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103-515: Kaiserliche Reichspost ( German: [ˈʁaɪçsˌpɔst] , Imperial Mail ), originally named Niederländische Postkurs (Low Countries' postal route), was the name of the international postal service of the Holy Roman Empire , founded in 1490. Often considered the world's first modern postal service, it initiated a revolution in communication in Europe. In the late 15th and early 16th century,

206-494: A legal monopoly . The worldwide postal system constituting the individual national postal systems of the world's self-governing states is coordinated by the Universal Postal Union , which among other things sets international postage rates, defines standards for postage stamps and operates the system of international reply coupons . In most countries a system of codes has been created (referred to as ZIP codes in

309-626: A block of dots as a two-dimensional barcode . The "block of dots" method allows for the encoding of proof of payment of postage, exact routing for delivery, and other features. The ordinary mail service was improved in the 20th century with the use of planes for a quicker delivery. The world's first scheduled airmail post service took place in the United Kingdom between the London suburbs of Hendon and Windsor, Berkshire , on 9 September 1911. Some methods of airmail proved ineffective, however, including

412-543: A difficult peace with the Hungarian rebels ( Peace of Vienna ) and the Ottomans ( Peace of Zsitvatorok ). Rudolf was angry with Matthias's concessions and saw them as giving away too much to further his hold on power. That made Rudolf prepare to start a new war against the Ottomans, but Matthias rallied support from the disaffected Hungarians and forced Rudolf to cede the crowns of Hungary, Austria and Moravia to him. Meanwhile,

515-615: A form of meter label and thus do not need to be cancelled.) Documents should generally not be read by anyone other than the addressee; for example, in the United States of America it is a violation of federal law for anyone other than the addressee and the government to open mail. There are exceptions however: executives often assign secretaries or assistants the task of handling their mail; and postcards do not require opening and can be read by anyone. For mail contained within an envelope, there are legal provisions in some jurisdictions allowing

618-550: A matter of months) by France and England, although initially they wanted to restrict the development of private mail. "The French postal network was soon denser than the imperial one, while Henry VII (r. 1485-1509) and subsequent Tudor monarchs remained content with a line of communication from Dover to London and from London to Berwick on the Scottish border." The Habsburg system gained in importance when Philip expanded it to Spain though. It became so successful that it would function until

721-501: A menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive " cabinet of curiosities " ( Kunstkammer ) incorporating "the three kingdoms of nature and the works of man". It was housed at Prague Castle , where between 1587 and 1605 he built the northern wing to house his growing collections. A lion and a tiger were allowed to roam the castle, as is documented by the account books, which record compensation paid to survivors of attacks or to family members of victims. Rudolf

824-440: A new crusade , he started a long and indecisive war against the Ottomans in 1593. The war lasted until 1606 and is known as the " Long Turkish War ". By 1604, his Hungarian subjects were exhausted by the war and revolted, led by Stephen Bocskai ( Bocskai uprising ). In 1605, Rudolf was forced by his other family members to cede control of Hungarian affairs to his younger brother Archduke Matthias . By 1606, Matthias had forged

927-684: A postal system in the Empire, appointing Franz von Taxis to run it. This system, originally the Kaiserliche Reichspost , is often considered the first modern postal service in the world, which initiated a revolution in communication in Europe. The system combined contemporary technical and organization means to create a stable transcontinental service which was also the first to offer (fee-based) public access. The Thurn und Taxis family, then known as Tassis, had operated postal services between Italian city-states from 1290 onward. For 500 years

1030-619: A private mail service. Notably, the Cistercians had one which connected more than 6,000 abbeys , monasteries , and churches. The best organization, however, was created by the Knights Templar . In 1716, Correos y Telégrafos was established in Spain as public mail service, available to all citizens. Delivery postmen were first employed in 1756 and post boxes were installed firstly in 1762. In 1505, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I established

1133-486: A prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages but never in fact married. Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. He had several illegitimate children by his mistress Catherina Strada . Their eldest son, Don Julius Caesar d'Austria , was likely born between 1584 and 1586 and received an education and opportunities for political and social prominence from his father. Another famous child

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1236-575: A small Telephone Boutique next to a historic Postal mansion his ancestors used to go to centuries earlier. Several European Post Carriers like Deutsche Post or Österreichische Post continue to use the Thurn & Taxis Post Horn in their company logo just like the global Phone Book of the World based in the old Postal mansion of King Louis XIV in Paris. In the United Kingdom, prior to 1840 letters were paid for by

