Austro-Italian ironclad arms race
In the years after Ferdinand Max's departure from Austria, the Imperial Austrian Navy suffered under further political and budgetary constraints. In April 1864, it was proposed that the naval ministry, which the former Archduke had helped to establish, be disbanded. In January 1865, Emperor Franz Joseph I dissolved the ministry and the Imperial Austrian Navy was again placed under the jurisdiction of the Austrian Ministry of War. Under the 1865 budget, just 7,100,000 Florins were allocated towards naval expenses, but once more, none of the funds were designated for warship construction. In 1866, the naval budget grew slightly to 7,800,000 Florins, but for the third consecutive year there would be no funds for additional ironclads, or other warships. Thus, when the Seven Weeks War began in June 1866, the Imperial Austrian Navy would possess only ships which had been constructed during Ferdinand Max's tenure as "Oberkommandant der Marine".
Austria (Lombard)
Austria included the duchies of the north-eastern Lombard Kingdom, among them a prominent role was covered by:The duchies of Austria presented themselves as the defenders of the warrior and conqueror spirit of the Lombards. Here survived longer than in other places the old pagan cults and among the converts to Christianity, many were adherents of Arianism or adherents to the Schism of the Three Chapters. The Dukes of "Austria" pressed repeatedly on the king to take initiative, coming in several times to hatch conspiracies to overthrow the legitimate sovereign. This was the case in 662 of Grimoald (duke of Benevento, but a son of a Duke of Friuli), who managed to usurp the throne of Godepert and Perctarit despite the opposition of the Neustrians dukes of Asti and Turin; of Alahis, Duke of Trent, who in 688-689 was able to seize the throne of Pavia before being defeated by Cunipert; of Ansfrid of Friuli, who, having usurped the Duchy of Friuli, in turn attempted to seize the throne of Cunipert (who defeated and killed him in 698); of Rotarit, Duke of Bergamo, who after the death of Cunipert objected unsuccessfully to Raginpert first and then Aripert II (700-702). In the 8th century, however, the widespread conversion of the Lombards to Catholicism smoothed the opposition between "Austria" and "Neustria", thanks to a revived expansion at the expense of the Byzantine Empire with the Catholic and Neustrian Liutprand (king from 712).