Cognatic :
120-524: Timeline The Kingdom of Italy ( Latin : Regnum Italiae or Regnum Italicum ; Italian : Regno d'Italia ; German : Königreich Italien ), also called Imperial Italy ( Italian : Italia Imperiale ; German: Reichsitalien ), was one of the constituent kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire , along with the kingdoms of Germany , Bohemia , and Burgundy . It originally comprised large parts of northern and central Italy . Its original capital
240-518: A Habsburg territory , i.e., only by males and their consorts, appanages being commonly distributed to Cadets . These "junior" archdukes did not thereby become independent hereditary rulers, since all territories remained vested in the Austrian crown. Occasionally a territory might be combined with a separate gubernatorial mandate ruled by an archducal cadet. From the 16th century onward, archduke and its female form, archduchess , came to be used by all
360-504: A Guelph rebellion under Lord Guido della Torre . Henry restored the rule of Matteo I Visconti and proceeded to Rome, where he was crowned emperor by three cardinals in place of Pope Clement V in 1312. His further plans to restore the Imperial rule in northern Italy and to expand the empire, invading the Kingdom of Naples , were aborted by his sudden death the next year. Successive emperors in
480-560: A leading role in the family and positioned himself as the judge over the family's internal conflicts, often making use of the privilegium maius . He was able to restore the unity of the house's Austrian lands, since the Albertinian line was now extinct. Territorial integrity was also strengthened by the extinction of the Tyrolean branch of the Leopoldian line. Frederick's aim was to make Austria
600-494: A permanent peace were not established until 1183, however, in the Peace of Constance , when Frederick conceded their right to freely elect town magistrates. By this move, Frederick recovered his nominal domination over Italy, which became his chief means of applying pressure on the papacy. Frederick's son Henry VI actually managed to extend Hohenstaufen authority in Italy by his conquest of
720-561: A possession of the Spanish Empire of Charles's son Philip II of Spain , whereas the title of Holy Roman Emperor and the rights connected to Imperial Italy were transferred to Charles's brother, Ferdinand I . Milan continued to be a state of the Holy Roman Empire so that, in his position as duke of Milan , Philip II was, at least formally, a vassal of Emperor Ferdinand. However, following the reign of Charles V, no Holy Roman Emperor of
840-649: A united country stretching from the Rhine to the Mur and Leitha . Externally, one of Frederick's main achievements was the Siege of Neuss (1474–75), in which he coerced Charles the Bold of Burgundy to give his daughter Mary of Burgundy as wife to Frederick's son Maximilian . The wedding took place on the evening of 16 August 1477, and ultimately resulted in the Habsburgs acquiring control of
960-463: A year and a day on pain of forfeit. The renewal of fiefdoms incensed the papacy, some of whose own vassals now dug out ancient documents ostensibly proving them to be vassals of the Emperor. Smaller states of Italy saw the Emperor as their protector against larger territories like Savoy and the papacy. Imperial authority strengthened throughout the 18th century, with the duchies of Milan and Mantua passing to
1080-430: Is a river with a ford nearby. The first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg name was not continuously used by the family members, since they often emphasized their more prestigious princely titles. The dynasty was thus long known as the "House of Austria". Complementary, in some circumstances the family members were identified by their place of birth. Charles V
1200-615: The plebs abandoned Rome for the nearby Monte Sacro . Marius was elected consul for the first of three years in a row. Civil wars would follow with the first breaking out in 238, another in 249 followed by a third in 253. From 235 through 284 the average reign of a Roman Emperor was just 18 months, down from average just over 9 years during the first centuries of the Empire. House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg ( / ˈ h æ p s b ɜːr ɡ / ; German : Haus Habsburg [haʊs ˈhaːpsbʊrk] ), also known as
1320-615: The Allies , were executed. The Habsburg family played a leading role in the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Communist Eastern Bloc . As they accumulated crowns and titles, the Habsburgs developed a family tradition of multilingualism that evolved over the centuries. The Holy Roman Empire had been multilingual from the start, even though most of its emperors were native German speakers. The language issue within
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#17330941490551440-612: The Battle of the Volturnus and the peninsula was, for a short time, reintegrated into the empire. The Kings of the Lombards (Latin: reges Langobardorum , singular [rex Langobardorum] Error: {{Lang}}: invalid parameter: |links= ( help ) ) ruled those Germanic people from their invasion of Italy in 567–68 until the Lombardic identity became lost in the ninth and tenth centuries. After 568,
1560-573: The Bohemian Diet in Czech, even though it is not clear that they were fluent. By contrast there is little evidence that later Habsburgs in the 17th and 18th centuries spoke Czech, with the probable exception of Ferdinand III , who had several stays in Bohemia and appears to have spoken Czech while there. In the 19th century Francis I had some Czech and Ferdinand I spoke it decently. Franz Joseph received
1680-631: The Burgundian Netherlands . After Mary's early death in 1482, Maximilian attempted to secure the Burgundian inheritance for one of his and Mary's children Philip the Handsome . Charles VIII of France contested this, using both military and dynastic means, but the Burgundian succession was finally ruled in favor of Philip in the Treaty of Senlis in 1493. After the death of his father in 1493, Maximilian
1800-729: The Duchy of Milan were in personal union under the King of Spain but remained part of the Holy Roman Empire . Furthermore, the Spanish king had claims on Hungary and Bohemia. In the secret Oñate treaty of 29 July 1617, the Spanish and Austrian Habsburgs settled their mutual claims. The Habsburgs sought to consolidate their power by frequent consanguineous marriages , resulting in a cumulatively deleterious effect on their gene pool . Health impairments due to inbreeding included epilepsy, insanity and early death. A study of 3,000 family members over 16 generations by
