Admiral Rudolf Montecuccoli had advanced the Tegetthoff programme before formal permission, and Anton Haus inherited command in February 1913. At that point the Austro-Hungarian navy ranked sixth in Europe and roughly eighth in the world. Its nominal goal of sixteen battleships concealed an uneven force: only four were dreadnoughts, while three counted units were twenty-year-old Monarch-class coastal-defence ships about a quarter of a Tegetthoff's size. Historians use Ersatz Monarch to describe the intended replacement role, since it was never confirmed as the class name. Monarch, Wien, and Budapest were plausible names for three new ships; the fourth name remains uncertain.
Chapter · 25:27-27:23
From the old Monarchs to battleships eight to eleven
The historian's class label marks the intended replacement of three small Monarch coastal-defence ships within an Austro-Hungarian sixteen-battleship programme.