quick guide to this kid's status;
Sep. 4th, 2013 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
herzherzogtumAlright so
this kid was born in 976 when Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (then 'King of the Germans' or similar- his father Otto I was the first HRE if we disregard Charlemagne and his succession b/c it wasn't hammered out properly then) gave the Margraviate of Austria to Leopold I of the House of Babenberg (i.e. he became the margrave). 976 is thus used as Austria's founding date, both in reality and by Himaruya (GOOD JOB!). Prior to the elevation to margraviate it was known as the March of Austria, marchia orientalis, etc, and it was just a...bit of land really...you know...people lived there, people sort of fought over it...the inhabitants were largely Slavic and Romano-Germanic peoples apparently and they were displaced by Germans as time went on. Anyway it was a property of Bavaria (NOT SWITZERLAND, BAD HIMARUYA. Bad. He screwed that up, I'm sorry to say), and the Magyars were trying to invade it, and idek but anyway Bavarian dukes started getting testy with Otto which set off some conflicts and ultimately saw Austria properly created into a little babby region and handed over to the Babenbergs. From there, control of Austria and Bavaria (and everywhere else around there) sort of wavered around, Bavaria came into the hands of the margrave in 1138, then was tAKEN AWAY AGAIN but as an apology to Henry II of Babenberg, Austria was elevated to duchy status by Barbarossa in 1156.
Still with me?
The Babenberg dukes died out in 1246. Ottokar II of Bohemia invaded in the following kerfuffle and set himself up as duke but wasn't recognised by Rudolph I, King of the Germans/Romans/make your fucking mind up*, a Swabian count who got elected HRE essentially, who was- oh boy!- a Habsburg. (Habsburg comes from Habsburg Castle, his family's historical seat, in Switzerland. This is where Himaruya got mixed up.) He laid claim to Austria, fought with Ottokar and eventually ousted him (1278), and gave the duchies of Austria and Styria to his sons (1282). Later he gave Carinthia to his...son's father-in-law? This raises the question of whether Carinthia, Styria etc would have had personifications before being melded into Austria...'Austria' at this time corresponded roughly to the region of Lower Austria.
Ah, we're nowhere near this kid's time period yet.
Rudolph tried to get his son elected emperor after him. You'll see that this is the beginning of typical Habsburg form. The prince-electors (the rulers of the loosely grouped lands governed by the German King/HRE, the guys who actually appointed him) protested that this defeated the object of electing the bloody emperor in the first place, and thus Adolf of Nassau was chosen and ruled for a very brief period (1292-1298). (His wife's name was Imagina, I just thought that was funny.) Albert (Rudolph's son) sat around in Vienna, now the Habsburg HQ, until surprise surprise, the prince-electors thought that Adolf was getting a little uppity and elected Albert after all. Apparently, during his rule he was known as stern but kind of liberal for the time in his approach to peasants, Jewish people, distaste for war, and so forth. His wife was a Babenberg descendent and related to a lot of important folk, and their kids ended up as Queen of Hungary, King of Bohemia, etc. Seeing a pattern?
Then he was assassinated, whoops. Henry VII of Luxembourg succeeded him because it was either that, or let Philip the Fair (not to be confused with Philip the Handsome, later on) of France have his brother Charles of Valois elected. NO FRANCE. GO AWAY. BAD. Even Clement V, the pope at the time, who was French, didn't want that to happen. Henry's predecessor as German King is listed as Albert, obviously, but his predecessor as HRE is listed as Frederick II because of a little thing called Interregnum**, and there but for the grace of God go I, so just roll with this, okay. Henry VII lasted about five minutes and after him, there was a bit of a struggle between Albert's son Frederick the Fair, and his cousin Louis of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, who ultimately won out because of, you know, bureaucracy and machinations and the general fuckery that was the election process. Louis actually took Frederick captive after some fighting (there was some difficulty with the Swiss at the time, also- see the Battle of Morgarten) but they eventually reconciled, due to Frederick's sort of pacifistic recognition of Louis and pretty much letting him keep him prisoner even when he could've left. They tried a joint rule after that until Frederick withdrew entirely not long before death. The date now is 1330.
