class of modern battleships. As a result, by 1908 the stage was set for the creation of Prinz Eugen and the Tegetthoff class. Shortly after assuming command as Chief of the Navy, Montecuccoli drafted his first proposal for a modern Austrian fleet in the spring of 1905. While these plans were ambitious and included 12 battleships, none of the ships approached the eventual size of Prinz Eugen. Additional proposals came from outside the Naval Section of the War Ministry. Two proposals from Slovenian politician Ivan Šusteršič, and the Austrian Naval League in 1905 and 1909 included battleships which were close to the size of Prinz Eugen. While Šusteršič's plan lacked the large-caliber guns that would later be found on Prinz Eugen, the plans submitted by the Austrian Naval League three dreadnoughts of , similar to Prinz Eugens eventual displacement of . These plans were justified by the League by pointing out that newer battleships were necessary to protect Austria-Hungary's growing merchant marine, and that Italian naval spending was twice that of Austria-Hungary's. Following the construction of Austria-Hungary's last class of pre-dreadnought battleships, the , Montecuccoli submitted a proposal which would include the first design for Prinz Eugen. With the threat of war with Italy from the Bosnian Crisis in 1908 fresh in the minds of the Austro-Hungarian military, Montecuccoli delivered a memorandum to Emperor Franz Joseph I in January 1909 proposing an enlarged Austro-Hungarian Navy consisting of 16 battleships, 12 cruisers, 24 destroyers, 72 seagoing torpedo boats, and 12 submarines. The most notable change in this memorandum compared to Monteccucoli's previous draft from 1905 was the inclusion of four additional dreadnought battleships with a displacement of at load. One of these ships would eventually become Prinz Eugen. Plans and budget Montecuccoli's memorandum would eventually be leaked to Italian newspapers just three months after obtaining approval from Emperor Franz Joseph I. The Italian reaction to the Austro-Hungarian plans was swift, and in June 1909, the Italian dreadnought battleship was laid down at the naval shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia. While Dante Alighieri was being worked on in Italy, Austria-Hungary's own plans for Prinz Eugen and the other ships of her class remained on paper. Funding necessary to begin construction was not to be had either, due to the collapse of Sándor Wekerle's government in Budapest. This left the Hungarian Diet without a prime minister for nearly a year. With no government