William Tyler
The Early Habsburgs

William Tyler - The Early Habsburgs

- [Wendy] So William, I just wanted to say happy, healthy 2022 and to all our participants as well, a very happy 2022. And we really hope that this year we’re onto a good start and that we’re going to see the back of COVID.

• Absolutely.

• [Wendy] And whenever you are ready to start, let’s launch into 2022.

• Let’s launch into 2022. And so for me as well, to everyone who’s out there listening today, a very happy new year and let’s keep our fingers firmly crossed that it’s going to be a better year in health terms and hopefully in terms of world peace as well. So we’re looking over the next few weeks, I’m looking at the House of Habsburg. So let me start with a question. What do the following modern countries or parts of modern countries share in common? And the countries are Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, England, Spain, Portugal, South America, with the exception of Brazil, central America and the Caribbean Islands, or some of them, the United States of America, parts of, the Azores islands, the Spice Islands, India, China, Guam, Taiwan, the Philippines. And I bet I’ve missed some. And the answer of course, as you all know, is at one time or another the House of Habsburg ruled in those countries. Now, one of the books I’m using, and I’ve put all the books that I’m using today, plus lots of others on my blog, under a select book list of the House of Habsburg. This is a book by Martyn Rady, R-A-D-Y. I think that’s how he pronounces his name. And he’s a modern, quite young historian writing about the Habsburg Empire.

He’s the professor of Central European history at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College of London. And he writes this in his opening chapter. “The Habsburg might even have taken a part of the Arctic Archipelago, but the Austrian explorers, who in 1872 first mapped the landscape just 500 miles from the North Pole, only gave the territory a name, not claiming it for the Habsburgers. Nevertheless, a part northern Russia is still called today Franz Joseph Land in memory of the Habsburg emperor, Franz Joseph.” He also writes in the opening chapter, “The Habsburgs rule not only an extensive territory, but did so for a long time. They were Europe’s premier dynasty for almost half a millennium from the 15th to the 20th century. The great moments in events of European history are indissolvably bound up with their name, from the confrontation with Luther, that set the reformation in motion, to the victory at Blenheim over Louis XIV, to the vanquishing of Napoleon, and onwards to the fatal decision taken in 1914, to embark on a European war.”

Well, that’s some, that’s some family history. There’s one sentence, in fact it’s the first sentence of the whole book, and this is Rady’s “The Habsburg Empire,” in the short introductory Oxford series, one of those beautiful short books. And with this opening sentence, I really don’t agree. “After the House of Windsor, the Habsburgs are the best known dynasty in Europe.” I don’t think the House of Windsor are the best known dynasty in Europe. I think that’s a very Anglocentric view. After all, they only became the House of Windsor in 1917. And before that were the House of Hanover only from 1714, until Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert, when they became the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. And before they became kings of England in 1714, they were very minor, frankly, German aristocracy. They don’t have a pedigree like the Habsburgs have a pedigree, a pedigree and a half. Now hang on, some of you’re saying, “Just stop a moment, William. Did you say the Habsburgs ruled England or part of England and Ireland?” Well, yes I am. And it’s a very interesting, for those of you like me with a legal background, it’s fascinating. Philip II of Spain, who was a Habsburg, the son of Charles V, married the English Queen Mary I. He was not a prince consort like Prince Albert or like the Duke of Edinburgh. Nor was he a co-ruler like William III and Mary II. He was what is called in law, he was a jure uxoris king. He’s king by the right of his uxor, his wife. And when the wife died, Mary I, she was much older than him anyhow, when she died, and they had had no children, his title of King of England simply lapsed. And the English went for Elizabeth.

It’s why Philip of Spain even contemplated, I mean it’s amazing given subsequent facts, even contemplated marrying Elizabeth in order to keep his hold, and a Catholic hold, on England. Of course that didn’t work out. And we all know the consequences of the division between England and Spain, which led to the Battle of the Armada in 1588. But that’s the connection with England and Ireland. And it gives you an idea of the extent of the power of this family. I mentioned south, I mean, central America. The Emperor Maximilian was a Habsburg from Austria, who became Emperor of Mexico, a very ill-fated appointment indeed. The Habsburgs have been imperial European rulers since 1452, right through to the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. But they can trace the nobility of their family back to at least 1090, 1020 probably, I think 1020 is probably a better date. Although 1090 is the date when they first used the word to describe their family of Habsburg. Now the first important question. Well, it isn’t that important, but it always is the first question I’m always asked if I speak about the Habsburgs. How do you spell it? Do you spell it H-A-B, Habsburgs? Or do you spell it with a P, Habsburg? Now the truth of the matter is that they spelt it in the German fashion, they were after all Germans, with a B, Habsburg. But in the 19th century, the English and the Americans began spelling it with a P, Habsburg. It was very interesting earlier today, when I was putting the books on my blog, I typed Habsburg with a B only for it to be automatically corrected, because it’s an American correction, to P. But spell it as you will. But the normal way now, that historians spell it, even English and American historians, is with a B, Habsburg. But frankly spell it as you will. It’s the same thing.

