Eduard Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe

Eduard Franz Joseph Graf von Taaffe, Viscount Taaffe
10th Minister-President of Cisleithania
In office 12 August 1879 – 11 November 1893
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Preceded by	Karl Ritter von Stremayr
Succeeded by	Alfred III, Prince of Windisch-Grätz
Interior Minister of Cisleithania
In office 14 April 1870 – 6 February 1871
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Prime Minister	Alfred Józef Potocki
Preceded by	Carl Giskra
Succeeded by	Count Karl Sigmund von Hohenwart
2nd Minister-President of Cisleithania
In office 24 September 1868 – 15 January 1870
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Preceded by	Prince Karl of Auersperg
Succeeded by	Baron Ignaz von Plener
Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire
In office 7 March 1867 – 30 December 1867
Monarch	Francis Joseph I
Prime Minister	Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust
Preceded by	Count Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust
Succeeded by	Carl Giskra
Personal details
Born	24 February 1833(1833-02-24) Vienna
Died	29 November 1895(1895-11-29) (aged 62) Ellischau/Nalžovy

Eduard Franz Joseph, 11th Viscount Taaffe (24 February 1833, Vienna – 29 November 1895, Ellischau/Nalžovy) was an Austrian statesman who held a hereditary peerage in the Peerage of Ireland.

Family background and early years

Taaffe was the second son of Louis Patrick John, 5th Count (Graf) Taaffe, 9th Viscount Taaffe (1791-1855), a minister of justice in 1848 and president of the Austrian court of appeal. As a child, Taaffe was one of the chosen companions of the young archduke, afterwards emperor, Francis Joseph. In 1852, he entered public service.^{[citation needed]}

By the death of his elder brother, Charles (1823-1873), a colonel in the Austrian army, Eduard Taaffe succeeded to the Austrian and Irish titles. He married in 1862 Countess Irma Tsaky, by whom he left four daughters and one son, Henry.

Political life

Minister-President (first term)

In 1867 Taaffe became governor of Upper Austria, and the emperor offered him the post of minister of the interior in Beust's administration. In June he became vice-president of the ministry, and at the end of the year he entered the first ministry of the newly organized Austrian portion of the monarchy. For the next three years he took a notable part in the confused political changes, and probably more than any other politician represented the wishes of the emperor.

Taaffe had entered the ministry as a German Liberal, but he soon took an intermediate position between the Liberal majority of the Berger ministry and the party which desired a federal constitution and which was strongly supported at court. From September 1868 to January 1870, after the retirement of Auersperg, he was president of the cabinet. In 1870, the government fell on the question of the revision of the constitution: Taaffe with Potocki and Berger wished to make some concessions to the Federalists; the Liberal majority wished to preserve undiminished the authority of the Imperial Council. The two parties presented memoranda to the emperor, each defending their view and offering their resignation: after some hesitation the emperor accepted the policy of the majority, and Taaffe with his friends resigned.

Second term

Count Eduard Taaffe

The Liberals, however, failed to form a new government, as the representatives of most of the territories refused to appear in the Imperial Council: they resigned, and in the month of April Potocki and Taaffe returned to office. The latter failed, however, in an attempt to come to an understanding with the Czechs, and in their turn they had to make way for the Clerical and Federalist cabinet of Hohenwart. Taaffe now became governor of Tyrol, but in 1879, on the collapse of the Liberal government, he was recalled to high office. At first, he attempted to carry on the government without a change of principles, but he soon found it necessary to come to an understanding with the Feudal and Federal parties and was responsible for the conduct of the negotiations which in the elections of the same year gave a majority to the different groups of the National and Clerical opposition. In July he became minister president: at first he still continued to govern with the Liberals, but this was soon made impossible, and he was obliged to turn for support to the Conservatives.

Election reform of 1882

Count Taaffe is mostly remembered for his election reform of 1882, which reduced to 5 guilders the minimum tax base required for men over the age of 24 to vote. Before this reform, the tax base was set locally, but was usually at a considerably higher level, so that only 6% of the male population of Cisleithania had been entitled to vote. However, even after this reform, there were still four classes of voters whose vote counted differently, depending on how much tax an individual was paying.

The next election reform was enacted in 1896 by Kasimir Felix Graf Badeni, who succeeded in bringing about more radical reforms than Taaffe had achieved.

Policies on nationalities

It was Taaffe's great achievement that he persuaded the Czechs to abandon the policy of abstention and to take part in the parliament. It was on the support of them, the Poles, and the Clericals that his majority depended. His avowed intention was to unite the nationalities of Austria: Germans and Slavs were, as he said, equally integral parts of Austria; neither must be oppressed; both must unite to form an Austrian parliament. Notwithstanding the growing opposition of the German Liberals, who refused to accept the equality of the nationalities, he kept his position for thirteen years.

Taaffe's character and overall assessment

Not a great creative statesman, Taaffe had singular capacity for managing men; a very poor orator, he had in private intercourse an urbanity and quickness of humour which showed his Irish ancestry. Beneath an apparent cynicism and frivolity Taaffe hid a strong feeling of patriotism to his country and loyalty to the emperor. It was no small service to both that for so long, during very critical years in European history, he maintained harmony between the two parts of the monarchy and preserved constitutional government in Austria. The necessities of the parliamentary situation compelled him sometimes to go farther in meeting the demands of the Conservatives and Czechs than he would probably have wished, but he was essentially an opportunist; in no way a party man, he recognized that the government must be carried on, and he cared little by the aid of what party the necessary majority was maintained.

Late years

In 1893 he was defeated on a proposal for the revision of the franchise, and resigned. He retired into private life, and died two years later at his country residence, Ellischau, in Bohemia.

Notes

Regarding personal names: Graf is a title, translated as Count, not a first or middle name. The female form is Gräfin.

Political offices
Preceded by Count Beust	Interior Minister of the Austrian Empire 1867	Succeeded by Carl Giskra
Preceded by Karl von Auersperg	Minister-President of Cisleithania 1868 – 1870	Succeeded by Ignaz von Plener
Preceded by Carl Giskra	Interior Minister of Cisleithania 1870 – 1871	Succeeded by Count von Hohenwart
Preceded by Karl von Stremayr	Minister-President of Cisleithania 1879 – 1893	Succeeded by Alfred III. zu Windisch-Grätz
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by Charles Taaffe	Viscount Taaffe	Succeeded by Henry Taaffe

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.