War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria

Download or read book War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria written by K. MacHardy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This case study of the causes of the Thirty Years' War suggests an alternative framework to that of Absolutism, and views statebuilding as an interactive bargaining process that can engender challenges to political authority. It shows how selective court patronage changed the cultural habits of nobles in education, manners, and tastes, but failed to transform religious identities, which were intimately tied to noble interests. Instead, the confessionalization of patronage deepened divisions within the elite, providing multiple incentives for the formation of an anti-Habsburg alliance among Protestants in 1620.