Nothing is ever simple, it seems to me about this family. Even the spelling of their name leads to confusion. And then there’s another sad part when we use the word simple in a way that we used to use it, because, because of inbreeding in the Spanish House of Habsburg, there were two main branches eventually, and I’ll talk about that next week, the Spanish and Austria, because the Spanish House of Habsburg intermarried within their families, then they began to suffer from physical and mental defects. So that the last Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II, who died in 1700 at the age of 39, was a complete wreck and had been all his life. And this is a description of him. “Charles II, the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish empire was sick from birth. He became king at age four when he was a child with rickets and epilepsy and was still feeding at his mother’s breast. Francesco Niccolini, the apostolic nuncio to Portugal, described the 25-year-old king as quote, ‘Short rather than tall, not badly formed, ugly of face. He has a long neck, a long face that curves inwards, the lower lip typical of the House of Austria. He can’t straighten his body. Rather, when he walks, he curls up against the wall, a table or something else. His body is as weak as his mind.

Occasionally he shows some intelligence, memory or liveliness, but not now. In general he has a slow and indifferent demeanour, clumsy and indolent, appearing stupefied. One can do what they like with him as he lacks his own will.’ His father, Philip IV of Spain, had married his niece, Mariana of Austria.” Hence the problems that Charles II inherited physically and mentally. And this Habsburg lower lip that sadly came out is a feature of the Habsburgs of Spain in particular. So an interesting family in all sorts of ways. But the family, in terms of the Austrian branch, the main focus of my talks this January and February, have a romance about them, especially in the late 19th and early 20th century, when their capital of Vienna was the cultural hub of Europe, and became increasingly easy for western Europeans to reach after 1883 with the launch of the Orient Express. A fast train service all the way from Paris. And of course the British could get to Paris by the boat trains from Paris to Vienna and later extended to Istanbul. The famous Orient Express opened Vienna up. It was the place to go. If I could use a time machine, I think Vienna in 1910 or 1900, let’s say 1900, Vienna in 1900, would be top of my to-do list. It would’ve been fantastic. All those dances, all those officers in uniform, and women with those flowing skirts, the waltz and so on. And the food. I once went to a conference, an adult education conference in Austria, very near where the Emperor Franz Joseph kept his mistress. More interesting to me was a very famous pastry shop.

And when I had an afternoon off, I took myself off to this pastry shop. And if any of you could have seen me, I sat on a corner table, and I, well, I can’t tell you how many I had, but a great, I had to sample everything, it was fantastic. Just think what 1900 Austria would’ve been like. And this romantic view, same with the English, was added to by the beautiful and yet tragic figure of Franz Joseph’s wife, the Empress Elizabeth, or as she was known Sisi, S-I-S-I. She was often in England and Ireland. She liked riding. She didn’t like her husband, she liked riding, and England was one of the places she came to ride. She also liked Hungary where she could also ride, but we’re told rather fancied some of the Hungarian cavalry officers in rather tight trousers. She was some woman, but she suffered, like Princess Diana, from a eating disorder. Her waist was so narrow it constrained her. And then of course in the end she was assassinated whilst boarding a steamer on Lake Geneva, because the assassin couldn’t find the royal that he was after, and she was second best. She was there, so the poor woman was assassinated. When I first went to the Slovenian coast, which of course was one of the Habsburg territories, right up until the fall of the empire in 1918, my wife and I stayed in a beautiful seaside resort called Portoroz, Port of Roses, where lots of Austrians came for their summer holidays.

A spa on the coastline. And we went into the hotel, which was frankly one that had been built by the, under Soviet rule, or under communist rule, and so was, the hotel itself didn’t look particularly inspiring from outside. It had beautiful gardens which had now been brought back into use since the fall of communism. I went in to register, as we all do, at the hotel desk. And I tell you, I was really shocked. Behind the hotel receptionist was a huge, bigger than life-size portrait of who other than the Empress Elizabeth, Sisi herself. It’s amazing how Austrians, but particularly actually Hungarians and Slovenians, still have a strong attachment to the House of Habsburg. And I will talk about that in the final, or one of the final talks I’m going to do. So that’s all by way of introduction and my next sheet of paper says stop and pause. Now I’m going to go into the history of this family and how eventually they became Holy Roman emperors in the 15th century, in 1452 to be precise. So let’s begin at the beginning. This is a very old book, pre-First World War by an Englishman. It’s not one I would put on the list, it’s just one of those odd books that people like me buy. But it has a very interesting half paragraph about the foundation of the family. “It was on a day in 1020 that a man wandered through realms of pine wood. He was called the Count of Altenburg and he’d lost his hawk, and his long search brought him at last to the summit of the Wulpelsberg. There he found his hawk and decided to build his castle. In the process of time, the hawk gave the master not only a home, but a name, for the new castle was christened Habichtsburg.” In other words, Hawk Castle. “Which in time became shortened to Habsburg Castle.” So it all began, so they say, with this wonderful story.

