Austria-Hungary and the Habsburgs

THERE is, in reality, no collective title for the agglomeration of territories called Austria-Hungary. The House of Habsburg is merely the connecting link between many distinct parts, not only by virtue of conquest or annexation, but also by inheritance and by the right of long possession. It has to be clearly understood that the fact of mutual dislikes among the various peoples of Austria-Hungary does not necessarily impair their loyalty to the house which has stood for so long a period as the acknowledged representative to each of the kingly power, the keystone of the social and political system, not only of the whole realm, but of each separate part of it. To understand the growth of this Habsburg realm, it is necessary to trace its connection with the old Holy Roman Empire and the modern German one, and also to briefly recall the histories, not only of the two kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, but that of the archduchy of Austria. None of these territories were originally the appanages of the Habsburgs, but to-day they and their dependencies form together the so-distant empire over which that family rules. 


The beginnings of the Habsburgs were small. Their family took its name from a castle on the Aar, in southern Swabia, now included in the Swiss republic. From a romantic legend this castle, built by the Bishop of Strasburg, in 1027, was called Habichtsburg, "hawk castle." To-day the cradle of the greatest imperial line is fallen into decay. In the wars of Swiss independence, in 1386- 1474, it was partially destroyed, and, although offers have been made to the Swiss to buy and restore it to the Habsburgs, they have not been accepted, for with it is bound up the proud history of the successful revolt of the confederated cantons against their overlords. Part of the castle is in ruins and other parts are now a stable and an inn. The Counts of Habsburg trace their origin back to a count of Upper Alsace in the tenth century, and even, with less certainty, to Gontran, Duke of Alsace and Lorraine, in the seventh century. Their Swabian dominions were, however, divided from Alsace by the free territory of the city of Basel. In time the marriages of the Habsburg Counts (the first sign of the successful matrimonial policy of later years) united their lands with those of the Counts of Kyburg and Lenzburg, and gave them a long and scattered domain lying in and out of the Swiss mountains and valleys, taking in Lucerne and including the cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The free city of Zurich formed a thorn in their sides, and the independence so often characteristic of mountain peoples caused the inhabitants of this region to begin very early their agitation for self-government. 


It is, therefore, as simple German counts, with scattered and not too wealthy domains and far from peaceable subjects, that we first find the Habsburgs, and this was their condition in the thirteenth century, when Rudolf, Count of Habsburg, was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. It is necessary, in order to understand the full meaning of this promotion, to go back to the time of Charlemagne and briefly describe the foundation and evolution of the Holy Roman Empire...