When did the Hapsburg monarchy end?
History of Spain
The Hapsburg dynasty became extinct in Spain with Charles II's death in 1700, and the War of the Spanish Succession ensued in which the other European powers tried to assume control of the Spanish monarchy. King Louis XIV of France eventually lost the War of the Spanish Succession The victors were Britain, the Dutch Republic and Austria. They allowed the crown of Spain to pass to the Bourbon dynasty, provided Spain and France would never be merged.
Holstein-Pinneberg
In 1375, Prince-Archbishop Albert II of Bremen mortgaged the Haseldorfer Marsh to Adolphus VII. The prince-archbishop of Bremen later failed to redeem the mortgage, and the Haseldorfer Marsh has been part of Holstein ever since. Whereas in 1537 Christian III of Denmark introduced the Reformation in all his four realms, Denmark, Duchy of Holstein, Norway and Schleswig, Holstein-Pinneberg remained Catholic until 1559. After the Schaumburgs died out in 1640 (the other lines in Holstein had already died out by 1459) the County of Schaumburg was divided and the County of Holstein-Pinneberg was absorbed into what was now the Duchy of Holstein (formerly the County of Holstein-Rendsburg). In 1650, the County of Rantzau was created from the northern third of the territory.
Prussia
The Kingdom ended in 1918 along with other German monarchies that collapsed as a result of the German Revolution. In the Weimar Republic, the Free State of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. Subsequently, it was effectively dismantled into Nazi German "Gaue" in 1935. Nevertheless, some Prussian ministries were kept and Hermann Göring remained in his role as Minister President of Prussia until the end of World War II. Former eastern territories of Germany that made up a significant part of Prussia lost the majority of their German population after 1945 as the People's Republic of Poland and the Soviet Union both absorbed these territories and had most of its German inhabitants expelled by 1950. Prussia, deemed "a bearer of militarism and reaction" by the Allies was officially abolished by an Allied declaration in 1947. The international status of the former eastern territories of Germany was disputed until the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany in 1990, while its return to Germany remains a topic among far right politicians, the Federation of Expellees and various political revisionists.
History of Schleswig-Holstein
In 1863 King Frederick VII of Denmark died leaving no heir. According to the line of succession of Denmark and Schleswig, the crowns of both Denmark and Schleswig would now pass to Duke Christian of Glücksburg (the future King Christian IX), the crown of Holstein was considered to be more problematic. This decision was challenged by a rival pro-German branch of the Danish royal family, the House of Augustenburg (Danish: Augustenborg) who demanded, like in 1848, the crowns of both Schleswig and Holstein. This happened at a particularly critical time as work on a new constitution for the joint affairs of Denmark and Schleswig had just been completed with the draft awaiting his signature. In the Duchy of Lauenburg the personal union with Denmark ended and her estates elected a new dynasty in 1865.
St. Mary's Cathedral, Hamburg
With the Peace of Westphalia the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen had turned from an elective monarchy into the hereditary monarchy of the Duchy of Bremen. While the cathedral chapters of Bremen and Hamburg were not dissolved as such, they sharply lost influence because they used to be the election bodies of the incumbents of the see securing their privileges and endowments by election capitulations, which the incumbents had to issue as self-commitments to the laws and principles established until their accession. Hereditary monarchy opened the gate for absolutism in the Duchy of Bremen. The chapters turned from constitutive legislative bodies into subordinate administrative units receiving orders from the rulers. The last canon officiating as president of the chapter was the jurist .
Principality of Aschaffenburg
The principality became part of the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806 after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1810 Napoleon granted Dalberg's Principality of Regensburg to the Kingdom of Bavaria and compensated him with Hanau and Fulda. Dalberg merged his remaining territories of Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt, Wetzlar, Hanau, and Fulda into the new Grand Duchy of Frankfurt, with the Principality of Aschaffenburg becoming a department of the new grand duchy. The city of Aschaffenburg remained the residence of Dalberg, however. The region was annexed by Bavaria in 1814.
War of the Austrian Succession
When Charles succeeded his elder brother Joseph I in 1711, he was the last male Habsburg heir in the direct line; this meant their lands would be divided on his death as Salic law prevented women inheriting in their own right. A family issue became a European one due to tensions within the Holy Roman Empire, whose monarch was officially chosen by seven prince-electors. The Thirty Years' War of 1618-48 divided the Empire into Protestant and Catholic regions, substantially weakening the bonds holding it together, while by the mid 18th-century states like Bavaria, Prussia and Saxony had increased dramatically in both size and power. The same was also true of the Habsburgs, who now viewed the title of Emperor as being hereditary in practice if not principle (Sigismund the last non-Habsburg Emperor ruled from 1410-1437.) These centrifugal forces led to a war that reshaped the traditional European balance of power; the various legal claims were largely pretexts and seen as such.
Burgruine Hohenburg auf Rosenberg
Under the mediation of Duke Ulrich III of Carinthia, in 1263 a division of the property was arranged between the Salzburg archbishops and the neighbouring Counts of Ortenburg, heirs of the extinct Counts of Lurn, who had aspired the Hohenburg estates for decades. In 1311 Archbishop Conrad IV of Salzburg enfeoffed a part of Hohenburg Castle to the sons of late Count Frederick I of Ortenburg (1247–1304). Nevertheless the residence became less important when it was replaced by nearby Feldsberg Castle as administrative seat of the Salzburg possessions. When the Ortenburg dynasty became extinct in 1418, their possessions passed to the Counts of Celje.
House of Henneberg
Whereas the male line of the House of Babenberg became extinct in 1246, the Counts of Henneberg lived on until 1583. In 1554 William IV of Henneberg-Schleusingen had signed a treaty of inheritance with Duke John Frederick II of Saxony. However, when the last Count George Ernest of Henneberg died, both the Ernestine and the Albertine branch of the Wettin dynasty claimed his estates, that were finally divided in 1660 among the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Gotha and the Albertine duke Maurice of Saxe-Zeitz. The Lordship of Schmalkalden fell to Landgrave William IV of Hesse-Kassel, according to an inheritance treaty of 1360.
Birkebeiner
Around the year 1200, the rival groups shared the identical but opposite goal of controlling the entire country. In 1202, when King Sverre died, he had managed to acquire most of Norway, but in Østerdalen, the Baglers were still very powerful. Sverre's death meant some decrease in the power of the Birkebeins. His successor, King Haakon Sverresson, died only two years later, leaving his son Haakon Haakonsson as the ultimate target for the Baglers to get rid of the pretender to the throne. In 1206, the Birkebeiners set off on a dangerous journey through treacherous mountains and forests, taking the now two-year-old Haakon Haakonsson to safety in Trondheim. Norwegian history credits the Birkebeiners' bravery with preserving the life of the boy who later became King Haakon Haakonsson IV, ended the civil wars in 1240 and forever changing Northern Europe's history through his reign. The events surrounding the journey are dramatised in The Last King (film).
Austrian Empire
In 1804, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who was also ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria, in which all his lands were included. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, which had functioned as a composite monarchy for about three hundred years. He did so because he foresaw either the end of the Holy Roman Empire, or the eventual accession as Holy Roman Emperor of Napoleon, who had earlier that year adopted the title of an Emperor of the French; Francis II eventually abandoned the title of German-Roman Emperor later in 1806. To safeguard his dynasty's imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria. Apart from now being included in a new "Kaiserthum", the workings of the overarching structure and the status of its component lands at first stayed much the same as they had been under the composite monarchy that existed before 1804.
Stephan Burián von Rajecz
On 14 September 1918, Baron Burián issued a public appeal for all nations to end the war by diplomatic negotiations. On 5 October, he and the German Chancellor requested President Wilson's participation in peace negotiations on the basis of the Fourteen Points. Within weeks, he recognized the weak state of the Hapsburg army and that Germany would not agree to the unconditional surrender demanded by the Allies. He resigned from office on 24 October, realising that nothing could prevent the dissolution of the Habsburg Empire. He was succeeded by Count Julius Andrássy the Younger and thus became the penultimate Foreign Minister of the Dual Monarchy.
Duchy of Troppau
From 1337 onwards, the Přemyslid dukes also ruled the adjacent former Piast Duchy of Racibórz, whereupon Opava became united with the Upper Silesian lands. When the Opava branch became extinct in 1464, it fell back to the Bohemian Crown, from 1526 part of the Habsburg Monarchy. In the final three centuries of its existence, the duchy was ruled by the House of Liechtenstein. It was dissolved with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, but the title of "Duke of Troppau and Jägerndorf" still exists, belonging to a present-day monarch, Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein.
