Petr Mata

Historians have rarely stressed the significance of the estates and provincial diets in the Habsburg monarchy after the Thirty Years War. My project aims to reconsider the history of such institutions in this period. In contrast to ongoing projects based on case studies, I have adopted a comparative perspective. The territorial scope of my project embraces what can be called the "core" hereditary provinces (Bohemia, Moravia, Lower and Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola). The principle aim is to prepare a monograph based upon findings of my systematic research conducted since half a decade and also upon a new analysis of bargaining processes between the estates and the court. I focus on several turning points in the history of Habsburg finances between 1620 and 1740 to show how estates responded to new fiscal challenges. The monograph is intended to fill a conspicuous gap in our understanding of the Habsburg composite monarchy as both an emerging fiscal-military state and as a political system based on mutual but asymmetric collaboration between the central power and the provincial elites.