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HABSBURG, or HAPSBURG

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 788 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HABSBURG, or HAPSBURG , the name of the famous See also:family from which have sprung the See also:dukes and archdukes of See also:Austria from 1282, See also:kings of See also:Hungary and Bohemia from 1526, and emperors of Austria from 1804. They were also See also:Roman emperors and See also:German kings from 1438 to 18o6, and kings of See also:Spain from 1516 to 1700, while the See also:minor dignities held by them at different times are too numerous to mention. The name Habsburg, a variant of an older See also:form, Habichtsburg (See also:hawk's See also:castle), was taken from the castle of Habsburg, which was situated on the See also:river See also:Aar not far from its junction with the See also:Rhine. The castle was built about 1020 by See also:Werner, See also:bishop of See also:Strassburg, and his See also:brother, Radbot, the founder of the See also:abbey of See also:Muri. These men were grandsons of a certain See also:Guntram, who, according to some authorities, is identical with a See also:Count Guntram who flourished during the reign of the See also:emperor See also:Otto the See also:Great, and whose ancestry can be traced back to the See also:time of the Merovingian kings. This conjecture, however, is extremely problematical. Among Radbot's sons was one Werner, and Werner and his son Otto were called See also:counts of Habsburg, Otto being probably made See also:landgrave of upper See also:Alsace See also:late in the 11th or See also:early in the 12th See also:century. At all events Otto's son Werner (d. 1167), and the latter's son See also:Albert (d. 1199), held this dignity, and both landgraves increased the See also:area of the Habsburg lands. Albert became count of See also:Zurich and See also:protector of the monastery of Sackingen, and obtained lands in the cantons of See also:Unterwalden and See also:Lucerne; his son See also:Rudolph, having assisted See also:Frederick of See also:Hohenstaufen, afterwards the emperor Frederick II., against the emperor Otto IV., received the See also:county of See also:Aargau. Both counts largely increased their possessions in the districts now known as See also:Switzerland and Alsace, and Rudolph held an influential See also:place among the Swabian See also:nobility.

After his See also:

death in I232 his two sons, Albert and Rudolph, divided his lands and founded the lines of Habsburg-Habsburg and Habsburg-Laufenburg. Rudolph's descendants, counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg, were soon divided into two branches, one of which became See also:extinct in 1408 and the other seven years later. Before this date, however, Laufenburg and some other districts had been sold to the See also:senior See also:branch of the family, who thus managed to retain the greater See also:part of the Habsburg lands. Rudolph's brother Albert (d. 1239), landgrave of Alsace, married Hedwig of Kyburg (d. 1z6o), and from this See also:union there was See also:born in 1218 Rudolph, the founder of the greatness of the See also:house of Habsburg, and the first of the family to ascend the German See also:throne. Through his See also:mother he inherited a large part of the lands of the extinct family of See also:Zahringen; he added in other ways to his possessions, and was chosen German See also:king in See also:September 1273. Acting vigorously in his new See also:office, he defeated and killed his most formidable adversary, Ottakar II., king of Bohemia, in 1278, and in See also:December 1282 he invested his sons, Albert and Rudolph, with the duchies of Austria and See also:Styria, which with other lands had been taken from Ottakar. This was an event of supreme moment in the See also:history of the Habsburgs, and was the first and most important See also:stage in the See also:process of transferring the centre of their authority from western to eastern See also:Europe, from the Rhine to the See also:Danube. On Rudolph's death in See also:July 1291 the German See also:crown passed fora time away from the Habsburgs, but in July 1298 it was secured by his son, Albert, whose reign, however, was See also:short and uneventful. But before 1308, the See also:year of Albert's death, the See also:long and troubled connexion of the Habsburgs with Bohemia had already begun. In 1306 Wenceslas III., the last Bohemian king of the Premyslide See also:dynasty, was murdered.

Seizing the opportunity and declaring that the vacant See also:

