The Habsburgs : to rule the world

The Habsburgs To rule the world

Martyn Rady, 1955-

Book - 2020

"Habsburgs ruled much of Europe for centuries. From modest origins as minor German nobles, the family used fabricated documents, invented genealogies, savvy marriages, and military conquest on their improbable ascent, becoming the continent's most powerful dynasty. By the mid-fifteenth century, the Habsburgs gained controlled of the Holy Roman Empire, and by the early sixteenth century, their lands stretched across the continent and far beyond it. But in 1918, at the end of the Great War, the final remnant of their empire was gone. In The Habsburgs, historian Martyn Rady tells the epic story of the Habsburg dynasty and the world it built -- and then lost -- over nearly a millennium, placing it in its European and global contexts. ...Beginning in the Middle Ages, the Habsburgs expanded from Swabia across southern Germany to Austria through forgery and good fortune. By the time a Habsburg duke was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in 1452, he and his clan already held fast to the imperial vision distilled in its AEIOU motto: Austriae est imperare orbi universe, "Austria is destined to rule the world." Maintaining their grip on the imperial succession of the Holy Roman Empire for centuries, the Habsburgs extended their power into Italy, Spain, the New World, and the Pacific, a dominion that Charles V called "the empire on which the sun never sets." They then weathered centuries of religious warfare, revolution, and transformation, including the loss of their Spanish empire in 1700 and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. In 1867, the Habsburgs fatefully consolidated their remaining lands the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, setting in motion a chain of events that would end with the 1914 assassination of the Habsburg heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, World War I, and the end of the Habsburg era. Their demise was ignominious, and historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle, collapsing empire at Europe's margins. But in The Habsburgs, Rady reveals how they saw themselves -- as destined to rule the world, not through mere territorial conquest, but as defenders of Christian civilization and the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace and harmony, and patrons of science and learning. Lively and authoritative, The Habsburgs is the engrossing definitive history of the remarkable dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world."--

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Subjects
Habsburg, House of.
Austria > Kings and rulers.
Austria > History.
Europe > History.
Published
New York, NY : Basic Books, Hachette Book Group 2020.
Language
English
Main Author
Martyn Rady, 1955- (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xvii, 397 pages, 16 pages of unnumbered plates : illustrations (chiefly color), genealogical table ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 337-375) and index.
ISBN
9781541644502
  • List of Maps
  • The Habsburg Family Tree
  • A Note on Names
  • Introduction: An Emperor's Library
  • 1. Castle Habsburg and the 'Fortinbras Effect'
  • 2. The Holy Roman Empire and the Golden King
  • 3. Losing Place and Forging a Past
  • 4. Frederick III: Saturn and Mars
  • 5. Maximilian and the Colour-Coded Kings
  • 6. Charles V: Ruler of the World
  • 7. Hungary, Bohemia, and the Protestant Challenge
  • 8. Philip II: The New World, Religious Dissent, and Royal Incest
  • 9. Don John and the Galleys of Lepanto
  • 10. Rudolf II and the Alchemists of Prague
  • 11. The Triumph of the Heretics
  • 12. Ferdinand II, the Holy House, and Bohemia
  • 13. The Thirty Years 'World War'
  • 14. The Abnormal Empire and the Battle for Vienna
  • 15. Spain's Invisible Sovereigns and the Death of the Bewitched King
  • 16. The Theatre of the Baroque
  • 17. Maria Theresa, Automata, and Bureaucrats
  • 18. Merchants, Botanists, and Freemasons
  • 19. Vampirism, Enlightenment, and the Revolution from Above
  • 20. Archduchesses and the Habsburg Low Countries
  • 21. Censors, Jacobins, and The Magic Flute
  • 22. Metternich and the Map of Europe
  • 23. 1848: Von Neumann's Diary and Radetzky's March
  • 24. Franz Joseph's Empire, Sisi, and Hungary
  • 25. Maximilian, Mexico, and Royal Deaths
  • 26. The Politics of Discontent and the 1908 Jubilee
  • 27. Explorers, Jews, and the World's Knowledge
  • 28. The Hunter and the Hunted: Franz Ferdinand and Bosnia
  • 29. World War and Dissolution
  • Conclusion
  • Acknowledgments
  • Credits for Illustrations
  • Abbreviations
  • Further Reading
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Rady (The Habsburg Empire: A Very Short Introduction), a history professor at University College London, delivers a granular yet accessible survey of the Habsburg Empire's central role in the transformation of Western civilization from the Middle Ages into the modern world. Documenting the political and social contexts behind the reigns of each Habsburg ruler, Rady traces the empire's rise from 13th-century Swabia (now southwestern Germany) to its 16th-century expansion into Spain and southern Italy and its 20th-century collapse. Milestone figures include Philip II of Spain (1527--1598), who controlled colonies in North and South America and Asia; Maria Theresa of Austria (1717--1780), who advanced Enlightenment ideals as she expanded government bureaucracy, mandated schooling for peasant children, and sent medical personnel to investigate rumors of vampirism across central Europe; and Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863--1914), whose assassination by a Yugolsav nationalist sparked WWI. Rady notes how the Habsburgs' ability to consistently produce male heirs (their "genetic good fortune") facilitated territorial expansion, but succumbed to "successive intermarriages" that led to infertility and infant death, contributing to the downfall of the monarchy's Spanish branch. Packed with names, dates, and accounts of little-known wars, Rady's prose is more easily digested in standalone chapters than as a linear narrative. This comprehensive account provides an insightful overview of seven centuries of European history. (May)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

