Die ungarischen Stände als Teilnehmer der böhmischen Krönung 1743
Hungarian Estates as Participants of the Bohemian Coronation in 1743

A Case Study of Maria Theresia’s Government Strategy

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is the presentation of a regal gesture and the answer given in response from the side of the estates. Maria Theresa formally invited the Hungarian aristocrats and noblemen to her coronation as rex foemina in Prague in 1743, and this invitation was accepted by many representatives of the estates. This gesture is not unknown to Czech and Hungarian historians, but its symbolical meaning has not been fully appreciated. It is not discussed in Hungarian syntheses of the period and the international research ignores this topic. But the regal invitation to the coronation and its acceptance by the estates are acts that are important in a different way than the crowning ceremony and the events of the festivities. The reciprocal symbolical gestures can be interpreted as parts of the political communication between Maria Theresa and the Estates of the Kingdom of Hungary. The paper explores, first of all, the military, political and ceremonial circumstances of the coronation itself, and shows in which way the ceremony was adjusted to the intention of crowning Maria Theresia as a King. Then it analyses the invitation as a symbolical gesture, and the circle of the invited guests. After that, it explores the travel diaries of Hungarian brothers György and László Radvánszky, which makes it possible to explore their reactions to the coronation. Finally, this event is interpreted as a part of the Habsburg-Hungarian relations and as an element of the new government strategy of Maria Theresa, who sought to win over Hungarian noblemen.

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