1339-525: A suspected criminal conspiracy, although black chambers (largely in the past, though there is apparently some continuance of their use today) opened extralegally. The mail service may be allowed to open the mail if neither addressee nor sender can be located, in order to attempt to locate either. Mail service may also open the mail to inspect if it contains materials that are hazardous to transport or violate local laws. Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612)

1442-485: A travelling bag or pack. It was spelled in that manner until the 17th century and is distinct from the word male . The French have a similar word, malle , for a trunk or large box, and mála is the Irish term for a bag. In the 17th century, the word mail began to appear as a reference for a bag that contained letters: "bag full of letter" (1654). Over the next hundred years the word mail began to be applied strictly to

1545-484: A wide variety of personal hobbies such as horses, clocks, collecting rarities, and being a patron of the arts. He suffered from periodic bouts of " melancholy " (depression), which was common in the Habsburg line. These became worse with age and were manifested by a withdrawal from the world and its affairs into his private interests. Like Elizabeth I of England , whose birth was 19 years before his, Rudolf dangled himself as

1648-534: Is described in the chronicles of the city of Memmingen report: In this year they began to establish the posts at the order of Maximilian I the Roman king, from Austria all the way to the Netherlands, France, and Rome. Everywhere one post was separated from another by five miles [38 kilometers] [...] Other authors note that the notable feature of the system was that it was the first public-access postal system (mainly due to

1751-461: The Habsburg dynasty had managed to develop a transoceanic empire, on which it was said that "The sun never sets", but unlike the ancient Romans and Persians or their contemporary Chinese, Russians, Aztecs, or Incas, they lacked the financial capacity to maintain a postal system on their own. Other European governments tried to develop their own models as well, but efforts usually proved short-lived, as in

1854-568: The Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), who had relay stations every 30 li (about 15km) along major routes. The Tang dynasty (618 to 907 AD) operated a recorded 1,639 posthouses, including maritime offices, employing around 20,000 people. The system was administered by the Ministry of War and private correspondence was forbidden from the network. The Ming dynasty (1368 to 1644) sought a postal system to deliver mail quickly, securely, and cheaply. Adequate speed

1957-640: The Imperial cities and smaller principalities often developed their own communication system. After the accession of Rudolph's brother Emperor Matthias in 1612, a second route was established from Cologne via Frankfurt , Aschaffenburg , and Nuremberg to Bohemia and later also to Leipzig and Hamburg . After the Thirty Years' War and the Peace of Westphalia , Postmaster General Count Lamoral II Claudius Franz von Thurn und Taxis and his successors had to deal with

2060-495: The Kunstkammer and in 1609 published Gemmarum et Lapidum , the finest gemological treatise and encyclopedia ever written for this time. As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the emperor, artists and professional scholars were allowed to study it. The collection became an invaluable research tool during the flowering of 17th-century European philosophy . Rudolf's successors did not appreciate

2163-750: The Orléans Collection after the death of Christina of Sweden . In 1782, the remainder of the collection was sold piecemeal to private parties by Joseph II . One of the surviving items from the Kunstkammer is a "fine chair" that was looted by the Swedes in 1648 and now owned by the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle in England, and others survive in museums. Astrology and alchemy were regarded as mainstream scientific fields in Renaissance Prague , and Rudolf

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2266-731: The Scientific Revolution . Determined to unify Christendom , he initiated the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) with the Ottoman Empire . Exhausted by war, his citizens in Hungary revolted in the Bocskai Uprising , which led to more authority given to his brother Matthias . Under his reign, there was a policy of toleration towards Judaism . Rudolf was born in Vienna on 18 July 1552. He

2369-470: The U.S. Postal Service authorised the first tests of a secure system of sending digital franks via the Internet to be printed out on a PC printer, obviating the necessity to license a dedicated franking machine and allowing companies with smaller mail programs to make use of the option; this was later expanded to test the use of personalized postage. The service provided by the U.S. Postal Service in 2003 allows

2472-784: The Wittelsbach rival Charles VII in the War of the Austrian Succession , their services were indispensable, and Maria Theresa 's husband Emperor Francis I officially re-implemented the Thurn und Taxis monopoly in 1746. Two years later, the postal authority moved to Regensburg , seat of the Imperial Diet . The family had accumulated extreme wealth; nonetheless, it was devastated by the Napoleonic Wars . The last Postmaster General, Prince Karl Alexander von Thurn und Taxis , lost his office with

