Listening to Taylor Marshall interview Eduard Habsburg I was
struck by many things. In many respects the interview was a waste of time as it
had nothing to do with the Christianity of Scripture but was instead an attempt
to create an amalgam – to join modern Catholic Integralism (with Throne and
Altar Ideology) with modern Liberalism and its democratic regime of rights, the
individual and capitalist economics. It doesn't work and the contradictions
were on display during this interview – for those paying attention.
I was particularly struck by the Habsburg's apologia for
empire and in particular not just the Holy Roman Empire of the medieval German
lands, but the Austrian Empire (and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire). The
Austrian branch of the Habsburgs dominated the Holy Roman Empire for centuries
but also amassed a realm outside the empire's official boundaries – a separate
or corollary empire all controlled by this once mighty family. The Austrian
Empire would stand alone after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire by
Napoleon in 1806, would later become Austria-Hungary in 1867, and then finally
met its doom in the ashes of World War I.
He's not alone in defending the Habsburg imperial polity as
many have suggested it was the only means of maintaining a stable order in
Renaissance and pre-modern Central-Eastern Europe. Lands long dominated by the
Turks were steadily liberated and violent irredentism driven by nationalism
risked endless war – which in many respects erupted anyway with the world wars
and the later break-up of Yugoslavia at the end of the Cold War.
Habsburg (who is now the Hungarian ambassador to the Vatican
and thus part of Viktor Orban's government), suggests that the notion of empire
has been corrupted by pop culture. Everyone thinks of Palpatine and the
Galactic Empire in Star Wars and he laments this misrepresentation as he
proceeds to laud the Habsburg regime as moral and something of an example, even
a shining light. Clearly his book is a contemporary paean to the dynasty and a call
to arms – a kind of growing but distant thunder, a call for the return of
monarchy which is growing in popularity and interest, all the more as
liberalism seems to be collapsing.
And yet he's guilty of not just revisionism but a white-wash
of Habsburg brutality. They were not benevolent pious monarchs. To the people
of the First and Magisterial Reformations that family was the embodiment of
evil and Christ-hating persecution. The claim to morality and moral leadership
is an affront. The Habsburgs were guilty of gross tyranny and as champions of the
Counter-Reformation, they crushed Protestantism in the lands that are today the
Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Spain.
Believers were tortured, thrown into dungeons, sent to the galleys, and
executed. The Habsburgs cannot be solely blamed for the Thirty Years War but once
underway they expanded it and played no small part in its decades-long extension.
For generations the saying that it was better to be ruled by a Turk than a
Habsburg rang true.
This repression continued until the collapse of the empire at
the conclusion of the First World War. During the nineteenth century the
Habsburg lands were synonymous with crushing bureaucracy, secret police, and
censorship. The writings of Kafka testify to the oppressive nature of Habsburg
administration. Their Metternich-inspired policy was to divide peoples, crush
minorities and cultures, and through diplomatic intrigue and nefarious schemes
– devour nations. Eduard Habsburg is willfully misrepresenting the nature and
legacy of his family's rule.
With the collapse of the Hohenzollern, Habsburg, and Romanov
monarchies at the conclusion of WWI, their respected societies were thrown into
crisis. What emerged was not a revived monarchy but fanaticism and extremism.
In the German and Italian lands it was fascism and in the former lands of the
Romanovs – Bolshevik Revolution. At this point in time a return to monarchy is
probably wishful thinking. In the UK, monarchy represents a form of stability
and the focal point for a culture in deep crisis, one seeking transcendence.
But in Central Europe, a reinstated monarchy would foment instability and great
bitterness. The Habsburg rule was a means of holding together emerging states
especially in the wake of Ottoman rule, but today's context is entirely
different.
And of course for New Testament Christians, any notion of
'sacred' monarchy must be rejected along with other sacralist errors. This is
not to advocate for or defend liberalism and the polities it produces. Make no
mistake, none of these options are Christian and anyone who claims otherwise
(whether Christian democrat or Christian monarchist) must be opposed.
See also:
https://proto-protestantism.blogspot.com/2020/04/hungary-orban-and-habsburgs-together.html
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