Kaiser, King, and Caricature: Franz Joseph in British Cartoons, 1848-1916

Abstract

Surprisingly few histories of British-Habsburg diplomatic relations have appeared over the years; both during the period when the Austrian/ Austro-Hungarian empire was seen as an historical anachronism, and in the more recent renaissance of Habsburg and Austrian studies (Pribram, 1951; Hanak, 1962; Bridge, 1996; Evans, Kováč, and Ivaničková, 2002; Otte, 2010; Shipton, 2012). Of those that have been published in English, at least one popular history of the dynastic connections between the two empires (Van der Kiste, 1987), and Tibor Frank's (2006) notable cultural study of British perceptions of the Habsburg Monarchy, have enriched the otherwise singular focus on high politics and diplomacy. While the latter book is confined to 1865-1870 and the period immediately before and after the Austro-Hungarian Ausgleich [compromise] of 1867--with only glances backward and forward in time--Frank (2006:102) makes an important point therein: that British attitudes towards the Habsburg Monarchy were multi-faceted, and "can be measured even in such a special genre as the political cartoon."