Austrian Court Reform

After dealing with the issue of Austria's division, Laszlo was finally able to free up his hands and focus all his energy on the reform of the Austrian government, the Imperial reform, and the Bohemian heresy problem.

Before undertaking Imperial reform, Laszlo found that he must first make a strict distinction between the functions of the Emperor's court and the Imperial government.

The Austrian court government was too loose; apart from the already existing Court of the Empire, all other government functions were carried out by the advisory group and their subordinates, and the Imperial Diet also undertook some responsibilities, collecting taxes for him from the free cities within the Empire, passing Imperial laws, and raising volunteers from all over the Empire for him.

Only by first rectifying Austria could the Empire be further rectified.

Laszlo thought a lot, about things like cabinets and the Three Departments and Six Ministries, and after multiple discussions with his advisory group, he finally decided to establish five departments.

Led by the new Chief Minister, Ulrich von Eyczing, the Privy Council was established, overseeing the other four departments, responsible for coordinating and handling various affairs, with a primary focus on foreign affairs, and directly accountable to the Emperor.

Aeneas was unwilling to enter the church and run for pope, so Laszlo appointed him as the Court Chancellor, establishing the Court Chancellery to handle administrative affairs within Austria, primarily in Lower Austria.

The new economic advisor, the great merchant Jakob Fugger, was appointed as the Minister of Finance, establishing the Court Finance Committee to manage the income and expenditures of the Habsburg Family royal household.

Marshal Adolf was appointed as the Minister of Military Affairs; the General Staff he formed was split into two, one part serving as a standing military organization, and the other part being expanded into the Court War Committee, responsible for war planning, logistics, conscription, training, and all other military-related affairs.

The last department was the original Court of the Empire, renamed the Court of the Empire, with no change in staffing; four nobles and four ecclesiastical jurists formed a judgment committee under the leadership of the High Justice appointed by the Emperor, responsible for handling legal affairs within the territory.

Most of the officials in these departments were existing advisors and their subordinates; Laszlo also selected many students from Vienna University to fill personnel vacancies in the Privy Council and Chancellery; the Finance Committee was established by Jacob himself, with Laszlo dispatching two representatives for supervision; the War Committee absorbed capable officers from the army to expand and establish subordinate departments, such as the General War Office, the Supply Department, and so on.

Establishing standardized government departments was only the first step; the real difficulty lay in how to extend the impact of this reform throughout the entire Habsburg Dynasty territory.

What made Laszlo most uncomfortable was the Habsburg Dynasty's troublesome way of ruling.

Unlike unified states like France and England, the political system of the countries he ruled had a special name—composite monarchy.

Currently, there were two powerful composite monarchies on the continent; one was the Kalmar Union in Northern Europe, where Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, three countries with three governments, shared the same monarch—this was a composite monarchy.

The other was Laszlo's Habsburg Dynasty, whose territories now included five countries and five governments: Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Serbia, and Bulgaria, each with its own government and parliament; Serbia even had its own monarch; the only thing that connected them was a common supreme ruler, Laszlo.

This frustrating composite rule forced Laszlo to shuttle back and forth between various courts; in Vienna, he could only govern Austria; in Budapest, he could only govern Hungary; and in Prague, he could only govern Bohemia.

This undoubtedly severely limited the centralized allocation of resources within the Dynasty's territories.

However, if Austrian officials were sent to manage these subordinate states, the local powerful factions would inevitably act covertly, leading to the central government being constrained by local forces, and administrative efficiency would be equally extremely low, perhaps even worse than direct separate rule.

Laszlo seemed to have an opportunity to merge the administrative structures of Austria and Hungary, making the two countries one, but Austria at this time completely lacked the strength to swallow Hungary; out of vigilance and caution towards the Hungarian people, Laszlo ultimately chose to implement separate rule, using Hungarians to govern Hungarians.

Therefore, under these circumstances, establishing an effective hierarchical administrative system became particularly important.

Different ruling strategies also needed to be implemented in different regions.

For remote areas like Bulgaria and Serbia, it was only necessary to dispatch royal bailiffs and establish supervisory bodies, ensuring that the annual tax revenue was sufficient and that no major disturbances occurred in the border regions.

Control over Hungary needed to be strengthened, and there needed to be a certain degree of intervention capability; the method was to cultivate powerful loyalists in Hungary, so that the Emperor could influence and monitor Hungary even when he was not in Budapest.