2575-628: The Wodeyar dynasty (1399–1947) of the Kingdom of Mysore used mail service for espionage purposes thereby acquiring knowledge related to matters that took place at great distances. By the end of the 18th century, a postal system in India was in operation. Later this system underwent complete modernization when the British Raj established its control over most of India. The Post Office Act XVII of 1837 provided that

2678-530: The post , while in North America both the U.S. Postal Service and Canada Post deliver the mail . The term email , short for "electronic mail", first appeared in the 1970s. The term snail mail is a retronym to distinguish it from the quicker email. Various dates have been given for its first use. The practice of communication by written documents carried by an intermediary from one person or place to another almost certainly dates back nearly to

2781-607: The August Revolution, the Post and Wireless Office was renamed the Post Office under the Ministry of Transportation. In 1955, the Post Office was upgraded to the Ministry of Post. Some Chinese sources claim mail or postal systems dating back to the Xia or Shang dynasties , which would be the oldest mailing service in the world. The earliest credible system of couriers was initiated by

2884-679: The Bohemian Protestants demanded greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. Bohemians continued to press for further freedoms, and Rudolf used his army to repress them. Bohemian Protestants then appealed to Matthias for help. His army held Rudolf prisoner in his castle in Prague until 1611, when Rudolf ceded the crown of Bohemia, as well, to his brother. Rudolf died in 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, except

2987-487: The Empire's dissolution on 6 August 1806, but his postal authority continued as the Frankfurt-based Thurn-und-Taxis Post until the unification of Germany . According to Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger , "The decisive innovative aspect of this system was the creation of postal stations where riders could change horses quickly, thus accelerating the speed with which they spread information. To consolidate

3090-608: The Fuggers and other trading companies had their most important branches in these ports." Confirmed by Emperor Rudolph II in 1595, the Imperial postal service remained a monopoly of the Thurn und Taxis family (officially hereditary from 1615 onwards) until it was terminated with the end of the Empire in 1806. The Imperial Reichspost was first based in Mechelen , before being moved to Brussels in

3193-655: The Governor-General of India in Council had the exclusive right of conveying letters by post for hire within the territories of the East India Company. The mails were available to certain officials without charge, which became a controversial privilege as the years passed. On this basis the Indian Post Office was established on October 1, 1837. The first well-documented postal service was that of Rome . Organized at

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3296-564: The Habsburg empire began to extend to other parts of Europe, Maximilian's loyalty to Augsburg, where he conducted a lot of his endeavours, meant that the imperial city became "the dominant centre of early capitalism" of the sixteenth century, and "the location of the most important post office within the Holy Roman Empire". The system quickly converged with the European trade system and an emerging market for news. According to Behringer, "During

3399-505: The Habsburgs' interests. On January 18, 1505, Philip unified communication between Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain by adding stations in Granada, Toledo, Blois, Paris and Lyon. Charles of Burgundy, later Charles V , continued to develop the system after his father's death. Behringer notes that, "Whereas the status of private mail remains unclear in the treaty of 1506, it is obvious from

3502-525: The Low Countries and Spain. The Deutsche Post considers itself the continuation of the system. In 1990, they celebrate the 500th year of the Reichspost's establishment. [REDACTED] Media related to Thurn and Taxis at Wikimedia Commons Mail Postal authorities often have functions aside from transporting letters. In some countries, a postal, telegraph and telephone (PTT) service oversees

3605-402: The Netherlands, from where the original ("Dutch") route led via Namur , Bastogne , Lieser , Wöllstein , Rheinhausen , and Augsburg to Innsbruck and Trento . It was also used to bypass the Kingdom of France in order to keep in touch with Habsburg Spain during times of hostility. Brussels was the side that organized and paid for the system. Competing services were prohibited, although

3708-545: The Rudolfine Kunstkammer was systematically arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion. In addition, Rudolf employed his court gemologist and physician Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550–1632), to curate the collection. Anselmus was an avid mineral collector and travelled widely on collecting trips to the mining regions of Germany, Bohemia and Silesia , often accompanied by his Bohemian naturalist friend, Thaddaeus Hagecius . Between 1607 and 1611, Anselmus catalogued

3811-477: The United States Postal Service's experiment with rocket mail . Receipt services were made available in order to grant the sender a confirmation of effective delivery. Before about the mid-nineteenth century, in regions where postal systems existed, the payment models varied, but most mail was sent unpaid requiring the recipient to pay the postage fee. In some regions a partial payment was made by