If you’re going to be a proper imperial family, you need a starting story. Well, the Habsburgs actually have two, that was the first one. The House of Windsor have no such starting story, I might add. A charter of 1090, 70 years after those events I’ve described with the hawk and the castle, a charter of 1090 first mentions a man called Ottokar, a German, who is described as the Count of Habsburg who lived in that castle. So the Count of Altenburg title disappeared and they became counts of Habsburg because of Habsburg Castle. And you can believe the story of the hawk or not, as you wish. I said there were two foundation stories. The next foundation story is incredible. It was Winston Churchill who said, “If you want to be thought well of by history, make sure that you write it yourselves.” Well, the Habsburgs were doing this centuries before Churchill had ever thought of it. This is a quotation from a charter issued right back in the Middle Ages in 1358. And this charter was issued under the orders of Duke Rudolph IV. Don’t need to know that. Duke Rudolph IV of Habsburg. So 1358 is 300 years on from the events of Hawk Castle and that legend. And in 1358 this report is drawn up and it reads, this charter of 1358. “We, Emperor Julius Caesar and worshipper of the gods, supremo gustus of the Imperial Land, strengthener of the whole universe, to Austria and its people, the grace of Rome and our peace. We order you to obey the lofty senator, our uncle, since upon our victory we have given you to him and to his heirs and house to be his and his posterity’s possession in fine, forever. And we will ordain no power over him.

We give to him and his successors all the fruits of Austria. Moreover, we promote our uncle and his successors to membership of the innermost council of Rome, so that from now on no weighty business or matter may be resolved without his knowledge. Given in Rome, capital of the world, on the day of Venus, in the first year of our reign.” Of course it’s a total and complete forgery. There’s lots of mediaeval forgeries claiming all sorts of things. And Rudolph of Habsburg was claiming that Caesar himself had given Austria to the House of Habsburg forever. Why did Rudolph do this? Well, Rudolph ruled within the Holy Roman Empire and Rudolph sought to be emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. And thus a document purporting to have been written by Caesar himself was incontrovertible proof that the House of Habsburg should become Holy Roman emperors. Rudolph didn’t because he died young and was unable to fulfil his dream. Throughout the rest of the 14th century and into the 15th century, a hundred years or so from that document, the House of Habsburg consolidated their base in Austria, and they even expanded southwards into the Tirol, part of which is today Austrian, and part of which today is Italian. That’s another different story.

This is another book by Martyn Rady who wrote the short introduction Oxford series, “The Habsburg Empire.” This is his biography of the whole House of Habsburg. And I’m going to use this to explain how they reach the position of being this incredible family who become Holy Roman emperors, then emperors of Austria, and finally emperors of Austro-Hungary. So let me just begin by saying a little bit, if I may, about the Habsburgs. And I’m going to read a little bit, as I said, from Rady’s book. “Habsburg fortunes turned with Duke Albert, who lived between 1397 and 1439.” The century that I’ve spoken about. “Who took the governance of the duchy of Austria in 1411. Albert was pious, an energetic reform of the church, a capable administrator, formidable in battle, and by all accounts an agreeable person. He was also illiterate and cruel. In 1420, he gave up the Habsburg tradition of protecting Austria’s Jews and subjected them to a persecution of such intensity that even the Pope complained.” So that begins the story of the relationship between the House of Habsburg and Jews, or if you prefer between Austria and Jews. If we say Austrian Jews, we can take the story through to the Holocaust. But Trudy is going to speak about the position of Jews within the Austrian empire. At times it was good. At other times it was horrendous. And in Albert’s reign it was horrendous. “Albert’s interest was purely to loot Jewish money, which he used to support King Sigismund in his war against the Hussite,” that is Protestant or proto-Protestant, “heretics in Bohemia.

Having been given command of Moravia, Albert renewed his Jew-raiding there. Albert’s support for Sigismund, who was crowned emperor in 1433, won him the hand of Sigismund’s daughter, Elizabeth. Sigismund, who had no sons of his own, nominated Albert as his successor in Bohemia and Hungary.” So that marks a big step forward for these Austrian dukes. Bohemia and Hungary. Today’s partly Czech Republic and of course the Kingdom of Hungary. And their story of the accretion of new lands to this imperial, as it’s going to become shortly, house is a constant one. One of the issues of empires in general is that they don’t stop growing. And if they stop growing, it marks the end of them. Putin attempting now to regrow the empire of the Czars and the empire of Stalin, as we sit wherever we’re sitting today. Empires expand until they explode or implode. And that is the story of the Habsburgs. And I could have used that as a theme all the way through. I’ve chosen not to, but here is an example of its expansion through marriage. Through marriage. The Habsburgs had, all throughout their history, married for political purposes to gain things, and that is why their influence was so rife. We’ve already talked about Philip II of Spain, marrying Mary to push the cause of Catholicism in England and thus in Europe.

And we’ve got the example of Marie Antoinette later on, marrying into the French royal house. Marriage was a way of exerting power. Maybe today we would call such a thing soft power and the Habsburgs were pretty good at this soft power. My great regret of life, one of many, is that my mother never told me this secret of life, marry money. I certainly didn’t do that. Oh, that’s unfair, my wife might hear, the door is not that thick, but that’s all right, I’ll move on quickly. And then there’s another little piece I wanted to read. “In March, 1438, the electors of the Holy Roman Empire unanimously chose Albert of Habsburg as the Emperor Sigismund’s successor, even though he wasn’t a candidate. The Holy Roman Empire, the duchy of Austria and the kingdoms Bohemia and Hungary were thus united under the rule of one man.” But not for long. Within 18 months Albert was dead of dysentery. He had no male heir, but left his wife pregnant. His wife gave birth after Albert’s death to a boy, and his name, well, his name is actually another Albert, but he isn’t important. What is important is the senior member of the Habsburg family, as an adult, was Frederick, duke of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. And he becomes, first of all king and later emperor. King of Germany in 1440, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in 1452. And he is the key to the whole of this. Frederick III. If there’s one man that can be claimed to have forged the basis of the later Habsburg Empire, or empires, it is Frederick III. You can make a case for Albert, but there is a gap between Albert’s death and the rise of Frederick.