1920-757: The First Council of the Lateran . Now it had recurred, in a slightly different form. Frederick had to humble himself before Pope Alexander III at Venice. The emperor acknowledged the pope's sovereignty over the Papal States, and in return Alexander acknowledged the emperor's overlordship of the Imperial Church. Also in the Treaty of Venice , a truce was made with the Lombard cities, which took effect in August 1178. The grounds for
2040-563: The House of Austria , was one of the most prominent and important dynasties in European history. The house takes its name from Habsburg Castle , a fortress built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland by Radbot of Klettgau , who named 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. In 1273, Count Radbot's seventh-generation descendant, Rudolph of Habsburg ,
2160-506: The House of Gorizia . Following Rudolph's death in 1291, Albert I 's assassination in 1308, and Frederick the Fair 's failure to secure the German/Imperial crown for himself, the Habsburgs temporarily lost their supremacy in the Empire. In the early 14th century, they also focused on the Kingdom of Bohemia . After Václav III 's death on 4 August 1306, there were no male heirs remaining in
2280-635: The Medici Pope Clement VII , conquered Florence where he reinstalled the Medici as dukes of Florence after a siege . Charles V was crowned king of Italy with the Iron Crown in medieval fashion and, upon the extinction of the Sforza line of Milan in 1535, claimed direct possession of that territory as an Imperial fief. After Charles divided his possession between a Spanish and Austrian branch, Milan became
2400-479: The Migration Period ; the first ruler attested independently of Lombard tradition is Tato . The actual control of the sovereigns of both the major areas that constitute the kingdom – Langobardia Major in the centre-north (in turn divided into a western, or Neustria , and one eastern, or Austria and Tuskia ) and Langobardia Minor in the centre-south, was not constant during the two centuries of life of
2520-666: The Ostrogoth king Totila was killed, the Byzantine general Narses captured Rome and besieged Cumae . Teia , the new Ostrogothic king, gathered the remnants of the Ostrogothic army and marched to relieve the siege, but in October 552 Narses ambushed him at Mons Lactarius (modern Monti Lattari ) in Campania , near Mount Vesuvius and Nuceria Alfaterna . The battle lasted two days and Teia
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#17330941490552640-587: The Přemyslid dynasty . Habsburg scion Rudolph I was then elected but only lasted a year. The Bohemian kingship was an elected position, and the Habsburgs were only able to secure it on a hereditary basis much later in 1626, following their reconquest of the Czech lands during the Thirty Years' War . After 1307, subsequent Habsburg attempts to gain the Bohemian crown were frustrated first by Henry of Bohemia (a member of
2760-567: The Spanheim ( Carinthia and Carniola ). In 1278, Rudolph and his allies defeated and killed Ottokar at the Battle of Marchfeld , and the lands he had acquired reverted to the German crown. With the Georgenberg Pact of 1286, Rudolph secured for his family the duchies of Austria and Styria. The southern portions of Ottokar's former realm, Carinthia, Carniola, and Savinja, went to Rudolph's allies from
2880-616: The Tyrol ; and Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria ". The Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 created a real union , whereby the Kingdom of Hungary was granted co-equality with the Empire of Austria , that henceforth didn't include the Kingdom of Hungary as a crownland anymore. The Austrian and the Hungarian lands became independent entities enjoying equal status. Under this arrangement,
3000-497: The University of Santiago de Compostela suggests inbreeding may have played a role in their extinction. Numerous members of the family showed specific facial deformities: an enlarged lower jaw with an extended chin known as mandibular prognathism or 'Habsburg jaw', a large nose with hump and hanging tip ('Habsburg nose') and an everted lower lip ('Habsburg lip'). The last two are signs of maxillary deficiency . A 2019 study found that
3120-589: The campaigns of the French Revolutionaries in 1792–1797, when a series of sister republics were set up with local support by Napoleon and then united into the Italian Republic under his presidency. In 1805 the Italian Republic became the Kingdom of Italy with Napoleon as the new king. This state was disbanded with the collapse of Napoleonic rule in 1814. After the Battle of Taginae , in which
3240-569: The 12th–14th centuries. The Lombard League was the most famous example of this situation; though not a declared separatist movement, it openly challenged the emperor's claim to power. The century between the Humiliation of Canossa (1077) and the Treaty of Venice of 1177 resulted in the formation of city states independent of the Germanic emperor. A series of wars in Lombardy from 1423 to 1454 reduced
3360-467: The 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia . They were also able to gain high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other noble families such as the House of Kyburg . By the second half of the 13th century, Count Rudolph I (1218–1291) had become an influential territorial lord in
3480-488: The 14th and 15th centuries were bound in the struggle between the rivaling Luxembourg, Habsburg and Wittelsbach dynasties. In the conflict with Frederick the Fair , King Louis IV (reigned until 1347) had himself crowned emperor in Rome by Antipope Nicholas V in 1328. His successor Charles IV also returned to Rome to be crowned in 1355. None of the emperors forgot their theoretical claims to dominion as kings of Italy. Nor did
3600-640: The Adriatic Sea. After the death of Leopold's eldest son, William , in 1406 the Leopoldian line was further split among his brothers into the Inner Austrian territory under Ernest the Iron and a Tyrolean/Further Austrian line under Frederick of the Empty Pockets . In 1440 Ernest's son Frederick III was chosen by the electoral college to succeed Albert II as the king. Several Habsburg kings had attempted to gain
3720-482: The Austrian Habsburgs was crowned king of Italy and the title effectively ceased to be used for two centuries and a half. In 1559, the Kingdom of France ended its ambitions over the Imperial fiefs in Italy, abandoning its claims to Savoy and Milan and withdrawing from Tuscany and Genoese Corsica by the terms of the Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis . The major imperial fiefs in Italy were known as "Feuda latina", whereas