3914-485: The United States, postcodes in the United Kingdom and Australia, eircodes in Ireland and postal codes in most other countries) in order to facilitate the automation of operations. This also includes placing additional marks on the address portion of the letter or mailed object, called "bar coding". Bar coding of mail for delivery is usually expressed either by a series of vertical bars, usually called POSTNET coding or

4017-455: The agent usually indicates by means of a cancellation that it is no longer valid for pre-payment of postage. The exceptions are when the agent forgets or neglects to cancel the mailpiece, for stamps that are pre-cancelled and thus do not require cancellation and for, in most cases, metered mail. (The "personalized stamps" authorized by the USPS and manufactured by Zazzle and other companies are in fact

4120-497: The arts and occult sciences as a triumph and key part of the Renaissance, and his political failures are seen as a legitimate attempt to create a unified Christian empire that was undermined by the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations of the time. Although raised in his uncle's Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and other religions including Judaism . The tolerant policy by

4223-419: The best craftsmen in Europe. He patronized natural philosophers such as the botanist Charles de l'Ecluse , and the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler both attended his court. Tycho, who had spent much of his life making observations of stars and planets that were more accurate than any previous observations, directed Kepler to work on the planet Mars. In doing so, Kepler found that in order to fit

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4326-465: The best scientific instrument makers of the time, such as Jost Bürgi , Erasmus Habermel and Hans Christoph Schissler . They had direct contact with the court astronomers and through the financial support of the court were economically independent to develop scientific instruments and manufacturing techniques. The poet Elizabeth Jane Weston , a writer of Renaissance Latin poetry, was also part of his court and wrote numerous odes to him. Rudolf kept

4429-513: The case Louis XI 's ambitious project. It was founded by the brothers Janetto and Francesco Tasso ( Franz von Taxis ) together with Maximilian of Austria in 1495, on the basis of the pre-existing Italian models and the courier networks built by Frederick III and Charles the Bold . The Bergamascan Tasso family had built up postal routes throughout Italy since c.  1290 and Jannetto's uncle Ruggiero had worked for Frederick III since

4532-512: The centre of the system was transferred to Brussels by Franz von Taxis, whom Philip made his postmaster-general. At first, urged by his father, Philip tried to take over the system, but he realized that his bureaucrats were unable to run it efficiently. Thus he made an agreement (later renewed by Charles of Burgundy) with the Taxis that allowed them to operate unhampered by interference from the state, as long as they maintained standards in accordance with

4635-444: The collection was moved to the dedicated Kunstkammer . Naturalia ( minerals and gemstones ) were arranged in a 37-cabinet display that had three vaulted chambers in front, each about 5.5 m wide by 3 m high and 60 m long, connected to a main chamber 33 m long. Large uncut gemstones were held in strong boxes. Apart from the fantastic nature of the objects, it is also the aesthetics of their arrangement and presentation which attracts

4738-401: The collection, and the Kunstkammer gradually fell into disarray. Some 50 years after its establishment, most of the collection was packed into wooden crates and moved to Vienna. The collection remaining at Prague was looted during the last year of the Thirty Years' War by Swedish troops who sacked Prague Castle on 26 July 1648 and took the best of the paintings, many of which later passed to

4841-512: The conditions for physical mail. Email (and in recent years social networking sites) became a fierce competitor to physical mail systems, but online auctions and Internet shopping opened new business opportunities as people often get items bought online through the mail. Modern mail is organized by national and privatized services, which are reciprocally connected by international regulations, organizations and international agreements. Paper letters and parcels can be sent to almost any country in

4944-437: The contract of 1516 that the Taxis company had the right to carry mail and keep the profit as long as it guaranteed the delivery of court mail at clearly defined speeds, regulated by time sheets to be filled in by the post riders on the way to their destination. In return, imperial privileges guaranteed exemption from local taxes, local jurisdiction, and military service. The terminology of the early modern communications system and

5047-496: The court of his maternal uncle Philip II , together with his younger brother Ernest , future governor of the Low Countries . After his return to Vienna, his father was concerned about Rudolf's aloof and stiff manner, typical of the more conservative Spanish court, rather than the more relaxed and open Austrian court; but his Spanish mother saw in him courtliness and refinement. In the years following his return to Vienna, Rudolf

5150-446: The daughter of a local barber, who had been living in the castle, and then disfigured her body. Rudolf condemned his son's act and suggested that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life. However, Julius died in 1609 after he had shown signs of schizophrenia , refused to bathe and lived in squalor. His death was apparently caused by an ulcer that ruptured. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic. The emperor