Louis reigned until 1347, doing such interesting things as giving the Teutonic Knights a pass to raise hell and making a lot of enemies before dying suddenly while bear hunting or something, and he was succeeded by Charles IV, King of Bohemia. This guy patched things up with the Habsburgs, but he was of the Luxembourg dynasty, and the Habsburgs still didn't have unchallenged control of the HRE or German kingship- the duke of Austria after Frederick the Fair was Albert II, who quietly increased their territories and ruled for some time. Charles IV was succeeded as German King by his son Wenceslaus (1376) who had a bit of a turbulent time of it, and was kicked out by Rupert (1400), who was succeeded by Sigismund (Wenceslaus' brother, 1410 for King of the Germans, 1433 for HRE). He was...useless and his line died with him, his daughter marrying into the Habsburgs. He did have an amazing line when someone tried to correct his Latin: 'I am King of the Romans and above grammar.'
NOW. Meanwhile, in Austria...Albert II's successor, Rudolf IV, was pretty pissed off in 1356 when the Golden Bull issued by Charles IV left the Habsburgs without the same status as the prince-electors. So obviously the thing to do is to FAKE IT. The Privilegium Minus given by Barbarossa to elevate Austria to duchy status way back when was redrafted into the Privilegium Maius, which elevated Austria to the shiny new status of archduchy. Previous archduchies had existed but Austria was the only one to really take off. The document was a complete forgery, with such nonsense as 'Emperor Nero wrote this!!!' attached to it, and Charles IV refused to recognise it. The Habsburgs managed to somehow misplace the original Privilegium Minus, how about that. After Rudolf died, his younger brothers Albert and Leopold ruled for a time, then we go through a couple of Alberts (IV and V). Albert V was elected King of the Germans after Sigismund above. He was succeeded as ~*Archduke*~ (though they weren't really using that yet) of Austria by his son Ladislaus, but Frederick, of Leopold's line, kept the kid prisoner and eventually took that title as well as that of HRE and King of the Germans. FINALLY, the two titles are essentially united, and the status of Archduchy is more or less confirmed. That's some dynastic hustle.
Frederick (V in Austria, but III as HRE) married Eleanor of Portugal in 1452. Their son Maximillian succeeded the title and from there on, it's Habsburgs all the way down, my friends. The motto 'Tu, felix Austria...' originated around this time with Maximillian's marriage to the Burgundy heiress; the Habsburgs gained Burgundy and lost Switzerland at this time.
Maximillian continued this new tradition by setting up a bunch of marriages, including that of his son Philip the Handsome to Joanna the Ma- er, of Castile, establishing the Spanish Habsburgs. Ol' Phil never succeeded his father, dying before him, but he ruled Castile with his wife, and their son Charles V was Holy Roman Emperor and King of a newly united Spain, bringing together the Houses of Habsburg, Valois-Burgundy and Trastámara, and all the property that entailed. Holy moly. After Charles, Spain went to his son Philip II and the Habsburg throne/HRE (and Austria!) to his little brother Ferdinand, with Spain and Austria remaining allies for a couple of centuries.
Charles and his successor Ferdinand found themselves fighting with the Ottoman Empire during this time, beginning around 1520. Ferdinand gained Bohemia and (some of) Hungary in 1526 after Mohács (fUCKING FRANCE AND SULEIMAN), and continued to tussle with the Ottomans for centuries.
The title of Archduke was now formally used by the rulers of Austria- unlike its contemporaries, it wasn't particularly hasty to declare itself a kingdom or empire, perhaps because it (he, remember how this was supposed to be about Hetalia) liked being a unique and precious snowflake. Ferdinand was succeeded by his son Maximillian II, and he by his son Rudolf II. From here, Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, plus a bunch of other titles, came as a package, and King of the Germans/Romans became the title of the appointed heir (and no longer really a distinct position in itself, thank God). You'll notice the whole 'elected' bit of the HRE became largely irrelevant from here on, even if the formality continued to be observed- the HRE appointed his own son his successor more often than not. HOORAY FOR NOT HAVING HEREDITARY MONARCHY, GOOD JOB GUYS.