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3840-696: The Austrian Succession . The former was won by House of Bourbon , putting an end to Habsburg rule in Spain . The latter, however, was won by Maria Theresa and led to the succession of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ( German : Haus Habsburg-Lothringen ) becoming the new main branch of the dynasty in the person of Maria Theresa's son, Joseph II . This new House was created by the marriage between Maria Theresa and Francis Stephan , Duke of Lorraine . (Both of them were great-grandchildren of Habsburg emperor Ferdinand III , but from different empresses.) This new House
3960-475: The Blind of Provence both claiming the Imperial throne for a time. The kingdom was also beset by Arab raiding parties from Sicily and North Africa , and central authority was minimal at best. In the 10th century, the situation hardly improved, as various Burgundian and local noblemen continued to dispute over the crown. Order was only imposed from outside, when the German king Otto I invaded Italy and seized both
4080-661: The Carolingian lands in Italy, which were now for the first time (save the brief rule of Charlemagne 's son Pepin in the first decade of the century), ruled as a distinct unit. The kingdom included all of Italy as far south as Rome and Spoleto , but the rest of Italy to the south was under the rule of the Lombard Principality of Benevento or of the Byzantine Empire . Following Louis II's death without heirs, there were several decades of confusion. The Imperial crown
4200-589: The Empire (first gaining the Kingdom of Sicily in 1713, swapped in 1720 for the Kingdom of Sardinia ). Imperial authority was used by the Austrian Habsburgs to intervene in Italy during the War of Mantuan Succession phase of the Thirty Years' War and to take control of vacant Italian imperial fiefs during the European Wars of Succession of the 18th century: following the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs in 1700,
4320-457: The Empire became gradually more salient as the non-religious use of Latin declined and that of national languages gained prominence during the High Middle Ages . Emperor Charles IV of Luxembourg was known to be fluent in Czech, French, German, Italian and Latin. The last section of his Golden Bull of 1356 specifies that the Empire's secular prince-electors "should be instructed in
4440-501: The Empire. In many aspects, the Imperial claims to feudal overlordship over the Italian territories had become practically meaningless: the effective political authority, as well as the power to raise taxes and spend resources, was in the hands of the Italian princes and dukes. However, the presence of the Imperial feudal network in Italy continued to play a role in the history of the peninsula. It gave to Emperors Sigismund and Maximilian I
4560-453: The Fat in 887, after which they once briefly regained the throne in 894–896. In 951, King Otto I of Germany , already married to Queen Adelaide of Italy , invaded the kingdom and proclaimed himself king. Otto defeated the previous king and conquered Pavia in 961, and then continued on to Rome, where he had himself crowned emperor in 962. The union of the crowns of Italy and Germany with that of
4680-783: The French on 18 May 1804. Emperor Francis I of Austria used the official full list of titles: " We , Francis the First, by the grace of God, Emperor of Austria; King of Jerusalem , Hungary , Bohemia , Dalmatia , Croatia , Slavonia , Galicia and Lodomeria ; Archduke of Austria ; Duke of Lorraine , Salzburg , Würzburg , Franconia , Styria , Carinthia , and Carniola ; Grand Duke of Cracow ; Grand Prince of Transylvania ; Margrave of Moravia ; Duke of Sandomir , Masovia , Lublin , Upper and Lower Silesia , Auschwitz and Zator , Teschen , and Friule ; Prince of Berchtesgaden and Mergentheim ; Princely Count of Habsburg, Gorizia and Gradisca and of
4800-533: The French. In 1687, a new plenipotentiary of Italy was appointed, a position that had been left vacant for over a century prior (the powers of the office had instead been exercised haphazardly by the Aulic Council). In 1690, Prince Eugene of Savoy tried to levy an imperial tax over Italy to pay for war expenses, the first time such a thing had been done. Then, in 1696, Leopold issued an edict mandating all of his Italian vassals to renew their oaths of allegiance within
4920-701: The Habsburg family as vacant imperial fiefs during the War of the Spanish Succession, the end of the War of the Quadruple Alliance reconfirming the statuses of Tuscany, Modena-Reggio , and Parma-Piacenza as imperial fiefs, and the Habsburgs continuing to rule the Italian territories of their hereditary lands (roughly the modern provinces of Trentino-Alto Adige and the Austrian Littoral ). Piedmont-Savoy , on
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5040-794: The Habsburg family oversee the Austrian branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece , the Order of the Starry Cross and the Imperial and Royal Order of Saint George . The current head of the family is Karl von Habsburg . The origins of Habsburg Castle 's name are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg ( hawk castle), or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford , as there
5160-427: The Habsburg territories (such as the Imperial Free City of Trieste , the County of Gorizia and Gradisca , the Duchy of Milan , and later the Grand Duchy of Tuscany ). Unlike most of the German states, the Imperial Italian contributions bypassed the Reichstag and other institutions and went directly to the Imperial army and treasury. The Italian states were in large part autonomous, but their lack of representation gave
5280-443: The Habsburgs from 1440 until their extinction in the male line in 1740, and, as the Habsburg-Lorraines, from 1765 until its dissolution in 1806. The house also produced kings of Bohemia , Hungary , Croatia , Slavonia , Dalmatia , Spain , Portugal , Sicily , Lombardy-Venetia and Galicia-Lodomeria , with their respective colonies; rulers of several principalities in the Low Countries and Italy; numerous Prince-Bishoprics in
5400-469: The Habsburgs had made their own, at times impaled with the arms of the Duchy of Burgundy (ancient). After Maria Theresa married Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine , the idea of "Habsburg" as associated with ancestral Austrian rulership was used to show that the old dynasty continued as did all its inherited rights. Some younger sons who had no prospects of the throne were given the personal title of "count of Habsburg". The surname of more recent members of
