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EUROPE: CATASTROPHE ANO
REVIVALfíTJ?iíiT_,r;;r;r;íT~Li?í?
In this sixth installment w e
trace the incredible story of
the Habsburg family who rose
from p etty nobility to Holy Ro–
man emperors. The Habsburgs
revived the empi re and thrus t
it into the cen ter o f the Euro–
pean polít ica/ arena.
W
HEN
HOLY Roman Em–
peror Frederick Il died in
1250, a frightening two
hundred year period began for Eu–
ropeans. An on-the-scene observer
in the fifteenth century could easi1y
speculate that the empire was essen–
tially finished. Proof that European
civilization was about to be extin–
guished seemed everywhere:
• The "terrible time without an
emperor" in Germany had oc–
curred, dividing and confusing the
·nation.
• The popes suffered their so–
called Babylonian Captivity (1309-
1376) in the French-dominated city
of Avignon.
• The Great Schism, beginning
in 1378, rent the papacy asunder.
• The Byzantine Empire, the last
vestige of the Roman Empire in the
East, had fallen in 1453.
• Turkish armies were ham–
mering at the frontier of German
Austria.
• The b1oody Hussite re1igious
wars (1420-1434) had tom the em–
pire apart.
• The scourge of the Black Death
had resulted
in
the deaths of per–
haps one quarter of Europe's popu–
lation.
• A series of conflicts between
1338 and 1453, known as the Hun–
dred Years' War, locked France and
England in a mortal strugg1e.
These major traumas rocked cen-
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by
Paul W. Kroll
tral European civilization to its
foundation. Though it was probably
life as usual for most people, Eu–
rope's ability to be a strong, unified
force in world affairs looked b1eak
indeed.
The Habsburgs at Work
During this time of tria! for Eu–
rope, one family - the Habsburgs –
was working quietly behind the
scenes. Members were enlarging
and consolidating land holdings and
consummating politically important
marriages. Few people realized, per–
haps not even the Habsburgs, what
the incredible outcome of their en–
deavors would be.
In time, the Habsburgs parlayed
their holdings into one of the first
truly giant empires, another resur–
rection of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles V, the best known of the
Habsb~rg
emperors, would one day
Part 6: THE HABSBURGS
Om1ee
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PLAIN TRUTH June-July 1974
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