5253-640: The development of a real postal system comes from Ancient Persia . The best-documented claim ( Xenophon ) attributes the invention to the Persian King Cyrus the Great (550 BCE), who mandated that every province in his kingdom would organize reception and delivery of post to each of its citizens. Other writers credit his successor Darius I of Persia (521 BCE). Other sources claim much earlier dates for an Assyrian postal system, with credit given to Hammurabi (1700 BCE) and Sargon II (722 BCE). Mail may not have been

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5356-454: The empire towards the Jews would see Jewish cultural life flourishing, and their population increased under Rudolf's reign. He largely withdrew from Catholic observances and even in death refused the last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as a counter-weight to papal policies. He put his primary support behind conciliarists , irenicists and humanists . When

5459-617: The empty title of Holy Roman Emperor, to which Matthias was elected five months later. In May 1618 with the event known as the Defenestration of Prague , the Protestant Bohemians, in defence of the rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty , threw imperial officials out of the window and thus the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) started. Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved collecting paintings and

5562-419: The end of the Holy Roman Empire . The system quickly became a Europe-wide, fee-based, regular and reliable service. The English system, established by Henry VIII in 1512, also had to begin to carry private mails partly to raise revenue and partly to allow the government to keep an eye on public communication. It became open to public use in 1635. Dewald comments, "Unlike in ancient Rome or China, no European ruler

5665-496: The enormous funding necessary to rapidly industrialize Japan in the late 19th century. The postal service was one of Korea's first attempts at modernization. The Joseon Post Office was established in 1884. Another important postal service was created in the Islamic world by the caliph Mu'awiyya; the service was called barid , for the name of the towers built to protect the roads by which couriers travelled. By 3000 BC, Egypt

5768-593: The establishment of separate postal agencies, mainly by the Protestant Imperial States of Northern German but also in several lands of the Habsburg monarchy , leading to long-lasting disputes over their range of authority. In the course of the War of the Spanish Succession , the Thurn und Taxis seat was relocated from Brussels to the Free City of Frankfurt in 1702. Though the dynasty had sided with

5871-411: The financing problems): the mingling of private and government mails broke a threshold. It became open to private mail since the early sixteenth century, with fees being fixed. This was the first modern postal service in the world and initiated a revolution in communication in Europe. Maximilian had intended that the system would serve the Habsburgs alone. But the initiative was emulated immediately (in

5974-457: The franks to be printed out on special adhesive-backed labels. In 2004 the Royal Mail in the United Kingdom introduced its SmartStamp Internet-based system, allowing printing on ordinary adhesive labels or envelopes. Similar systems are being considered by postal administrations around the world. When the pre-paid envelope or package is accepted into the mail by an agent of the postal service,

6077-423: The innovation lay with a combination of different elements – a setup in which nearly all known organizational means of conveying information were combined to give rise to the early modern postal system: post stations at regular intervals, changes of horses and couriers, fixed delivery times, acceleration through continuous transport, and—implicitly—the organizational framework of the state. This setup, created in 1490,

6180-470: The invention of writing . However, the development of formal postal systems occurred much later. The first documented use of an organized courier service for the dissemination of written documents is in Egypt , where Pharaohs used couriers to send out decrees throughout the territory of the state (2400 BCE). The earliest surviving piece of mail is also Egyptian, dating to 255 BCE. The first credible claim for

6283-400: The last postmaster, Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis , into real estate, most of it continuing to exist today. The Phone Book of the World has its roots in the long history of the avant-garde telecommunications family Thurn & Taxis. The directory is the result of Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn & Taxis transmitting PTT culture to a student and helping with the opening of

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6386-409: The legal status of its participants were invented at these negotiations." He confirmed Jannetto's son Giovanni Battista as Postmaster General ( chief et maistre general de noz postes par tous noz royaumes, pays, et seigneuries ) in 1520. By Charles V's time, "the Holy Roman Empire had become the centre of the European communication(s) universe." Augsburg benefitted majorly from the system. Even when

6489-518: The letters themselves and the sack as the mailbag . In the 19th century, the British typically used mail to refer to letters being sent abroad (i.e. on a ship) and post to refer to letters for domestic delivery. The word Post is derived from Old French poste , which ultimately stems from the past participle of the Latin verb ponere 'to lay down or place'. So in the U.K., the Royal Mail delivers