Germany in the early modern period
The Empire was formally dissolved on 6 August 1806 when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon (see Treaty of Pressburg). Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite. Francis' House of Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the Empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.
Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
After the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Calenberg-Celle and its possessions were added to by the Congress of Vienna ending the Napoleonic war, being born anew under the name of Kingdom of Hanover (including Brunswick-Lüneburg). During the first half of the 19th century, the Kingdom of Hanover was ruled as personal union by the British crown from its creation under George III of the United Kingdom, the last elector of Hanover until the death of William IV in 1837. At that point, the crown of Hanover went to William's younger brother, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale under the Salic laws requiring the next male heir to inherit, whereas the British throne was inherited by an elder brother's only daughter, Queen Victoria.
Imperial and Royal Majesty
Imperial and Royal Majesty (His/Her Imperial and Royal Majesty, abbreviated as HI&RM) was the style used by King-Emperors and their consorts as heads of imperial dynasties that were simultaneously royal. The style was notably used by the Emperor of Austria (who was also the King of Hungary and Bohemia) and by the German Emperor (who was also the King of Prussia). The Austrian and Bohemian monarchies were abolished in 1918 while the vacant throne of Hungary continued to exist until the 1940s.
History of Hamburg
Briefly annexed by Napoleon I (1810–14), Hamburg was the capital of the department "Bouches-de-l'Elbe", with Amandus Augustus Abendroth as the new mayor. Hamburg suffered severely during the Continental Blockade and Napoleon's last campaign in Germany but managed to raise two forces to fight against him, the Hamburg Citizen Militia and Hanseatic Legion. The city was besieged for over a year by Allied forces (mostly Russian, Swedish and German). Russian forces under General Bennigsen finally freed the city in 1814. In addition to stimulating German nationalism, the war had a major impact in mobilizing a civic spirit in numerous volunteer activities. Many volunteer militias and civic associations were formed, and collaborated with churches, and the press to support local and state armies, patriotic wartime mobilization, humanitarian relief and postwar commemorative practices and rituals.
Hamburg was a member of the 39-state German Confederation from 1814 to 1866 and, as the other member-states, enjoyed full sovereignty. After periodic political unrest, particularly in 1848, the self-ruling city-state adopted a democratic constitution in 1860 that provided for the election of the Senate, the governing body of the city-state, by adult taxpaying males. Other innovations were the separation of powers, the separation of Church and State, freedom of the press, of assembly and association. Hamburg became a member of the North German Confederation (1866–71), the German Empire (1871–1918), while in 1888 it was one of the last two states to join the German Customs Union (along with Bremen) and was to maintain its self-ruling status during the Weimar Republic (1919–33).
Heptarchy
By convention, the Heptarchy lasted from the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century, until most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms came under the overlordship of Egbert of Wessex in 829. This approximately 400-year period of European history is often referred to as the Early Middle Ages or, more controversially, as the Dark Ages.
Although "heptarchy" suggests the existence of seven kingdoms, the term is just used as a label of convenience and does not imply the existence of a clear-cut or stable group of seven kingdoms. In fact, the number of kingdoms and sub-kingdoms fluctuated rapidly as kings contended for supremacy. In the late 6th century, the king of Kent was a prominent lord in the south; in the 7th century, the rulers of Northumbria and Wessex were powerful; in the 8th century, Mercia achieved hegemony over the other surviving kingdoms, particularly with "Offa the Great". Yet, as late as the reigns of Eadwig and Edgar (955–75), it was still possible to speak of separate kingdoms within the English population.
Habsburg Monarchy
The Habsburg Monarchy () – also "Habsburg Empire", "Austrian Monarchy" or "Danube Monarchy" – is an unofficial umbrella term among historians for the countries and provinces that were ruled by the between 1526 and 1780 and then by the successor branch of Habsburg-Lorraine until 1918. The Monarchy was a typical composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. (The dynastic composite states were the most common / dominant form of states on the European continent in the early modern era.) The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague. From 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Heinrich XXIV, Prince Reuss of Greiz
Because of the physical and mental disability of Heinrich XXIV, the result of an accident in his childhood, Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss Younger Line served as regent of Reuss Elder Line from 1902 until his death in 1913; the regency continued thereafter under Heinrich XIV's successor, Heinrich XXVII, until the abolition of the German monarchies in 1918.
Margraviate of Austria
Margravial Austria reached its greatest height under Leopold III, a great friend of the church and founder of abbeys. He patronised towns and developed a great level of territorial independence. In 1139, Leopold IV inherited Bavaria. When his successor, the last margrave, Henry Jasomirgott, was deprived of Bavaria in 1156, Austria was elevated to a duchy independent from Bavaria by the of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. From 1192 the House of Babenberg also ruled over the neighbouring Duchy of Styria. The line became extinct with the death of Duke Frederick II of Austria at the 1246 Battle of the Leitha River. The heritage was finally asserted by the German king Rudolph of Habsburg against King Ottokar II of Bohemia in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld.
Germany
In the 18th century, the Holy Roman Empire consisted of approximately 1,800 territories. The elaborate legal system initiated by a series of Imperial Reforms (approximately 1450–1555) created the Imperial Estates and provided for considerable local autonomy among ecclesiastical, secular, and hereditary states, reflected in the Imperial Diet. The House of Habsburg held the imperial crown from 1438 until the death of Charles VI in 1740. Having no male heirs, he had convinced the Electors to retain Habsburg hegemony in the office of the emperor by agreeing to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713. This was finally settled through the War of Austrian Succession; in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, Charles VI's daughter Maria Theresa ruled the Empire as Empress Consort when her husband, Francis I, became Holy Roman Emperor. From 1740, the dualism between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia dominated the German history.
Line of succession to the former throne of Württemberg
The monarchy of Württemberg came to an end in 1918 along with the rest of the monarchies that made up the German Empire. The last member of the dynasty to reign as King of Württemberg was William II.
Georg, Duke of Hohenberg
Following the collapse of the monarchy, all Austrian titles were abolished by law in 1919. From then on, names consisted only of forename and surname, without von or titles, scilicet "Georg Hohenberg".
Duchy of Austria
The Habsburg Albertinian line was again elevated to the Imperial throne, when in 1438 Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen King of the Romans as the successor to his House of Luxembourg father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert's reign spanned only one year, he was succeeded by his Leopoldian cousin, Duke 
Ernest's son, Frederick V, who eventually reunified the Habsburg territories, after the extinctions of the Albertinian line (1457) and the Elder Tyrolean line (1490). Duke Frederick was crowned Holy Roman Emperor (as Frederick III) in 1452; he formally acknowledged the elevation of Austria to an archduchy one year later, whereafter all Habsburg princes bore the archducal title. Only two non-Habsburgs reigned the Empire between 1438 and 1806, when Emperor Francis II resigned.
Universal power
The 19th century was the end of both universal powers as territorial entities: the Sacro Imperio was formally abolished by Napoleon Bonaparte, who created his own empire, and although Napoleon's empire was defeated, the Holy Roman Empire was not restored in the redrawing of the European map following the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815). The territories recuperated by the Habsburg dynasty were transformed into a multinational state, first as the Austrian Empire and later as a dual monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lasted until 1918. Additionally, the leadership of Prussia in the recently created German Confederation brought about the constitution of the Second German Empire in 1871.
Saxe-Lauenburg
During the First Schleswig War (1848–1851), the Ritter- und Landschaft prevented a Prussian conquest by requesting Hanoverian troops as peace-keeping occupational forces on behalf of the German Confederation. In 1851 King Frederick VII of Denmark was restored in his power as Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg. Prussian and Austrian forces invaded the duchy during the Second Schleswig War. By the Treaty of Vienna (1864), King Christian IX of Denmark resigned as duke and ceded the duchy to Prussia and Austria. After receiving a £300,000 financial compensation, Austria waived its claim to Saxe-Lauenburg by the Gastein Convention in August 1865. The Ritter- und Landschaft then offered the ducal throne to William I of Prussia. In September the same year, he accepted and ruled the duchy in personal union since. William appointed the then Minister President of Prussia, Otto von Bismarck, as minister for Saxe-Lauenburg. In 1866, Saxe-Lauenburg joined the North German Confederation. However, its vote in the Bundesrat was counted along with those of Prussia.
Duchy of Austria
According to feudal law, the immediate heritable fees fell back to the suzerain, the Holy Roman Emperor. However, Emperor Frederick II, in the last years of his rule, was weakened by the struggle against Pope Innocent IV, and was stuck in the Italian Wars between the Guelphs and Ghibellines. His death in 1250 and the death of his only surviving son King Conrad IV four years later ended the line of Hohenstaufen rulers, only eight years after the extinction of the Babenberg dynasty. The extinction led to the Great Interregnum, a period of several decades during which the status of the country's rulers was disputed. While in the following years several candidates were elected King of the Romans, none of them were able to control the Empire.
