The Habsburgs: To Rule the World

by Martyn Rady

Overview

“A feat of both scholarship and storytelling” (Wall Street Journal)—the definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries. 
 
In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built—and then lost—over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs gained control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe, stretching from Hungary to Spain, and parts of the New World and the Far East. The Habsburgs dominated Central Europe through the First World War.  
 
Historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle empire. But Rady reveals their enduring power, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace, and patrons of learning. This is the remarkable history of a dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541644519
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	05/10/2022
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	208,165
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Martyn Rady is Masaryk professor of Central European history at University College London. A leading expert on Central Europe, he is the author of The Habsburg Empire: A Very Short Introduction, The Emperor Charles V, and other books on Hungarian and Romanian history. He lives in Kent, UK. 

Table of Contents

List of Maps ix

The Habsburg Family Tree xi

A Note on Names xvii

Introduction: An Emperor's Library 1

1 Castle Habsburg and the 'Fortinbras Effect' 11

2 The Holy Roman Empire and the Golden King 21

3 Losing Place and Forging a Past 31

4 Frederick III: Saturn and Mars 41

5 Maximilian and the Colour-Coded Kings 51

6 Charles V: Ruler of the World 63

7 Hungary, Bohemia, and the Protestant Challenge 75

8 Philip II: The New World, Religious Dissent, and Royal Incest 85

9 Don John and the Galleys of Lepanto 97

10 Rudolf II and the Alchemists of Prague 107

11 The Triumph of the Heretics 117

12 Ferdinand II, the Holy House, and Bohemia 127

13 The Thirty Years 'World War' 137

14 The Abnormal Empire and the Battle for Vienna 147

15 Spain's Invisible Sovereigns and the Death of the Bewitched King 159

16 The Theatre of the Baroque 169

17 Maria Theresa, Automata, and Bureaucrats 179

18 Merchants, Botanists, and Freemasons 189

19 Vampirism, Enlightenment, and the Revolution from Above 199

20 Archduchesses and the Habsburg Low Countries 209

21 Censors, Jacobins, and The Magic Flute 219

22 Metternich and the Map of Europe 229

23 1848: Von Neumann's Diary and Radetzky's March 243

24 Franz Joseph's Empire, Sisi, and Hungary 255

25 Maximilian, Mexico, and Royal Deaths 269

26 The Politics of Discontent and the 1908 Jubilee 279

27 Explorers, Jews, and the World's Knowledge 291

28 The Hunter and the Hunted: Franz Ferdinand and Bosnia 301

29 World War and Dissolution 313

Conclusion 325

Acknowledgments 331

Credits for Illustrations 333

Abbreviations 335

Further Reading 337

Notes 345

Index 377

Editorial Reviews

03/30/2020

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)

Publishers Weekly

"A feat of both scholarship and storytelling.... It's not hard to see current parallels to this story.... In an era of schisms, America needs a unifying idea of itself as something greater than the sum of its parts. If the Habsburgs could last for a millennium, surely a constitutional republic can."—Wall Street Journal

“Glory, grief, loss – and incest – are all covered in this panoramic account that makes more sense of the great European dynasty than its rulers often did.”—The Guardian

"Martyn Rady's history of this peculiar family is deeply informed, elegantly written and a joy to read."—Evening Standard (UK)

"Rady is a lucid and elegant writer... It is impossible to imagine a more erudite and incisive history of this fascinating, flawed and ultimately tragic dynasty."—The Times (UK)

"A Rolls Royce of a narrative that motors through ten centuries of history with an effortlessness that belies the intellectual horsepower beneath the bonnet."—Literary Review (UK)

"Probably the best book ever written on the Habsburgs in any language.... Lucid, comprehensive and witty, it is not merely a pleasure to read but a complete education. Students, scholars and the general reader will never find a better guide to Habsburg history."—Times Literary Supplement (UK)

"This admirably compact, exceptionally well-written survey will probably be the standard one-volume history of the Habsburg dynasty for years to come."—Library Journal

"This comprehensive account provides an insightful overview of seven centuries of European history."—Publishers Weekly

"A sweeping chronicle of the rise and fall of the Habsburg dynasty."—Kirkus

"The Habsburgs is gripping, colorful, and dramatic but also concise, scholarly, and magisterial. Martyn Rady recounts the story of Europe's greatest dynasty that ruled an empire, on which the sun never set, from Peru to the Philippines. Revealing a key player in world history for almost a thousand years, The Habsburgs is a chronicle of high politics and family intimacy involving religion, murder, incest, madness, suicide, assassination. History on an epic scale!"—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs

"The Habsburgs were once Europe's foremost royal family. Rady tells their story with verve and authority, casting a curious eye over their eccentricities and peccadilloes while all the time revealing their extraordinary influence and global vision. A fascinating read!"—Alexander Watson, author of The Fortress: The Siege of Przemysl and the Making of Europe's Bloodlands

"This is a first global history of Europe's most famous and durable dynasty, chronicling its exploits with great panache over nearly a millennium of rule across wide swathes of the continent and beyond. Martyn Rady writes incisively and judiciously, drawing on much recent international scholarship in a range of languages to illustrate multiple facets of Habsburg governance in theory and practice. At the same time his text is accessible and entertaining, his ready wit providing a delectable counterpoint to the notorious humourlessness of so many of the dynasts he examines."—Robert Evans, University of Oxford

"A tour de force. Thorough, accessible and resolutely erudite, this is the volume that this vitally important subject so desperately needed. Rady should be congratulated."—Roger Moorhouse, author of Poland 1939

"Martyn Rady has written a splendid account of the grandest old dynasty of Europe: the Habsburgs. Including vampires, an empress's waist size, and cocaine-laced health drinks, Rady's narrative glitters with apt quotes and telling, often ironic details."—Steven Beller, author of The Habsburg Monarchy 1815-1918

From the Publisher

03/01/2020

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

Library Journal

The centuries fly by in this fine audiobook history of the Habsburg family. Rady’s evenhanded story is enhanced by narrator Simon Bowie’s steady, well-paced delivery. Bowie is a new voice to audiobook listeners, an ideal voice for comprehensive histories like this one, which is elegant but unaffected, mellow but brisk. The story is Europe’s own, one of war, revolution, and endless shifts in borders. The Habsburg rise in the 1200s, derived from advantageous marriages and a “Fortinbras factor” of inheritance as Central Europe’s warring families wiped each other out. Later Habsburgs married mostly other Habsburgs, at great cost to themselves and all of Europe. Several very good comprehensive audiobook histories of the Habsburgs already exist, but few match this one for fairness, clarity, and insight. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

The centuries fly by in this fine audiobook history of the Habsburg family. Rady’s evenhanded story is enhanced by narrator Simon Bowie’s steady, well-paced delivery. Bowie is a new voice to audiobook listeners, an ideal voice for comprehensive histories like this one, which is elegant but unaffected, mellow but brisk. The story is Europe’s own, one of war, revolution, and endless shifts in borders. The Habsburg rise in the 1200s, derived from advantageous marriages and a “Fortinbras factor” of inheritance as Central Europe’s warring families wiped each other out. Later Habsburgs married mostly other Habsburgs, at great cost to themselves and all of Europe. Several very good comprehensive audiobook histories of the Habsburgs already exist, but few match this one for fairness, clarity, and insight. D.A.W. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

JULY 2020 - AudioFile

2020-01-16
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.

Kirkus Reviews