kingdom was an imperial See also:fief, King Albert bestowed it upon his eldest son, Rudolph, and married this See also:prince to See also:Elizabeth, widow of Wenceslas II. and stepmother of Wenceslas III. But Rudolph died in 1307, and his See also:father's See also:attempt to keep the See also:country in his own hands was ended by his See also:murder in 1308. Albert's successor as German king was See also:Henry of See also:Luxemburg (the emperor Henry VII.), and this See also:election may be said to initiate the long rivalry between the houses of Habsburg and Luxemburg. But the immediate enemy of the Habsburgs was not a Luxemburg but a See also:Wittelsbach. Without making any definite See also:partition, Albert's five remaining sons spent their time in governing their lands until 1314, when one of them, Frederick called the See also:Fair, forsook this comparatively uneventful occupation and was chosen by a minority of the See also:electors German king in See also:succession to Henry VII. At the same time the Wittelsbach See also:duke of See also:Bavaria, See also:Louis, known to history as the emperor Louis the Bavarian, was also chosen. See also:War was inevitable, and the See also:battle of Miihldorf, fought in September 1322, sealed the See also:fate of Frederick. Louis was victorious: his See also:rival went into an See also:honourable captivity, and the rising Habsburg See also:sun underwent a temporary See also:eclipse. For more than a century after Frederick's death in 1330 the Habsburgs were exiles from the German throne. But they were not inactive. In 1335 his two surviving See also:brothers, Albert and Otto, inherited See also:Carinthia and part of See also:Carniola by right of their mother, Elizabeth; in 1363 Albert's son Rudolph received See also:Tirol; and during the same century part of See also:Istria, See also:Trieste and other districts were acquired. All King Albert's six sons had died without leaving male issue See also:save Otto, whose family became extinct in 1344, and Albert, the ancestor of all the later Habsburgs.

Of Albert's four sons two also See also:

left no male heirs, but the remaining two, Albert III. and See also:Leopold III., were responsible for a See also:division of the family which is of some importance. By virtue of a partition made upon their brother Rudolph's death in 1365 Albert and his descendants ruled over Austria, while Leopold and his sons took Styria, Carinthia and Tirol, Alsace remaining undivided as heretofore. Towards the See also:middle of the 15th century the German throne had been occupied for nearly a See also:hundred years by members of the Luxemburg family. The reigning emperor See also:Sigismund, who was also king of Hungary and Bohemia, was without sons, and his daughter Elizabeth was the wife of Albert of Habsburg, the See also:grandson and See also:heir of Duke Albert III., who had died in 1395. Sigismund died in December 1437, leaving his two kingdoms to his son-in-See also:law, who was crowned king of Hungary in See also:January 1438 and king of Bohemia in the following See also:June. Albert was also chosen and crowned German king in succession to Sigismund, thus beginning the long and uninterrupted connexion of his family with the imperial throne, a connexion which lasted until the See also:dissolution of the See also:Holy Roman See also:Empire in 18o6. He did not, however, enjoy his new dignities for long, as he died in See also:October 1439 while engaged in a struggle with the See also:Turks. Albert left no sons, but soon after his death one was born to him, called See also:Ladislaus, who became duke of Austria and king of Hungary and Bohemia. Under the guardianship of his kinsman, the emperor Frederick III., the See also:young prince's reign was a troubled one, and when he died unmarried in 1457 his branch of the family became extinct, and Hungary and Bohemia passed away from the Habsburgs, who managed, however, to retain Austria. Leopold III., duke of Carinthia and Styria, who was killed in 1386 at the battle of See also:Sempach, had four sons, of whom two only, Frederick and Ernest, left male issue. Frederick and his only son, Sigismund, confined their See also:attention mainly to Tirol and Alsace, leaving the larger destinies of the family in the hands of Ernest of Carinthia and Styria (d. 1424) and his sons, Frederick and Albert and after the death of King Ladislaus in 1457 these two princes and their See also:cousin Sigismund were the only representatives of the Habsburgs.

In See also:

February 1440 Frederick of Styria was chosen German king in succession to his kinsman Albert. He was a weak and incompetent ruler, but a stronger and abler See also:man might have shrunk from the task of administering his heterogeneous and unruly See also:realm.

End of Article: HABSBURG, or HAPSBURG

Additional information and Comments

Our family has a ring belonging to our ancestor named William Reining, the Duke of Reining. It depicts the Habsburg double headed eagle and there is something that appears to be perhaps a sword in the talons. There is a family story about a duke that was disowned because of a liason with a gypsy and that was when he came to America. Surely that was a Habsburg. We are assuming either correctly or incorrectly, that this was our William Reining. With so many obscure Habsburg dukes, we have been unable to locate a record of him up to this point. We were told that our great grandmother was first cousin to Victoria and the Czar and Kaiser (as a matter of fact, my grandfather was named Franz Joseph) but we believe that this is due to William 1V of England and Dorothy Bland the actress whom he never married but had ten illegitimate children with. Until the present generation, all first born boys in the family were named William and all girls named Dorothy in their honor. As near as we can tell, this has nothing to do with William Reining but we could be wrong. Any help your organization can extend to us in this research is greatly appreciated.
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