Now this is not hereditary. He was a cousin of Albert. Albert had the son. It’s not about hereditary, it’s about family, and the Habsburg grasp this. And the Holy Roman Empire is an extraordinary thing. As was said, it was neither holy, Roman, or an empire. It was multi-ethnic. It spread over western, central and southern Europe, from the 10th century right through, until Napoleon got shot of it in the first decade of the 19th century. There are two dates for its foundation. Either 800, when the pope, Leo III crowned Charlemagne in Rome. And it was the first time in 300 years that western Europe had an emperor crowned in Rome. And they always looked back to Rome as the model. A united Europe. In this case, Holy Roman, Catholic, a Holy Roman Empire. Not the Roman Empire, but a Holy Roman Empire. A modern, modern in terms of 800, a modern rebirth of the western empire of Rome, which had fallen in the 470s. When Charlemagne died, his property possessions, his imperial lands were divided up amongst his family. And it wasn’t until 962 that Otto I, king of Germany, was crowned, again, like Charlemagne, as Holy Roman emperor. And so historians usually take the date 962 as the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire, which then goes right through to 1806, the year after the Battle of Trafalgar, when Napoleon gets rid of it. Well, of course he does, because the French are outside of the Holy Roman Empire, and it’s the old division of Europe, between the French and German-speaking Europe. That division, which has lasted for centuries and arguably still exists within the European Union today. Now this Holy Roman Empire did not develop like France and let alone England. It was not a centralised kingdom as England was.

It was a group of states of various sizes, some tiny, very tiny, some just towns, some large states, but all of which the Holy Roman emperor ruled individually. Hence why it is said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, Roman nor an empire. It wasn’t. It was a group of disparate states and cities, and Bishop Briggs and all sorts of things, welded together because one person, the emperor sat on the throne of all of them. No unification, not even in French terms, let alone, as I say, in English terms. And in the world of post-enlightenment, the Napoleonic world of France, talking not only about liberte, egalite and fraternity, but talking about nation states, the Holy Roman Empire was duped. And subsequently you could say, although the Austrian Empire continued through to the latter part of the 19th century, and then became the Austro-Hungarian Empire, despite that the Austrian Empire and the Austria-Hungarian Empire were themselves doomed, because the House of Habsburg couldn’t come to terms with the enlightenment concept of nation states. That didn’t mean to say there wasn’t an attempt in the latter part of the 19th century to do precisely that, but the truth of the matter it was too little, too late. And that story we will come to. So although this Holy Roman Empire looks massive in European terms, its clout was less because it was a fractured empire. Unlike France. Unlike England.

There is one interesting thing about the Holy Roman Empire that I should mention. It is German, of course it’s German. The Habsburgs came from Germany and they’re Austrian. And the Austrians are German, however much PR they viewed since 1945, it’s German. And thus the Nazis, even before they came to power, talked about the Second Reich, that is the German Empire of the Kaisers, preceded by the First Reich, which was the Holy Roman Empire. And they sought to create and create they did in 1933, the Third Reich. So the First Reich is the Holy Roman Empire, giving the Third Reich that historical link back to an organisation that claimed supremacy, or hoped to claim supremacy over the whole of Europe, which is exactly Hitler’s own policy. So that’s a little bit about the Holy Roman Empire existing between 962 and 1806, ruled by the Habsburgs, basically, from 1452 to 1806, when the emperor is deposed because the empire disappears, he reemerges as emperor of Austria, and the final incarnation of the Habsburg Empire is the Austro-Hungarian Empire of the late 19th century, which came to a grinding halt in 1918. Now before I move on, I want to say something which I find interesting anyhow, and so I hope you do. About Frederick III. Frederick III was such an interesting man in many ways. He was blonde, blue-eyed, he had all the aspects of a ruler. He looked the part. I don’t know what you feel about rulers looking the part. A lot of debate in Britain today about how shabby-looking and untidy, and unkempt the prime minister is. And there are similar sorts of things that are said about Trump and indeed Biden, you need to look the part.

And he looked the part, by God, he did. And then we come to the end of his life. And this is very interesting for me. He based himself in Vienna and from February, 1493, so that’s 30-odd years after he became emperor, his health began to deteriorate increasingly. In the period of Lent, before Easter, 1493, they, his physicians, diagnosed a problem with his left leg. They called it at the time age-burning. But current medical research, medical historians, have said it’s atherosclerosis in his leg. In June, 1493, he had his leg amputated. Ah. If you get in my famous time machine, and you land up in the 15th century, do not have anything amputated. Your chances of survival without, well, your chances of survival are pretty well zero, to be honest. And they only amputated in the most dire situations, and they amputated Frederick’s left leg, fearing that if they did not do so, he would die. So he might as well have the operation without anaesthetic and without drugs afterwards. We have a very detailed record of this operation. The operation was amazingly successful. The emperor survived, but then he deteriorated, gangrene sets in and he died in August, 1493. It’s a awful example of how even the most powerful man, one of the most powerful men in Europe, medicine could not help. It’s a terrible story in that sense. He must have been in agony during, I cannot imagine. I mean, the only way they gave anaesthetic was either get you roaring drunk, or bang you on the head with a mallet or both. I don’t know what they did to him. And then they carved up his body. His bowels were buried separately to the rest of him. And that’s something they did. They distributed bits of people around. Very often hearts in heart-shaped containers. It’s a different world, is the world of the 15th century, a very different world.