5520-404: The Handsome or the Fair, married Joanna of Castile , also known as Joanna the Mad, heiress of Castile and Aragon . Phillip and Joan had six children, the eldest of whom became Emperor Charles V in 1516 and ruled the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon (including their colonies in the New World ), Southern Italy, Austria and the Habsburg Netherlands with his mother and nominal coruler, Joanna, who
5640-484: The Holy Roman Empire, and in the 19th century, emperors of Austria and of Austria-Hungary , as well as one emperor of Mexico . The family split several times into parallel branches, most consequentially in the mid-16th century between its Spanish and German-Austrian branches following the abdication of Emperor Charles V in 1556. Although they ruled distinct territories, the different branches nevertheless maintained close relations and frequently intermarried. Members of
5760-440: The House of Gorizia) and then by the House of Luxembourg . Instead, they were able to expand southwards: in 1311, they took over Savinja ; after the death of Henry in 1335, they assumed power in Carniola and Carinthia ; and in 1369, they succeeded his daughter Margaret in Tyrol . After the death of Albert III of Gorizia in 1374, they gained a foothold at Pazin in central Istria , followed by Trieste in 1382. Meanwhile,
5880-457: The House of Habsburg is descended from the Roman emperor Constantine the Great , an invention common in ruling dynasties at the time. In the 12th century, the Habsburgs became increasingly associated with the Staufer emperors, participating in the imperial court and the emperor's military expeditions; Werner II, Count of Habsburg died fighting for Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in Italy. This association helped them to inherit many domains as
6000-417: The Hungarians referred to their ruler as king and never emperor (see k. u. k. ). This prevailed until the Habsburgs' deposition from both Austria and Hungary in 1918 following defeat in World War I. On 11 November 1918, with his empire collapsing around him, the last Habsburg ruler, Charles I of Austria (who also reigned as Charles IV of Hungary) issued a proclamation recognizing Austria's right to determine
6120-469: The Imperial and Italian thrones for himself in 962. In 951, King Otto I of Germany married Adelaide of Burgundy , the widow of late King Lothair II of Italy . Otto was proclaimed king of Italy at Pavia despite his rival Margrave Berengar of Ivrea . When in 960 Berengar attacked the Papal States , King Otto, summoned by Pope John XII , conquered the Italian kingdom and on 2 February 962 had himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome. From that time on,
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#17330941490556240-417: The Imperial supremacy in Italy remained contested. The cities first demonstrated their increasing power during the reign of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (1152–1190), whose attempts to restore imperial authority in the peninsula led to a series of wars with the Lombard League , a league of northern Italian cities, most of the times headed by Milan , and ultimately to a decisive victory for
6360-417: The Italian cities, but these conflicts bore less and less relation to the origins of the parties in question. The Italian campaigns of the Holy Roman emperors decreased, but the kingdom did not become wholly meaningless. In 1310 the Luxembourg King Henry VII of Germany with 5,000 men again crossed the Alps, moved into Milan and had himself crowned king of Italy (with a mock-up of the Iron Crown ), sparking
6480-415: The Italian monarch led to the rapid disappearance of a central government in the High Middle Ages , but the idea that Italy was a kingdom within the Empire remained and emperors frequently sought to impose their will on the evolving Italian city-states . The resulting wars between Guelphs and Ghibellines , the anti-imperialist and imperialist factions, respectively, were characteristic of Italian politics in
6600-430: The Italians themselves forget the claims of the emperors to universal dominion: writers like Dante Alighieri (died 1321) and Marsilius of Padua ( c. 1275 – c. 1342 ) expressed their commitment both to the principle of universal monarchy, and to the actual pretensions of Emperors Henry VII and Louis IV, respectively. The Imperial claims to dominion in Italy mostly manifested themselves, however, in
6720-407: The Kingdom of Italy with little central authority. There was also a lack of powerful landed magnates – the only notable one being the Margraviate of Tuscany , which had wide lands in Tuscany , Lombardy , and the Emilia , but which failed due to lack of heirs after the death of Matilda of Canossa in 1115. This left a power vacuum – increasingly filled by the Papacy and by the bishops, as well as by
6840-531: The Kingdom of Italy, and the restored Italian duchies now became fully sovereign in their own right. Timeline of Italian history Timeline This is a timeline of Italian history , comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Italy and its predecessor states, including Ancient Rome and Prehistoric Italy . Date of the prehistoric era are approximate. For further background, see history of Italy and list of prime ministers of Italy . Lucius Sicinius Vellutus ,
6960-458: The Kings of Italy were always also Kings of Germany, and Italy thus became a constituent kingdom of the Holy Roman Empire , along with the Kingdom of Germany ( regnum Teutonicorum ) and – from 1032 – Burgundy . The German king ( Rex Romanorum ) would theoretically be crowned in Pavia as a prelude to the visit to Rome to be crowned Emperor by the Pope . In general, the monarch was an absentee, spending most of his time in Germany and leaving
7080-400: The League at the Battle of Legnano in 1176, that had as its leader the Milanese Guido da Landriano , which forced Frederick to make administrative, political, and judicial concessions to the municipalities, officially ending his attempt to dominate Northern Italy. From then, Italy became a patchwork of autonomous duchies and city-states only nominally tied to the Holy Roman Empire. The scene
7200-421: The Lombard kings sometimes styled themselves Kings of Italy (Latin: rex totius Italiæ ). The primary sources for the Lombard kings before the Frankish conquest are the anonymous 7th-century Origo Gentis Langobardorum and the 8th-century Historia Langobardorum of Paul the Deacon . The earliest kings (the pre-Lethings) listed in the Origo are almost certainly legendary. They purportedly reigned during
