SMS Szent István
Montecuccoli's plans for the construction of "Szent István" and her sister ships earned the approval of Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909, and by April plans for the design, construction, and financing for the battleships had been laid out. For a full year, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to keep the looming construction of the first two battleships a state secret. This did not prevent rumors from circulating across Europe of two dreadnought battleships being constructed in Austria-Hungary. The French Naval Attaché in Vienna complained to Paris in 1910 of extensive secrecy within the Austro-Hungarian Navy, which manifested itself in several ways. Among these were a ban on photography in the Pola, future home port of "Szent István", and near-constant observation by the Austro-Hungarian police.
Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488)
Matthias and Frederick III/V had been rivals stretching back to Matthias' succession as King of Hungary in 1458 after the early death of Frederick's Habsburg cousin King Ladislaus the Posthumous. At this time, Frederick held the Holy Crown of Hungary and was a candidate for becoming Hungarian king himself. Matthias, backed by the Bohemian king George of Poděbrady whose daughter Catherine (1449–1464) he married in 1461, finally prevailed: the two rivals settled their disagreements in 1463 with the Treaty of Wiener Neustadt, in which Frederick recognized the "de facto" King of Hungary and returned the Holy Crown to Matthias for a heavy ransom.