Ottoman–Habsburg wars
The Austrians renewed the war against their enemies in the summer of 1597 with a drive southward, taking Pápa, Tata, Raab (Győr) and Veszprém. Further Habsburg victories were achieved when a Turkish relief force was defeated at Grosswardein (Nagyvárad). Enraged by these defeats, the Turks replied with a more energetic response so that by 1605, after much wasted Austrian relief efforts and failed sieges on both sides, only Raab remained in the hands of the Austrians. In that year a pro-Turkish vassal prince was elected leader of Transylvania by the Hungarian nobles and the war came to a conclusion with the Peace of Zsitva-Torok.
Stapelburg Castle
The Stapelburg was built before 1306 by the Counts of Wernigerode to guard the military road that connected the counts' main ancestral castle with the imperial and mining town of Goslar. It also acted as a toll station. The castle was enfeoffed several times and in 1394 came into the possession of the Diocese of Halberstadt for a sum of 600 marks. On 25 January 1432, Count Botho of Stolberg accepted Stapelburg Castle and its estate from Bishop John of Halberstadt as a pledge, after it should have been previously enfeoffed to the last Wernigerode count who had died in 1429. But Stapelburg was redeemed again by the Diocese of Halberstadt and pledged to Heinrich von Bila, who was the last vassal before Stapelburg was enfeoffed by Bishop Gebhard von Halberstadt on 4 June 1463 for 200 Rhenish guilders to Count Henry the Elder of Stolberg for the duration of his life - that is until 1511. During his final years the castle fell somewhat into ruin. On 13 April 1509 the aging Count Botho and his son committed to the administrator of the Bishopric of Halberstadt, Archbishop Ernest of Magdeburg, to rebuild the dilapidated castle within eight years, so that a nobleman or steward could have his seat there. As a result, the count of Stolberg and his son were enfeoffed with the Stapelburg.
Hubertusburg
The palace is famous for the Peace Treaty of Hubertusburg signed here after lengthy negotiations in the next year, on 15 February 1763. After the plundering, furnishings had to be removed from several inns in the vicinity to accommodate the representatives of the belligerent powers. Ratified by Frederick the Great and Empress Maria Theresa, the Treaty of Hubertusburg, with the Treaty of Paris, ended both the Seven Years' War and the French and Indian War. Augustus III died shortly afterwards on October 5; his son and heir Frederick Christian only outlived him by a few weeks. When Elector Frederick Augustus III of Saxony ascended the throne, he had Hubertusburg Place secured and rebuilt in a simplified manner.
Habsburg Law
The Habsburg Law ("Habsburgergesetz" (in full, the Law concerning the Expulsion and the Takeover of the Assets of the House Habsburg-Lorraine) "Gesetz vom 3. April 1919 betreffend die Landesverweisung und die Übernahme des Vermögens des Hauses Habsburg-Lothringen") was a law originally passed by the Constitutional Assembly ("Konstituierende Nationalversammlung") of German Austria, one of the successor states of dismantled Austria-Hungary, on 3 April 1919. The law legally dethroned the House of Habsburg-Lorraine as rulers of the country which had declared itself a republic on 12 November 1918, exiled them and confiscated their property. The Habsburg Law was repealed in 1935 and the Habsburg family was given back its property. However, in 1938, following the Anschluss, the Nazis reintroduced the Habsburg Law, and it was retained when Austria regained its independence after World War II.
French–Habsburg rivalry
During the late Middle Ages, the Habsburgs, whose dominions consisted principally of Austria, and later Spain, sought coalitions, principally through marriage, a policy which had the added benefit of gaining territory through marital inheritance. Territorial expansion in this way allowed the Habsburgs to gain territories throughout Europe such as the Spanish Road, Burgundy, Milan and the Low Countries. This practice was described by Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus' quote: "Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria, nube!" – "Let others wage war. You, happy Austria, marry!" Following this tradition, Maximilian I married Mary, the last Valois ruler of Burgundy and the Netherlands, in 1477. Nineteen years later, their son Philip the Handsome married Joanna of Castile, who became heir to the Spanish thrones. Joanna and Philip's son, Charles, united all of these possessions in 1519. France had the Habsburgs on three sides as its neighbor, with Spain to the south, the Netherlands to the north, and the Franche-Comté to the east.
Habsburg Monarchy
Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I. In the peace settlement that followed, significant territories were ceded to Romania and Italy, new republics of Austria (the German-Austrian territories of the Hereditary lands) and Hungary (the Magyar core of the old kingdom) were created, and the remainder of the monarchy's territory was shared out among the new states of Poland, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia), and Czechoslovakia.
Saxe-Altenburg
Saxe-Altenburg thereafter remained part of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg until the extinction of that house in 1825, when Gotha and Altenburg were divided up, with Gotha going to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Altenburg to the Duke of Saxe-Hildburghausen, who in exchange gave up Hildburghausen to the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. This family ruled the duchy until the end of the monarchies in the course of the German Revolution of 1918–19. The succeeding Free State of Saxe-Altenburg was incorporated into the new state of Thuringia in 1920.
Anna Maria Franziska of Saxe-Lauenburg
Also other monarchies claimed the succession, evoking a conflict further involving the neighbouring duchies of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and of Danish Holstein, as well as the five Ascanian-ruled Principalities of Anhalt, the Electorate of Saxony, which had succeeded the Saxe-Wittenbergian Ascanians in 1422, Sweden and Brandenburg. The conflict was finally settled on 9 October 1693 ("Hamburger Vergleich"), definitely ousting the dispossessed Anna Maria and her sister. Both sisters never gave up the claim.
Franz Egon von Fürstenberg (1737–1825)
At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, von Fürstenberg was one of the few surviving reigning bishops - in the peace settlement Paderborn was placed under the overlordship of Prussia and Hildesheim under that of Hanover. In his final years he went to Rome and managed to block Prussian and Hanoverian plans to dissolve the bishoprics of Hildesheim and Paderborn and transfer their responsibilities to the bishops of Osnabrück and Münster respectively. Instead, both bishoprics survived and Paderborn was extended to take on Sauerland (formerly under the control of Cologne) and the former bishoprics of Magdeburg and Halberstadt among others. He died at the prince bishops' residence in Hildesheim, which had been his permanent residence since 1802. He was buried in the central nave of Hildesheim Cathedral.
Spanish Empire
With the death of Ferdinand II of Aragon, and the supposed incompetence to rule of his daughter, Queen Juana of Castile and Aragon, Charles of Ghent became Charles I of Castile and Aragon. He was the first Hapsburg monarch of Spain and co-ruler of Spain with his mother. Charles had been raised in northern Europe and his interests remained those of Christian Europe. The continuing threat of the Ottoman Turks in the Mediterranean and Central Europe also occupied the monarch. While not directly an inheritance, Charles was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire after the death of his grandfather Emperor Maximilian thanks to prodigious bribes paid to the prince-electors. Charles became the most powerful Christian ruler in Europe, but his Ottoman rival, Suleiman the Magnificent, challenged Charles for primacy in Europe. France made an unprecedented but pragmatic alliance with the Muslim Ottomans against Hapsburg political power and the Ottomans assisted German Protestant princes in the religious conflicts tearing Christian unity apart in Northern Europe. Simultaneously, the overseas lands claimed by Spain in the New World proved to be a source of wealth and the crown was able to assert greater control over its overseas possessions in the political and religious spheres than was possible on Iberian peninsula or in Europe. The conquests of the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire brought vast indigenous civilizations into the Spanish Empire and the mineral wealth, particularly silver, were identified and exploited, becoming the economic lifeblood of the crown. Under Charles, Spain and its overseas empire in the Americas became deeply entwined, with the crown enforcing Catholic exclusivity; exercising crown primacy in political rule, unencumbered by claims of an existing aristocracy; and defending its claims against other European powers. In 1558 he abdicated his throne of Spain to his son, Philip, leaving the ongoing conflicts to his heir.
House of Habsburg
The Austrian branch became extinct in the male line in 1740 with the death of Charles VI and in the female line in 1780 with the death of his daughter Maria Theresa; it was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine in the person of her son Joseph II. The new successor house styled itself formally as House of Habsburg-Lorraine (German: "Habsburg-Lothringen"), although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. The heiress of the last Austrian Habsburgs Maria Theresa had married Francis Stephan, Duke of Lorraine (both of them were great-grandchildren of Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand III, but from different empresses). Their descendants carried on the Habsburg tradition from Vienna under the dynastic name Habsburg-Lorraine, although technically a new ruling house came into existence in the Austrian territories, the House of Lorraine (see Dukes of Lorraine family tree). It is thought that extensive intra-family marriages within both lines contributed to their extinctions.
Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)
Following the Battle of Mohács, in 1527 the Croatian and Hungarian nobles needed to decide on a new king. The bulk of the Croatian nobility convened the Croatian Parliament in Cetin and chose to join the Habsburg monarchy under the Austrian king Ferdinand I von Habsburg. Some nobles dissented and supported John Zápolya, but the Habsburg option still prevailed in 1540, when John Zápolya died.
Aristocracy of Norway
In 1660, when Denmark's estates were gathered in Copenhagen, King Frederick III declared military state of emergency and closed the capital city, thus preventing the nobility from boycotting the assembly by leaving. The nobility was forced to surrender. In the following days, Denmark was transformed from an elective monarchy into an hereditary. On 17 October, the 1648 "håndfestning" was returned to the King, and on 18 October, the King was hailed as an hereditary monarch. On 10 January 1661, the Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy Act () introduced absolutism. In Denmark, the Council of the Kingdom faced the same destiny as the Norwegian Council had done in 1536: abolition. The noble monarchy () had come to an end.
Austria-Hungary
In the summer of 1919, a Habsburg, Archduke Joseph August, became regent, but was forced to stand down after only two weeks when it became apparent the Allies would not recognise him. Finally, in March 1920, royal powers were entrusted to a regent, Miklós Horthy, who had been the last commanding admiral of the Austro-Hungarian Navy and had helped organize the counter-revolutionary forces. It was this government that signed the Treaty of Trianon under protest on 4 June 1920 at the Grand Trianon Palace in Versailles, France.
In March and again in October 1921, ill-prepared attempts by Karl to regain the throne in Budapest collapsed. The initially wavering Horthy, after receiving threats of intervention from the Allied Powers and neighboring countries, refused his cooperation. Soon afterward, the Hungarian government nullified the Pragmatic Sanction, effectively dethroning the Habsburgs. Two years later, Austria had passed the "Habsburg Law," which not only dethroned the Habsburgs, but banned Karl from ever returning to Austria again.
Haakon IV of Norway
The last bagler king Philip Simonsson died in 1217. Speedy political and military manoeuvering by Skule led to a reconciliation between the birkebeiner and bagler, and thus the reunification of the kingdom. However, some discontented elements among the bagler found a new royal pretender, Sigurd Ribbung, and launched a new rising from 1219. The rising only gained support in parts of Eastern Norway, and were unable to gain control of Viken and Opplandene as the bagler formerly had done. In the summer of 1223 Skule eventually managed to force the Ribbungar to surrender. The great meeting in Bergen soon after however renewed the division of the Norwegian kingdom with Skule, who thereafter gained control of the northern third of the country instead of the east, in what marked a setback despite his military victory. In 1224, Ribbung who had been in Skule's custody escaped, and Haakon was left to fight him alone as the new ruler of Eastern Norway. Skule remained passive throughout the rest of the war, and his support for Haakon was lukewarm at best. Assuming the military lead in the fight, Haakon nevertheless defeated Ribbung through comprehensive and organisationally demanding warfare over the next years. As part of the campaign, Haakon additionally led a large army into Värmland, Sweden in 1225 in order to punish the inhabitants for their support of Ribbung. While Ribbung died in 1226, the revolt was finally quashed in 1227 after the surrender of the last leader of the uprising, Haakon the Crazy's son Knut Haakonsson. This left Haakon more or less uncontested monarch.
Haakon's councillors had sought to reconcile Haakon and Skule by proposing marriage between Haakon and Skule's daughter Margrete in 1219. Haakon accepted the proposal (although he did not think it would change much politically), but the marriage between Haakon and Margrete did not take place before 1225, partly due to the conflict with Ribbung. The relationship between Haakon and Skule nevertheless deteriorated further during the 1230s, and attempts of settlements at meetings in 1233 and 1236 only distanced them more from each other. Periodically, the two nonetheless reconciled and spent a great amount of time together, only to have their friendship destroyed, according to the saga by intrigues derived from rumours and slander by men who played the two against each other. Skule was the first person ever in Norway to be titled Duke ("hertug") in 1237, but instead of control over a region gained the rights to the incomes from a third of the "syssels" scattered across the whole of Norway. This was part of an attempt by Haakon to limit Skule's power. In 1239 the conflict between the two erupted into open warfare when Skule had himself proclaimed king. Although he had some support in Trøndelag, Opplandene and in eastern Viken, he could not stand up to Haakon's forces. The rebellion ended when Skule was killed in 1240, leaving Haakon the undisputed king of Norway. This revolt is generally taken to mark the final end of Norway's civil war era.
History of Hesse
In 1568 with the death of Landgrave Philip I, the Landgraviate of Hesse (), a German Principality of the Holy Roman Empire, was divided among his sons. With the extinction of the Hesse-Marburg and Hesse-Rheinfels lines by 1604, Hesse-Darmstadt, along with Hesse-Kassel, became one of the two Hessian states. While Hesse-Kassel converted to Calvinism and became one of the most zealous exponents of the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War, Landgrave George II remained a strict Lutheran and maintained a close alliance with Saxony, which led to a pro-Habsburg policy after 1642.
House of Hesse
Hesse-Kassel and its junior lines were annexed by Prussia in 1866. Hesse-Darmstadt became the People's State of Hesse when the monarchy was abolished in 1918. Hesse-Philippsthal died out in the male line in 1925, and Hesse-Darmstadt in 1968. The male-line heirs of Hesse-Kassel and Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld continue to exist to the present day.
History of Austria
The next emperor, his son Francis II (1792–1835), found himself at war with France in the First (1792–1797) and Second Coalition Wars (1798–1802) the prelude to the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815), in which Austria lost further territory. Following further Austrian losses in the Third Coalition War (1803–1806) the future of the Hapsburg Empire looked increasingly uncertain. Napoleon I had declared himself Emperor of France in May 1804 and was busy reorganising much of the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, and looked to be assuming the title of emperor too, as a second Charlemagne. Francis II responded by proclaiming the Empire of Austria in August, taking the new title of Emperor. In 1806, having held both titles in the interim, he resigned the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which then ceased to exist.
Dahlen Castle
Perhaps the castle's most notable guest was King Frederick II. "the Great" of Prussia who at the end of the Seven Years' War resided here during the peace treaty negotiations taking place at the nearby Schloss Hubertusburg. On 21 February 1763 he ratified, in the White Hall, some agreements reportedly signed on 15.02.1763 in Hubertusburg to the so-called Treaty of Hubertusburg that ended the war.[1]
Duchy of Styria
The Austrian Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome was killed in battle against King Béla IV of Hungary. Styria, actually a ceased Imperial fief, due to the lack of a central authority after the deposition of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen evolved into a matter of dispute among the neighbouring estates. It passed quickly through the hands of Hungary in 1254, until the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl conquered it, being victorious at the 1260 Battle of Kressenbrunn. As King Ottokar II had married the last duke's sister Margaret of Babenberg he laid claim to both Austria and Styria, which however met with strong opposition by the elected German king Rudolph of Habsburg, who now recalled the duchies as reverted fiefs. Rudolph finally defeated Ottokar at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, seized Austria and Styria and granted them to his sons Albert I and Rudolf II.
List of monarchs of Hawaii
Kamehameha I established the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1795 after conquering most of the Hawaiian archipelago. In 1810, Kaumualii became a vassal of Kamehameha I, who therefore emerged as the sole sovereign of the island chain of Hawaii. His dynasty lasted until 1872, and his Kingdom lasted until 1893, when Queen Liliuokalani, of the Kalākaua Dynasty, was deposed by the pro-United States led overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The monarchy was officially ended on January 24, 1895, when Liliuokalani formally abdicated in response to an attempt to restore the royal government. On November 23, 1993, the Congress passed , also known as the "Apology Resolution", acknowledging the American role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. President Bill Clinton signed the joint resolution the same day.
Hipstedt
Hipstedt belonged to the Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, established in 1180. In 1648 the Prince-Archbishopric was transformed into the Duchy of Bremen, which was first ruled in personal union by the Swedish Crown - interrupted by a Danish occupation (1712-1715) - and from 1715 on by the Hanoverian Crown. In 1807 the ephemeral Kingdom of Westphalia annexed the Duchy, before France annexed it in 1810. In 1813 the Duchy was restored to the Electorate of Hanover, which - after its upgrade to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814 - incorporated the Duchy in a real union and the Ducal territory, including Hipstedt, became part of the new Stade Region, established in 1823.
