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The most crucial problem confronting historians of early modern Europe is the nature of absolutism and its relationship to society. At the center of scholarly debate have been the questions of the social and economic bases of absolutism. What determined whether state policies could be successfully implemented? Were rulers dependent on the nobility, and did they therefore act in its interest; or did they achieve independence from the dominant class by supporting the interests of a new bourgeoisie or by balancing interests between the two groups? Closely related to these concerns is the problem of how to explain the causes and nature of the numerous rebellions by the elites during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Did nobles revolt in opposition to the centralizing efforts of the crown and their subsequent loss of political power? Did they react to temporary socioeconomic difficulties or to a long-term transition in the economy and the rise of a new bourgeoisie? Many of these questions remain open, even though the study of the relations between rulers and elites has experienced a revival in recent years. Much of this research has focused on England and France, 1 with the German territories receiving less attention. 2 This essay examines the case of Austria, thereby providing an

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