The Opposition of the Archdukes: Rudolf, Franz Ferdinand and the late Habsburg Monarchy

Abstract

In 1910, Karl Renner, the leading social democrat in the Reichsrat, the Lower House of the Austrian parliament, hit upon one of the characteristic features of the Empire’s pattern of power. In his speech Renner pointed out that the Habsburg monarchy should rather be called a dyarchie — a system where there are two rulers instead of one. Ever since European monarchists had begun to defend their preferred political system with arguments based on more than just tradition and religion, the unity of decision-making on behalf of the body politic had been fielded as a favourite reason for preferring a monarchical solution. Even in a constitutional monarchy, there were aspects of decision-making where it was considered essential that the final say rested with one single person. For the Habsburg monarchy, with its long tradition as one of the Great Powers of Europe, questions of foreign policy and war formed the very core of these aspects that called for one single person’s judgement and command.¹