They may have had the same political instincts, social instincts or whatever, as we do, but they certainly had some weird beliefs and weird practises, as well. Before his death, Frederick III had made his son, a man called Maximilian, these names recur of course in the House of Habsburg. He made his son Maximilian the German king, which is a sort of, in British terminology, the Prince of Wales to the king, or this is the Roman King to the emperor. Yeah, but there wasn’t a natural progression until Frederick made it. He’s basically saying, “This is my son who’s quite capable of ruling and in the event of my death, you jolly well,” he says to the electors, because the Holy Roman Empire has electors. Remember George I was elector of Hanover, they have electors. And he’s saying to the electors, “Look, when I’m dead, you better elect my son, and I’ve given him some practise.” But he also did something else which was important to the history of Europe. His son was married to the heiress of Burgundy, Mary of Burgundy. Now Burgundy was a massively large place. Netherlands, Belgium just about sort of covers most of it. Luxembourg. Mary of Burgundy married Maximilian. And in due course Maximilian is elected Holy Roman emperor. But now he’s added to the Holy Roman Empire, or his own empire, he’s added, ‘cause it’s not part of the Holy Roman Empire as Hungary wasn’t. But he’s added into it Burgundy. Netherland stroke Belgium stroke Luxembourg. So this is a massive thing now. This empire of Frederick III’s, now the empire of Maximilian has really shot through the heavens, as this big and powerful. Powerful? Question mark, powerful. Cultural, certainly. Powerful politically? That’s something we shall look at as we go through. Now I want to read you a piece from the hardback of the Habsburg family by Martyn Rady.

And he writes here the following. “The Habsburgs embraced a vast, all-encompassing vision of a world united under the ethereal sway of a single sovereign who is dedicated to the service of religion, peace among Christians, and war against the unbeliever.” So what does that mean? Well, it means that the Habsburgs were Catholic emperors, who did not take kindly to the rise of Protestantism. As such, we’ve seen already the Hussites, proto-Protestants in Bohemia, as we’ve seen already Jews and as we shall see in particular the threat to the empire from the east, the Ottomans. So they see themselves as the guardians of the true faith. So it’s very much, despite the fact that it was described as not holy and not Roman and not an empire, that isn’t absolutely true, is it? They saw themselves as this great Catholic bulwark in the the middle of Europe, and they wished to make Europe Catholic again and whole. And more than that, they wished to take Catholicism across the world. To the Americans, to the Caribbean, to Asia, China, Macau, India, Goa, Taiwan, the Spice Islands, the Philippines, named after King Philip of Spain. The Habsburgs really do have a vision of ruling the world. Not surprising therefore that the Nazis should hail the Holy Roman Empire as the First Reich, and their rule as the Third Reich, having the same ambition to rule the world. “But,” writes Rady, “this was never converted into a political programme, even within the territories of the Habsburg’s rule.

All monarchies have started off as composite states constructed from diverse territories, which were then welded together and made uniform.” France and England being a case in point. “Even states built out of several kingdoms have tended, over time, to become more metropolitan with the singularity of the constituent part to gradually have phased, so that they lose their independent character and institutions.” Eg, Italy. “The Habsburgs have really never accomplished this. Indeed except for brief interludes, they never really even tried. It was always a personal empire. Despite some unification of the administrative and legislative apparatus in the 18th and 19th centuries, their dominions continue to be ruled as if the sovereign were only the lord of each, rather than the super monk would limit this authority.” They could not come to terms with the new post-French revolution world of Europe. And although they helped in the defeat of Napoleon, they were unable to crush the ideas that had been carried across their empire by Napoleon soldiers. Rady goes on to say, “Whereas an 18th century French sovereign was styled simply as king of France and Navarre, and not listed as duke of Aquitaine and Brittany, count of Toulouse, duke of Normandy, et cetera. Right through to the 20th century, the Habsburg imperial style enumerated each part of the whole as a separate unit.” So let me give you two examples of that. The first example is the title of Charles V. Charles V, who we’re going to look at next Monday. And his titles in 1521 read like this. “Charles, by the grace of God, elected Holy Roman emperor, at all times enlarger of,” my point about empires, “enlarger of the empire, et cetera, king in Germany of Castile, Aragon, Leon, both Sicilies, Jerusalem.”

Well, that was a claim that all, many Christian rulers claimed to rule in Jerusalem. They didn’t, of course. “Jerusalem, Hungary, Dalmatia, Croatia, Navarre, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, the Balearic Islands, Seville, Sardinia, Cordoba, Corsica, Murcia, Jaen, the Algarves, Algeciras, Gibraltar, and the Canary Islands, and also the islands of the Indies, and the mainland of the Ocean Sea, et cetera, archduke of Austria, duke of Burgundy, Lorraine, Brabant, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, Limburg, Luxembourg, Gelders, Wuerttemberg, Calabria, Athens, Neopatria, et cetera, count of Flanders, Habsburg, Tyrol, Gorizia, Barcelona, Artois and Burgundy, count Palatine of Hainaut, Holland, Seeland, Ferrette, Kyburg, Namur, Roussillon, Cerdagne, and Zutphen, landgrave in Alsace, margrave of Oristano, Gociano and of the Holy Roman Empire, prince of Swabia, Catalonia, Asturias, lord in Frisland on the Wendish March, of Pordenone, Biscay, Molin, Salins, Tripoli and Mechelen, et cetera. That’s all you need to know. He isn’t simply Holy Roman Emperor. Some of those parts are not part of the Holy Roman Empire, but it’s a huge list, and emphasises how this was a personal empire, not a political entity as such, right the way through, till the Austro-Hungarian Empires collapse in 1918. It was made up of various bits.

