Austro-Italian ironclad arms race
Seizing upon the decline of the Regia Marina in the years immediately after the Battle of Lissa, Tegetthoff worked to continue the efforts of Archduke Ferdinand Max of expanding the ironclad fleet of the now Austro-Hungarian Navy. Tegetthoff found political allies in the Austro-Hungarian Minister of War Carl von Franck and retired Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair. Wüllerstorf's and Franck's primary arguments in favor of continuing with the ironclad program Austria had engaged in prior to the Seven Weeks War lay largely along economic grounds. The two believed that constructing new ironclad warships would rejuvenate Austria-Hungary's economy following the defeat at the hands of Prussia and Italy, and that such a fleet would help to open up new commercial opportunities in the Levant and the Middle East. These proposals would be shelved however while Austria continued to reel from the military defeats inflicted by Prussia, and several cabinet reshufflings by Emperor Franz Joseph I resulted in a government more interested in pursuing revenge against Prussia than constructing new ironclads, which would be of little use in a hypothetical second war with Prussia.
Military history of Germany
The War of the Three Henries was fought between 977-978. The war was a short lived rebellion by three German princes, all of which were named Henry, against Emperor Otto II. The three Henries were, Bishop Henry I of Augsburg, Henry the Wrangler, and duke Henry I the Younger. Otto was fighting the rebellion of the three Henries when King Lothair III of France invaded Germany and attacked the imperial capital of Aachen with 20,000 men. Otto was forced to flee to Dortmund were he created an effective response. He then counter-invaded France and laid siege to Paris but was forced to withdraw during the winter months. He then turned to defeating the rebellious princes, which he did by besieging Passau were the rebels had gathered. Otto took Passau and punished the three princes for their insurrection.