The Bohemian Context 79(west) of the Enns and the lands below (east) of the Enns. The south-
ern sections were the Tyrol, part of which is in modern-day northern
Italy, and Inner Austria, which was further divided into the provinces
of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Gorizia, the latter on the Adriatic
and now also in Italy. The bishopric of Salzburg, which had substantial
lands in Austria, was however not a Habsburg possession. (To avoid fur-
ther confusion it should be noted that in 1627, in the aftermath of the
defeat of the revolt, the lands of the Bohemian crown were also made
hereditary, so that in later periods they are often included in the term
‘hereditary lands’.)
Although none of the Austrian provinces were kingdoms or had elec-
tive elements in the installation of their ruling princes, in practice the
latter still had to negotiate capitulations with their Estates before the
members would consent to take the oaths of allegiance which would
recognise and validate the succession. The magnates had long used this
as a lever to enable them to retain the freedoms and powers which
the Estates had enjoyed since medieval times, while the princes’ recur-
rent needs for taxation to maintain defences against the Turks provided
opportunities to extend these further, particularly in respect of religion.
As in Hungary and Bohemia, by the turn of the seventeenth century
most of the nobility in the Austrian provinces were Protestant, and
although their Catholic rulers had made efforts to contain or even
reverse this situation they faced both legal and practical constraints.
Theius reformandistemming from the 1555 peace of Augsburg was valid
only within the Empire, and although this applied in Austria it defi-
nitely did not in Hungary, while as has been noted the status of Bohemia
was at best ambiguous. Legalities aside however, for the most part the
Habsburg princes were simply not powerful enough within their own
lands, politically or financially, to impose their Catholic religion against
the determined opposition of the Protestant nobility. Their attempts to
do so, and the opposing efforts of their Estates to secure and extend their
religious and political freedoms, led eventually to the revolt of 1618.