Nobles and Nation in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850 (New Studies in European History)

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 13
Introduction......Page 15
CHAPTER 1 Wealth and noble autonomy: the Free Imperial Knights in Mainz on the eve of revolution......Page 30
Knightly debt in the old regime......Page 36
The knightly order, imperial authority, and the resolution of debt......Page 42
Knightly wealth and income......Page 47
Conclusion......Page 59
CHAPTER 2 Nobles becoming Germans: the transformation of a concept......Page 62
The traditional understanding of nobility......Page 64
The old concept weakened......Page 68
The conceptual shift......Page 71
A concept transformed......Page 74
Toward a "national" nobility......Page 81
CHAPTER 3 Nobles becoming Germans: the destruction of a "geo-cultural landscape"......Page 86
The "geo-cultural landscape" in the eighteenth century......Page 92
The "geo-cultural landscape" and revolution......Page 106
The dalberg-herrnsheims from revolution to restoration......Page 115
CHAPTER 4 Between destruction and survival: knights on the Middle Rhine 1750–1850......Page 120
Breidbach-riedt: from mainz to wiesbaden......Page 122
Kesselstatt: catholic and "german"......Page 131
Greiffenclau-dehrn: the attack on pedigree......Page 139
Heddesdorff: the destruction of a knightly family......Page 149
CHAPTER 5 The past recaptured: knights in the Hapsburg Empire 1792–1848......Page 155
Émigrés and official austrian policy......Page 157
Factors favoring knightly emigration......Page 162
The knights at court and in the army......Page 178
Stadion-warthausen......Page 182
Sickingen-hohenburg......Page 188
Dalberg-heßloch......Page 193
CHAPTER 6 From cathedral canons to priests: the Coudenhoves and the "Catholic revival"......Page 201
Pedigree and enlightenment in the old regime......Page 204
The revolutionary and napoleonic era......Page 211
Pedigree and piety in the austrian restoration......Page 217
Conclusion......Page 225
CHAPTER 7 The beginnings of conservative German nationalism: the "naturalization" of Baron Carl vom und zum Stein (1757–1831)......Page 227
Stein, metternich, and the old order......Page 230
The background of stein's cultural nationalism......Page 234
Stein abandons the old concept of nobility......Page 240
Metternich and the corporate nobility......Page 244
Stein, metternich, and the "nation"......Page 254
Conclusion......Page 259
Conclusion......Page 263
Appendix Families of Free Imperial Knights (1797)......Page 269
Index......Page 309