The Early Habsburgs18 Sep 2025

Ep.207: Habsburg Dukes (1308-1437) - How the Habsburgs got their Chin - History of the Germans

“The Habsburgs ruled half of Europe with a chin that entered the room five minutes before they did,” is one of those witticisms that made the 19th century so amusing. But by then the Habsburg jaw had long receded.

It had its heyday in the 16th and 17th century when people in Spain called out to the future emperor Charles V: “Your majesty, shut your mouth! The flies of this country are very insolent.” And when they looked at his later descendant, king Charles II who was probably the worst affected, they said, he was “more Habsburg than human”.

But where is the Habsburg Jaw from? The view repeated again and again in history books is that it came from Cymburga of Masovia, the wife of duke Ernst the Iron, but was she really responsible? Or was it something quite different that caused that deformation, and what has it to do with the prostration of duke Friedrich IV before emperor Sigismund in 1415?

That is what we are looking at in this episode.

The music for the show is Flute Sonata in E-flat major, H.545 by Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach (or some claim it as BWV 1031 Johann Sebastian Bach) performed and arranged by Michel Rondeau under Common Creative Licence 3.0.

As always:

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To make it easier for you to share the podcast, I have created separate playlists for some of the seasons that are set up as individual podcasts. they have the exact same episodes as in the History of the Germans, but they may be a helpful device for those who want to concentrate on only one season.

So far I have:

The Ottonians

Salian Emperors and Investiture Controversy

Fredrick Barbarossa and Early Hohenstaufen

Frederick II Stupor Mundi

Saxony and Eastward Expansion

The Hanseatic League

The Teutonic Knights

The Holy Roman Empire 1250-1356

The Reformation before the Reformation

The Empire in the 15th century

The Fall and Rise of the Habsburgs

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Episoder(38)

Ep. 238: The Habsburg Empire at its Zenith - Ferdinand I and the Siege of Vienna - History of the Germans

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21 Mai 53min

Ep. 237: How Italy Fell to the Habsburgs - From the Peace of Madrid to the Sack of Rome 1527. - History of the Germans

We are coming closer to the end of our series on the Fall and Rise of the House of Habsburg. We have seen the reconsolidation of Austria, the acquisition of Burgundy, the inheritance of Spain and toda...

14 Mai 36min

Ep. 236: Charles V (1520-1555) - The Battle of Pavia - History of the Germans

In 1521 four men dominated Europe. They were all in their twenties: King Henry VIII of England, born 1491, King Francois I of France, born 1494, Suleiman the Magnificent, Ottoman Sultan, born that sam...

7 Mai 38min

Ep. 235: The Youth and Election of the Emperor Charles V (1520-1555) - History of the Germans

Born during a ball in Ghent on 24 February 1500, Charles of Habsburg would grow up to rule an empire stretching from the Philippines to Prague and from Lima to Lauwersoog. But who was the man behind o...

30 Apr 40min

Ep. 234: The Charisma of Emperor Maximilian (1493-1519) - History of the Germans

Maximilian I died on January 12th, 1519. But his likeness is everywhere. None of his predecessors left behind as many depictions of their life, from being fed by his nurse as a toddler to the Totenbil...

23 Apr 37min

Trailer for The Early Habsburgs - Their Fall and Rise

The House of Habsburg once ruled Spain, Benelux, Austria, Hungary, Czechia, most of Italy, at times Portugal and all of Latin America, the Philippines and of course, the Holy Roman Empire. Most histor...

19 Apr 25min

Ep. 233: Maximilian I (1493-1519) - Last Days and Legacy - History of the Germans

The last decade of emperor Maximilian’s reign was overshadowed by all three challenges to the emerging Habsburg empire gaining strength. The Ottoman empire was piling on resources by taking over Syria...

16 Apr 39min

Ep. 232: The Ottomans – From Mehmet the Conqueror to Selim the Grim (1444-1520) - History of the Germans

These last dozen or so episodes we have examined the genesis of two of the three major strategic preoccupations of the Habsburg empire, the rivalry with the French kings and the relationship with the ...

9 Apr 38min