Wikipedia
The Hofkriegsrat was the court war council of the Habsburg Monarchy. Founded in 1556 in the reign of Emperor Ferdinand I, it was a council of Generals and senior civil servants who controlled army appointments, the finances of warfare, and the deployment of forces. It also handled civil and military administration of the border region of Croatia. With the establishment of an imperial standing army in the 17th century, the Hofkriegsrat was the bureaucracy charged with managing the permanent military force. It served as the central military administrative agency and a military chancery, provided a staff for the emperor, and directed and coordinated field armies. Additionally, it conducted relations with the Ottoman Empire and administered the Military Frontier (Militärgrenze).
Joseph II centralized the body and gave it authority over all branches of the military. When the reforming Archduke Charles became president of the Hofkriegsrat, he divided it into three departments, dealing with military, judicial, and administrative matters.
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Hofkriegsrat, as one of four components of the governing State Council (Staatsrat), continued to exert control over the military, subject of course to the will of the Emperor of Austria. However, its bureaucracy was cumbersome and decisions were often arrived at only after much argument and circulation of papers. While the presidents were always officers, section heads were frequently civilians and there was often tension between them. The military men resented interference by what Radetzky would later call a civilian " despotism". An additional problem was presented in the fact that in a time when the general staff was growing in importance in other countries (notably Prussia), in Austria it remained only a subordinate section of the Hofkriegsrat.
Amidst the growing nationalist troubles leading up to the 1848 Revolutions, the Hofkriegsrat investigated the reliability of units with suspect loyalties. In 1833 it ruled that all soldiers in the imperial army belonging to Mazzini's Italian nationalist Young Italy movement were guilty of high treason and were to be court-martialed. In the 1840s it investigated even the traditionally loyal South Slav Grenzer but determined that they would likely act as ordered, especially if in action against the Hungarians.
In 1848 the Hofkriegsrat became part of the Ministry of War.