The Habsburgs have suffered at the hands of historians for their treatment of subject populations and because the way they ruled their lands didn't conform to modern notions of state-building. Yet, the dynasty endured for a millennium and was a dominating force in the West for four centuries. Beginning with the Middle Ages and continuing through until the assassination of Habsburg heir presumptive Franz Ferdinand in 1914, this narrative by Rady (Central European History, Univ. Coll. London; The Habsburg Empire) traces the dynasties failures and successes throughout Central Europe. Rady clarifies what the Habsburgs accomplished, as opposed to what they never intended to do; activities that may seem as diversions from state building were an example of a patrimonial yet universalist, deeply Christian view of empire. The author is also astute in explicating the imperial symbolism behind movements like the Baroque, and no one explains the inner dynamics of the Habsburgs better than Rady. VERDICT This admirably compact, exceptionally well-written survey will probably be the standard one-volume history of the Habsburg dynasty for years to come.--David Keymer, Cleveland

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A sweeping chronicle of the rise and fall of the Habsburg dynasty. In this ambitious overview, Rady, a professor of Central European history and author of The Habsburg Empire: A Very Short Introduction (2017), delivers a mostly chronological journey through the Habsburg dynasty from the 13th to the 20th centuries while contextualizing the times in which it flourished and, eventually, faded. Because the empire over which the Habsburgs reigned was enormous ("the Habsburgs were the first rulers whose power encompassed the world"), nonacademic readers may find it difficult to keep track of all the names and dates. Nevertheless, Rady valiantly attempts to give the principals some distinct accomplishments and traits: Maximilian (1459-1519), a self-promoter "who oversaw the composition of three allegorical autobiographies in which he depicted himself as the most chivalric and accomplished of knights," brought Spain into the empire. Charles V, Maximilian's grandson, attempted to outlaw Protestantism and eventually conceded that the Spanish Habsburgs would be split off from the Austrian Habsburgs and ruled respectively by his son Philip and brother Ferdinand while he retired to a monastery. Rudolph (1552-1612), a great art collector, employed Johannes Kepler as his astrologer, and Maria Theresa (1717-1780) instituted schooling for all children, frowned upon alchemy, and banned vampirism, which fascinated the media at the time: There were stories of "the undead feasting on the living, of exhumed bodies oozing with the blood of victims, and of stakings and beheadings." Franz Joseph, whose nephew and heir would be assassinated in 1914, ruled for almost 70 years and created the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Though Rady is quick to acknowledge the Habsburgs' missteps and weaknesses, he concludes that "their legacy survives…as a vision that combined power, destiny, and knowledge, and blended earthly and heavenly realms in a universal enterprise that touched every aspect of humanity's temporal and spiritual experience." A comprehensive and, at times, lively chronicle, but not for casual readers with no prior knowledge of European history. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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