A thousand years, in eight pieces
History
From a ridge above the Aare to a family living now
Read it straight through and it is one story. Read it in periods and it is eight different families, each of which would have found the next one unrecognisable. Take whichever route suits you — the periods are below, and the continuous account follows them.
to 1020
Before the castle
Where a family comes from when the records run out — and why we say so plainly.
1020 – 1273
The castle and the county
Two and a half centuries of being nobody in particular. The normal condition of the house.
1273 – 1438
Kings of the Romans
A crown in the west, a country in the east, and a homeland lost in between.
1438 – 1519
The Burgundian inheritance
Two marriages, eighty years, and half of Europe. Everything here runs through this.
1519 – 1558
The empire that could not be governed
Forty years of holding together something too large to hold — and then stopping.
1556 – 1700
Spain, the Netherlands and the parting
The half of the house this family comes from, and the year the histories stop following it.
1578 – 1900
The Quiet Centuries
Five hundred years in the Low Countries, and nobody watching.
1740 –
The Habsburg-Lorraine line
The Austrian thread, covered in outline and with respect. Two threads, one ancient name.
The whole span, in one read
Below this note the continuous account runs from the tenth century to the present day, without stopping for period breaks. It covers the same ground as the eight pages above and is meant to be read rather than browsed.
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