Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Archduke Charles Joseph of Austria

1745–1761

Born
1 Feb 1745, Vienna
Country of birth
Habsburg monarchy, today Austria
Died
18 Jan 1761, Vienna
facts
7
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Vienna

    Birth, Vienna

  2. Died · Vienna

    Death, Vienna

What was it like?

The world around Vienna, 1745: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Archduke was born around the same time as Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de Saint-Aubin de Genlis, Giuseppe Cambini, and Venanzio Rauzzini.

Born around the same time

  • Stéphanie Félicité Ducrest de Saint-Aubin de Genlis

    1746 · French writer (1746–1830)

  • Giuseppe Cambini

    1746 · Italian musician (1746-1825)

  • Venanzio Rauzzini

    1746 · Italian opera singer and teacher (1746-1810)

  • Francisco Goya

    1746 · Spanish painter and printmaker (1746–1828)

  • Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

    1746 · Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer (1746-1827)

  • Giuseppe Piazzi

    1746 · Italian Catholic priest, mathematician and astronomer (1746–1826)

Fashion

Feast day versus daily wear

For feast days, people wore finer clothing, such as a blouse made of fine linen, whereas daily work clothes were made of coarse linen.

Personal cleanliness through body linen

In 18th-century Vienna, ordinary men typically owned between six and ten shirts, while women owned between seven and eleven shifts, which were essential for maintaining hygiene and a respectable appearance.

Music

Trumpets and timpani dominated Viennese ceremonies

During the 1740s, trumpets and timpani were the most frequently documented instruments in Vienna, performing at royal festivals, university ceremonies, and significant church events.

Masquerade balls were a social highlight

During the carnival season, masquerade balls were highly popular, with noble guests often wearing costumes of lower social orders, such as cooks, servants, or exotic figures.

Getting around

Slow boat transport on the Inn River

In 1745, a boat trip on the Inn River between Kufstein and Hall took eight days, requiring 50 to 60 horses for towing.

Travel times by carriage in the 1700s

In the 18th century, a 30-kilometer trip between St. Pölten and Melk took 5 to 7 hours, while a 115-kilometer journey to St. Florian took 20 to 28 hours.

Daily life

Separate kitchens and private livestock in households

Wealthy merchant households like the Spänglers in Salzburg maintained separate "common" and "good" kitchens to distinguish between daily cooking and the storage of expensive, prestigious tableware. They even kept chickens in their own courtyard to supplement food supplies bought at the city markets.

Crowded homes and shared urban infrastructure

Most residents lived in rented rooms or shared apartments where cooking, sewing, child care, and sleeping often occurred in the same few rooms. Homes relied on tiled stoves for heat and fuel, and daily movement was shaped by access to neighborhood wells and fountains.

Food

Beverages of the ordinary people

While the wealthy enjoyed wine, poorer women in Vienna often drank water mixed with vinegar to cool themselves during hot summers. By the 1730s, beer consumption was rising, and Viennese residents drank about three times as much wine as beer, though beer was increasingly becoming a staple drink.

Meager diet of the common people

The vast majority of the population ate very meagerly, relying on dishes made from legumes like peas, beans, and lentils, as well as porridges made from millet, oats, or barley. Meat was only rarely served to the common person.

Prices and wages
Around 1749–1749

Vienna wages and meat prices 1749

By 1749, the daily wage for a worker in Vienna remained 15 Kreuzer, but the price of beef had risen to 8.93 Kreuzer per kilogram.

Around 1740–1740

Food prices in Vienna

In 1740, a kilogram of bread cost 2.61 Kreuzer, while a kilogram of beef cost 9.36 Kreuzer.

Work
Around 1749–1754

Land Measured by Cow-Feeds

In salt mining regions like Aussee, worker families held small plots of land measured in cow-feeds (Kuhfuhren), representing the pasture required for one cow. These plots were essential for families to supplement their meager wages with their own milk and livestock.

Common Jobs Combined Multiple Trades

Many ordinary people relied on multiple income sources, combining small-scale farming with trades like weaving, masonry, or day labor to survive. Seasonal labor, such as weaving in winter and construction work in summer, was common.

News and letters

Postal stations and surveillance

Postal stations were established at intervals of 20 to 40 kilometers where messengers could change horses, and some stations contained Black Chambers where suspicious letters were secretly opened.

Postmaster accountability for postal staff

A 1748 postal decree mandated that postmasters employ reliable, honest servants, as they were held personally accountable for any lost mail or dishonesty by their staff.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.