| Abstrakt: |
Since the Middle Ages, entries into towns constituted the most common way of a ruler's representation in front of his subjects. These entries were part of the travels undertaken by the king and his court, during which the ruler demonstrated his power over a territory entrusted to him by God. Various social groups were integrated into the entry ceremony which was meant to signify social consensus. In addition to the ruler, his family, and the courtiers, also local authorities (such as the nobility and clergymen from neighboring areas) and townsmen participated in these entries. They wanted to present themselves in front of the ruler, just as the ruler wanted to present himself in front of them. Both sides were deeply interested in a trouble-free course of the entire ceremonial and this mutual consensus was also expressed at an iconographic level, namely by symbols lining the route through a town. In the 18th century, the monarch's entries underwent a significant change. However, this change was not initiated by the forming civil society, but rather by the ruler and his personal preferences. The costly and opulent travels of Charles VI from the first half of the 18th century, during which the Emperor meticulously insisted on respecting all ceremonial rules, were replaced by more economical travels of his daughter Maria Theresa whose representation was mostly based on very different principles than her father's representation. Even greater changes to the ruler's travels were brought about with the rule of Joseph II, who preferred simplicity and efficiency that enabled him to move swiftly from place to place. His minimal retinue and frequent limiting of the ceremony to the necessary minimum resulted in numerous misunderstandings during personal contacts with his subjects, whose expectations regarding the area of mutual representation were usually not fulfilled. On the other hand, the monarch's arrival to places where he was usually not physically present broadened the field of communication among those present, despite the fact that the preferred style of state administration in the late 18th century was mainly written and bureaucratic. On these occasions, the ruler could meet people who would otherwise remain behind the barrier of ceremonial rules and get acquainted with their lives, which Joseph II considered the basis for his future decision-making. Yet part of this communication between the ruler and his subjects was also the presentation of the ceremonial entry as a media event and printed, official descriptions were disseminated within the territorial state and abroad. The originally ephemeral event thus gained a permanent character and was not only remembered within the community of European princes, but its descriptions became part of correspondence among the nobility, town chronicles as well as of private diaries. Even minor anecdotal stories thus entered local collective memories, which further supported the ruler's legitimization and the acceptance of his sovereignty within the political system of the Habsburg Monarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