6592-428: The mail and packages often surveyed and their contents sometimes edited out (or even in). There have been cases over the millennia of governments opening and copying or photographing the contents of private mail. Subject to the laws in the relevant jurisdiction, correspondence may be openly or covertly opened, or the contents determined via some other method, by the police or other authorities in some cases relating to

6695-470: The mail service. Foreign observers, such as Marco Polo , have attested to the efficiency of this early postal system. Each station was maintained by up to twenty five families. Work for postal service counted as military service. The system was still operational in 18th century when 64 stations were required for a message to cross Mongolia from the Altai Mountains to China. The modern Japanese system

6798-603: The message carrier (called Chapar ) would ride to the next post, whereupon he would swap his horse with a fresh one for maximum performance and delivery speed. Herodotus described the system in this way: "It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed". The verse prominently features on New York's James Farley Post Office , although it uses

6901-428: The mid-15th century. After the marriage of Archduke Maximilian of Austria and Mary of Burgundy , to have a better line of communication to govern the Habsburgs' scattered territories, Maximilian commissioned the Taxis to organize the first postal line from Mechelen to Innsbruck . Maximilian's son Philip, as Duke of Burgundy and King of Castile, expanded the Habsburg postal system established by his father. In 1500,

7004-585: The most impressive in the Europe of his day and the greatest collection of Northern Mannerist art ever to be assembled. The adjective Rudolfine, as in "Rudolfine Mannerism" is often used in art history to describe the style of the art that he patronised. His love of collecting went far beyond paintings and sculptures. He commissioned decorative objects of all kinds and in particular mechanical moving devices. Ceremonial swords and musical instruments, clocks, waterworks, astrolabes, compasses, telescopes and other scientific instruments were all produced for him by some of

7107-504: The observations to the required accuracy, it was necessary to assume that each planet orbits the sun in an ellipse with the sun at one focus, sweeping out equal areas in equal times. Thus were born two of Kepler's laws of planetary motion . It was Rudolf's patronage of the two astronomers that made this possible, as Kepler recognized when he eventually published the Rudolphine Tables . As mentioned earlier, Rudolf also attracted some of

7210-524: The papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation by using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those who he thought were the most neutral in the debate, were not taking a side or trying to effect restraint. That led to political chaos and threatened to provoke civil war. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the final cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Ottomans and stubbornly determined that he could unify all of Christendom with

7313-692: The postal business based in Brussels and in Frankfurt was passed from one generation to another. Following the abolition of the Empire in 1806, the Thurn-und-Taxis Post system continued as a private organization into the postage stamp era before being absorbed into the postal system of the new German Empire after 1871. 1867 July 1 the State of Prussia had to make a compensation payment of 3.000.000 Thalers reinvested by Helene von Thurn & Taxis , daughter-in-law of

7416-550: The postal system, in addition to telephone and telegraph systems. Some countries' postal systems allow for savings accounts and handle applications for passports . The Universal Postal Union (UPU), established in 1874, includes 192 member countries and sets the rules for international mail exchanges as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations . The word mail comes from the Middle English word male , referring to

7519-454: The primary mission of this postal service, however. The role of the system as an intelligence gathering apparatus is well documented, and the service was (later) called angariae , a term that in time came to indicate a tax system. The Old Testament ( Esther , VIII) makes mention of this system: Ahasuerus , king of Medes , used couriers for communicating his decisions. The Persian system worked using stations (called Chapar-Khaneh ), whence

7622-411: The public. Common chariots called Dagana were sometimes used as mail chariots in ancient India. Couriers were used militarily by kings and local rulers to deliver information through runners and other carriers. The postmaster, the head of the intelligence service, was responsible for ensuring the maintenance of the courier system. Couriers were also used to deliver personal letters. In South India ,

7725-417: The recipient and the cost was determined by the distance from sender to recipient and the number of sheets of paper rather than by a countrywide flat rate with weight restrictions. Sir Rowland Hill reformed the postal system based on the concepts of penny postage and prepayment. In his proposal, Hill also called for official pre-printed envelopes and adhesive postage stamps as alternative ways of getting

7828-623: The recording of identities of sender and recipient. The privacy of correspondence is guaranteed by the constitutions of Mexico , Colombia , Brazil and Venezuela , and is alluded to in the European Convention on Human Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . The control of the contents inside private citizens' mail is censorship and concerns social, political, and legal aspects of civil rights . International mail and packages are subject to customs control, with