7320-400: The Norman Kingdom of Sicily , which comprised Sicily and all of Southern Italy. Henry's son, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor – the first emperor since the 10th century to actually base himself in Italy – attempted to return to his father's task of restoring imperial authority in the northern Italian Kingdom, which led to fierce opposition not only from a reformed Lombard League, but also from
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#17330941490557440-403: The Ottomans in 1439 and that of his son Ladislaus Postumus in 1457, the Habsburgs lost Bohemia once more as well as Hungary for several decades. However, with the extinction of the House of Celje in 1456 and the House of Wallsee-Enns in 1466/1483, they managed to absorb significant secular enclaves into their territories and create a contiguous domain stretching from the border with Bohemia to
7560-510: The Popes, who had become increasingly jealous of their temporal realm in central Italy (theoretically a part of the Empire), and concerned about the hegemonic ambitions of the Hohenstaufen emperors. Frederick II's efforts to bring all of Italy under his control failed as signally as those of his grandfather, and his death in 1250 marked the effective end of the Kingdom of Italy as a genuine political unit. Conflict continued between Ghibellines (Imperial supporters) and Guelfs (Papal supporters) in
7680-466: The Rich , a count in the Breisgau who lived in the 10th century, and forthwith farther back as the medieval Adalrich, Duke of Alsace , from the Etichonids from which Habsburg derives. His grandson Radbot of Klettgau founded the Habsburg Castle . That castle was the family seat during most of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. Giovanni Thomas Marnavich in his book " Regiae Sanctitatis Illyricanae Faecunditas " dedicated to Ferdinand III , wrote that
7800-553: The Staufers caused the extinction of many dynasties, some of which the Habsburgs were heirs to. In 1198, Rudolf II, Count of Habsburg fully dedicated the dynasty to the Staufer cause by joining the Ghibellines and funded the Staufer emperor Frederick II 's war for the throne in 1211. The emperor was made godfather to his newly born grandson, the future King Rudolf . The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, especially countship rights in Zürichgau , Aargau and Thurgau . In
7920-436: The area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance . On 1 October 1273, he was elected as a compromise candidate as King of the Romans and received the name Rudolph I of Germany . He then led a coalition against King Ottokar II of Bohemia who had taken advantage of the Great Interregnum in order to expand southwards, taking over the respective inheritances of the Babenberg ( Austria , Styria , Savinja ) and of
8040-415: The beginning of the early modern period, the Kingdom of Italy still formally existed but had de facto splintered into completely independent and self-governing Italian city-states . Its territory had been significantly limited – the conquests of the Republic of Venice in the " domini di Terraferma " and those of the Papal States had taken most of northeastern and central Italy outside the jurisdiction of
8160-400: The crown of the new Kingdom of Italy for himself, putting the Iron Crown on his head at Milan on 26 May 1805. He also directly annexed most of the former Imperial Italy (including Piedmont-Savoy, Genoa and Tuscany) into France. The Empire itself was abolished the next year on 6 August 1806. The Congress of Vienna following Napoleon's defeat did not bring back the Holy Roman Empire nor
8280-418: The degree of mandibular prognathism in the Habsburg family shows a statistically significant correlation with the degree of inbreeding. A correlation between maxillary deficiency and degree of inbreeding was also present but was not statistically significant. Other scientific studies, however, dispute the ideas of any linkage between fertility and consanguinity . The gene pool eventually became so small that
8400-401: The early 15th century, Strasbourg -based chronicler Jakob Twinger von Königshofen asserted that Charlemagne had mastered six languages, even though he had a preference for German. In the early years of the family's ascendancy, neither Rudolf I nor Albert I appears to have spoken French. By contrast, Charles V of Habsburg is well known as having been fluent in several languages. He
8520-417: The emperor greater ability to act more autonomously with the Italian principalities than the German ones, such as when he decided to simply add the Grand Duchy of Tuscany (officially an imperial fief) to his family's lands after the extinction of the Medici ruling line in 1737. Aside from the Prince-Bishopric of Trent , Piedmont-Savoy was the only independent Italian state represented in the Reichstag and also
8640-630: The emperor proclaimed Milan a vacant Imperial fief and added it to his direct Austrian dominions in 1707 (confirmed by the Treaty of Rastatt at the end of the War of the Spanish Succession ); the Gonzaga of Mantua were deposed by the Imperial Diet in 1708 on charges of felony towards the Holy Roman Emperor; following the extinction of the Florentine House of Medici in 1737, Francis of Lorraine
8760-464: The empire, and thus subject to certain obligations and jurisdiction. A special Italian section of the Aulic Council was created in 1559. It handled 1,500 cases from Imperial Italy between 1559 and 1806 (out of 140,000 total), with most of those cases coming from later dates. Italian states provided significant support in all of the Empire's wars in this time, either under their own princes or as part of
8880-569: The family domains and enacted the separation of the so-called Albertinian and Leopoldian family lines on 25 September 1379 by the Treaty of Neuberg . The former would maintain Austria proper (then called Niederösterreich but comprising modern Lower Austria and most of Upper Austria ), while the latter would rule over lands then labeled Oberösterreich , namely Inner Austria ( Innerösterreich ) comprising Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, and Further Austria ( Vorderösterreich ) consisting of Tyrol and
9000-510: The family such as Otto von Habsburg and Karl von Habsburg is taken to be " von Habsburg " or more completely "von Habsburg-Lothringen". Princes and members of the house use the tripartite arms adopted in the 18th century by Francis Stephen. The name of the dynasty is sometimes spelled in English publications as Hapsburg . Timeline The progenitor of the House of Habsburg may have been Guntram
