ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses in a Habsburg Austrian context the historical issue raised by Mayer; it is intended to stimulate research on the forms and extent of the Austrian nobility's adjustment to changed conditions after 1848. It is based in part on the publication of new sources which provide an empirical basis for studying the aristocracy's mode of political operation and its underlying ideological foundations. The aristocracy in the second half of the nineteenth century appeared to have marched off the stage of history as a spent political force. The source of the private correspondence of Count Alois Lexa von Aehrenthal, a Bohemian nobleman, prominent Austro-Hungarian diplomat and foreign minister, whose annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1908 has earned him a secure niche in the annals of history. The chapter suggests that the frequent audiences of Baron Alois uon Aehrenthal, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador at St. Petersburg and future foreign minister, with Emperor Franz Joseph during 1899.