Council of the Indies
The height of the Council's power was in the sixteenth century. Its power declined and the quality of the councillors decreased. In the final years of the Hapsburg dynasty, some appointments were sold or were accorded to people obviously unqualified, such as a nine-year-old boy, whose father had rendered services to the crown.
Hallvard Graatop
The Black Death, which wrought havoc throughout Europe during the 14th century, had decimated the ruling families of Scandinavia. King Olav of Denmark and Norway was the last native ruler in Scandinavia. When he died in 1387, his wife Margareta took over the rule of those two countries and then Sweden as well. In 1397 in the town of Kalmar in Sweden, the Union of the three lands under a single crown was made official and Erik of Pomerania was chosen as king. Erik fatefully chose to govern the three kingdoms from Denmark using the Danish aristocracy.
Hubertusburg
Hubertusburg is a Baroque palace in Saxony, Germany. It was built from 1721 onwards at the behest of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and after his death served as a residence of his son Augustus III. The 'Saxon Versailles' is chiefly known for the signing of the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg that ended the Seven Years' War. The palace is located in the municipality of Wermsdorf near Oschatz.
French–Habsburg rivalry
The term France–Habsburg rivalry (; ) describes the rivalry between the House of Habsburg and the Kingdom of France. The Habsburgs were the largest and most powerful royal house of the Holy Roman Empire from the Early Modern Period until the Napoleonic Wars, and survived with large possessions in the Austro-Hungarian region until the First World War. In addition to holding significant amounts of land and influence within the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg dynasty ruled Spain (1516–1556) and the Holy Roman Empire (1519–1556) under Charles V. As the House of Habsburg expanded into western Europe, border friction began with the Kingdom of France, the lands of which extended to the west bank of the Rhine. The subsequent rivalry became a cause for several major wars, including the Italian Wars 1494–1559; the Thirty Years' War 1618–1648; the Nine Years' War 1688–1697; the War of Spanish Succession, the War of Austrian Succession, and the Napoleonic Wars.
Abdication of Wilhelm II
Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated as German Emperor and King of Prussia in November 1918. The abdication was announced on 9 November by Prince Maximilian of Baden and was formally enacted by Wilhelm's written statement on 28 November, made while in exile in Amerongen, the Netherlands. This ended the House of Hohenzollern's 400-year rule over Prussia. Wilhelm ruled Germany and Prussia from 15 June 1888 through 9 November 1918, when he went into exile. Following the abdication statement and German Revolution of 1918–19, the German nobility as a legally defined class was abolished. On promulgation of the Weimar Constitution on 11 August 1919, all Germans were declared equal before the law. Ruling princes of the constituent states of Germany also had to give up their monarchical titles and domains, of which there were 22. Of these princely heads of state, four held the title of king ("könig") (the kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Württemberg), six held the title of grand duke ("großherzog"), five held the title of duke (herzog), and seven held the title prince (i.e., sovereign prince, "Fürst").
German Question
On August 6, 1806, Habsburg Emperor Francis II had abdicated the throne of the Holy Roman Empire in the course of the Napoleonic Wars with France, thereby ending the loose Empire. Despite its later name affix "of the German Nation", the Holy Roman Empire had never been a nation state. Instead its rulers over the centuries had to cope with a continuous loss of authority to its constituent Imperial States. The disastrous Thirty Years' War proved especially fatal to the Holy Roman Emperor's authority, as the mightiest entities, the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and Brandenburg-Prussia evolved into rivaling European absolute powers with territory reaching far beyond Imperial borders. The many small city-states splintered, meanwhile. In the 18th century the Holy Roman Empire consisted of over 1800 separate territories governed by distinct authorities.
Harburg (quarter)
During the Great French War Harburg suffered changing conquests, liberations and occupations, until it was first annexed by Westphalia (1807), only to be annexed by France in 1810. Harburg then became the capital of the "Canton d'Harbourg" within the "Arrondissement de Lunebourg" of the Département des Bouches-de-l'Elbe. After the French defeat in 1813 Harburg returned to Hanover, which was upgraded to the Kingdom of Hanover in 1814. The Hanoveran-British personal union ended in 1837. Hanover, including Harburg, was defeated and annexed by Prussia in 1866, joining united Germany in 1871. Since the 19th century the town has been distinguished as Harburg upon Elbe (Harburg an der Elbe or Harburg/Elbe) from the homonymous town in Bavaria.
Monarchies in Europe
Much of 19th century politics was characterised by the division between anti-monarchist Radicalism and monarchist Conservativism. 
The Kingdom of Spain was briefly abolished in 1873, restored 1874–1931 and again in 1978.
The Kingdom of Portugal was abolished in 1910. The Russian Empire ended in 1917, the Kingdom of Prussia in 1918.
The Kingdom of Hungary fell under Habsburg rule in 1867 and was dissolved in 1918 (restored 1920–1946). Likewise, the Kingdom of Bohemia under Habsburg rule was dissolved in 1918.
House of Glücksburg
The Danish line of Oldenburg kings died out in 1863, and the elder line of the Schleswig-Holstein family became extinct with the death of the last Augustenburg duke in 1931. Thereafter, the House of Glücksburg became the senior surviving line of the House of Oldenburg. Another cadet line of Oldenburgs, the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp, consisted of two branches which held onto sovereignty into the 20th century. But members of the Romanov line were executed in or exiled from their Russian Empire in 1917, while the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg was abolished in 1918, although its dynastic line survives.
Frederick V, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
After the fall of Napoleon, Hesse-Homburg was one of a few mediatised states which regained their former status, even winning total independence from Hesse-Darmstadt for the first time. This was thanks to his youngest daughter Marianne (who had married into the Prussian royal family in 1810), his six sons' military service with Prussia and his (albeit minor) family connection to the House of Hesse. This was confirmed via the German Confederation Constitution of 1815, which gave Frederick back his original lands and even added the 176 km² Grand Bailiwick of Meisenheim on the west bank of the Rhine, taken from the French department of Sarre. He had hoped for better (including an increase to neighbouring Rosbach vor der Höhe and Oberusel) and complained "What should I do with this district in China?". However, Hesse-Homburg was now a sovereign state again, joining the German Confederation as its smallest state on 7 July 1817. In 1818 his eldest son married into the British royal family by his union with George III's daughter Elizabeth. In 1819 Frederick established the Schwerterkreuz medal for military service in Hesse-Homburg's armies (now rare as it was only awarded sixteen times) and the following year he died in the castle at Bad Homburg.
Wilhelmsburg Castle
In 1583, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel became the sole owner of the Lordship of Schmalkalden, which had been shared with the Counts of Henneberg until then. Landgrave William IV immediately decided to make the city one of his secondary residences. He had the 12th Century Waltaff Castle demolished and began the construction of the castle named after him on the same location. The castle was inaugurated on 23 May 1590, although it had not yet been completed. The interior was procured from Kassel. William's son Maurice often stayed at Wilhelmsburg castle. During his reign, the castle was finally completed in 1618. His successors used the castle less and less and in the early 19th Century the castle was abandoned altogether. In 1873, the Association for Henneberg History and Geography purchased the castle and began using it as a museum.
House of Homberg
The ancestral castles of Thierstein and Homberg were both destroyed in the earthquake of 1356, and the Thierstein branch of the family now renamed a castle of theirs near Büsserach (in what is now known as the Thierstein District of the canton of Solothurn) to Neu-Thierstein.
In 1330, a branch of the Thierstein family, known as Thierstein-Farnsburg, built Farnsburg castle near Ormalingen. They were given Sisgau as a fief from the bishop of Basel.
Count Oswald von Thierstein in 1479 received Hohkönigsburg in the Alsace as fief from emperor Frederick III. The Thierstein family was extinct in 1517, after which Hohkönigsburg fell back to the House of Habsburg.
Herbord Sigismund Ludwig von Bar
The Kingdom of Westphalia was terminated in 1814 with the defeat of the emperor's Napoleonic imperial project. It's territorial extent was subsuned into an enlarged Kingdom of Hanover. Ludwig von Bar served between 1814 and 1819 as a member of the for the territory, representing the Osnabrück knightly class (""der Ritterschaft des Fürstentums Osnabrück""). He officiated initially as the assembly's legal counsel before being appointed, still in 1815, as its president. From time to time - for the first time in 1816 - he also served as president of the royal regional council (""königliche Provinzialverwaltung"") for Osnabrück. Following changes to the constitutional structure he was appointed to the newly revived post of Landdrost for Osnabrück in 1823, which effectively made him Hanover's most senior public administrative official in Osnabrück. He was appointed to the Hanoverian privy council in 1835.
