Eduard Habsburg is Hungary’s Ambassador to the Holy See and the Sovereign Order of Malta and a scion of the Imperial House of Habsburg, one of the principal sovereign dynasties of Europe from the 13th to the 20th centuries. This is a sweeping history of his family, whose first recorded traces predate 1000 and who later began to rise to prominence as a family of counts living around the Lenan Lake, near the south-western corner of Germany and bordering both France and Switzerland.
They even held territories in what is now the United States: the first governor of Texas was installed in 1691 by the Spanish Habsburgs, and the territory of several states was originally part of Habsburg family lands.
Habsburg writes affectionately but candidly in this sweeping history about the saints (including Blessed Karl of Austria, the last Emperor) and sinners who have populated his storied family across the generations. Along the way he lays out and expounds upon seven rules that have served the family well.
1. Get married and have lots of children
From around 1500 the Habsburgs expanded their possessions almost entirely by marriage politics. One of the most famous sayings about the Habsburgs is bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube (Others may lead wars, you, happy Austria, get married). At times this has led to inbreeding and genetic defects, but on the whole the Habsburg marriages have been successful.
2. Be Catholic and practise your Faith
The Habsburgs have remained faithful Catholics even when for political reasons, as during the Reformation, the heads of the fam-ily have wavered. Ferdinand II and his wife, Maria Anna of Bavaria, established Loreto Chapels honouring Our Lady all across Habs-burg lands. Catholic observance reached its apogee under Leopold I, who heard no fewer than three Masses every day and presided over thousands of ceremonies and processions during his reign.
3. Believe in the Empire and in subsidiarity
This seemingly paradoxical injunction holds that the Habsburgs supported the concept of Empire while simultaneously practising subsidiarity – the practice of resolving issues at the lowest possible level, an important principle in the age of totalitarianism and even lesser (but still power-obsessed) nanny states.
4. Stand for law and justice
Simply summarised, this meant to the Habsburgs putting their own interests and preferences second and those of their subjects first.
5. Know who you are and live accordingly
Otto Habsburg, the author’s uncle and the son of Blessed Karl, was a brilliant orator who liked to say: “Those who do not know where they come from do not know where they are going, because they do not know where they stand.” Knowing who you are, writes Habsburg, “gives you the sovereignty to follow the truth about yourself and about God.”
6. Be brave in battle
Habsburg recounts his ancestors’ exploits in the Battles of Lepanto and Vienna and against Napoleon, exhorting his readers “to be brave in all our battles, in whatever form life (or God) presents them”.
7. Die well and have a memorable funeral
Habsburg concludes his rules with an account of the “Habsburg Ritual” in which a Habsburg’s mortal remains, as has been done for four centuries, are brought into the Neuer Markt Square near the Habsburg Palace in Vienna, stopping in front of the entrance to the Capuchin crypt, the Kapuzinergruft.
A huge crowd watches as the Master of Ceremonies knocks three times on the door. “Who desires entry?” a Capuchin friar calls from within.
The Master of Ceremonies recites the deceased’s many titles and honours, and the friar responds: “We do not know him.” Then the Master of Ceremonies knocks three times again, and, when asked who desires entry, recites all the deceased’s achievements and good deeds. Again, the friar responds: “We do not know him.”
Finally, the Master of Ceremonies knocks three times again and, when asked who desires entry, responds: “A sinful and mortal man.” The friar then responds: “Then let him come in,” and the crypt door slowly opens.
Recently Blessed Karl’s great-grandson, Ferdinand, a Formula 1 racing driver, was profiled in the New York Times. Upon his father Otto’s death he will oversee the Order of the Golden Fleece, an order of chivalry founded in 1430 which includes several heads of state and meets once a year to discuss the world’s important issues.
The hundreds of Habsburgs living today remain in touch via a WhatsApp group.
True to family tradition, Ferdinand is an active member of the John Paul II Centre in Vienna, a Catholic community striving to make holy places accessible to the young in an increasingly secular age. In this way, today Ferdinand, Eduard and the entire Habsburg family, though stripped of temporal power, continue in their ongoing, centuries-old efforts to heal a troubled world.
Jamie MacGuire is the Herald’s US managing editor.
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