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".
History of Austria
When Duke Albert V (1404–1439) was elected as emperor in 1438 (as Albert II), as the successor to his father-in-law, Sigismund von Luxemburg (1433–1437) the imperial crown returned once more to the Habsburgs. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year (1438–1439), from then on, every emperor was a Habsburg (with only one exception: Charles VII 1742–1745), and Austria's rulers were also the Holy Roman Emperors until its dissolution in 1806.