Haas family
However, the history that is carefully selected and shared with the public is that the Haas family became extinct in the male line with Princess Safina (1873-1951). But there is a widely unknown and untold part of history which is that Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria married Princess Safina of the House of Haas sometime after the death of his first wife, Duchess Marie Gabrielle. Some have speculated that the two may have had kids and that the Haas bloodline is not officially absolute, but that is pure speculation and conspiracy at this point. But it is known that Crown Prince Rupprecht became close to the Haas family even after he was exiled from Germany in 1939 where he lived in Italy for some time. A set of contracts between the Haas family and the Crown Prince are said to have survived, and in them, the Haas family promises the restoration of the Bavarian monarchy.
Herodian dynasty
The Herodian dynasty was a royal dynasty of Idumaean (Edomite) descent, ruling the Herodian Kingdom and later the Herodian Tetrarchy, as vassals of the Roman Empire. The Herodian dynasty began with Herod the Great, who assumed the throne of Judea, with Roman support, bringing down the century long Hasmonean Kingdom. His kingdom lasted until his death in 4 BCE, when it was divided between his sons as a Tetrarchy, which lasted for about 10 years. Most of those tetrarchies, including Judea proper, were incorporated into Judaea Province from 6 CE, though limited Herodian "de facto" kingship continued until Agrippa I's death in 44 CE and nominal title of kingship continued until 92 CE, when the last Herodian monarch, Agrippa II, died and Rome assumed full power over his "de jure" domain.
Ehingen
"Eh'gna", the dialect pronunciation of the name Ehingen, has first been mentioned in a written document in 961. The settlement prospered in the 12th and 13th centuries under the reign of the counts of Berg-Schelklingen, Berg nowadays being just the name of a village south of Ehingen. In 1343, the count, Conrad, sold his lands to the Austrian branch of the Hapsburgs, who enfeoffed them back to Conrad. Conrad died, without heirs, in 1346; Ehingen therefore became part of Further Austria, eventually being administered as part of the Günzburg district, along with Hapsburg parts of the former Burgau. In 1805, the treaties of Pressburg put Ehingen under the rule of the new kingdom of Württemberg. In 1688 and 1749 large parts of the town were destroyed by fire.
French–Habsburg rivalry
A brief respite in French-Habsburg enmity occurred during the Seven Years' War in 1756. The Seven Years' War involved Prussia, Great Britain, Russia, France, and Austria. These latter three nations became allies for the first time in several hundred years. This alliance was sealed with the marriage of Austrian princess Marie Antoinette to the French Dauphin, who later became King Louis XVI. The war is often said to be a continuation of the War of the Austrian Succession, which was fought in 1740. France and Austria, along with Russia, fought against Great Britain and Prussia.
Lower Lusatia
Both Lusatias formed separate Bohemian crown lands under the rule of the Luxembourg, Jagiellon and—from 1526—Habsburg dynasties. In the course of the Reformation the vast majority of the population turned Protestant. The Bohemian era came to an end when Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg ceded the Lusatias to Elector John George I of Saxony under the 1635 Peace of Prague in return for his support in the Thirty Years' War; thus the lands returned to the House of Wettin. As the Kingdom of Saxony had sided with Napoleon it had to cede Lower Lusatia to Prussia in the 1815 Congress of Vienna, whereafter the territory became part of the Province of Brandenburg. With the implementation of the Oder–Neisse line by the 1945 Potsdam Conference, the lands east of the Neisse river fell to Poland.
Ottoman–Habsburg wars
Historians have devoted most of their attention to the second siege of Vienna of 1683, depicting it as a decisive Austrian victory that saved Western civilization and began the fall of the Ottoman Empire. However more recently historians have taken a broader perspective noting that the Habsburgs at the same time resisted internal separatist movements, and were battling Prussia and France for control of central Europe. The key advance made by the Europeans was an effective combined arms doctrine in which the infantry and artillery, supported by the cavalry, cooperated together to be triply effective. Nevertheless, the Ottomans were able to maintain military parity with the Habsburgs until the middle of the eighteenth century. Historian Gunther E. Rothenberg has emphasized the non-combat dimension of the conflict, whereby the Habsburgs built up military communities that protected their borders and produced a steady flow of well-trained, motivated soldiers.
Marie Hedwig of Hesse-Darmstadt
In 1680, Bernhard I and his brothers divided Saxe-Gotha and Bernhard became the first Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. His newly created duchy consisted of the former principality of Henneberg. The coat of arms of Henneberg showed a black hen. At the time, this was seen as a symbol of magic and witchcraft. Shortly before the scheduled move from their residence in Ichtershausen to Meiningen, Marie Hedwig stated that she would never enter the land of the black hen. She died later that year, after giving birth to her seventh child. She was only 32 years old, and died 9 weeks before the scheduled move to Meiningen. She was buried in the crypt of the city church in Meiningen.
Bernhard I decorated the "Hesse hall" in Elisabethenburg Palace in Meiningen in a baroque style in her memory, and hung portraits of the two dynasties in this hall.
Hubertusburg
After the death of Augustus the Strong in 1733, his son and successor Augustus III had Hubertusburg rebuilt in a Rococo style and again greatly expanded until it got its present appearance in 1752. The three-story structure now formed a rectangle, with the main façade including an oval two-story "avant-corps" and bearing the coat of arms of Augustus III as imperial vicar. The roof received a distinct canopy crowned by an onion dome and a weather vane with a jumping stag. Attached to the main palace extended functional buildings and stables were erected, grouped around a vast courtyard. The Saxon prime minister Heinrich von Brühl had his own "palais" in the right wing, embodying his special position at the court. From 1755 Brühl, though no great huntsman, served as commander of the Hubertusburg court hunts having his own cuisine and employees at his disposal. Hubertusburg was often the scene of extravagant parties and festivities. The last Hubertus feast was celebrated in 1755, before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War.
Kingdom of Hungary (1526–1867)
The Kingdom of Hungary between 1526 and 1867, while outside the Holy Roman Empire, was part of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy that became the Empire of Austria in 1804. After the Battle of Mohács of 1526, the country was ruled by two crowned kings (John I and Ferdinand I). Initially the exact territory under Habsburg rule was disputed because both rulers claimed the whole kingdom. This unsettled period lasted until 1570 when John Sigismund Zápolya (John II) abdicated as King of Hungary in Emperor Maximilian II's favor.
Leopold I, Margrave of Austria
Leopold I (also "Luitpold"; – 10 July 994), known as the Illustrious (), a member of the House of Babenberg, was Margrave of Austria from 976 until his death. He was the first margrave of the Babenberg dynasty which ruled the March and Duchy of Austria until its extinction in 1246.
Holstein
In 1474 Lauenburg's liege lord, the German Emperor Frederick III, elevated Christian I as Count of Holstein-Rendsburg to Duke of Holstein, thus becoming an immediate imperial ("reichsunmittelbar") vassal (see imperial immediacy). The Duchy of Holstein retained that status until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.
Bad Harzburg
King Conrad I of Germany is believed to have established a college of canons here in 916, in order to strengthen his rule in the Duchy of Saxony under Henry the Fowler. King Henry III had it transferred to his "Kaiserpfalz" in Goslar in 1039. Still on bad terms with the Saxons, his son and successor Henry IV between 1065 and 1068 had a sizable castle, the "Harzburg", built on the "Burgberg" to control the region, where he was besieged in 1073 by the forces of Duke Otto of Nordheim during the Great Saxon Revolt. Henry managed to escape from the castle, which after the Peace of Gerstungen was badly damaged by its attackers. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa had it rebuilt after he had defeated his rival, the Saxon duke Henry the Lion in 1180. Henry's son Otto IV, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 1209, died at the castle on 19 May 1218.
Archaeological findings of a first, later abandoned, settlement beneath the castle called "Schulenrode" (Old Saxon for "hidden (cf. skulk) clearing") date back to the 10th century. Another locality nearby named "Hartesborch" was first mentioned in a 1314 deed by the Benedictine abbey of Ilsenburg. The present-day town itself, then called "Neustadt" ("new town"), was first documented in 1338.
Ernst, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen
When his older half-brother, the last reigning duke of Saxe-Meiningen, Bernhard III, died on 16 January 1928, Ernst succeeded him as head of the ducal house, but never reigned, since the monarchy was abolished at the end of World War I in 1918. Rather than his own son, Ernst's nephew Georg, Prince of Saxe-Meiningen, succeeded him as head of the house following his death at Schloss Altenstein.
