The Habsburgs

This history of the Habsburg dynasty follows the house from its medieval Austrian base through the Spanish and Holy Roman crowns to the collapse of Austria-Hungary. Wheatcroft attends less to battle-by-battle narrative than to how the family presented itself: marriage, ceremony, portraits, tombs, and the claim to embody empire. Figures include Charles V and Philip II, Maria Theresa, Franz Joseph, and Maximilian in Mexico. Court ritual and the management of many peoples are set against the limits of that display. The book is a study of dynastic image and power, not a full military history of Europe.

Bound in yellow silk with a cover design in black. Black slipcase.