9120-518: The fight against Protestantism , which led to its eradication throughout vast areas under Habsburg control. Charles formally became the sole monarch of Spain upon the death of his imprisoned mother Queen Joan in 1555. After the abdication of Charles V in 1556, the Habsburg dynasty split into the branch of the Austrian (or German) Habsburgs, led by Ferdinand, and the branch of the Spanish Habsburgs, initially led by Charles's son Philip . Ferdinand I , King of Bohemia, Hungary, and archduke of Austria in
9240-401: The future of the state and renouncing any role in state affairs. Two days later, he issued a separate proclamation for Hungary. Even though he did not officially abdicate , this is considered the end of the Habsburg dynasty. In 1919, the new republican Austrian government subsequently passed a law banishing the Habsburgs from Austrian territory until they renounced all intentions of regaining
9360-507: The granting of titles to the various strongmen who had begun to establish their control over the formerly republican cities. Most notably, the emperors gave their backing to the Visconti of Milan , and King Wenceslaus made Gian Galeazzo Visconti the duke of Milan in 1395. Other families to receive new titles from the emperors were the Gonzaga of Mantua , and the Este of Modena and Reggio . By
9480-547: The imperial dignity over the years, but success finally arrived on 19 March 1452, when Pope Nicholas V crowned Frederick III as the Holy Roman Emperor in a grand ceremony held in Rome. In Frederick III the Pope found an important political ally with whose help he was able to counter the conciliar movement . While in Rome Frederick III married Eleanor of Portugal , enabling him to build a network of connections with dynasties in
9600-502: The increasingly wealthy Italian cities, which gradually came to dominate the surrounding countryside. Upon the death of Emperor Otto III in 1002, one of late Berengar's successors, Margrave Arduin of Ivrea , even succeeded in assuming the Italian crown and in defeating the Imperial forces under Duke Otto I of Carinthia . Not until 1004 could the new German King Henry II of Germany , by the aid of Bishop Leo of Vercelli , move into Italy to have himself crowned rex Italiae . Arduin ranks as
9720-523: The kingdom shared in all the partitions, divisions, civil wars, and succession crises of the Carolingian Empire of which it became a part until, by the end of the ninth century, the Italian kingdom was an independent, but highly decentralised, state. The death of the Emperor Lothair I in 855 led to his realm of Middle Francia being split among his three sons. The eldest, Louis II , inherited
9840-601: The kingdom. An initial phase of strong autonomy of the many constituent duchies developed over time with growing regal authority, even if the dukes' desires for autonomy were never fully achieved. The Lombard kingdom proved to be more stable than its Ostrogothic predecessor, but in 774, on the pretext of defending the Papacy , it was conquered by the Franks under Charlemagne . They kept the Italo-Lombard realm separate from their own, but
9960-512: The last domestic "King of Italy" before the accession of Victor Emmanuel II in 1861. Henry's Salian successor Conrad II tried to confirm his dominion against Archbishop Aribert of Milan and other Italian aristocrats ( seniores ). While besieging Milan in 1037, he issued the Constitutio de feudis in order to secure the support of the vasvassores petty gentry, whose fiefs he declared hereditary. While Conrad stabilised his rule, however,
10080-402: The last of the Spanish line, Charles II , who was severely disabled from birth (perhaps by genetic disorders ), possessed a genome comparable to that of a child born to a brother and sister, as did his father, probably because of 'remote inbreeding '. The death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 led to the War of the Spanish Succession , and that of Emperor Charles VI in 1740 to the War of
10200-581: The members of the House of Habsburg (e.g., Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria ). In 1457 Duke Frederick V of Inner Austria also gained the Austrian archduchy after his Albertine cousin Ladislaus the Posthumous had died without issue. 1490 saw the reunification of all Habsburg lines when Archduke Sigismund of Further Austria and Tyrol resigned in favor of Frederick's son Maximilian I . As emperor, Frederick III took
10320-602: The name of his brother Charles V became suo jure monarch as well as the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor (designated as successor already in 1531 ). Philip became King of Spain and its colonial empire as Philip II , and ruler of the Habsburg domains in Italy and the Low Countries. The Spanish Habsburgs also ruled Portugal for a time, known there as the Philippine dynasty (1580–1640). The Seventeen Provinces and
10440-522: The number of competing states. The next forty years were relatively peaceful in Italy, but in 1494 the peninsula was invaded by France . After the Imperial Reform of 1495–1512, the Italian kingdom corresponded to the unencircled territories south of the Alps. Juridically the emperor maintained an interest in them as nominal king and overlord, but the "government" of the kingdom consisted of little more than
10560-551: The only one to be part of the circle system (being within the Upper Rhenish Circle ; the Habsburg possessions of Trieste and Gorizia-Gradisca were within the Austrian Circle , as was Trent). Thus despite being opposed to the Habsburg family, it still emphasized its imperial privileges to establish itself as suzerain over smaller surrounding lordships. In 1713 the dukes of Savoy also became kings through their holdings outside
10680-511: The original home territories of the Habsburgs in what is now Switzerland, including the Aargau with Habsburg Castle, were lost in the 14th century to the expanding Swiss Confederacy after the battles of Morgarten (1315) and Sempach (1386). Habsburg Castle itself was finally lost to the Swiss in 1415. Rudolf IV 's brothers Albert III and Leopold III ignored his efforts to preserve the integrity of
10800-505: The other hand, remained defiant of Imperial authority despite officially participating in the diet and the duke receiving the title of "Royal Highness" from the Emperor in 1693. The status of Imperial Italy was more or less stable up to 1789. There was even a serious push by the Savoyards (backed by Prussia ) to raise Savoy to electorate status in 1788, which would make it only the second non-German state to become so (after Bohemia , which