Bohemia, however, was completely different; Bohemia itself was part of the Holy Roman Empire and had to be forcefully integrated; even if it meant using military means, Bohemia's independent administrative, legislative, and judicial systems had to be destroyed, and Bohemia had to be dismantled into direct territories just like Austria.

Coordinating conflicts of interest among the various subordinate states and ensuring their loyalty to the Habsburg royal family was one of the main tasks of Austrian diplomats.

In short, the goal was to greatly strengthen Austria by heavily exploiting these subordinate states, ultimately realizing Laszlo's ambition to integrate the Empire.

After establishing the five central agencies in the Vienna court, corresponding subordinate agencies would need to be established in each Austrian state; this process included recruiting and evaluating officials, dismissing useless bureaucrats in state governments, and coordinating and transferring work with existing state governments; this would be a fairly long process and would affect the interests of many local magnates, but Laszlo, holding a standing army, was not afraid of these small fry; in fact, a rebellion might sometimes be more convenient, better than covertly planned conspiracies.

He who controls the army naturally controls power; this is a truth taught by great men; if you want to implement reforms, don't expect to succeed without the ability to make the opposition bleed rivers.

However, Laszlo was not trying to completely eradicate the power of the nobility; if all powerful local nobles were driven out of the new state governments, and only lower-ranking nobles and clerical officials selected by Laszlo were used to form the new state government agencies, wouldn't that be forcing them to rebel?

Central leadership in cooperation with local nobles was the best approach; Austria, frankly speaking, was still operating under a late medieval feudal system; however, Laszlo had gathered the four ducal titles within the Archduchy of Austria, and all land had become royal territory, which allowed Laszlo to implement centralized government reform from the center to the localities.

Of course, this process could not be entirely smooth sailing.

In the royal hunting grounds outside Vienna, Laszlo was strolling with Leonor by a small river, the couple chatting idly.

"Laszlo, Hofburg Palace is really stuffy in the summer; how about we build another summer palace in the suburbs?" Leonor looked at Laszlo expectantly.

Laszlo looked troubled; after receiving a large indemnity from the Ottomans, the court's finances were indeed much more comfortable, but using it to build a palace... he felt it was a waste, and it would be more practical to expand the army or expand Vienna instead.

Seeing Laszlo's hesitant look, Leonor sighed disappointedly and asked Laszlo, "Are you refusing because of a lack of money? I brought a lot of dowry back then, where is that money?"

"Uh... it was used to recruit troops," Laszlo answered truthfully.

Leonor then asked, "After recruiting troops, do you have to go to war? Now that you've fought and received so much indemnity, what's wrong with allocating a little from it to build a palace?"

"I think the money in the national treasury should be spent where it matters most..." Laszlo tried to explain, but he was met only with Leonor's eye-roll.

"You're as stingy as your uncle, Laszlo!" Leonor complained unhappily.

Laszlo felt he should be angry and assert the Emperor's authority, telling his wife who was the boss of the house, but he couldn't quite bring himself to be angry, especially since he was quite happy at the time when he was spending Leonor's dowry lavishly.

There was nothing he could do but humor her; he couldn't just blurt out that grand projects ruin a country.

In fact, he also felt that Hofburg Palace was uncomfortable in the summer, after all, it was a palace later known as the Austrian Winter Palace.

Initially, he wondered why Albrecht II hadn't built a summer palace, but then he remembered that Albrecht would spend all his money on the Hungarian Border Guard whenever he had any, never once thinking about building a palace.

It should be known that the Habsburg Family did not stop the construction of the New Hofburg Palace even during World War I; a monarch like Albrecht was an anomaly within the Habsburg Family.

Just as Laszlo was racking his brains to appease his wife, the sound of hooves approached from a distance.

Laszlo and Leonor's gazes were immediately drawn, and to Laszlo's surprise, his chief advisor—oh no, he should now be called the Chairman of the Privy Council, Eyczing—was galloping on horseback and quickly arrived before them.

Eyczing, who always emphasized elegance and demeanor, almost never rode horses; he always traveled by carriage, so what was wrong today?

Laszlo wondered to himself.

Eyczing had already dismounted his fast horse, clutching a piece of paper, and came before Laszlo, panting, eager to speak but having to catch his breath first.

"Slow down, Eyczing, what could make you so flustered?" Laszlo asked curiously.