The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1919-08-01
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RN8aS it's beginning in SwitZer-
land. When the great war
began it was the Austro-Hungarian
empire. Now the head Of the house
Of Hapshurg is back in Switzerland
-an exile.
In these days of the League of Ma
tons. with the fate of the world hang
Ing in the balance, probably the fu-
ture of the house of Habsburg is of
small moment politically. But his
torically it is most fascinating ques-
ton.
For the history of Austria is unique
in history in that it is the history of
a family and not the history of a
state: it is the history of dynastic
and not of Il national power.
1t Is unique also for many other
things. Terrtorially the name Aus
tria was attached from about 1000 to
1905 to an incOnsiderable archduchy
mn the Danube. Dynastically it be-
came connected in the thirteenth GEN.
fury with the house Of Habsburg. then
insignificant. and its history since is
simply the history of that house. There
Is no Austrian nation, strictly speak
ing. There is no Austrian Ian
guage. Historically there never was
an emperor of AUSTRIA
In the zone of perpetual conflict in
Europe We're born the two states which
in turn We're to dominate Germany
Austria and Prussia. austria" is
simply the Latin form Of "Oestereich-
the eastern Mark of the German
kingdom. established by Charlemagne
on the Danube. rs its defense against
the Magyar invader.
The importance of the house Of
Habshurg-and of AuStria---hegins
with Rudolph Of Habsburg-EmperO
Rudolph of the Holy Roman empire.
To go back few generations: Gun
tram the Rich was count of Alsace
who flourished in the tenth century.
Warner grandson of Guntram, be-
came bishop of StraSsburg and on an
eminence above Windisch. on the
banks of the Aar. in the Swiss canton
of Aargau. built Schloss Habsburg
(Habichtsburg. 1.-The castle of vul-
tures"). This castle is still standing !;
the picture shows it to be an unpre-
tentious affair. Werner I. nephew Of
the builder, was the first count Of
Habsburg. Albert Ill., son Of Werner
II. inherited extensive estates in Up
per Alsace and acquired" several
Swiss districts about Zurich and Luz
Germ. The house of Habsburg began
to grow at once.
Rudolph III. son Of Albert ". was
elected emperor of the Holy Roman
empire in 1878 and thus figures in
history as Rudolph I. Holy Roman EN-
peror. The Holy Roman empire. it
has been said, was neither holy.
Roman, nor an empire. Its original
basis was sort of a loose union of the
crowns of Germany and Italy. Who
ever was accepted as king by Ger
many was regarded as the potential
emperor and assumed the imperial IT,
tie when crowned by the pope at
Rome. BY the sixteenth century it
was an anachronism vet it persisted
at least in form and title-until the
nineteenth century.
Rudolph I was elected emperor be-
cause his possessions We're small and
1t was supposed he would be an anna
BILE tigure-head. He fooled the elect
ors by reviving and increasing the
powers of the imperial office. More
over he used the powers for the ag-
grandizement of the house of Habs-
burg. Ottocar, king of Bohemia. re-
fused to acknowledge him and was de-
feated and slain. Rudolph thereupon
appropriated for his sons part of
the dominions which the Bohemian
king had acquired. including Austria
(then Il duchy). The house of HabS-
burg thus became the house of Aus
tria, and its history from this time on
is the history Of Austria.
BY marriage, by diplomacy. and by
pressure the house of Habsburg
plucked one by one the coronets of
Tyrol and Carintha Q636); Franche-
Comte. Flanders and the Low Coun-
tries u47O, the crowns Of Spain, Ma
pies. Sicily and Sardinia (1516) Bo-
hemia. including Moravia, and Hun
gary Q526). These many crowns
were never welded into one. hut We're
carefully distinguished as emblems Of
separate sOvereignties. united in no