10920-457: The plenipotentiaries the emperor appointed to represent him and those governors he appointed to rule his own Italian states. The 250 to 300 lesser feudal lords of the Reichsitalien nonetheless frequently appealed to the imperial courts and jurisdiction to settle conflicts with the prominent princes. The Habsburg rule in several parts of Italy continued in various forms but came to an end with
11040-566: The pretext to intervene in Italian affairs. Furthermore, the Imperial rights were notably asserted during the Italian Wars by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (also king of Spain , Naples and archduke of Austria ). He drove the French from Milan after the Battle of Pavia , and prevented an attempt by the Italian princes, with French aid, to reassert their independence in the League of Cognac . His mutinous troops sacked Rome and, coming to terms with
11160-523: The ruler of Austria himself. Frederick himself used just "Duke of Austria", never Archduke , until his death in 1493. The title was first granted to Frederick's younger brother, Albert VI of Austria (died 1463), who used it at least from 1458. In 1477, Frederick granted the title archduke to his first cousin Sigismund of Austria , ruler of Further Austria . Frederick's son and heir, the future Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor , apparently only started to use
11280-671: The smaller ones were known as "Feuda Minora". Italian princes did not send representatives to the Imperial Diet , but their forces also joined the Imperial Army , as in the case of the Hungarian campaign of Maximilian II against Suleiman the Magnificent in 1566. While they were excluded from the Reichstag, the Italian states were still considered vassals of the emperor, like other states of
11400-486: The so-called "Empire of the Romans" proved stable. Burgundy was added to this union in 1032, and by the twelfth century the term "Holy Roman Empire" had come into use to describe it. The emperor was usually also king of Italy and Germany, although emperors sometimes appointed their heirs to rule in Italy and occasionally the Italian bishops and noblemen elected a king of their own in opposition to that of Germany. The absenteeism of
11520-426: The source] to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." Latin was the administrative language of the Empire until the aggressive promotion of German by Joseph II in the late 18th century, which was partly reversed by his successors. From the 16th century most if not all Habsburgs spoke French as well as German and many also spoke Italian. Ferdinand I , Maximilian II and Rudolf II addressed
11640-570: The south. In June 774, the kingdom collapsed and the Franks became masters of northern Italy. The southern areas remained under Lombard control, as the Duchy of Benevento was changed into the independent Principality of Benevento. Charlemagne called himself king of the Lombards and in 800 was crowned emperor in Rome. Members of the Carolingian dynasty continued to rule Italy until the deposition of Charles
11760-573: The territories that made up the Kingdom of Italy. The imperial reorganization carried out in 1799–1803 left no room for Imperial claims to Italy – even the Archbishop of Cologne was gone, secularized along with the other ecclesiastical princes. Napoleon's victory in the War of the Second Coalition saw this reconfirmed in the Treaty of Lunéville . In 1805, while the Holy Roman Empire was still in existence, Napoleon, by now Emperor Napoleon I, claimed
11880-465: The throne and accepted the status of private citizens. Charles made several attempts to regain the throne of Hungary , and in 1921 the Hungarian government passed a law that revoked Charles' rights and dethroned the Habsburgs, although Hungary remained a kingdom, albeit without a king, until 1946. The Habsburgs did not formally abandon all hope of returning to power until Otto von Habsburg , the eldest son of Charles I, on 31 May 1961 renounced all claims to
12000-471: The throne. In the interwar period, the House of Habsburg was a vehement opponent of Nazism and Communism . In Germany, Adolf Hitler diametrically opposed the centuries-old Habsburg principles of largely allowing local communities under their rule to maintain traditional ethnic, religious and language practices, and he bristled with hatred against the Habsburg family. During the Second World War there
12120-480: The title after the death of his wife Mary of Burgundy in 1482, as Archduke never appears in documents issued jointly by Maximilian and Mary as rulers in the Low Countries (where Maximilian is still titled "Duke of Austria"). The title appears first in documents issued under the joint rule of Maximilian and Philip (his under-age son) in the Low Countries. Archduke was initially borne by those dynasts who ruled
12240-507: The title of Archduke to place the Habsburgs on a par with the Prince-electors of the Empire, since Emperor Charles IV had omitted to give them the electoral dignity in his Golden Bull of 1356 . Charles, however, refused to recognize the title, as did his immediate successors. Duke Ernest the Iron and his descendants unilaterally assumed the title "archduke". That title was only officially recognized in 1453 by Emperor Frederick III ,
12360-411: The varieties of the different dialects and languages" and that "since they are expected in all likelihood to have naturally acquired the German language, and to have been taught it from their infancy, [they] shall be instructed in the grammar of the Italian and Slavic tongues, beginning with the seventh year of their age so that, before the fourteenth year of their age, they may be learned in the same". In
12480-401: The wedding was formally completed in 1521. Vladislaus died on 13 March 1516, and Maximilian on 12 January 1519, but the latter's designs were ultimately successful: on Louis's death in battle in 1526 Ferdinand became king of Bohemia and Hungary. The Habsburg dynasty achieved its highest position when Charles V was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1519. Much of Charles's reign was dedicated to
12600-489: The west and southeast of Europe. Frederick was rather distant to his family; Eleanor, by contrast, had a great influence on the raising and education of Frederick's children and therefore played an important role in the family's rise to prominence. After Frederick III's coronation the Habsburgs were able to hold the imperial throne almost continuously until 1806. Through the forged document called privilegium maius (1358/59), Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria (1339–1365) introduced
