“Let them eat cake!” -Marie Antoinette
Wait, yes you are correct. This was decades after the renaissance period. Additionally it is now believed that the statement “Let them eat cake!” was never uttered by The Queen of France at all but rather an ancestor of hers. Where did the Habsburg Austrian Princess and later Queen of France come from? Her pedigree is a long one.
The Habsburgs were a family force to be reckoned with for centuries. The Habsburg (some times spelled Hapsburg) name surfaced with Radbot of Klettgau. Radbot was born cir. 985 AD. He built the Habsburg. The Habsburg, also called the Swiss Habichtsburg, is translated to mean Hawk Castle. Radbot died in 1035 AD, at age 50.
The sons of Radbot were Counts and the first to hold the name Hapsburg, a name that would span centuries of royal courts throughout the European continent.
September 29, 1273 the Habsburgs became descendants of Kings when Rudolph I was elected German King by the Princes of the realm.
By the 14th century the European world was entering its renaissance era and the Hapsburgs were continuing their insertion to the royal courts. Frederick III of Habsburg made connections by taking as his bride Eleanor of Portugal in 1452.
While Christopher Columbus was sailing the ocean blue another generation of Hapsburgs were making the family a European power house. Maximilian I of Austria was not only a German King but the Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death in 1519. Maximilian married Mary of Burgundy for the Netherlands and married his son Philip to Spain while continually making many land acquisitions.
Through Philip I the Handsome, also known as Felipe I of Castillas, Charles V continued the Habsburg monopoly on Europe. Charles V’s lands far surpassed the vastness of the realm of Frankish emperor Charlemagne. So much power and responsibility took its toll on Charles V. He resigned his reins and took to the monastery at San Jeronimo in 1558 where he died later that year.
The Hapsburgs also had their finger on the pulse of England. Queen Mary Tudor of England was married to Philip II Hapsburg who became the King of Spain. In 1559 Elizabeth Tudor was crowned Queen of England upon Mary’s death. Elizabeth was surrounded by Hapsburgs but they had lost their claim to England with the childless Mary’s death.
England may not have remained in the grips of the family but they were far from out of the Royal scene. For centuries this family kept their finger in nearly every royal family pot. The 17th century saw the end of the renaissance era and the dawn of a new one but it did not see the end of the Hapsburg royal legacy.
Flag of the Imperial Habsburg Dynasty, circa 1700
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