Oldal 535 [535]
OCR
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-inlaw, the court grand master Wildenstein played a key role in the appointment of the young Jozsef Balassa as an advisor to the Hungarian Court Chancellery. 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, typically 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 nobility, as the career paths and strategies of the Jaszvicz, Koller, Urményi and Végh families show. Property ownership in Vienna was a means and evidence 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 historiography, 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.
