Nobles and Nation in Central Europe: Free Imperial Knights in the Age of Revolution, 17501850 [Hardcover]

A groundbreaking history of nobles in Central Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.In the late Holy Roman Empire, no group better embodied the traditional noble ideal than the pedigreed knights, Protestant and Catholic, in Electoral Mainz. This book traces the transnational 'geocultural' landscape in which these knights moved and its transformation by social, political and national revolution. It explores the comparative history of these knights as they were divided between those who emigrated to the Habsburg Empire where this geocultural landscape survived and those who remained in Germany and forged a new identity as nobles in the cultural world of the 'nation'.In the late Holy Roman Empire, no group better embodied the traditional noble ideal than the pedigreed knights, Protestant and Catholic, in Electoral Mainz. This book traces the transnational 'geocultural' landscape in which these knights moved and its transformation by social, political and national revolution. It explores the comparative history of these knights as they were divided between those who emigrated to the Habsburg Empire where this geocultural landscape survived and those who remained in Germany and forged a new identity as nobles in the cultural world of the 'nation'.No group better embodied the traditional noble ideal in the late Holy Roman Empire than the pedigreed knights, Protestant and Catholic, of Electoral Mainz. This study traces the transnational geocultural landscape in which they thrived and its transformation by social, political and national revolution. It explores the comparative history of the knights who became divided between those who emigrated to the Habsburg Empire (where their geocultural landscape survived) and those who remained in Germany and forged a new identity as nobles in the cultural world of the nation .Introduction; 1. Wealth and noble autonomy: the free imperial knights in Maine on the eve of revolution; 2. Nobles becoming Germans: the tranl37