Habsburg

Examples of Habsburg in the following topics:

• The Structure of the Holy Roman Empire

  • Although the Habsburgs held the title of Holy Roman Emperor for nearly four centuries, the title was not hereditary and their power over the decentralized empire was limited and separate from their reign over the territories under the Habsburg rule.  
  • The Habsburgs held the title of Holy Roman Emperor between 1438 and 1740, and again from 1745 to 1806.
  • Many other lands were, at times, also under the Habsburg rule.
  • However, he gained the rule over the hereditary territories of the Habsburgs only after his mother's death fifteen years later.
  • Describe the structure of the Holy Roman Empire, focusing on its relation to the Habsburg dynasty and the lands under their rule

• The Pragmatic Sanction

  • The Pragmatic Sanction was an edict issued by Charles VI on April 19, 1713, to ensure that the Habsburg hereditary possessions could be inherited by a daughter.
  • In 1700, the senior (oldest, first-in-line) branch of the House of Habsburg became extinct with the death of Charles II of Spain.
  • Hungary, which had an elective kingship, had accepted the house of Habsburg as hereditary kings in the male line and it was agreed that if the Habsburg male line became extinct, Hungary would once again have an elective monarchy.
  • The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, finally recognized Maria Theresa's rule over the Habsburg hereditary lands.
  • She lost the title with her husband's death in 1765 although she remained the ruler of the Habsburg lands until her death fifteen years later.

• The Spanish Habsburgs

  • Under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, Spain became the first modern global empire and the most influential state in Europe only to be reduced to a second-rank power by the time the last Spanish Habsburg died in 1700.
  • Under the Habsburgs, Spain dominated Europe politically and militarily but experienced a gradual decline of influence in the second half of the seventeenth century under the later Habsburg kings.
  • The Habsburg years were also a Spanish Golden Age of cultural efflorescence.
  • Europa Regina, associated with a Habsburg-dominated Europe under Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Habsburg (Charles I of Spain).
  • Explain why the Spanish Habsburgs grew increasingly feeble as a family.

• Swedish-French Intervention

  • No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the war on the side of the Protestants to counter the Habsburgs and bring the Thirty Years' War to an end.
  • Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister of King Louis XIII of France, considered the Habsburgs too powerful, since they held a number of territories on France's eastern border, including portions of the Netherlands.
  • France declared war on Spain in May 1635 and the Holy Roman Empire in August 1636, opening offensives against the Habsburgs in Germany and the Low Countries.
  • Bernhard's victory in the Battle of Compiègne pushed the Habsburg armies back towards the borders of France.
  • These results left only the Imperial territories of Austria safely in Habsburg hands.

• France and Cardinal Richelieu

  • His chief foreign policy objective was to check the power of the Austro-Spanish Habsburg dynasty and to ensure French dominance in the Thirty Years' War that engulfed Europe.
  • France was not openly at war with the Habsburgs, who ruled Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, so subsidies and aid were provided secretly to their adversaries.
  • In it, France effectively drained the already overstretched resources of the Habsburg empire and drove it inexorably towards bankruptcy.
  • The defeat of Habsburg forces at the Battle of Lens, and their failure to prevent French invasion of Catalonia effectively spelled the end for Habsburg domination of the continent.
  • Equally critical for France was Richelieu's foreign policy, which helped restrain Habsburg influence in Europe.

• The Peace of Westphalia and Sovereignty

  • They ousted the Habsburgs and instead elected Frederick V, Elector of Palatinate, as their monarch.
  • The war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political preeminence.
  • Spain, wishing to finally crush the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, intervened under the pretext of helping their dynastic Habsburg ally, Austria.
  • No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the coalition on the side of the Protestants to counter the Habsburgs.
  • They were eventually able to oust the Habsburg armies, and in 1581 they established the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

• Religious Divide in the Holy Roman Empire

  • These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence.
  • The position of the Holy Roman Emperor was mainly titular, but the emperors, from the House of Habsburg, also directly ruled a large portion of imperial territory (lands of the Archduchy of Austria and the Kingdom of Bohemia), as well as the Kingdom of Hungary.
  • Another branch of the House of Habsburg ruled over Spain and its empire, which included the Spanish Netherlands, southern Italy, the Philippines, and most of the Americas.
  • The Peace of Augsburg began to unravel: some converted bishops refused to give up their bishoprics, and certain Habsburg and other Catholic rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Spain sought to restore the power of Catholicism in the region.
  • The Habsburg cause in the next few years would seem to suffer unrecoverable reverses.

• The War of Austrian Succession

  • In 1713, Charles VI of the Habsburg dynasty issued an edict known as the Pragmatic Sanction.
  • It aimed to ensure that the Habsburg hereditary possessions could be inherited by a daughter.
  • He disputed the succession of Maria Theresa to the Habsburg lands, while simultaneously making his own claim on Silesia.
  • However, the 1537 agreement had been rejected by the Bohemian king Ferdinand I of Habsburg soon after it was reached and never came into effect.
  • Since their marriage in 1708, Charles and his wife Elizabeth Christine had not had children, and since 1711 Charles had been the sole surviving male member of the House of Habsburg.

• Bohemian Period

  • The Bohemian Revolt (1618–1620) was an uprising of the Bohemian estates against the rule of the Habsburg dynasty, in particular Emperor Ferdinand II, which triggered the Thirty Years' War.
  • The Kingdom of Bohemia since 1526 had been governed by Habsburg Kings, who did not, however, force their Catholic religion on their largely Protestant subjects.
  • He was increasingly viewed as unfit to govern, and other members of the Habsburg dynasty declared his younger brother, Matthias, to be family head in 1606.
  • Immediately after the Defenestration, the Protestant estates and Catholic Habsburgs started gathering allies for war.

• Fragmentation of the Holy Roman Empire

  • The empire was dominated by the House of Habsburg throughout the Early Modern period.
  • The latter would end up going to a more junior branch of the Habsburgs in the person of Charles's brother Ferdinand, while the senior branch continued to rule in Spain and in the Burgundian inheritance in the person of Charles's son, Philip II of Spain.
  • After his son Philip married Queen Mary of England, it appeared that France would be completely surrounded by Habsburg domains, but this hope proved unfounded when the marriage produced no children.
  • The Habsburg Emperors focused on consolidating their own estates in Austria and elsewhere.
  • Francis' House of Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.