The Habsburgs now live in people’s imagination as those rulers with the large jaw who eventually were so inbred that they died out. Now, this is not entirely true, and their legacy deserves more than that. They once ruled large parts of Europe and even of the New World and the Far East.
I imagined it would be quite difficult to fit all of this in one book, and it turns out… it was. Naturally, the book focuses heavily on the male side of things – they were the actual rulers, after all. I did find it rather disappointing that – especially in the first part of the book – very few women even receive a name, and when one finally did… it failed to mention that she was actually England’s first undisputed Queen Regnant. Poor Queen Mary I just can’t catch a break.
I also did not find the tiny jabs at women funny. Sophie of Bavaria, the mother of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, is described as “tiresome,” but why exactly was she tiresome? We’ll never know. All in all, these moments made for very exasperated reading for me. I don’t know if this was intentional on the author’s part, but the lack of women in the story of the Habsburgs just simply didn’t do it for me. Of course, there’s Empress Maria Theresa as one of the main figures, but even her story does not seem to do her justice.
Overall, the book is well-researched and factually correct, and the writing style is quite pleasant if you can overlook the “tiresome” Sophie. It will serve well as an introduction into the Habsburg empire, but if you’re looking for the women, you won’t find many of them here.
The Habsburgs by Martyn Rady is available now in both the UK and the US.
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