Friedrich III. und die Präsenthaltung des abwesenden Herrschers

Abstract

Summary Frederick III and the Presence of the Absent Ruler This article takes as a point of departure the frequent use of Emperor Frederick III’s well-known motto „AEIOV“. It will examine this usage to direct closer scrutiny to the role that material culture played in the practice of rulership during the 15th century. It argues that the Emperor’s well-attested love for precious stones, relics and reliquiaries, for building projects, portraits, medals, and treasure pieces was central to his idea of rulership. Moving beyond the traditional view that only Frederick’s personal taste could explain his extensive love for precious items, and refuting the idea that the rise of the individual is the best master-narrative for understanding our sources, the article highlights the novelty of using material culture for establishing presence in the ruler’s often long absences. Cultural historians have emphasized the importance of ritual and performance for pre-modern rulership. Therefore, the king’s or emperor’s absence left a gap that objects could fill: In showing the ruler as St Christopher, naming his motto or showing his coat of arms, in bringing forward his clothes or the carriages the court had used in an adventus, the ruler’s presence was established, remembered, and promised for the future. In using the material culture of his time in this way, Frederick was able to mitigate one of the weak points in his dominion. Its relatively widespread, heterogeneous, and multicentral character necessarily prohibited him from being at all major centres of the Habsburg lands at the same time. Thus, Frederick initiated a new technique of rulership in absence that not only had its root in the wider cultural context of the late Middle Ages, where discourses of presence started to dominate nearly all aspects of society, but also marked the beginning of a development that led to the all-present portraiture of the early modern world. Understudied and almost unnoticed so far, this article brings a major aspect of pre-modern culture to the fore.