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The House of Hapsburgs -

The first mention of the name Hapsburg comes from Switzerland, when Hapsburg Castle was built in the early 11th century by Count Radbot (pictured), count of the county of Kelttgau. Hapsburg became a family name when Otto II, Radbot’s nephew, added “von Hapsburg” to his name after inheriting the castle. 

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Origins of the name -

According to legend, the word “Hapsburg” comes from the German word habicht, which translates to “hawk.” It is said that once construction on the castle was completed, Count Radbot spotted a hawk sitting on its walls, and named his new home in honor of that bird. On the subject of the name, while it is widely accepted as being spelled Hapsburg in English, Habsburg is also used.

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Migration to Austria -

Seven generations later, in the 1270s, Rudolph of Hapsburg was crowned king of the German Empire. His first order of business as king was to take the territories of Austria and Styria from his rival, Ottokar II, King of Bohemia. Once these territories were securely under German rule, Rudolph relocated to modern-day Vienna.

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Leaders of the Holy Roman Empire -

Another 200 years later, Frederick III (pictured), who was the fourth Hapsburg to rule over the German Empire, was crowned by the pope as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1442, effectively making him one of the most powerful men in Europe.

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Long may they rule -

Frederick III’s ascent to the throne marked the beginning of one of the largest and most resilient dynasties of Europe. The Hapsburgs would keep the Holy Roman throne until 1740, and members of the family would also go on to rule Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Bohemia, and numerous other kingdoms and empires.

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Matchmaker Maximilian -

Frederick III’s son and successor, Maximilian I, greatly expanded the reach of the Hapsburg family through a series of strategic arranged marriages. He himself married Mary of Burgundy in 1977.

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Influence in Iberia -

The most impactful marriage arranged by Maximilian was that of his son, Philip the Handsome, to Joana the Mad, who was to become queen of Castile and Aragon, territories that made up much of what was soon to become the Spanish Empire.

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Philip the Handsome -

Philip would quickly become one of the most powerful figures in Europe. After his mother, Mary of Burgundy, died, he rose to the throne at the young age of four and began his reign over the duchies of Burgundy that stretched from Northern France and up across most of the Northern European coastline. Once the territories of Spain were added by marriage, Philip’s reign became as expansive as the Holy Roman Empire.

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Charles I -

The son of Philip and Joana, Charles I would inherit an even larger empire. As the older members of his family died off, Charles became Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, and King of Spain.

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The Hapsburg Empire -

All of these titles combined essentially gave Charles I (or Charles V, as he was known after becoming emperor), dominion over all of Western Europe (excluding France, England, and Portugal) as well as Spain’s rapidly-expanding colonial network in the Americas.

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Dreams of a Catholic Europe -

Charles V was dedicated to the Catholic Church and aspired to unite the entirety of Europe under the Church’s values, and spent the fortunes coming in from the Americas on attempts to realize this goal. Charles was constantly at odds with France and England on this point, and the Protestant Reformation sparked by Martin Luther (pictured) put an end to his imperial dreams for good.

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The Peace of Augsburg -

In 1555, after years of conflict with the Lutherans, who were quickly and constantly growing in number, Charles V signed the religious treaty known as the Peace of Augsburg, and effectively ended the violence between the two churches.

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End of an empire -

Shortly after the Peace of Augsburg was signed, Charles V’s health began to fail, and, with his empire weakened due to the infighting of other Hapsburgs who felt they had various claims to various territories, he decided to split his vast empire into two, giving half to those now known as the Spanish Hapsburgs, and half to the Austrian Hapsburgs. At the end of these abdications, the former emperor retired to Spain and died shortly thereafter.

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The new Hapsburgs -

After the abdication  of Charles V, the eastern territories of the old empire, including the Balkan states and the Holy Roman Empire, went to his younger brother, Ferdinand I. Ferdinand would go on to protect the Eastern front of Europe against the growing threat of Ottoman invasion.

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The new Hapsburgs -

In Spain, Charles V’s old territories went to his son, Philip II, also known as King Philip the Prudent. He would rule over all of Spain and parts of Italy, and also came to control Portugal after defeating António, Prior of Crato at the Battle of Alcântara in 1580.

