Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"This elevation of the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs was of relatively recent origin. It was only under Ferdinand II (1619–37) that the court was finally established at Vienna, and even after that it spent extended periods elsewhere. It was only in 1665, with the death of the last member of the Tyrolean line, that all the German lands of the Habsburgs came to be concentrated in one ruler, Leopold I (1657–1705). The near-certainty that the pitiful Charles II of Spain (1665–1700) would be the last of his line also enhanced the status of the notionally junior Habsburg branch. This consolidation marked the end of a particularly torrid time, when successive emperors had been faced by revolts at home, war in the west against the French and war in the east against the Turks–and often all three simultaneously. . . . The Habsburg style of representation was part of a wider religious project, a special form of baroque piety known as ‘Pietas Austriaca’. . . . Pilgrimages became a distinctive part of court culture." [Blanning: Pursuit of Glory, p. 445-6]