No. 29 (2021): New Trends in Research on the History of Habsburg Imperial Diplomacy
Studies

Baroque “Spin-Doctoring”: The Manipulative Use of Caprara’s Reports from Constantinople in 1682

pdf
  • Lothar Höbelt
Lothar Höbelt
University of Vienna
DOI: https://doi.org/10.46585/th.2022.29.02

Published 2022-08-24

Keywords

  • 1683,
  • “Easterners” and “Westerners”,
  • Aulic War Council,
  • Hermann von Baden,
  • Alberto Caprara,
  • absolutism
    • ...More
    Less

How to Cite

Höbelt, L. (2022). Baroque “Spin-Doctoring”: The Manipulative Use of Caprara’s Reports from Constantinople in 1682. Theatrum Historiae, (29), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.46585/th.2022.29.02

Copyright (c) 2022 Lothar Höbelt

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Abstract

Before the Second Siege of Vienna in 1683, there was a famous tug-of-war between “Easterners” and “Westerners” at Leopold I’s court. At that time, the Habsburg monarchy did not yet boast a “Foreign Office”. The institution in charge of relations with the Ottoman Empire was the Aulic War Council. Its president, Margrave Hermann von Baden, was the leading “Westerner”, and clearly thought that Louis XIV posed a greater menace to the monarchy than the Ottomans did. That is why, when the ambassador extraordinary to Constantinople, Conte Alberto Caprara, started sending alarmist reports in the summer of 1682, Baden manipulated them in a rather breathtaking fashion, almost turning their meaning on its head. The episode poses a fascinating question about the nature of “absolutism”: Was Baden’s “spin doctoring” designed to delude the Emperor himself – or was it part of a complex game enacted with Leopold’s approval?