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Spain’s golden age -

It was under the rule of Philip II that Spain entered its golden age of colonialism and exploration. It was during this time that the Philippines were conquered and named in his honor, and the Inca Empire was permanently put into submission.

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The inbreeding begins -

It was after the split between the Spanish and Austrian Hapsburgs that paranoia concerning losing territories once gained by marriage started to set in. In order to avoid losing any of their influence, intermarriage became more and more common, with many Spanish Hapsburgs marrying Austrian Hapsburgs and vice versa. This would prove to be a disastrous mistake further down the line.

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Decline of a dynasty -

The end of the 16th century would prove to be the peak of Hapsburgian influence on the world. The growing strength of the Protestant Reformation made many enemies for the rigidly Catholic rulers and sparked wars of independence like the Eighty Years’ War, which ended in the Spanish Hapsburgs’ permanent loss of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

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The Thirty Years’ War -

One of these insurgencies, the Bohemian insurrection of 1618, led to the Thirty Years’ War, one of the bloodiest and most destructive conflicts the continent of Europe had ever seen. The scope and length of the war destabilized most of Europe and lost the Hapsburgs large portions of their former empire either to independence or to rising superpowers like France.

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Rise of the Bourbons -

The ruling family in France, the House of Bourbon, had been steadily gaining power and influence during this period. Their power and expansionist ambitions came to a head with the famed King Louis XIV, nicknamed the Sun King. Louis XIV would soon become the most powerful leader in Europe.

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The Nine Years’ War -

The Nine Years’ War, widely considered to be the first global war, with fronts on three continents, was instigated by Louis XIV and further weakened the Hapsburg dynasties, taking territory from a Spain that was led by an ailing ruler, Charles II.

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Charles II -

Charles II of Spain was plagued with various illnesses from birth, and sported perhaps the best example of the “Hapsburg chin,” a deformity directly caused by the family’s long history of inbreeding, that inhibited his ability to properly chew his food.

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End of the Spanish Hapsburgs -

The profound effects that more than a century of intermarriage had on Charles II also posed an existential threat to the Spanish Hapsburg dynasty. Charles II died in 1700 at the age of 38 without having produced an heir, thus putting an end to the Hapsburg bloodline’s control of the Spanish throne, and marking the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession.

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War of the Spanish Succession -

With no clear heir to the Spanish throne, pandemonium broke out. In his will, Charles II stated that he wished Philip, the Duke of Anjou (pictured) to be his heir, which would place the throne under Bourbon control, as Philip’s grandfather was none other than Louis XIV himself.

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War of the Spanish Succession -

The surviving members of the Spanish Hapsburgs and all members of the Austrian Hapsburg line, of course, found this completely unacceptable. They put forth an alternative heir, Charles VI (pictured), son of the leading Austrian Hapsburg and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, in an effort to establish a new line of Hapsburgs in Spain.

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War of the Spanish Succession -

By 1711, the Bourbons of France had successfully placed Philip in the Spanish throne, and Charles VI had become the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The path to peace had been unfathomably violent, and wreaked havoc on the entire continent.

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The Peace of Utrecht -

The treaty signed by all parties at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, known as the Peace of Utrecht, marked a fundamental change in European concepts of statehood. The second article in the treaty stated, “because of the great danger which threatened the liberty and safety of all Europe, from the too-close conjunction of the kingdoms of Spain and France... the same person should never become King of both kingdoms.” This effectively put an end to syndicated empires like that of Charles V.

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Further decline of the Hapsburgs -

With the Spanish Hapsburg line definitively and permanently erased, the Austrian line went through its own hardships. Mounting pressure and aggression from Prussia and Bavaria in the mid-18th century led to the Hapsburgs falling out of power in the Holy Roman Empire for the first time in more than 300 years, and the Holy Roman Empire falling into the hands of Charles of Bavaria (pictured).

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The Hapsburgs today -

The days of the Hapsburg Empire were all but over. The family maintained control of Austria for another 200 years, until their monarchy collapsed in the wake of World War I. As a family, the Hapsburgs are still alive today, with Karl von Hapsburg considered to be the current patriarch. He served as a member of the European Parliament for Austria until 1999.

Sources: (The World of the Habsburgs) (History Today) (Britannica)

See also: Step inside the House of Medici

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