Curated playlist
House of Habsburg-Lorraine
- Francis II, Holy Roman EmperorOn the 6th of August 1806, a Habsburg monarch signed away a thousand years of European tradition. Francis II declared the bond tying him to the states of the Empire dissolved, and with that sentence the Holy Roman Empire of the German…
- Marie Louise, Duchess of ParmaMarie Louise of Austria was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna on the 12th of December 1791, the eldest child of a man who would soon hold the titles of both Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria. She grew up speaking six languages,…
- Austrian EmpireThe Austrian Empire began with a stroke of the pen in 1804, when Holy Roman Emperor Francis II declared himself Emperor of Austria, creating an entirely new state out of thin air. He did it because he was afraid: Napoleon had just…
- Maximilian I of MexicoMaximilian I of Mexico stood before a Republican firing squad on the Cerro de las Campanas on the 19th of June 1867 and handed each of his executioners a gold coin. It was a gesture of courtly European dignity from a man who had crossed an…
- Joseph II, Holy Roman EmperorOn the night of the 19th to the 20th of February 1790, Joseph II slept for a few hours, helped along by painkillers. At five in the morning he woke and asked for his confessor. Five minutes later he was dead, just shy of forty-nine years…
- Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette stepped down from an open cart in the Place de la Revolution on the 16th of October 1793. She trod on her executioner's shoe and apologized: "Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose." Minutes later she was beheaded by…
- Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary was, for roughly half a century, the second-largest country in Europe by area, surpassed only by Russia. From 1867 to 1918, it held together a patchwork of a dozen or more distinct peoples under a single emperor who wore…
- Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-EsteFerdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, was born on the 1st of June 1754 at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, the fourteenth child of Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and Maria Theresa of Austria. His story is one of grand inheritances deferred,…
- Otto von HabsburgOtto von Habsburg was born on the 20th of November 1912 at Villa Wartholz in Reichenau an der Rax, at a moment when Austria-Hungary still stood as one of the great empires of Europe. His full baptismal name ran to twenty-two words: Franz…
- Archduke Charles, Duke of TeschenArchduke Charles of Austria was the man Arthur Wellesley named the greatest general of his time. That verdict carries real weight, coming from a commander who would go on to defeat Napoleon himself. Charles was the third son of Emperor…
- Duchy of MilanThe Duchy of Milan came into being on the 11th of May 1395, when a single document signed in Prague changed the shape of Northern Italy forever. Wenceslaus of Bohemia put his name to a diploma that handed Gian Galeazzo Visconti the title…