Oldal 535 [535]
534 e Az udvar vonzásában
Kinship and court connections also had a very beneficial effect on the
promotion of noblemen in Viennese government bodies and their access to
advisory councils, for example the recommendation of his future mother-in¬
law, the court grand master Wildenstein played a key role in the appointment
of the young Jozsef Balassa as an advisor to the Hungarian Court Chancel¬
lery. However, those whose families had been actively represented in Vienna
for several generations and had an extensive local network of contacts were
in an even better position to obtain various positions in the imperial city. In
the case of the Palffys for example, the members of the family who went on
to higher careers were all born in the imperial city, and their mothers, who
came from a family belonging to the Czech-Austrian aristocratic elite, typ¬
ically even served as lady-in-waiting (Hofdame) to one of the empresses at a
young age. The presence and official career of several generations in Vienna
had a positive effect not only on the magnates but also on the common no¬
bility, as the career paths and strategies of the Jaszvicz, Koller, Urményi and
Végh families show. Property ownership in Vienna was a means and evi¬
dence of lasting court integration, and of all the housing options available the
palaces were the most visible demonstration of the presence and position of
a noble family in the physical and representational space of the imperial city.
In the period under study, four Hungarian aristocratic families (Batthyany,
Erdődy, Esterhazy, Palffy) had their own palaces in Vienna. The members of
these families were able to compete successfully in the long run for court and
government positions among the Czech-Austrian aristocratic families.
In the monograph we can get to familiarize ourselves with several persons
who were even called ,,labanc” (or pro-Hapsburg traitors) by the old histo¬
riography, such as Karoly Batthyany, the Ayo, conference minister or Mikldés
Palffy (1657-1732), the master of the horse (Oberststallmeister) at the court
of Empress Eleonore and later Palatine (palatinus) of Hungary, about whom,
despite their political importance and influence, Hungarian historiography
knows very little, and therefore their figures cannot occupy their rightful
place in historical memory. I hope that the present study will contribute to
a more accurate understanding of this group which has been marginalised
by research in relation to its importance, and to the clarification of the many
(often unfounded) negative prejudices associated with the institutions of the
Viennese court.