House of Hapsburg and Inbreeding

House of Hapsburg and Inbreeding

Inbreeding when it is thought of in terms of humans is always a taboo, it is seen as a gross, low-class activity that leads to birth defects. In reality it is much more than that. Inbreeding in its most boiled down form is actually a science that when used with animals can produce purebred, prototypical animals with an ideal genetic makeup. Inbreeding as defined in The World Book Encyclopedia Dictionary is; "Breeding from closely related persons, animals or plants, so as to preserve certain characteristics." (Thorndike 993). "Inbreeding in humans may produce such hidden characteristics as weakness, albinism, or feeble-mindedness." (World Book Encyclopedia I, 78). This was not however the reason why the House of Hapsburg chose to inbreed so extremely. The Hapsburgs inbred for one reason, they had to gain and then maintain the power and the land that the family had worked so hard for. Although at that time little was known about the problems of inbreeding it is obvious that they didn't give a thought to genetics.

The Hapsburgs were a German dynasty that gained the imperial crown in 1273 and maintained it for the next six centuries until 1816, except for a five year period in the 18th century. Their name like many families comes from "the family's seat, Habichtsburg (Hawks Castle), which overlooks the Aare River in what is now Switzerland." (Cantor 210). "The Austrian double eagle is traditionally used to represent the Hapsburg royal family. The Austrian double eagle also shows teutonic crosses and other emblems used to represent the different ethnic groups and religions under the Hapsburg dominion." (Goethehearst, 665) The family also known as the Habsburgs ruled Austria from 1282 until the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the early 20th century so they have also been called the House of Austria, even though their territory was much more expansive.

"Early on the family tried to claim that they were legitimate contenders for the crown by tracing their ancestry back to Julius Caesar." (Cantor 210). They failed on this attempt because no documents could be found stating that Julius was in fact a member of the House of Hapsburg. The earliest documented member of their family was "Guntram the Rich, Possibly the same Count Guntrum that tried unsuccessfully to rebel against King Otto I in 950." (Cantor 210) The lineage can be traced back further but in doing so you lose almost all meaningful information about Guntram's family. He was a son of one of the eighth-century dukes of Alsace and that is all we know. Guntram had a son and a grandson, Lanzelin and Radbot respectively who extended the Hapsburg lands further south into Swabia. It was "Radbots brother (or brother-in-law), Werner, Bishop of Strasbourg who built the castle" that is the basis for the family name. (The World Book Encyclopedia H, 56). By the end of the century they were officially the Hapsburgs.

The early Hapsburgs attempted and succeeded in gaining power in a more modern way without all the inbreeding. They faithfully served the kings of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty. This was a dynasty, founded by "Count Fredrick, builder of the Staufen Castle in the Jura Mountains in Swabia" (Cantor 228), that ruled the Holy Roman Empire for more than a century near the end of the Middle Ages. While the Hohenstaufen Dynasty was struggling