7931-403: The reign of Emperor Maximilian, when private use of the imperial posts was still illegal, the terminuses of the first transcontinental post lines were already shifted from Innsbruck to Venice in the south, and from Brussels to Antwerp in the north. News arrived from all over the world in these towns, and this is where the communication and news businesses started to merge. And even more importantly,

8034-532: The sender to pay for the postage, at a time when prepayment was optional, which led to the invention of the postage stamp, the Penny Black . The postal system was important in the development of modern transportation. Railways carried railway post offices . During the 20th century, air mail became the transport of choice for inter-continental mail. Postmen started to use mail trucks . The handling of mail became increasingly automated. The Internet came to change

8137-435: The sender. Today, worldwide, the most common method of prepaying postage is by buying an adhesive postage stamp to be applied to the envelope before mailing; a much less common method is to use a postage-prepaid envelope . Franking is a method of creating postage-prepaid envelopes under licence using a special machine. They are used by companies with large mail programs, such as banks and direct mail companies. In 1998,

8240-440: The system further, Maximilian granted a monopoly over the post system to the noble family of Thurn and Taxis, which, in turn, made the system available to almost anyone by creating a system of fixed routes, timetables, and prices. The Imperial post system, together with the ever wider use of the printing press, brought about a veritable revolution in communication in the Empire and across Europe." Gerhard Dohrn-van Rossum opines that

8343-433: The time of Augustus Caesar (62 BCE – 14 CE), the service was called cursus publicus and was provided with light carriages ( rhedæ ) pulled by fast horses. By the time of Diocletian , a parallel service was established with two-wheeled carts ( birotæ ) pulled by oxen . This service was reserved for government correspondence. Yet another service for citizens was later added. In 1802, the first Vietnamese postal service

8446-473: The translation "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds". The economic growth and political stability under the Mauryan Empire (322–185 BCE) stimulated sustained development of civil infrastructure in ancient India . The Mauryans developed early Indian mail service as well as public wells, rest houses, and other facilities for

8549-483: The transport of foreign and domestic tribute specifically and the conduct of trade in general. By the end of Kublai Khan's rule, there were more than 1400 postal stations in China alone, which in turn had at their disposal about 50,000 horses, 1,400 oxen, 6,700 mules, 400 carts, 6,000 boats, more than 200 dogs, and 1,150 sheep. The stations were 25 to 65 km (16 to 40 mi) apart and had reliable attendants working for

8652-444: The visitor's attention. Without, however, there being a desire for purely scientific systematization on the part of the sovereign, it is necessary to detect the harmonious expression of the order of God and discern in the micro-macrocosm the analogy of a mimetic dependence on human arts towards nature and the world. Rudolf's Kunstkammer was not a typical "cabinet of curiosities", a haphazard collection of unrelated specimens. Rather,

8755-551: The whole territory of his empire the system used by Franks in northern Gaul and connected this service with that of missi dominici . In the mid-11th century, flax traders known as the Cairo Geniza Merchants from Fustat , Egypt wrote about using a postal service known as the kutubi. The kutubi system managed routes between the cities of Jerusalem, Ramla, Tyre, Ascalon, Damascus, Aleppo, and Fustat with year-round, regular mail delivery. Many religious orders had

8858-489: The world relatively easily and cheaply. The Internet has made the process of sending letter-like messages nearly instantaneous, and in many cases and situations correspondents use email where they previously would have used letters. The volume of paper mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service has declined by more than 15% since its peak at 213 billion pieces per annum in 2006. Some countries have organized their mail services as public limited liability corporations without

8961-432: Was Caroline (1591–1662), Princess of Cantecroix, mother-in-law of Beatrice de Cusance , later Duchess of Lorraine as the second wife of Charles IV of Lorraine . During his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his Obersthofmeister , Wolfgang Siegmund Rumpf vom Wullroß (1536–1606), and a series of valets . One of them, Philipp Lang von Langenfels (1560–1609), influenced him for years and

9064-558: Was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I , 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg . Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War ; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and an intellectual devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed what would be called

9167-425: Was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the philosopher's stone , and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe's best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee . Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope , which was dedicated to him as 'Prince and King'. In the 1590s, Michael Sendivogius

9270-578: Was able or willing to finance his or her own postal system." Under Gustavus Adolphus , the Swedish, who until this time had no such system of their own, emulated the Reichspost model too. This was why they called their communication services the Rijkspost . The system's development facilitated the Habsburgs's control over their scattered territories, especially the financial centers in South Germany, North Italy,

