FERDINAND E. MARCOS - Lcgmn.com

EUROPE: CATASTROPHE AND REVIVALo;r;r~~~
In this sixth installment we
trace the incredible story of
the Habsburg family who rose
from petty nobility to Holy Roman
emperors. The Habsburgs
revived the empire and thrust
it into the center of the European
political arena.
WH EN HOLY Roman Emperor
Frederick II died in
1250, a frightening two
hundred year period began for Europeans.
An on-the-scene observer
in the fifteenth century could easily
speculate that the empire was essentially
finished. Proof that European
civilization was about to be extinguished
seemed everywhere:
• The "terrible time without an
emperor" in Germany had occurred,
dividing and confusing the
. nation.
• The popes suffered their socalled
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 hammering
at the frontier of German
Austria.
• The bloody Hussite religious
wars (1420-1434) had torn the empire
apart.
• The scourge of the Black Death
had resulted in the deaths of perhaps
one quarter of Europe's population.
• A series of conflicts between
1338 and 1453, known as the Hundred
Years' War, locked France and
England in a mortal struggle.
These major traumas rock~d cen-
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tral European civilization to its
foundation. Though it was probably
life as usual for most people, Europe's
ability to be a strong, unified
force in world affairs looked bleak
indeed.
The Habsburgs at Work
During this time of trial for Europe,
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, perhaps
not even the Habsburgs, what
the incredible outcome of their endeavors
would be.
In time, the Habsburgs parlayed
their holdings into one of the first
truly giant empires, another resurrection
of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles V, the best known of the
Habsb,qrg emperors, would one day
by Paul W . Kroll
Part 6: THE HABSBURGS
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PLAIN TRUTH June-July 1974 23