French–Habsburg rivalry
After 1648, France became predominant in central Europe. Following the peace treaty of Munster in 1648 and, more particularly, the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659, Spain's power began its slow decline in what proved to be the last decades of a degenerating Habsburg regime there. After their victory over the Turks in the second Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683, the Austrian Habsburgs focused less and less on their conflicts with the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. After the death of the last Spanish Habsburg Charles II in 1700, King Louis XIV of France claimed the Spanish throne for his grandson Philip. This caused the War of the Spanish Succession. In the treaty of Utrecht, Louis succeeded in installing the Bourbon dynasty in a Spain that was by now a second-rank power, and in bringing the Habsburg encirclement of France to an end.
Rupprecht, Crown Prince of Bavaria
On 12 November 1918, in the wake of civil unrest in the last days of the war, Rupprecht's father, Ludwig III, promulgated the Anif declaration releasing his officials, officers and soldiers from their oaths. Although he did not formally abdicate (and some loyalists would continue to refer to Ludwig as King), the declaration was interpreted by the government of Bavaria as an abdication, making Bavaria a republic and ending 738 years of Wittelsbach rule; Rupprecht thus lost his chance to rule Bavaria. Rupprecht escaped to Tyrol in fear of reprisals from the brief communist regime in Bavaria under Kurt Eisner but returned in September 1919. While away from Bavaria, he succeeded his mother, Maria Theresia of Austria-Este, the last Queen of Bavaria, as the Jacobite heir. This occurred upon her death on 3 February 1919. As such, under his anglicized name, he would be King Robert of England and King Robert IV Scotland, although he never claimed these crowns and "strongly discouraged" anyone from claiming them on his behalf. However, during his mother's lifetime Jacobites had styled him "Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay", because of her claim.
Line of succession to the former Hessian throne
The Electorate of Hesse was abolished in 1866 when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, while the Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine came to an end in 1918. Like most former German realms of the Holy Roman Empire the succession in Hessian lands was semi-Salic, with the nearest female kinswoman of the last male inheriting the crown upon extinction of the dynasty in the male line. The current pretender to both Hessian thrones is Donatus, Landgrave of Hesse, from the electoral line of the family, which inherited its claim to the grand duchy following the death of Prince Louis of Hesse and by Rhine in 1968. Donatus became head of the House of Hesse on the death of his father, Prince Moritz, in 2013. Landgrave Donatus is the titular Grand Duke and Elector of Hesse.
The Landgraviate of Hesse-Philippsthal-Barchfeld was annexed by Prussia in 1866. The main branch of Hesse-Philippsthal was extinguished in 1925, thus making the Barchfeld branch the only surviving one of the Hesse-Philippsthal line.
Hugh Capet
By the literal interpretation, Capetian kingship would thus have ended with Philip Augustus, the seventh king of his line. Figuratively, seven meant completeness, and would mean that the Capetians would be kings forever. In fact, Capetian kingship lasted until 1848 in France, although the current King of Spain and Grand Duke of Luxemburg are Capetians.
List of current pretenders
The German Empire was a federation of a score of smaller monarchies, all of which are now abolished under modern republican Germany although a handful never abdicated their titles. As a result, there are a large number of claimants to various German thrones. Since the dissolution of the empire, however, a number of former royal households have become extinct in the male line, and are therefore not represented in the list below. Mecklenburg–Schwerin became extinct in 2001, Saxe-Altenburg in 1991, and Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in 1971.
Postage stamps and postal history of Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig and Holstein have at different times belonged in part or completely to either Denmark or Germany, or have been virtually independent of both nations. From 1460 until 1864, the King of Denmark was both a Danish Duke of Schleswig and a German Duke of Holstein. After the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire on 6 August 1806, Denmark affirmed its possession of Holstein but did not alter its constitution. Napoleon did not touch either Schleswig or Holstein in 1810 when he annexed the rest of northwestern Germany including the Duchy of Lauenburg. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Holstein and Lauenburg became part of the German Confederation, but Schleswig did not. Although Holstein did continue to owe allegiance to the Danish King, in his role as a German duke. The First Schleswig War (1848–1851) was inconclusive, but after the Second Schleswig War of 1864, the Danish King ceded Schleswig to Prussia and Holstein and Lauenburg to Austria. In the Gastein Convention of 14 August 1865, Austria sold Lauenburg to Prussia. Austria lost Holstein to Prussia after the Seven Weeks' War the following year. Lauenburg was an autonomous duchy until 1 July 1876, when it was incorporated into the Royal Prussian Province of Schleswig-Holstein. Denmark only regained northern Schleswig after the plebiscite of 1920.
Hermannsburg
The princely line of the Billung family ruled over the region until they died out in 1106. Thereafter the country was ruled by the House of Welf, whose lordship lasted until 1866, with short interruptions during French occupation in the Seven Years' War (1756–1763) and the period of the Kingdom of Westphalia (1807–1813). From 1866 Hermannsburg was part of the Prussian Province of Hanover. In the course of Prussian district reforms the village was assigned to the district of Celle.
Habsburg Monarchy
Another attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the various revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a centralized bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, being divided into a series of districts. Following the Habsburg defeats in the Wars of 1859 and 1866, this policy of net-absolutist centralization was abandoned.
Hamburger Bahnhof
On 14 December 1906, the former station became home to the new "Royal Museum of Building and Transport" (), supervised by the Prussian State Railways, which was incorporated into the new all-German national railways Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1920. The term 'royal' was dropped with the end of the Prussian monarchy in 1918. The museum attracted crowds and was twice extended with additional wings to the left and right of the main building in 1909–11 and 1914–16. Hit by Allied bombing in 1944, the museum was closed; however, most of the collection survived.
Ludwig II of Bavaria
The King was succeeded by his brother Otto, but since Otto was considered incapacitated by mental illness due to a "diagnosis" by Dr. Gudden, the king's uncle Luitpold remained regent. Luitpold maintained the regency until his own death in 1912 at the age of 91. He was succeeded as regent by his eldest son, also named Ludwig. The regency lasted for 13 more months until November 1913, when Regent Ludwig deposed the still-living but still-institutionalized King Otto, and declared himself King Ludwig III of Bavaria. His reign lasted until the end of the World War I, when monarchy in all of Germany came to an end.
Abolition of monarchy
World War I led to perhaps the greatest spate of abolition of monarchies in history. The conditions inside Russia and the poor performance in the war gave rise to a revolution which toppled the entire institution of the monarchy, followed by a second revolution against that government in October of the same year that executed Emperor Nicholas II and implemented a Marxist-Leninist government. The defeated German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires saw the abolition of their monarchies in the close aftermath of the war, ending the reigns of Wilhelm II, Charles I and Mehmed VI respectively. The monarchs of the constituent states within the German Empire, most importantly Ludwig III of Bavaria, Frederick Augustus III of Saxony and Wilhelm II of Württemberg, soon abdicated. During the war, monarchies were planned for Poland (Kingdom of Poland), the Grand Duchy of Finland (to have a Finnish King), and for Lithuania (Mindaugas II of Lithuania), with a protectorate-like dependency of Germany. Both intended kings renounced their thrones after Germany's defeat in November 1918. King Nicholas I of Montenegro lost his throne when the country became a part of Yugoslavia in 1918.
After the death of the last Emperor, Bogd Khan, in 1924, Mongolia became a republic. In Spain the monarchy was again abolished in 1931 by the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939). In 1947, General Franco declared Spain a realm, and appointed Juan Carlos of Bourbon his successor in 1969. The Prince of Spain became king at Franco's death in 1975, and constitutional monarchy was restored in 1978 under him.
Habsburg Monarchy
The head of the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg was often elected Holy Roman Emperor: from 1452 until the Empire's dissolution in 1806, Charles VII of Bavaria (1742–1745) was the only Holy Roman Emperor who was not Habsburg ruler of Austria. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, and most of the Empire was ruled by other dynasties.
Modern history
The Bourbon Restoration followed the ousting of Napoleon I of France in 1814. The Allies restored the Bourbon Dynasty to the French throne. The ensuing period is called the Restoration, following French usage, and is characterized by a sharp conservative reaction and the re-establishment of the Roman Catholic Church as a power in French politics. The July Monarchy was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution (or Three Glorious Days) of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848. The Second Empire was the Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870, between the Second Republic and the Third Republic, in France.
The Franco-Prussian War was a conflict between France and Prussia, while Prussia was backed up by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and Bavaria. The complete Prussian and German victory brought about the final unification of Germany under King Wilhelm I of Prussia. It also marked the downfall of Napoleon III and the end of the Second French Empire, which was replaced by the Third Republic. As part of the settlement, almost all of the territory of Alsace-Lorraine was taken by Prussia to become a part of Germany, which it would retain until the end of World War I.