In fact, what we can do is look at the titles 400 years on from Charles V to Franz Joseph, at the beginning of the First World War in 1914, when Franz Joseph’s titles were. His imperial and royal apostolic majesty by the grace of God, emperor of Austria, king of Hungary and Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria and Illyria, king of Jerusalem, et cetera, archduke of Austria, grand duke of Tuscany and Cracow, duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina, grand prince of Transylvania, margrave of Moravia, duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Ceszyn, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara, princely count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca, prince of Trento and Brixen, margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria, count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, et cetera, lord of Trieste, of Cattaro, and the Windic march, grand voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, et cetera, et cetera. They had failed over 400 years to establish unified rule.

Even when the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806 and gradually Austria withdrew from what we now call Germany, and the Germany that was created by Bismarck in 1870 was created without Austria. Indeed, Austria could have created Germany and merged the two, as of course Hitler did with the Anschluss, but none of that actually ever happened. The Habsburgs were caught like a beetle in aspic in some way. They never managed to shrug off their mediaeval background. They failed to enter the modern world. And that’s the story we’re going to tell. Except, except this. Virtually all parts of the former Austrian Empires are now part of the European Union. With the collapse of Marxism in Europe at the end of the 20th century, we get the accession of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, most importantly Hungary, and some of those Balkan states which had been, like Croatia, we get them involved with the European Union. And within the European Union there are various groupings, like the Baltic states, the Scandinavian states, but also like the former Austro-Hungarian states. And both Austrians and Hungarians, but particularly Hungarians, look back to the age of the Habsburgs when they controlled Europe, and not the bureaucrats in Brussels.

And many within the former Austro-Hungarian lands claim that the European Union is the inheritor of Austro-Hungary, of Austria, and of the Holy Roman Empire. But their grumble is it’s not controlled from Austria, Vienna, and Hungary, Budapest, but controlled from Berlin and Paris. And that’s one of the fault lines within the European Union. And you might say, "Well, I think you’re pushing that a bit.” Well, I don’t think I am. Behind me is a model of the Emperor Franz Joseph. I bought that about 10 years ago in Austria, in Salzburg. They haven’t forgotten about the Habsburgs. They’re not likely to have a returned monarchy, but they share the Habsburg’s dream of a Europe dominated from Vienna and Budapest. Interestingly, the son of the last emperor of Austro-Hungary, not Franz Joseph, but Charles, who reigned very briefly between 1916, 1918, and I’ll tell his full story later, his son, Otto von Habsburg sat as an MEP in the European parliament, as a German MEP, from, I’ve got to check the dates, from 1979 to 1999. So the European parliament had a Habsburg in it up till 1999. And if, like me, you follow strange, well, I don’t think it’s strange, but unusual people on Twitter, I follow Eduard Habsburg, and he is the Hungarian, he’s the Hungarian diplomat assigned to the Vatican. Back to religion and the Habsburgs. Power and religion. I find that extraordinarily interesting.

So this isn’t a family like the Tudors and the Stuarts, which are long since gone and just part of history. The Habsburgs exist and they exist in interesting ways. So this story has lots of ramifications across European history, as we said earlier, or I said earlier, but has ramifications into the present day. And I will deal with those as well when we get to that. Next week is this extraordinary man, Charles V. He really is something different, a really powerful political figure. So we’ve started and next week I will continue, but I’ve reached the time at which you will all want to say, “I think you’re wrong,” or “I’d like to add this.” Or hopefully someone might say, “My grandfather served in the court of Franz Joseph,” or “lent money to the government of Austria in 1914.” There’s always a hope that somebody will have some contact. So please share those contacts if you’ve got them. And otherwise ask questions and I’ll do my best to answer. Oh goodness, there seem to be a lot of questions. Let me see if I can start off.

Q&A and Comments:

Q: “What about Spain and Carlos V?”

A: I think I’ve answered that for you. I think you must have asked that quite early on. I’m doing that next week. “But Portugal was taken over, so the rulers of Brazil were also Habsburgs.” Well, yes to some extent they were. But when the royalty went to Brazil, it was the Portuguese royalty. Somebody said they were interested where the P came from.

“Trains in Europe still function so well, far better than the USA.” Well, Ellie don’t come to Britain if that’s what you believe.

Q: “Was the pastry shop Demel?”

A: You know, I can’t remember the name. I was more interested in the pastries than the name of the shop.

Yes, Austria and Hungary, and even Italy still celebrate Sisi. Yeah, there were a series of Sisi films with Romy Schneider. That’s right, you know, she’s an extraordinary figure. Oh, well done. Thank you. Helen, thank you.

