Hello and welcome to the History of the Germans – Season 11: the Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg.

Tu Felix Austria Nube, ‘Let others wage war: thou, happy Austria, marry’. Is that really it? Did this family acquire an empire where the sun never sets through just luck and longevity?

If indeed that is all it was, it was an extraordinarily successful strategy. Let me read you a probably incomplete list of modern countries that at one point or another had been ruled by members of the House of Habsburg:

In alphabetical order:

Argentina

Austria

Belgium

Bolivia

Bosnia-Hercegovina

Brazil

Chile,

Colombia,

Costa Rica

Croatia

Cuba

Czechia

Ecuador

El Salvador

Guatemala

Holy Roman Empire

Honduras

Hungary

Large parts of Italy, Poland and Ukraine

Mexico

Netherlands

Nicaragua

Panama

Paraguay,

Peru

Philippines

Portugal

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Switzerland

Uruguay, and

Venezuela

Technically I could have added England on the list, though 4 years is a bit too short a time period to count.

Seriously, do we really believe all that could be gained by marrying the right girl or boy and then surviving for long enough to scoop up what better men and women had been fighting over?

Plus, acquiring an empire is one thing, holding on to it is the really difficult bit. The British empire lasted roughly 200 years, the Julio-Claudians controlled the Roman Empire for a bit over 100 years, same as the Tudors, Napoleon managed just 16. The Habsburgs, depending where one puts the starting point, kept a seat at the top table for at least 400 years.

And whilst they had their fair share of exceptional rulers, Rudolf I, Maximilian, Charles V and Maria Theresia, the majority of the Habsburgs who sat on European thrones ranged from mediocre to outright inept.

These rather average men and women ruled lands where people spoke:

Borsnian

Croatian

Czech

Dutch

French

German -sort of

Hungarian

Italian

Polish

Portuguese

Serbian

Slovak

Spanish

Tagalog

And Vorarlbergisch

If their subjects had one cultural thing in common, it was that they were catholic. But that was more a function of the Habsburg rule rather than Habsburg rule being a function of the catholic faith of their subjects.

So, could that be held together through sheer inertia? Me thinks not.

The Habsburgs weren’t the first nor were they the last European dynasty that was presented with tremendous opportunities to seize crowns. And where some charismatic and competent founder of a dynasty managed to amass a vast range of territory, the kids usually messed things up pretty quick. Just think about the RPM of poor emperor Karl IV in his grave when he thinks about his sons Wenceslaus and Sigismund.

So, there must be something about this family that set them apart. There are many myths about the Habsburgs, some recent, some very old, some created by writers and acolytes, other outright forgeries from their chancery. Such stories can become immensely powerful and hold a people in thrall of their leaders. And they certainly drank their own cool aid going through life convinced of their own exceptionalism. But is that it, just a bunch of stories and a completely bonkers family motto? That motto is by the way A.E.I.O.U. which has dozen of interpretations, all boiling down to “we are very special”.

I have a strong suspicion that the answer to this question lies in the 200 year long period between the murder of king Albrecht I in 1308 and the election of Emperor Charles V in 1519, the time we want to cover in this season.

For most of that period the Habsburgs had been languishing in the wilderness. They experienced defeats, divisions and humiliations, were even expelled from their duchy of Austria just before they rose meteorically to world leadership under Maximilian and Charles V. Something must have happened in this period that forged them into the most successful European dynasty. As they say in the music industry, every overnight success was years in the making”.

That is why this season is called “The Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg” and is dedicated to the question, what made the Habsburgs so special. If I have learned one thing in 4 years and 10 seasons of doing this show, it is that I know nothing. It is always a journey where I start with a skeleton of the story I want to tell, and every time I dig deeper into each episode, I find things that change my initial perception.

So, we will kick off next week with our usual recap episode where we go back to king Rudolf of Habsburgs election in 1273, the murderer John Parricida, Frederick the Handsome and trace the family up to Albrecht the Wise.

The following episode will take a deep dive into Rudolf called “the Founder”, who should rather be called Rudolf the Forger. His fake Privilegium Magnus created not just a truly fantastical family history that pulled in Julius Caesar and Nero, Norix the son of Hercules and a bunch of medieval worthies that lent these nouveau riches from Switzerland a pedigree no other dynasty could match.

After that we will go to the battle of Sempach where archduke Leopold III lost his land and life, whilst giving birth to a new nation. After that, we will see. As I said, I only have a skeleton so far. You will definitely meet Frederick III the imperial arch-sleepy head, who was maybe more awake than he is given credit for, Maximilian I, the Last Knight, PR genius and marriage expert and finally Charles V, in whose empire the sun never set.

And we will meet some of our favorite figures from previous seasons again, Jakob Fugger, the Wittelsbachs, Margarete Maultasch, emperor Sigismund as well as the big changes, the printing press and what can be done with it, the universities and renaissance art.

I hope you will come along for the ride. Episodes drop every Thursday at 05.00 UK time, starting on the 21st of August.