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The House of Habsburg

For more than six centuries the Habsburgs were among the most powerful families in Europe. Their name lives on in history books, in palaces such as Schönbrunn and in the phrase "Habsburg-Lorraine". Here is the house's history, based on the sources listed at the end.

Origins: Habsburg Castle

The family takes its name from Habsburg Castle, in present-day Switzerland. It was built in the 11th century by Radbot of Klettgau, who named the fortress Habsburg. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the fortress name as his own, as "Count of Habsburg" [1].

The castle stands on the Wülpelsberg above the river Aare, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, and is now run by Museum Aargau [4]. According to the museum, a legend says that an escaped hunting hawk showed Count Radbot where to build his "Habichtsburg" (hawk's castle). What is established is that the early Habsburgs ran their estates, the later Eigenamt between the Aare, Reuss and Limmat rivers, from this site [4]. What began as a fortified farmstead grew into a large double castle, with front and rear sections, completed after 1200 [4]. The founding family left soon afterwards. For the early Habsburgs it was only one seat among several, since medieval rulers travelled through their lands to exercise power [4]. Since the 12th century Habsburgs appear in the retinue of the kings of the Holy Roman Empire [4]. In 1415 the Habsburgs lost the Aargau, apart from the Fricktal, to the Swiss Confederation [4]. Today two thirds of the ancestral castle are in ruins [4].

1273: King of the Romans

In 1273, Radbot's seventh-generation descendant Rudolf was elected King of the Romans [1]. After defeating Ottokar II of Bohemia in 1278, he made his sons Dukes of Austria and moved the family's power base to Vienna. From then on the dynasty was known as the "House of Austria", and it ruled there until 1918 [1].

The Holy Roman Empire

The Habsburgs held the throne of the Holy Roman Empire continuously from 1440 until the family died out in the male line in 1740 [1]. The last of the male line was succeeded by his daughter Maria Theresa. Her marriage to Francis of Lorraine founded the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, which held the imperial throne from 1765 until the Empire was dissolved in 1806 [1]. Museum Aargau sums up the expansion: through shrewd marriage policy the Habsburgs gained the crowns of Spain, Bohemia and Hungary, and in the 16th century Charles V held an empire "on which the sun never set" [4]. Twenty Habsburgs headed the Holy Roman Empire before it ended in 1806 [4].

After Charles V abdicated in 1556, the house split into a Spanish branch and a German-Austrian branch. They ruled separate territories but kept close ties and often intermarried [1]. The Spanish line ended with Charles II of Spain. Historians link his severe disabilities to generations of intermarriage, though some dispute the link between fertility and consanguinity [1].

The Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary

Expecting to lose the title of Holy Roman Emperor, Francis II declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria (as Francis I) on 11 August 1804, three months after Napoleon proclaimed himself Emperor of the French [1]. The dynasty went on to rule Austria-Hungary as emperors until 1918 [4]. The last ruling emperor was Charles I of Austria [1].

1918–1919: The End of Habsburg Rule in Austria

The Habsburg monarchy ended in 1918 [1]. On 3 April 1919, the new Republic of German-Austria passed the Habsburg Law (Habsburgergesetz) [2]. Its main provisions were:

• All sovereign rights and other privileges of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine and its members were abolished "for all time" (für immerwährende Zeiten) [2].
• The former emperor and other members of the house were banished from the country, unless they expressly renounced their membership of the house and all claims to rule and declared themselves loyal citizens of the Republic [2].
• Titles and forms of address contrary to these provisions were forbidden [2].

The law also transferred certain property of the house to the Republic [2]. It took effect on 10 April 1919 [2].

Francis Joseph and the Last Emperors

Francis Joseph reigned from 1848 to 1916, 68 years, one of the longest reigns in European history [5]. As a young emperor he crushed the 1848 revolution and the Hungarian independence struggle. After the Compromise of 1867 with Hungary, the Hungarians gave him the affectionate nickname "Ferenc Jóska" [5]. His motto was Viribus Unitis, "with united strength" [5]. His private life was marked by tragedy: his brother Maximilian was shot in Mexico in 1867, his son Rudolf died at Mayerling in 1889, and his wife, Empress Elisabeth, was assassinated in 1898 [5].

The assassination of the heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914 set off the First World War [6]. Francis Joseph died at Schönbrunn on 21 November 1916, aged 86 [6]. His successor, Charles I, sought a negotiated peace through his brothers-in-law Sixtus and Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, without success [6]. A few days after the armistice, in November 1918, he renounced any part in state affairs and withdrew with his family to Eckartsau. In March 1919 the new republican government forced the Habsburgs to leave for Switzerland [6].

Exile and Otto von Habsburg

Charles twice tried to regain the throne in Hungary. Both attempts failed, and the Allies exiled the family to Madeira, where Charles died of pneumonia on 1 April 1922 [7]. Empress Zita took their children to Spain and later Belgium [7]. Their eldest son, Otto, took his doctorate at the Catholic University of Louvain in 1933 and opposed National Socialism and Austria's annexation by Germany [7]. In 1961, as a legal condition of returning to Austria, Otto renounced all claims to the throne [8]. On the present head of the house and the succession, see Karl von Habsburg.

The House Today

The current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine is Karl von Habsburg [1]. The surname of recent members of the family, such as Otto von Habsburg and Karl von Habsburg, is taken to be "von Habsburg", or more fully "von Habsburg-Lothringen" [1]. Members of the house still use the three-part arms adopted in the 18th century by Francis Stephen of Lorraine [1]. The family also oversees the Austrian branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece [1]. In the words of Museum Aargau, "the Habsburg family still exists today" [4]. Living Habsburgs hold no sovereign or legal title in Austria [2].

Key Dates

Licence: contains material adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). This article is released under the same licence. Primary and institutional sources are summarised or briefly quoted.