In 1905 Harold Steinacker published the first volume of the Regesta Habsburgica: a catalogue of every surviving document that mentions the early Habsburgs, with a note on each. It is not a readable book. For anybody writing about the first four generations of this family, it is the book.
We read it this month, from the digitised copy held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. What it gives is the moment each of the first generations steps into a document that still exists.
Radbot, 1023
The family gives 985 as Radbot’s birth year, and this site keeps it as the family’s traditional date. His first appearance in a contemporary record is a diploma of the Emperor Henry II for the abbey of Rheinau, dated 29 October 1023, which describes land lying in comitatu Ratebotonis comitis — in the county of Count Radbot. The original is in the Staatsarchiv at Zurich.
Otto II, 1108
On 29 September 1108, at Pressburg, a charter is witnessed by Otto comes de Havichsberch. It is the first time anybody in this family is called by the name in a document that still exists. He was murdered three years later and buried at Muri.
Werner II, 1129
In January 1129 Werner II witnesses a charter of King Lothar III at Strasbourg as a count, and he is Landgrave by 1135. The site now gives his years as the documents show them: attested 1129 – 1167.
Three documents, three generations, and the name written down for the first time.
House of Habsburg
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