Just how Liberal was Crown Prince Rudolf

So I've read some and Austrian Crown Prince Rudolf seems to have been liberal (revolutionary compared to his father.) Just how liberal was he.

I know that Franz Ferdinand was also more liberal leaning could either of there coming to power have saved the Austrian Monarchy?
 

karikon

Banned
Having a liberal monarch doesn´t solve the problem of nationalism. So, no I don´t think it would save the Austrian Monarchy.

 
A liberal monarch matters far more for solving germanies problems than it does for Austria-Hungary, they need a popular diplomatic king capable of resolving local issues. Also willingness to federalize the empire.
 
Franz Joseph was fairly popular as I understand it, he also allowed to Dual monarchy to come into existence despite being a reactionary. This late in the game Austria-Hungary needs a better set of external circumstance to survive, I liberal monarch may help, but I wont be a game changer.
 
That's why he needs to be popular, in the very least then it has more chance of being allowed.

Yeah.

Franz Joseph was adequate, but not enough to solve things. Then again, when Franz himself is 90% of what's holding the polity together, I'm not sure what anyone in his shoes could do. It's not just multiethnic (after all, Croats were fine with being loyal to the King-Emperor), it's multiple polities realizing they had anything other than a personal union holding them together.
 
The term "liberal" in the 19th century is full of misleading confusion, especially in central Europe.

For example, support for regional traditions and local power centres was a conservative position, in support of the historical crown lands, which often sat astride ethnic borders.
Liberals and progressives often saw themselves in the tradition of the French Revolution and supported centralization and unitarism. One explicitely liberal plan for the reform of AH intended to create over hundred departments that would avoid crossing ethnic borders whenever possible, but that would certain not unite all members of an ethnic group in one department.

Rudolf was in favor of the german liberal party and Jewish emancipation (and disliked Grossdeutsch nationalists), but also was in favor of the Magyars in Hungary. So, unlike FF, he probably would not try to change the 1867 that much, unless he had to. He disliked Prussia and explicitely Wilhelm II, whose accession to the German imperial throne is said to have been one of the factors leading to Rudolfs suicide. AFAIK, Rudolf had Francophile tendencies, but I cannot see him bringing A-H into a anti-German Alliance with France. Fra.+AH vs. Ger.+Rus. would certainly be ... interesting.:eek:
 
Germany + Russia (+ Italy + Serbia) and the Austrians are toast...

If if the French side has help from OE, UK and US and will probably win a war it will be too late for the A-H Monarchy...

Rudolf might have been a liberal, but he would have to rule an empire and this means he has to be conservative in his actions.

The more I read about th (late) 19th century the more I believe that Franz Josef was the worst thing that could happen to Austria:

Too young in the beginning and to old later on.

FJ amd many blunders in his youth (including his actions during the Crimean war, but not only) and when he grew older he had not the willpower to move things he tried to preserve, but thats not good enough...
 
There is the possibility that the reason he shot himself was that he was meddling in Hungarian politics so badly he had gone too far out on a limb and was about to have his position destroyed.

Perhaps the problem with Rudolph is that he was something of an unstable character. How that would have manifested itself if he had become emperor whilst still young enough for it to matter, is not easy to see

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
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