pdf

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

  1. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Dispacci di Germania 155.
  2. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Familienkorrespondenz A 15.
  3. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Handschrift W 824 (Tagebuch Pufendorf).
  4. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Kriegsakten 159, 160.
  5. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Spanien 62.
  6. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Turcica 107, 151, 152.
  7. OeStA Wien, HHStA, Vorträge 6.
  8. OeStA Wien, Kriegsarchiv, Alte Feldakten 187, 188.
  9. OeStA Wien, Kriegsarchiv, Hofkriegsrat: Registraturen 1680, 1681, 1682, 1683, 1684.
  10. A W G. von ANTAL & J.C.H. de PATER (eds.), Weensche Gezantschapsberichten van 1670 tot 1720, Vol. 1: 1670–1697, s-Gravenhage 1929.
  11. P.L. MÜLLER (ed.), Wilhelm von Oranien und Georg Friedrich von Waldeck. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Kampfes um das europäische Gleichgewicht, Vol. 1: 1679–1684, Den Haag 1873.
  12. Karl Otmar v. ARETIN, Das Alte Reich, Vol. 1, Stuttgart 1993.
  13. Thomas M. BARKER, Double Eagle and Crescent. Vienna’s Second Turkish Siege and its historical setting, Albany 1967.
  14. Christian BEESE, Markgraf Hermann von Baden (1628–1691). General, Diplomat und Minister Kaiser Leopolds I., Stuttgart 1991.
  15. Lucien BELY, Les Secrets de Louis XIV. Mysteres d’Etat et pouvoir absolu, Paris 2013.
  16. Eva BOKA, La politique etrangere de Imre Thököly (1678–1685), Südostforschungen 48, 1989, pp. 51–86.
  17. Carl BRIDENBAUGH, No Peace beyond the Line. The English in the Caribbean, 1624–1690, New York 1972.
  18. Jean-Philipe CENAT, Le roi stratege. Louis XIV et la direction e la guerre 1661–1715, Rennes 2010.
  19. Zsuzsanna CZIRAKI, Language Students and Interpreters at the Mid-Seventeenth Century Habsburg Embassy in Constantinople, Theatrum Historiae 19, 2016, pp. 27–44.
  20. Daniel DESSERT, Colbert. Ou la mythe de l’absolutisme, Paris 2019.
  21. Jerome DUINDAM, Vienna and Versailles. The Courts of Europe’s dynastic rivals, 1550–1780, Cambridge 2003.
  22. Peter EARLE, The Sack of Panama, New York 2007.
  23. Lothar HÖBELT, Friedliche Koexistenz – unfriedliche Grenze. Der Hintergrund der Schlacht von Vezekeny 1652, Burgenländische Heimatblätter 73, 2012, pp. 1–34.
  24. P. M. HOLT, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent 1516–1922. A political History, Ithaca 1966.
  25. Geza PALFFY, Scorched Earth Tactics in Ottoman Hungary, Acta Orientalis Academiae Scientiae Hungaricae 61, 2008, pp. 181–200.
  26. Onno KLOPP, Das Jahr 1683 und der folgende große Türkenkrieg bis zum Frieden von Carlowitz, Graz 1882.
  27. John A. LYNN, Recalculating French Army Growth during the Grand siecle, 1610–1715, French Historical Studies 18, 1994, pp. 881–906.
  28. Claude MICHAUD, L’Ambassade de Guilleragues a Constantinople. Louis XIV et les Turcs a la vielle su siege de Vienne 1678–1683, in: Jean Berenger (ed.), Les Relations Franco-Autrichiennes sous Louis XIV. Siege de Vienne (1683). Colloque a propos de tricentennaire de siege de Vienne (manuscript), St. Cyr 1983.
  29. Georg MICHELS, The Habsburg Empire under Siege. Ottoman Expansion and Hungarian Revolt in the Age of Grand Vizier Ahmed Köprülü (1661–1676), Montreal 2021.
  30. Merlijn OLNON, ‘A most agreeable and pleasant creature’? Marzufoulu Kara Mistafa Pasa and the Dutch in the Levant (1668–1682), Oriente Moderno 83, 2003, pp. 649–669.
  31. Oswald REDLICH, Weltmacht des Barock. Österreich in der Zeit Kaiser Leopolds I., Vienna 19614.
  32. Rafal B. REICHERT, Sobre las olas de un mar plateado. La politica defensiva espanola y el financiamiento militar novohispanico en la region de Gran Caribe, 1598–1700, Merida 2013.
  33. Victor v. RENNER, Wien im Jahre 1683, Vienna 1883.
  34. Camille ROUSSET, Histoire de Louvois et son administration politique et militaire, 4 Vols., Paris 1863–1891.
  35. Philippe ROY, Louis XIV et le Second siege de Vienne 1683, Paris 1999.
  36. Stefan SIENELL, Die Geheime Konferenz unter Kaiser Leopold I. Personelle Strukturen und Methoden zur politischen Entscheidungsfindung am Wiener Hof, Frankfurt am Main 2001.
  37. John P. SPIELMAN, Leopold I of Austria, London 1977.
  38. John P. SPIELMAN, The City & the Crown. Vienna and the Imperial Court, 1600–1740, West Lafayette 1993.
  39. Heinrich v. SRBIK (ed.), Österreichische Staatsverträge. Niederlande, Vol. 1, Vienna 1912.
  40. John STOYE, The Siege of Vienna, New York 1964.
  41. Harald STRANZL, Frankreichs Osteuropapolitik in den Türkenkriegen: Ludwig XIV., die Reunionen und das Jahr 1683, unpubl. Ph.D. Thesis, Graz 1993.
  42. Clara Elena SUAREZ ARGUELLO, El puerto de Veracruz ante un asalto pirata, mayo de 1683, in: Lourdes de Ita Rubio (ed.), Organizacion del Espacio en el Mexico Colonial: Puertos, Ciudades y Caminos, Morelia 2012, pp. 145–162.
  43. Baki TEZCAN, Searching for Osman. A Reassassment of the Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618–1622), Ph.D. Thesis, Princeton 2001.
  44. Michel VERGE-FRANCESCHI, Abraham Duquesne. Huguenot et marin du Roi Soleil, Paris 1992.
  45. Adam WOLF, Fürst Wenzel Lobkowitz, erster geheimer Rath Kaiser Leopold’s I., Vienna 1869.
  46. Yasir YILMAZ, Grand vizieral authority revisited: Köprülü’s legacy and Kara Mustafa Pasa, Mediterranean Historical Review 31, 2016, pp. 21–42.