Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 52. (2007)

LINDQUIST, Thea: Clement von Radolt (1593–1670): A Multifarious Career in the seventeenth-century Imperial Service

Clement von Radolt (1593-1670)

Little is known of Radolt’s mother. After her death, his father re-married, wedding the widow Elisabeth (Schlögl) Thenner, daughter of former cavalry captain Caspar Schlögl, in February 1618.4 Their marriage, however, was shortlived. Andre Radolt died in 1621, with 6,000 florins from his salary and loans he had made to the Hofspital still owed him by the government.5 According to Radolt, his father did not earn much at the Hofspital and therefore did not have much to leave to his heirs.6

As a young man, Clement Radolt studied law.7 He likely received his preparatory training at a Latin school or with a private tutor, as was the case with most law students of the day. Although there were usually no formal requirements for entry into law school, students needed a firm grasp of oral and written Latin, which was the language of instruction, to survive.8 And survive he did, for Radolt successfully completed his law studies and became a doctor of canon and civil (Roman) law.9

A university education, and particularly a legal education, was an increasingly common means for sons of the urban elite to attain positions at the Imperial court and in central administration. Jurists trained in Roman law were in particular demand in the growing bureaucracy.10 Radolf s legal training not only opened doors for his future career but, once he had gained a government position, also allowed him to rise more quickly into high offices and provided him with opportunities for upward mobility that were eagerly sought by educated commoners. Although his

4 Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Hofkammerarchiv [hereafter: HKA], Familienakten [hereafter: FA] R-10, ff. 1-6: 10, 15 Feb. 1618.

5 HKA, FA R-10, ff. 34-37, 43-48: 29 Apr. 1629. The saga of Radolt’s attempts to recover the 6,000 florins from the government unfolds in ff. 13-48; he did not succeed in doing so until 1629. The Hofspital was in serious financial difficulties during the entire Thirty Years’ War period. (Nowotny: Geschichte des Wiener Hofspitals, p. 99).

6 HKA, FA R-10, ff. 18-20: [1629],

7 No evidence exists in the matriculation records of the law faculty of the University of Vienna that Radolt studied there, but there are many gaps in the records.

8 Coing, Helmut: Die juristische Fakultät und ihr Lehrprogramm. In: Neuere Zeit (1500-1800): Das Zeitalter des Gemeinen Rechts, vol. 2, Handbuch der Quellen und Literatur der neueren europäischen Privatrechtgeschichte, ed. Helmut Coing, Munich 1977, pt. 1, pp. 49, 68-69.

9 Locher, Johann Joseph: Spekulum Academicum Viennensis, seu Magistratus antiquissimae et celeberrimae Universitatis Viennensis, a primo ejusdem auspicio ad nostra tempora chronologice, historice, et lemmatice, Vienna 1773-1775, vol. 1, pp. 187-188, 229. Radolt’s status as a doctor of law theoretically brought certain privileges, such as exemption from taxation. (Frijhoff, Willem: Graduation and Careers. In: Universities in Early Modem Europe [1500-1800], ed. Hilde de Ridder-Symoens: A History of the University in Europe, ed. Walter Riiegg, vol. 2, Cambridge 1996, p. 369).

10 MacHardy, Karin J.: War, Religion and Court Patronage in Habsburg Austria: The Social and Cultural Dimensions of Political Interaction, 1521-1622, New York 2003, p. 128; Coing: Die juristische Fakultät, pt. 1, p. 68.

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