“In German, the sound represented by the letter B before the voiceless S is more like a P. So the anglicised spelling reflects a pronunciation of the name. If you try to pronounce the B, you’ll say Habsburg.” Oh, well, thank you, Helen. You live and learn. That I had not thought about.

Q: “Lots of parallels between Habsburg and Ottoman Empires. How different are the problems of the Holy Roman Empire and the EU in keeping together today?”

A: I think the parallel is more between the Austro-Hungarian Empire, prior to enduring the First World War and the EU. And the answer is with extreme difficulty. I will, I promise, towards the end of our time talking about Habsburgs come to that question because it’s a fascinating one. It also raises the question about Britain’s attitude.

Yes, they did include king of Jerusalem and duke of Auschwitz. The duke of Auschwitz title is a horrendous one. But king of Jerusalem, as I explained, was simply a claim to be, a claim to be, have that sort of religious background. They also had a belief that if a Habsburg became literally really king of Jerusalem, it would herald the second coming of Christ. We won’t go down that path of their sort of religious fervour.

“The Habsburgs still continue as archdukes of Austria.” Well, not in Austria itself, it’s a title that’s gone. But they that. Yes, “Others gained by war, but you happy Austria by marriage,” and you put it in Latin, bless you, Anthony, that’s wonderful. Austrians get power through marriage. Absolutely. Like the British Empire, and I think other empires, ever increasing in their decline, like the Romans.

Q: “Why was it called the Holy Roman Empire?”

A: Because the popes in Rome represent the religious side of the empire, if you like, and it’s holy because it’s a Christian Empire, even though the Roman empire was Christian at the end, it’s a mediaeval view of Christianity, as being Catholic Christianity sees itself as a world religion. So holy is because of the Catholicism.

Oh yes. Who’s that? Dennis? Well done. I agree with you, not because you agree with me. I agree with you about Vienna’s strong culture. “Recommend reading Stefan Zweig,” which is absolutely outstanding and excellent. And Carl Schorske. And somebody else has put, Elliot’s put, “Agree, love Stefan Zweig.” Yes, so do I.

“I recall a wonderful anecdote.” This is Jackie, who’s from Britain. “I recall a wonderful anecdote about the last emperor of Austria who became a banker on Wall Street. The year the Football World Cup was being held in the USA.” Oh, this is a wonderful story. “The assistant asked him, 'May I please leave early to attend the Austria/Hungary match?’ To which he replied, ‘Of course you may. Who are we playing against?’” I want that story to be true. Somebody said, oh, Jackie. “Forgot to say Otto von Habsburg died in 2011.” Which he did. “I’ve heard and just read that the early Habsburgs were domiciled in what is now Switzerland, in fact that.” Yes, in what is now Switzerland. Yeah, that’s true.

Q: “How did the Habsburgs become powerful and rulers who battles other?”

A: And Brian’s answered the question for me. I like it when people answer. “Marriage!” he says. Well, partly, partly through marriage, partly through battle. But we’ve seen the marriage that brought Burgundy in, which gives us later in history, the Austrian Netherlands and then the Spanish Netherlands, and that is still an important division in the Netherlands where the south is Catholic. I remember staying in Maastricht. First time I ever went to Maastricht, we arrived at my family at night and the first thing we encountered was a Catholic procession. And that struck me then and does now as a very odd thing to encounter in Protestant Netherlands. Until you remember that the south was Spanish Netherlands and had remained Catholic. Reich means empire. Absolutely.

Q: “What’s the reason for Prussia and Austro-Hungary not combining?”

A: Well, that’s a long, long story. Your question gives part of the answer.

Q: “Was it because Prussia was Protestant and the Holy Roman Empire mainly Catholic?”

A: Yes. It was a question of who was going to dominate. That is to say Austria and Bavaria, Bavaria in southern Germany, both of which were Catholic, or Protestant Prussia. And the answer was always, I think, always going to be Prussia because Prussia had this long, right back to the Middle Ages, militaristic, Prussia is a military state, had always been a military state, and if anyone was going to combine Germany, it was always going to be Prussia. It’s why, of course, after World War II, the whole name Prussia was taken out of the map. Habsburgs and Saxe-Coburg? Zero, basically.

Q: “What about Russia? What was the relationship of Germany by then?”

A: Zero, zero basically.

Q: “Was Queen Victoria related to Maria of Habsburg?”

A: Maria? I’m not sure who you mean. No, but they weren’t.

Q: “What sort of administrative set ups established and managed these disparate states.”

A: Basically none until they tried in the 19th century. I will come to that.

Q: “Didn’t Bismarck defeat Austria and unite it to Germany in the 1860s?”

A: No, he defeated it. He did not unite it with Germany. He defeated it to enable German Prussia to create the German state in 1870, which did not include Austria.

Q: “Don’t you think it’s a good reason for Britain to leave the EU?”

A: No, I don’t. As it happens, I think Britain had a role in the EU and I and many Britains feel very sad that we’re not in the EU. But I don’t want to enter.

“There’s a wonderful novel about the time the Russian, Austro-Hungarian Empire, the "Radetzky March,” by Joseph Roth.“ Absolutely. Somebody else agrees with the earlier person. Roberta agrees that the pastry shop I went into, the cafe was Demels.

"I have a letter from Otto following Zita’s death. Zita was the last empress married to the Emperor Charles.” Michael, you lucky man.

Q: “Was Albania part of the Holy Roman Empire?”

