IMPERIAL PRELUDE

Richard and Ludwig Ems in Hofburg, Vienna

As the picture above shows, my two brothers are sitting at a café in the inner courtyard of Hofburg, the grand town palace complex of the Habsburger in Vienna. Quite content they are, not unlike two cats just having licked their daily cream ration. No wonder, the first important event of our trip has just been checked off.

It is Sunday, April 28. Two days before, I had arrived by plane from Stockholm and done some leisurely sightseeing, of scant import for this blog, however. Still, on Saturday morning, I noted an afterglow of Austria from my youth, which I feel the urge to report to you.

Wherever I am travelling, I always have my Nordic walking sticks with me, to speed me on during my morning walks. So also this morning. From my hotel close to subway station Gumpoldsorf, I raced along a nice green-shaded stretch of the Gürtel (Vienna's outer ring) towards Café Westend on Mariahilfer Strasse, to get a healthy breakfast and read all the morning papers.

But as I rushed along the Gürtel, I couldn't help noticing a small group of old-timers (let's face it: not much older than myself), in bland clothings, slowly ambling along the street in kind of a procession. A low singsong rose from the group, not discernible from across the street. I was a bit curious, but breakfast and journals beckoned, so I passed them by without further ado.

Museum für Verhütung und Schwangerschaftsabbruch
Mariahilfergürtel 37        Source: Google Map

About an hour later, on my way back from the café, I saw them again, this time standing across the Mariahilfer Gürtel, facing a rather bland and non-descriptive building. The slow chant was still going-on and proved to be a recitation of the Rosenkranz (Rosary) Prayer, as I realised when approaching the group. When I was resting my feet at their side, they increased the intensity of the prayer, as if encouraging me to join in.

Two policewomen were standing a bit apart from them. My curiosity being araised, I approached them to query the reason for this senior citizen event. "It's about abortion!" was the answer. The building across the street was hosting Vienna's Museum of Contraception and Abortion, and not only that, it also contained an abortion clinic. The police were there to prevent the bigot old-timers from crossing the street and harassing visitors to the establishments. Still, it was a rather peaceful and harmless event, in typically Austrian style. This reminds me of an old adage about the Double-Monarchy of late, "Tyrannei, durch Schlamperei gemildert!" (Karl Kraus, paraphrasing Victor Adler).

Enough of bylines for now. Let's go back to the main event that will leave us content and happy on this sunny Sunday. It concerns our visit to the Imperial Armoury in the Hofburg. For those of you unbeknownst of the splendour to be found in Austria's capital, the Hofburg lies smack in the centre of town and used to be, since the late 1400s, the residence of the Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation and (later) of Austria.

Schweizertor, Hofburg. Built in 1552 under Ferdinand I, King of the Romans.
Photographer: Simon Matzinger

It all started with Frederick III, the first Habsburg to become Holy Emperor, back in 1452. This was quite an astounding man, rather laid-back and sluggish in his decision making, but consistently successful in outliving his opponents. He almost failed towards the end of his life, when the King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus, bereft him of his Eastern domains and even occupied Vienna as Capital of Hungary, in 1485. But Frederick outlived even this relative youngster by over five years and thereafter his son Maximilian could win back the lost Eastern domains.

The Emperor's single most important achievement is due to a peculiarly sluggish and out-drawn campaign against Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, at the Northern German fortification of Neuss, which ended 1475 only after the papal legate threatened to excommunicate the two sovereigns. As part of the peace settlement, Charles let his daughter Mary to be wed with Frederick's son Maximilian. Starting from there, Habsburg power was catapulted to the very top within just sixty years, ending with Maximilian's grandson, Charles V, reigning over half of the world (at least by papal decree).

Emperor Frederick III meets Duke Charles the Bold at Neiss

But the other great power in Europe at the time, France, did not stand idly by this unprecedented rise of the House of Habsburg. A great conquest for power broke out in Italy between the Valois Kings of France and the Habsburg Emperors and went on unabated for some 65 years in the sequence of the Great Wars of Italy. This was a series of Renaissance conflicts that involved most of the Italian states, as well as France, the Holy Roman Empire, Spain and even England under Henry VIII, not to forget the Ottoman Empire under Süleiman the Magnificent. Most of the action was in Italy, but battles were being fought as far South as Morocco, West as Provence, North as the Netherlands, and even all the way to the East in Hungary.

These tremendous events loomed large in the minds of nobility of the time, and were being mirrored in the way nobility presented itself to their subjects, be it in general appearances or in games of war being played out in tournaments and such. Each nobleman worth his name had to possess a ceremonial armour in which to appear at festive events, even if the accoutrements in question were stemming from an earlier period of chivalry, already supplanted by more modern arms and armours in the Renaissance wars.

Emperor Maximilian on horseback

It so happened, that a Habsburg Archduke, Ferdinand II of Tyrol, who was born in the middle of this war period, put it in his mind to collect the ceremonial armour of all great European personalities of the time: Emperors, Kings, Archdukes, Military Leaders. And he was a collector in a quite modern sense; not only did he achieve an almost comprehensive collection, he had also the collection catalogued in a large book, with picture of each owner and his armour, complete with a short autobiography. All of this was carefully preserved in his Castle of Ambras in Tyrol. Parts of this amazing collection of Renaissance armour is now being shown in the Imperial Armoury, located in the Hofburg.

I had visited this enchanted place already some 25 years ago, on my own, so I could dedicate a full day to roaming the premises. This was a most educational experience. Admiring the some 100 armours on show and reading their inscription provided me with am impressive freshen up of Renaissance history. Fortunately, I still remembered the general historic context from my high-school classes: now standing before me were the same personalities (in proxy, so to speak) that I had read about with eager enthusiasm as a youngster.

Still, it came as a surprise that brother Ludwig, just recently, made me aware of the fact that some of the armours actually belonged to the Emser, a fact that I had completely overlooked in my earlier walk-through. It could also be that those armours were not in display at the time. However that may be, today we three brothers stride eagerly through the many rooms filled with gun-blue splendour, hunting for the precisely two armours having their name of Ems on them.

And here they are, to our great delight!

                      Wolf Dietrich von Ems zu der Hohenems       Jakob Hannibal II von Hohenems
                      The Emser on the rise....                               ... and on the demise                                                                                                                 

How come, you may well ask, that two Ems armours are lodging among the grandees of Renaissance Europe? The answer is simple, the Emser belonged to that illustrious group of noblemen! As free Imperial knights (at the outset), and later Imperial Counts, they had thrown in their lot with the Habsburger in all these Renaissance wars, been acknowledged as important leaders of battle and mercenaries, and risen in power concurrent with the Emperor's. So that! Yet another reason to continue our trip, and learn more about this intriguing family.

This evening, we will enter the motorail (car train) towards Feldkirch in Vorarlberg, to get in closer touch with the Emser, their origin, their rise, their heydays and their demise. There will be much more to tell, dear Readers, so stay tuned!