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The Branches of the House of Habsburg

The Habsburgs ruled so much of Europe for so long that the family divided into several lines. Some reigned in their own right, others governed Italian states, and one survives today in the Belgian royal family. This page sets out the main branches, using only the sources listed at the end. For the main history, see our House of Habsburg page; for the present head, see Karl von Habsburg.

The Rise Through Marriage

The family's reach came largely from marriage. Frederick III (1415–1493), elected emperor in 1440, reunited the divided Habsburg lands. From then on, with one brief exception, the Habsburgs always provided the emperors [4]. His son Maximilian I (1459–1519) married Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of Duke Charles the Bold, which put the Habsburgs back in the first rank of European powers [4]. According to the family's history, since that marriage the head of the House of Austria has always been Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece [4]. Maximilian's marriage policy extended the house's influence to Spain, and through the Vienna double wedding of 1515 Bohemia and Hungary came to the Habsburgs [4]. Museum Aargau sums it up: through shrewd marriages the Habsburgs gained the crowns of Spain, Bohemia and Hungary [5].

1556: Two Lines, Madrid and Vienna

Maximilian's grandson Charles V (1500–1558) ruled the Habsburg hereditary lands, Burgundy and Spain with its overseas possessions. No later emperor would rule so large an area [2]. When he gave up the crown in 1556, his son Philip inherited Spain and his brother Ferdinand succeeded him in Austria [1][2]. The family's own history calls the result "the family business of Europe" [2].

For a long time the Spanish line was the more powerful. Spain was immensely rich from its overseas territories, and the Spaniards were long regarded as the senior authority of the house. The Austrians, a landlocked power, were "a kind of poor relation", even though they held the imperial crown [2]. Unity was kept by marriage: well into the 17th century, daughters were exchanged between Madrid and Vienna to marry cousins or uncles [2]. The imperial crown stayed with the Austrian branch [2].

The End of the Spanish Line (1700)

The Spanish Habsburgs reigned from 1516 to 1700 [8]. The death of Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, in 1700 led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the accession of Philip V of the House of Bourbon [8]. Charles II was severely disabled from birth, and historians link this to generations of intermarriage, though some dispute the link between fertility and consanguinity [1].

Habsburg-Lorraine (from 1736)

The House of Habsburg-Lorraine dates its foundation to 1736, the year of the marriage [9].

The Austrian line died out in the male line in 1740 [1]. Maria Theresa took the throne at 23 and had to defend her inheritance at once, as Prussia invaded Silesia and Bavaria invaded Bohemia [3]. At the Peace of Aachen in 1748 she had to accept the loss of Silesia, but secured recognition of her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, as Holy Roman Emperor [3]. Their marriage founded the House of Habsburg-Lorraine [1]. They had 16 children, 10 of whom reached adulthood, which secured the future of the house [3]. Their youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France, was guillotined in 1793 [3]. Francis Stephen also created the Habsburg family fund, which supported the family until the Republic expropriated it in 1919 [3].

The Italian Branches

Two cadet lines of Habsburg-Lorraine ruled Italian states until Italian unification [1].

Tuscany. Francis Stephen gave the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to his second son, Peter Leopold, who passed it to his own second son when he became emperor. Tuscany remained with this cadet branch until unification [1]:

The Tuscan line still has a titular head: Archduke Sigismund, styled Grand Duke of Tuscany since 1994 [1].

Modena (Austria-Este). The Congress of Vienna gave the Duchy of Modena to a minor branch of the family. The dukes called their line Austria-Este because they descended from the daughter of the last d'Este duke [1]. The house was founded in 1771 by Archduke Ferdinand Karl and Maria Beatrice d'Este [6]. Francis IV (1814–1846) and Francis V (1846–1859) ruled Modena, which was lost in 1859 [1][6]. The title later passed to Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austria-Hungary, until his death in 1914 [1].

Austria-Este Today: A Belgian Link

The current head of Austria-Este is Prince Lorenz of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este [6]. According to the Belgian monarchy, on 22 September 1984 Princess Astrid of Belgium married Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este, in Brussels. He became a Prince of Belgium in 1995. Born on 16 December 1955, he and Princess Astrid have five children: Amedeo, Maria Laura, Joachim, Luisa Maria and Laetitia Maria [7].

Summary

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.