If we take this kid, whom I have forgotten in my ramblings, to be from late 1500s, his current boss is Rudolf II, a curious fellow who loved the arts and sciences but sort of kept to himself, and though he negotiated for various matches he never married, instead having affairs with women and apparently men. He moved the capital from Vienna to Prague, he was weirdly Spanish in his mannerisms, and he was, in all, a fucking useless ruler who sort of dicked around with his hobbies and started shit with the Ottomans, eventually getting kicked out so his brother could fix it. So...Austria isn't really happy with this guy, he has Ottoman on his back, there's religious weirdness going on, but the arts and sciences are flourishing. Yeah, it's turbulent, but it's still during his years of prosperity and power, and surprising strength and resilience, plus a powerful ally/consort/possession in Spain. Ultimately he's still a kid, but he's learned to carry himself like a Kaiser. He's refined and courtly, prone to outbursts of irritation, arrogant and stern, often anxious about his affairs, and always scheming. He's certainly worried about Ottoman and other enemies, but he's not openly fearful around them; he's fairly stoic until things start looking dubious (fucking sieges, man). He operates at a low level of ire most of the time, occasionally exploding, sometimes relaxing. In general, he's more free with his emotions and more highly strung at this age. He's fairly infatuated with Spain, though he mostly fusses and snaps at him. Ironically, though he himself is more typically uptight than Spain, his court is more relaxed. Away from stress, he's a non-aggressive hobbyist at heart. He's also Worst Dad. Unless that's Spain. In fairness, he has a lot on his plate and he's barely an adult. He can't really keep track of all his possessions or everyone who lives under his roof, so bear with him if he doesn't recognise you.
My source is Wikipedia, I'm not even going to lie. I've essentially pieced together a lot of articles to get a coherent timeline of rulers, the actual events I've left mostly to one side. If you want a detailed account, I suggest you check somewhere more thorough, lmao.
*rex Teutonicorum vs rex Romanorum. The former was a title used essentially as an insult towards them by some pope or other and the latter, their preferred title (as pretenders to the glory of the Roman Empire). This whole thing became Holy Roman Emperor later on and the succession is more straightforward, but earlier on there were so many people competing and interfering, and titles conflicting, that I'm unsure I'm even correct in some instances, SO BEAR WITH ME.
**Alright, I will try. After Conrad IV, until Rudolph of Habsburg, the King of the Germans was sort of up in the air, the HRE was all over the place and had a different lineage for a while, and after Frederick II HRE, the position was essentially vacant until Henry VII of Luxembourg. Then we get back on track, capische?
this kid was born in 976 when Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor (then 'King of the Germans' or similar- his father Otto I was the first HRE if we disregard Charlemagne and his succession b/c it wasn't hammered out properly then) gave the Margraviate of Austria to Leopold I of the House of Babenberg (i.e. he became the margrave). 976 is thus used as Austria's founding date, both in reality and by Himaruya (GOOD JOB!). Prior to the elevation to margraviate it was known as the March of Austria, marchia orientalis, etc, and it was just a...bit of land really...you know...people lived there, people sort of fought over it...the inhabitants were largely Slavic and Romano-Germanic peoples apparently and they were displaced by Germans as time went on. Anyway it was a property of Bavaria (NOT SWITZERLAND, BAD HIMARUYA. Bad. He screwed that up, I'm sorry to say), and the Magyars were trying to invade it, and idek but anyway Bavarian dukes started getting testy with Otto which set off some conflicts and ultimately saw Austria properly created into a little babby region and handed over to the Babenbergs. From there, control of Austria and Bavaria (and everywhere else around there) sort of wavered around, Bavaria came into the hands of the margrave in 1138, then was tAKEN AWAY AGAIN but as an apology to Henry II of Babenberg, Austria was elevated to duchy status by Barbarossa in 1156.
Still with me?
The Babenberg dukes died out in 1246. Ottokar II of Bohemia invaded in the following kerfuffle and set himself up as duke but wasn't recognised by Rudolph I, King of the Germans/Romans/make your fucking mind up*, a Swabian count who got elected HRE essentially, who was- oh boy!- a Habsburg. (Habsburg comes from Habsburg Castle, his family's historical seat, in Switzerland. This is where Himaruya got mixed up.) He laid claim to Austria, fought with Ottokar and eventually ousted him (1278), and gave the duchies of Austria and Styria to his sons (1282). Later he gave Carinthia to his...son's father-in-law? This raises the question of whether Carinthia, Styria etc would have had personifications before being melded into Austria...'Austria' at this time corresponded roughly to the region of Lower Austria.
Ah, we're nowhere near this kid's time period yet.