Northern England
The 1066 defeat of the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada by the Anglo-Saxon Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Stamford Bridge near York marked the beginning of the end of Viking rule in England, and the almost immediate defeat of Godwinson at the hands of the Norman William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings was in turn the overthrow of the Anglo-Saxon order. The Northumbrian and Danish aristocracy resisted the Norman Conquest, and to put an end to the rebellion, William ordered the Harrying of the North. In the winter of 1069–1070, towns, villages and farms were systematically destroyed across much of Yorkshire as well as northern Lancashire and County Durham. The region was gripped by famine and much of Northern England was deserted. Chroniclers at the time reported a hundred thousand deaths – modern estimates place the total somewhere in the tens of thousands, out of a population of two million. When the Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, much of Northern England was still recorded as wasteland, although this may have been in part because the chroniclers, more interested in manorial farmland, paid little attention to pastoral areas.
Following Norman subjugation, monasteries returned to the North as missionaries sought to "settle the desert". Monastic orders such as the Cistercians became significant players in the economy of Northern England – the Cistercian Fountains Abbey in North Yorkshire became the largest and richest of the Northern abbeys, and would remain so until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Other Cistercian abbeys are at Rievaulx, Kirkstall and Byland. The 7th-century Whitby Abbey was Benedictine and Bolton Abbey, Augustinian. A significant Flemish immigration followed the conquest, which likely populated much of the desolated regions of Cumbria, and which was persistent enough that the town of Beverley in Humberside still had an ethnic enclave called Flemingate in the thirteenth century.
Kingdom of Bavaria
On 7 November 1918, Ludwig fled from the Residenz Palace in Munich with his family. He was the first of the monarchs in the German Empire to be deposed. A few days later William II abdicated the throne of Germany. Ludwig took up residence in Austria for what was intended to be a temporary stay. On 12 November, he issued the Anif declaration, which released his soldiers and officials from their oath to him. Although he never formally abdicated, the socialist-led government of Kurt Eisner took Ludwig's declaration as such and declared the Wittelsbachs deposed. With this the 700-year rule of the Wittelsbach dynasty came to an end, and the former Kingdom of Bavaria became the People's State of Bavaria.
End of the Han dynasty
The end of the Han dynasty refers to the period of Chinese history from 189 to 220 AD, which roughly coincides with the tumultuous reign of the Han dynasty's last ruler, Emperor Xian. During this period, the country was thrown into turmoil by the Yellow Turban Rebellion (184–205). Meanwhile, the Han Empire's institutions were destroyed by the warlord Dong Zhuo, and fractured into regional regimes ruled by various warlords, some of whom were nobles and officials of the Han imperial court. Eventually, one of those warlords, Cao Cao, was able to gradually reunify the empire, ostensibly under Emperor Xian's rule, but the empire was actually controlled by Cao Cao himself. Cao Cao's efforts to completely reunite the Han empire were rebuffed at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 / 209, when his armies were defeated by the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei. The Han dynasty formally ended in 220 when Cao Cao's son and heir, Cao Pi, pressured Emperor Xian into abdicating in his favour. Cao Pi became the emperor of a new state, Cao Wei. A year later, in response to Cao Pi's usurpation of the Han throne, Liu Bei declared himself emperor of Shu Han; and in 229, Sun Quan followed suit, declaring himself emperor of Eastern Wu. The period from Emperor Xian's abdication in 220 to the partial reunification of China under the Jin dynasty in 265 was known as the Three Kingdoms era in Chinese history.
List of last scions
Male members of the House of Habsburg held many regnal titles in Europe from the twelfth to eighteenth centuries, most importantly those of Holy Roman Emperor (and its German associate and predecessor titles) and King of Spain. Its last male scion was "Emperor Charles VI" (1685–1740). His daughter "Maria Theresa of Austria" (1717–1780), who succeeded to some of her father's titles by inheritance and gained power of the rest of her father's domains when her husband was elected Emperor, was the last member of the royal house. Her descendants, the House of Lorraine, continued to hold this power and were styled the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship
The state of the Teutonic Order ceased to exist in 1525 when Grandmaster Albert Hohenzollern introduced secularisation, proclaimed the Duchy of Prussia and became a vassal of Sigismund I of Poland. The Prussian line of Hohenzollern was extinct by 1618 with the death of Albert Frederick and the Duchy was inherited by the Brandenburgian line; Prussia simultaneously entered a personal union with the electorate of Brandenburg known as Brandenburg-Prussia. The throne was inherited by Frederick I of Prussia who wanted to unite the Duchy with Brandenburg and also wanted to proclaim himself king of Prussia and therefore participated in the Russian-initiated Partition of Poland in which the province of Royal Prussia was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia, and henceforth became known as East Prussia until 1945. Together with the rest of the Kingdom, the region became part of the North German Confederation, the German Empire, the Weimar Republic, and Nazi Germany. After the end of World War II, both the German as well as the Slavic Masurian population were expelled by the Polish government.
Luke Brugnara
In 1992 Brugnara was bestowed as an Honorary 33rd Degree Freemason in the San Francisco Scottish Rite lodge by then Sovereign Grand Commander Henry Clausen. Brugnara has direct linage to the Hapsburg Empire on both maternal and paternal bloodlines; as Hannibal Brugnara was the Archduke of Austria-Hungary for the Hapsburg Empire from 1750-1785, and the Marques Pelegri-Demerimon of Catalonia for the Hapsburgs during the 17th to 19th century.
Teutonic Order
The military history of the Teutonic Knights was to be ended in 1805 by the Article XII of the Peace of Pressburg, which ordered the German territories of the Knights converted into a hereditary domain and gave the Austrian Emperor responsibility for placing a Habsburg prince on its throne. These terms had not been fulfilled by the time of the Treaty of Schönbrunn in 1809, and therefore Napoleon Bonaparte ordered the Knights' remaining territory to be disbursed to his German allies, which was completed in 1810.
Kłodzko Land
When the Bohemian Crown fell to the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy in 1526, the rights of the Hardegg family were confirmed by King Ferdinand I. Johann von Hardegg finally sold Kladsko to Ferdinand in 1534/37; from that time on, the Habsburg rulers pledged the county several times: first to the Bohemian noble and former governor John III of Pernstein, later to the Salzburg administrator Ernest of Bavaria, who implemented stern measures of Counter-Reformation. After Ernest's death in 1560, his heir Duke Albert V of Bavaria sold Kladsko back to Emperor Maximilian II. The Habsburg rulers raised the pledge sum with the support of the local estates, and the Counter-Reformation efforts ended.
List of rulers of Austria
The Austrian branch technically ended in 1780 with the death of Maria Theresa of Austria and was replaced by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine in the person of her son Joseph II. However, in practice, the new successor house styled itself as Habsburg-Lorraine ("Habsburg-Lothringen"). All Habsburgs living today are in the agnatic descendants of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen.
Bad Frankenhausen
With the partition of Schwarzburg County in 1599, Frankenhausen became the capital of the "Unterherrschaft" subdivision of the County of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, which in 1710 was raised to a principality. Prince Günther Victor was the last German monarch to abdicate, on 23 November (as Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt) and 25 November 1918 (as Prince of Schwarzburg-Sondershausen). The succeeding short-lived Free State of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt merged into the newly created Thuringia in 1920.
Holy Roman Empire
The empire was dissolved on 6 August 1806, when the last Holy Roman Emperor Francis II (from 1804, Emperor Francis I of Austria) abdicated, following a military defeat by the French under Napoleon at Austerlitz (see Treaty of Pressburg). Napoleon reorganized much of the Empire into the Confederation of the Rhine, a French satellite. Francis' House of Habsburg-Lorraine survived the demise of the empire, continuing to reign as Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary until the Habsburg empire's final dissolution in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I.
County of Kyburg
When Hartmann IV died without a male heir in 1264, the Count of Kyburg passed to Rudolf of Habsburg. The western Kyburg lands were sold to Rudolf in 1273 by Hartmann V's daughter Anna, but were permanently separated from the County of Kyburg. Initially after acquiring Kyburg Castle, Rudolf often directly ruled over the county from the castle. However, after his election to Emperor he only rarely returned to Kyburg. Over the following years, as the Habsburgs gained power in Austria, Kyburg went from a centerpiece of their power to a minor province. After 1364 the Habsburgs used Kyburg as collateral for loans or as a reward for vassals. In 1384 the county was pledged to the Counts of Toggenberg and in 1402 it was held by Kunigunde of Montfort-Bregenz. During the Appenzell Wars, the county was invaded in 1407 and the castle was besieged.