Silesian Diet in Breslau (Wrocław). That right was lost after 1722 when the Habsburgs handed over the Duchy of Cieszyn to Leopold, Prince of Lorraine. His son Francis later married Empress Maria Theresa and their descendants (the House of Habsburg-Lorraine) ruled the Duchy and Cieszyn until 1918. Cieszyn’s privileges were gradually circumscribed and at the beginning of the 19th century it was subordinate both de jure and de facto to the Teschener Kammer (a Habsburg administrative structure). The period of feudal dependence of Cieszyn on the Habsburgs lasted until 1848.
       In the 17th and 18th centuries Cieszyn experienced an economic crisis caused partly by the destruction during the Thirty Years’ War and partly because of the Counter-Reformation conducted by the Habsburgs, which resulted in large numbers of Lutherans residents quitting the town. Lutherans had to worship in secret until Emperor Joseph I granted permission for the building of the Lutheran Church of Jesus in 1709.
       Midway through the 18th century Cieszyn’s population (not including the suburbs belonging to the Teschener Kammer) numbered around 2,200 and things only started changing for the better towards the end of the century. The “Imperial Road” linked Cieszyn to Vienna, and to Kraków and Lwów, its schools were reformed, and in 1775 international fairs were began to be held. In 1779 the so-called Peace of Cieszyn was signed in the town, putting an end to the War of the Bavarian Succession. After the Great Fire of 1789 Cieszyn was quite quickly rebuilt, the building works being orchestrated by Fr. Leopold Jan Szersznik, the most distinguished representative of the Enlightenment in Cieszyn Silesia. His other great contribution was the foundation in 1802 of the first public library in Cieszyn Silesia and the oldest museum in Silesia and the Austrian Monarchy.
       The turn of the 19th century was another difficult period in Cieszyn’s history owing to the wars the Habsburgs were waging with first Revolutionary France, and later Napoleon. In addition the bankruptcy of the Austria State in 1811 left none of its citizens unaffected. After 1815 the social life of the town began to take shape, its first cafés were opened and its first associations and clubs were founded. In 1837 the population of the town had reached around six thousand. Further growth was held back by the bureaucratic limitations of the absolutist Austrian Monarchy and the feudal system.

J. Spyra, transl. D. French