Rudolph tried to get his son elected emperor after him. You'll see that this is the beginning of typical Habsburg form. The prince-electors (the rulers of the loosely grouped lands governed by the German King/HRE, the guys who actually appointed him) protested that this defeated the object of electing the bloody emperor in the first place, and thus Adolf of Nassau was chosen and ruled for a very brief period (1292-1298). (His wife's name was Imagina, I just thought that was funny.) Albert (Rudolph's son) sat around in Vienna, now the Habsburg HQ, until surprise surprise, the prince-electors thought that Adolf was getting a little uppity and elected Albert after all. Apparently, during his rule he was known as stern but kind of liberal for the time in his approach to peasants, Jewish people, distaste for war, and so forth. His wife was a Babenberg descendent and related to a lot of important folk, and their kids ended up as Queen of Hungary, King of Bohemia, etc. Seeing a pattern?
Then he was assassinated, whoops. Henry VII of Luxembourg succeeded him because it was either that, or let Philip the Fair (not to be confused with Philip the Handsome, later on) of France have his brother Charles of Valois elected. NO FRANCE. GO AWAY. BAD. Even Clement V, the pope at the time, who was French, didn't want that to happen. Henry's predecessor as German King is listed as Albert, obviously, but his predecessor as HRE is listed as Frederick II because of a little thing called Interregnum**, and there but for the grace of God go I, so just roll with this, okay. Henry VII lasted about five minutes and after him, there was a bit of a struggle between Albert's son Frederick the Fair, and his cousin Louis of the Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, who ultimately won out because of, you know, bureaucracy and machinations and the general fuckery that was the election process. Louis actually took Frederick captive after some fighting (there was some difficulty with the Swiss at the time, also- see the Battle of Morgarten) but they eventually reconciled, due to Frederick's sort of pacifistic recognition of Louis and pretty much letting him keep him prisoner even when he could've left. They tried a joint rule after that until Frederick withdrew entirely not long before death. The date now is 1330.
Louis reigned until 1347, doing such interesting things as giving the Teutonic Knights a pass to raise hell and making a lot of enemies before dying suddenly while bear hunting or something, and he was succeeded by Charles IV, King of Bohemia. This guy patched things up with the Habsburgs, but he was of the Luxembourg dynasty, and the Habsburgs still didn't have unchallenged control of the HRE or German kingship- the duke of Austria after Frederick the Fair was Albert II, who quietly increased their territories and ruled for some time. Charles IV was succeeded as German King by his son Wenceslaus (1376) who had a bit of a turbulent time of it, and was kicked out by Rupert (1400), who was succeeded by Sigismund (Wenceslaus' brother, 1410 for King of the Germans, 1433 for HRE). He was...useless and his line died with him, his daughter marrying into the Habsburgs. He did have an amazing line when someone tried to correct his Latin: 'I am King of the Romans and above grammar.'
NOW. Meanwhile, in Austria...Albert II's successor, Rudolf IV, was pretty pissed off in 1356 when the Golden Bull issued by Charles IV left the Habsburgs without the same status as the prince-electors. So obviously the thing to do is to FAKE IT. The Privilegium Minus given by Barbarossa to elevate Austria to duchy status way back when was redrafted into the Privilegium Maius, which elevated Austria to the shiny new status of archduchy. Previous archduchies had existed but Austria was the only one to really take off. The document was a complete forgery, with such nonsense as 'Emperor Nero wrote this!!!' attached to it, and Charles IV refused to recognise it. The Habsburgs managed to somehow misplace the original Privilegium Minus, how about that. After Rudolf died, his younger brothers Albert and Leopold ruled for a time, then we go through a couple of Alberts (IV and V). Albert V was elected King of the Germans after Sigismund above. He was succeeded as ~*Archduke*~ (though they weren't really using that yet) of Austria by his son Ladislaus, but Frederick, of Leopold's line, kept the kid prisoner and eventually took that title as well as that of HRE and King of the Germans. FINALLY, the two titles are essentially united, and the status of Archduchy is more or less confirmed. That's some dynastic hustle.
Frederick (V in Austria, but III as HRE) married Eleanor of Portugal in 1452. Their son Maximillian succeeded the title and from there on, it's Habsburgs all the way down, my friends. The motto 'Tu, felix Austria...' originated around this time with Maximillian's marriage to the Burgundy heiress; the Habsburgs gained Burgundy and lost Switzerland at this time.
