House of Habsburg  / 
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| Information | |||
| Real Name: | Haus Habsburg | ||
| Founded: | 11th century | ||
| Location: | Germany / Austria / Spain / Hungary / Bohemia / Croatia / Naples / Portugal / Sicily | ||
| Title(s): |
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| People | |||
| Head: | Leopold I | ||
| Kings: | Charles II (Spain) | ||
| Queens: | Anne † (France) Marie-Thérèse † (France) Eleanor (Poland) | ||
| Affiliations: | Holy Roman Empire |
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The House of Habsburg was one of the most influential and distinguished royal houses of Europe.
The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs from 1438 until their extinction in the male line in 1740. The house also produced emperors and kings of many other countries (see Title(s)).
The Habsburg made also 5 kings of Spain, before they were replaced by the House of Bourbon.
Emperors and Kings[]
The Habsburg produced Twelve Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire:[]
- Rudolf I (1273-1291)
- Albrecht I (1298-1308)
- Frederick III (1452-1493)
- Ferdinand I (1558-1564)
- Maximilian II (1568-1576)
- Rudolf II (1576–1612)
- Matthias (1612-1619)
- Ferdinand II (1619-1637)
- Ferdinand III (1636-1657)
- Leopold I (1657–1705)
- Joseph I (1705–1711)
- Charles VI (1711–1740)
The Habsburg produced Five Kings of Spain:[]
- Charles I (1516-1556)
- Philip II (1556-1598)
- Philipp III (1598-1621)
- Philipp IV (1621-1665)
- Charles II (1665-1700)
Members[]
1st Generation[]
2nd Generation[]
History[]
The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a fortress built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau, who chose to name his fortress Habsburg. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the fortress name as his own, adding "Count of Habsburg" to his title. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.
By 1276, Count Radbot's seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburgmoved the family's power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph became King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs and their descendants ruled until 1918.
A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to vastly expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary, and other territories. In the 16th century, the family separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches, who settled their mutual claims in the Oñate treaty.
The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century. The senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. The remaining Austrian branch became extinct in the male line in 1740 with the death of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, and completely in 1780 with the death of his eldest daughter Maria Theresa of Austria. It was succeeded by the Vaudémont branch of the House of Lorraine, descendants of Maria Theresa's marriage to Francis III, Duke of Lorraine. The new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: Habsburg-Lothringen), and because it was often confusingly still referred to as the House of Habsburg, historians use the unofficial appellation of the Habsburg Monarchy for the countries and provinces that were ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg between 1521 and 1780 and then by the successor branch of Habsburg-Lorraine until 1918. The Lorraine branch continues to exist to this day and its members use the Habsburg name (example: Otto von Habsburg).