The Age of Heroes in Historiography: The Example of Prince Eugene of Savoy

• Published in: Austrian history yearbook Vol. 44; pp. 211 - 233
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Houston Cambridge University Press 01.01.2013
• Subjects: 19th century; 20th century; Age; Baroque era; Heroism & heroes; Historians; Historiography; Military history; Mythology; Nationalism; Political power; Austria; Hungary; France; Central Europe; Europe; Germany
• ISSN: 0067-2378; 1558-5255
• DOI: 10.1017/S0067237813000131

Almost every national historiography has at one time or another emphasized a certain era dominated by the alleged extraordinary feats of particular individuals. Modern nationalists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often sought support for their founding myths in their histories, exploiting imagery of heroic eras and their heroes for the needs of the present. The work of historians played an integral part of this mythmaking process. The German word Heldenzeitalter [Age of Heroes] is a concept with exactly such strong historiographical dimension. The term is not precise. It has variously been used to denote the mythic era of German sagas, the time of the Völkerwanderungen [migrations of peoples], and the Ostrogoth king Theodoric (sixth century). The same concept of an “age of heroes” is also fundamental to understanding Austrian historiography. This age constitutes a basic element of the Austrian national idea, and as with the other applications of the term “Age of Heroes,” the Austrian version, which was largely a nineteenth-century historiographical construct, was also fed by epics and poetry and myth making. The ruling Habsburg dynasty also actively supported the design of an Austrian Age of Heroes, at whose center could be found the figure of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736).