Maximillian continued this new tradition by setting up a bunch of marriages, including that of his son Philip the Handsome to Joanna the Ma- er, of Castile, establishing the Spanish Habsburgs. Ol' Phil never succeeded his father, dying before him, but he ruled Castile with his wife, and their son Charles V was Holy Roman Emperor and King of a newly united Spain, bringing together the Houses of Habsburg, Valois-Burgundy and Trastámara, and all the property that entailed. Holy moly. After Charles, Spain went to his son Philip II and the Habsburg throne/HRE (and Austria!) to his little brother Ferdinand, with Spain and Austria remaining allies for a couple of centuries.
Charles and his successor Ferdinand found themselves fighting with the Ottoman Empire during this time, beginning around 1520. Ferdinand gained Bohemia and (some of) Hungary in 1526 after Mohács (fUCKING FRANCE AND SULEIMAN), and continued to tussle with the Ottomans for centuries.
The title of Archduke was now formally used by the rulers of Austria- unlike its contemporaries, it wasn't particularly hasty to declare itself a kingdom or empire, perhaps because it (he, remember how this was supposed to be about Hetalia) liked being a unique and precious snowflake. Ferdinand was succeeded by his son Maximillian II, and he by his son Rudolf II. From here, Archduke of Austria and Holy Roman Emperor, plus a bunch of other titles, came as a package, and King of the Germans/Romans became the title of the appointed heir (and no longer really a distinct position in itself, thank God). You'll notice the whole 'elected' bit of the HRE became largely irrelevant from here on, even if the formality continued to be observed- the HRE appointed his own son his successor more often than not. HOORAY FOR NOT HAVING HEREDITARY MONARCHY, GOOD JOB GUYS.
If we take this kid, whom I have forgotten in my ramblings, to be from late 1500s, his current boss is Rudolf II, a curious fellow who loved the arts and sciences but sort of kept to himself, and though he negotiated for various matches he never married, instead having affairs with women and apparently men. He moved the capital from Vienna to Prague, he was weirdly Spanish in his mannerisms, and he was, in all, a fucking useless ruler who sort of dicked around with his hobbies and started shit with the Ottomans, eventually getting kicked out so his brother could fix it. So...Austria isn't really happy with this guy, he has Ottoman on his back, there's religious weirdness going on, but the arts and sciences are flourishing. Yeah, it's turbulent, but it's still during his years of prosperity and power, and surprising strength and resilience, plus a powerful ally/consort/possession in Spain. Ultimately he's still a kid, but he's learned to carry himself like a Kaiser. He's refined and courtly, prone to outbursts of irritation, arrogant and stern, often anxious about his affairs, and always scheming. He's certainly worried about Ottoman and other enemies, but he's not openly fearful around them; he's fairly stoic until things start looking dubious (fucking sieges, man). He operates at a low level of ire most of the time, occasionally exploding, sometimes relaxing. In general, he's more free with his emotions and more highly strung at this age. He's fairly infatuated with Spain, though he mostly fusses and snaps at him. Ironically, though he himself is more typically uptight than Spain, his court is more relaxed. Away from stress, he's a non-aggressive hobbyist at heart. He's also Worst Dad. Unless that's Spain. In fairness, he has a lot on his plate and he's barely an adult. He can't really keep track of all his possessions or everyone who lives under his roof, so bear with him if he doesn't recognise you.
My source is Wikipedia, I'm not even going to lie. I've essentially pieced together a lot of articles to get a coherent timeline of rulers, the actual events I've left mostly to one side. If you want a detailed account, I suggest you check somewhere more thorough, lmao.
*rex Teutonicorum vs rex Romanorum. The former was a title used essentially as an insult towards them by some pope or other and the latter, their preferred title (as pretenders to the glory of the Roman Empire). This whole thing became Holy Roman Emperor later on and the succession is more straightforward, but earlier on there were so many people competing and interfering, and titles conflicting, that I'm unsure I'm even correct in some instances, SO BEAR WITH ME.
**Alright, I will try. After Conrad IV, until Rudolph of Habsburg, the King of the Germans was sort of up in the air, the HRE was all over the place and had a different lineage for a while, and after Frederick II HRE, the position was essentially vacant until Henry VII of Luxembourg. Then we get back on track, capische?