12720-510: The western Habsburg lands in Alsace and Swabia . By marrying Elisabeth of Luxembourg , the daughter of Emperor Sigismund , in 1437 Duke Albert V of the Albertine line (1397–1439) became the ruler of Bohemia and Hungary, again expanding the family's political horizons. The next year Albert was crowned King of the Romans , known as such as Albert II . Following his early death in a battle against
12840-671: Was Pavia until the 11th century. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and the brief rule of Odoacer , Italy was ruled by the Ostrogoths and later the Lombards . In 773, Charlemagne , the king of the Franks , crossed the Alps and invaded the Lombard kingdom , which encompassed all of Italy except the Duchy of Rome , the Republic of Venice and the Byzantine possessions in
12960-464: Was a cadet branch of the female line of the House of Habsburg and the male line of the House of Lorraine . On 6 August 1806, Emperor Francis I dissolved the Holy Roman Empire under pressure from Napoleon 's reorganization of Germany . In anticipation of the loss of his title of Holy Roman Emperor, Francis had declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria (as Francis I) on 11 August 1804, three months after Napoleon had declared himself Emperor of
13080-648: Was a native speaker of French and also knew Dutch from his youth in Flanders . He later added some Castilian Spanish , which he was required to learn by the Castilian Cortes Generales . He could also speak some Basque , acquired by the influence of the Basque secretaries serving in the royal court. He gained a decent command of German following the Imperial election of 1519. A witticism sometimes attributed to Charles was: "I speak Spanish/Latin [depending on
13200-752: Was a strong Habsburg resistance movement in Central Europe, which was radically persecuted by the Nazis and the Gestapo . The unofficial leader of these groups was Otto von Habsburg, who campaigned against the Nazis and for a free Central Europe in France and the United States . Most of the resistance fighters, such as Heinrich Maier , who successfully passed on production sites and plans for V-2 rockets , Tiger tanks and aircraft to
13320-605: Was after the crushing of Bohemian estates in 1620 dominated by German-speaking aristocrats). This came to nothing as the French Revolution of 1789 would quickly shatter the old order. During the French Revolutionary Wars , the Austrians were driven from Italy by Napoleon , who set up republics throughout northern Italy, and by the Treaty of Campo Formio of 1797, Emperor Francis II relinquished any claims over
13440-455: Was also recognized by the Pope owing to changes in political alliances. This had the consequence of the Roman king automatically becoming emperor without needing the Pope's consent. Emperor Charles V would be the last to be crowned by the Pope himself, at Bologna in 1530. Maximilian's rule (1493–1519) was a time of dramatic expansion for the Habsburgs. In 1497, Maximilian's son Philip , known as
13560-529: Was elected King of the Romans . Taking advantage of the extinction of the Babenbergs and of his victory over Ottokar II of Bohemia at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, he appointed his sons as Dukes of Austria and moved the family's power base to Vienna , where the Habsburg dynasty gained the name of "House of Austria" and ruled until 1918. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by
13680-482: Was initially disputed among the Carolingian rulers of West Francia ( France ) and East Francia ( Germany ), with first the western king ( Charles the Bald ) and then the eastern ( Charles the Fat ) attaining the prize. Following the deposition of the latter, local nobles – Guy III of Spoleto and Berengar of Friuli – disputed over the crown, and outside intervention did not cease, with Arnulf of Eastern Francia and Louis
13800-547: Was invested with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany by Imperial diploma; a similar use of Imperial rights allowed the Habsburgs to assert sovereignty over the Duchy of Parma between 1735 and 1748, although this caused a dispute with the Papacy, which claimed it as a Papal fief . Emperor Leopold I increasingly asserted his rights over the imperial fiefdoms of Italy from the 1660s with the decline of Spanish power and more overt intervention of
13920-411: Was kept under confinement. The foundations for the later empire of Austria-Hungary were laid in 1515 by a double wedding between Louis , only son of Vladislaus II, King of Bohemia and Hungary , and Maximilian's granddaughter Mary and between her brother Archduke Ferdinand and Louis's sister Anna . The wedding was celebrated in grand style on 22 July 1515. All these children were still minors, so
14040-402: Was killed in the fighting. Ostrogothic power in Italy was eliminated, but according to Roman historian Procopius of Caesarea , Narses allowed the Ostrogothic population and their Rugian allies to live peacefully in Italy under Roman sovereignty. The absence of any real authority in Italy immediately after the battle led to an invasion by the Franks and Alemanni , but they too were defeated in
14160-469: Was known in his youth after his birthplace as Charles of Ghent . When he became king of Spain he was known as Charles of Spain, and after he was elected emperor, as Charles V (in French, Charles Quint ). In Spain, the dynasty was known as the Casa de Austria , including illegitimate sons such as John of Austria and John Joseph of Austria . The arms displayed in their simplest form were those of Austria, which
14280-399: Was proclaimed the new King of Germany , as Maximilian I . Maximilian was initially unable to travel to Rome to receive the Imperial title from the Pope, owing to opposition from Venice and from the French who were occupying Milan , as well a refusal from the Pope owing to enemy forces being present on his territory. In 1508, Maximilian proclaimed himself to be the 'chosen Emperor', and this
14400-517: Was similar to that which had occurred between Pope Gregory VII and Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor at Canossa a century earlier. The conflict was the same as that resolved in the Concordat of Worms : Did the Holy Roman Emperor have the power to name the pope and bishops? The Investiture controversy from previous centuries had been brought to a tendentious peace with the Concordat of Worms and affirmed in
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