A: No. It’s part of the Ottoman Empire. That’s why Albanians are Muslim.

Oh, Trudy. “We’ll do a session on Sisi with film depictions.” No, no, no. I don’t think she means that. I think she says she’ll do a session on Sisi and come dressed as Sisi. I think that’s what Trudy means. She’s going to murder me for that. Oh, well, we’ve come to the question about Catholicism and Protestants. There’s basically. Their Protestants are in Bohemia and Moravia and that’s where they had problems. The rest of it is largely Catholic, but they also have, later they have Orthodox, they had to come to terms with it.

Wow. “I’ve always felt like a member of the Habsburg Empire.” This is Ellie. “My parents were Austro-Hungarian, and my father saw Kaiser Franz Joseph as a small child, somehow they did a great deal to unite Europe.” Yeah, we’ll come to that. It’s why the Catholic church made the last emperor, Charles, a martyr of the Catholic church. Charles attempted to, when he became emperor in 1916, and it’s a controversial story, to secure peace in the First World War. That’s a very interesting story, and I promise I will tell that one as well.

Q: “Do you recommend any films?”

A: Not particularly. No, I don’t have maps. It’s too confusing putting maps on. Do Martin, get hold of an atlas and follow if you wish, but I think most of the places I mentioned today, most people know, I think, where they are. No, I don’t want to use clipboards and things. I find it very distracting and I think a lot of people do, so I’m sorry about that, but there are plenty of maps you can find.

“My grandfather was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army says,” oh, this is Peter. Hello Peter. You have told me before, but everyone should know, your grandfather Karl Schulhoff was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I on the Italian front. His son Erik, however, served in the Czechoslovak Army in 1920. It’s very interesting. Central European history in the late 19th, early 20th century is a very confused area.

Oh, I like that. “Anyone?” It says Hillary. “Anyone interested in Empress Sisi can find out all about her on the History Chicks podcast.” Oh dear, I don’t think I quite approve of the title.

Q: “Why was Hitler not Catholic?”

A: Well, hmm. Just because a country is Catholic doesn’t mean that everybody in the country is Catholic and we won’t go down there with Hitler.

“My,” who says, Michael? “My maternal family lived in Stanislav for about 500 years. It’s in Galicia and the home language was German. I had my grandfather’s Bible, Hebrew with German translation. Hitler murdered all of them, except for one who escaped a work outfit and joined the Partisans.” Yeah, Michael’s right. Hitler was Catholic as a child, but of course he rejected Catholicism, that’s the point. He rejected religion.

“My gran,” this is Tony. “My grandfather’s sister-in-law, born 1883, Beatrix Lauher Kottler was a soprano who sang before the Kaiser.” Oh, “And was a mistress to Prince Max of Baden.” Wow. Now that really is the sort of history I like. Fantastic, Tony. Fantastic.

“Was a mistress of Prince Max of Baden. She took her own life after her second husband, Otto Zuter joined the National Socialist party in 1935.” Well, that’s a sad end. Prince Max of Baden is an interesting figure in 20th century German history.

“Recommend the movie ‘Colonel Redl,’ which paralleled the Dreyfus affair in France.” Habsburg Popes? No, I don’t think so.

“My grandmother was from the Austrian part of Poland and was considered to be an enemy alien in the First World War. Her husband, my grandfather, was from the Russian part of Poland.” I know. It’s so divisive.

“Britain was always,” says Valerie, “outside empires and religions of Europe, and never really considered itself part of Europe.” Well, that’s a big issue. I don’t necessarily agree with that. It saw itself as the defender of religion in the Netherlands, in Elizabeth I’s reign and fought Spain because of that. It considered itself part of Europe in the sense that it was, it was the country that took up arms most and encouraged others to, in the various coalitions that Pitt, the prime minister organised against Napoleon. It’s not true to say that we not considered ourselves part of Europe. The problem with the British is they consider themselves superior to Europeans, which is not saying the same thing.

“There’s a Sisi museum in Vienna.” No, Sisi is spelled differently. It is spelled S-I-S-I as well as S-I-S-S-I. Your choice. “Do not scorn the History Chicks because of the title.” No, fine. Okay, sorry. Now I’m put back in my box by Hillary. I still don’t like it. I think it’s either a patronising title, to be honest. “Perhaps a colourful title for you or Trudy, Colourful Significant Mistresses in History.” Oh, no, no. I’m far too innocent to do that. I think you’ll have to ask Trudy to do that. I’ve blown all I bridges with Trudy this evening.

Oh, Bernard. “My grandmother was also from Austria, Poland. My grandfather was Austro-Hungarian. They came to the UK around 1900 to escape conscription, but were not made aliens in either war.” No, because they weren’t German. If they’d been German, they would’ve been. The bureaucracy of Britain identified Germans, but would not necessarily have identified those in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, even though their language may have been German. But I guess by the time war came, they were fluent in English anyhow. I think probably, have I done all of them?

• [Judi] That looks like you’ve done all of them. I think one is just. They’re all done.

• Have they? Oh, good, oh dear. Right, I think I’ve done everything then.

• Wonderful.

• I’ve done enough anyhow to keep you all.

• [Judi] Thank you, William. Thank you, William, and thank you to everybody who joined us. We’ll see everybody at 7:00 PM UK for Robert Fox. Thank you everybody. Bye-bye.

• Bye-bye.