The House of Habsburg

The House of Habsburg (also spelled Hapsburg) were one of the most important royal houses of Europe and they occupied the throne of the Holy Roman Empire from 1438 to 1740.

Their name comes from Habsburg Castle which was built in the 1020s in what is present day Switzerland. Their dynasty gathered momentum throughout the medieval period, and Rudolph of Habsburg moved the family’s base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria in 1276 when he became the ruler of Austria, which the dynasty ruled until 1918.

The Habsburgs extended their power and reach through a series of dynastic marriages and split into two branches in the 16th Century, with the Spanish branch (King Philip III) ruling Spain with its Empire which included the Spanish Netherlands, parts of Upper Italy, Alsace and Burgundy, and the Austrian branch under Archduke Ferdinand II ruling Austria, Bohemia and Hungary.

With the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 the line became extinct and was replaced with the House of Bourbon. The Austrian branch became extinct in 1780 with the death of Maria Theresa of Austria, the only remaining Habsburg. The Austrian branch was succeeded by the House of Lorraine who styled themselves formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, though informally it went on being known as the House of Habsburg.