9373-461: Was active at Rudolph's court. Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley l, on the grounds of Prague Castle, being a popular visiting place and tourist attraction . Rudolf was a patron of the occult sciences. That and his practice of tolerance towards Jews caused during his reign the legend of the Golem of Prague to be established. Rudolf had

9476-515: Was also in his possessions. As was typical of the time, Rudolf II had a portrait painted in the studio of the renowned Alonso Sánchez Coello . Completed in 1567, the portrait depicted Rudolf II at the age of 15. This painting can be seen at the Lobkowicz Palace in the Rozmberk room. By 1597, the collection occupied three rooms of the incomplete northern wing. When building was completed in 1605,

9579-450: Was always a problem, because of the slow overland transportation system, and underfunding. Its network had 1,936 posthouses every 60 li along major routes, with fresh horses available every 10 li between them. The Qing operated 1,785 posthouses throughout their lands. More efficient, however, was the system linking the international settlements, centered around Shanghai and the Treaty ports. It

9682-530: Was crowned King of Hungary (1572), King of Bohemia and King of the Romans (1575) when his father was still alive. For the rest of his life, Rudolf would remain reserved, secretive, and largely a recluse who did not like to travel or even partake in the daily affairs of the state. He was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy , which was mainstream in the Renaissance period, and had

9785-473: Was developed in the mid-19th century, closely copying European models. Japan was highly innovative in developing the world's largest and most successful postal savings system and later a postal life insurance system as well. Postmasters play a key role in linking the Japanese political system to local politics. The postmasters are high prestige, and are often hereditary. To a large extent, the postal system generated

9888-497: Was established under the Nguyen dynasty , under the Ministry of Rites. During the Nguyen dynasty, official documents were transported by horse and other primitive means to stations built about 25-30 kilometers apart. In 1904, three wireless communication offices were established, and in early 1906 they were merged with the postal service to form the Post and Wireless Office. In 1945, after

9991-524: Was even alleged by one person to have owned the Voynich manuscript , a codex whose author and purpose, as well as the language and script and posited cipher remain unidentified to this day. According to hearsay passed on in a letter written by Johannes Marcus Marci in 1665, Rudolf was said to have acquired the manuscript at some unspecified time for 600 gold ducats . No evidence in support of this single piece of hearsay has ever been discovered. The Codex Gigas

10094-602: Was hated by those seeking favours with the emperor. Rudolf succeeded his father, Maximilian II, on 12 October 1576. In 1583, he moved the court to Prague . In 1607, Rudolf sent Julius to live at Český Krumlov , in Bohemia , in what is now the Czech Republic , a castle that Rudolf had purchased from Peter Vok of Rosenberg , the last member of the House of Rosenberg , who had fallen into financial ruin. Julius lived at Český Krumlov in 1608, when he reportedly abused and murdered

10197-629: Was often reported to sit and stare in rapture at a new work for hours on end. He spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Dürer and Brueghel . He was also patron to some of the best contemporary artists, who mainly produced new works in the Northern Mannerist style, such as Bartholomeus Spranger , Hans von Aachen , Giambologna , Giuseppe Arcimboldo , Aegidius Sadeler , Roelant Savery , Joris Hoefnagel and Adrian de Vries , as well as commissioning works from Italians like Paolo Veronese . Rudolf's collections were

10300-480: Was the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II , Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary and Croatia ; his mother was the Spanish Princess Maria , a daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal . He was the elder brother of Matthias who was to succeed him as King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolf spent eight formative years, from age 11 to 19 (1563–1571), in Spain, at

10403-600: Was the main communication system for China's international trade. Genghis Khan installed an empire-wide messenger and postal station system named Örtöö within the Mongol Empire . During the Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan , this system also covered the territory of China. Postal stations were used not only for the transmission and delivery of official mail but were also available for travelling officials, military men, and foreign dignitaries. These stations aided and facilitated

10506-511: Was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him. Historians have traditionally blamed Rudolf's preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests for the political disasters of his reign. More recently historians have re-evaluated that view and see his patronage of

10609-438: Was using homing pigeons for pigeon post , taking advantage of a singular quality of this bird, which when taken far from its nest is able to find its way home due to a particularly developed sense of orientation. Messages were then tied around the legs of the pigeon, which was freed and could reach its original nest. By the 19th century, homing pigeons were used extensively for military communications. Charlemagne extended to

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