Author and Hungarian Ambassador to the Holy See, Eduard Habsburg Hungary’s current Ambassador to the Holy See is a descendant of the Catholic European Royal House the Habsburgs.
Eduard Karl Joseph Michael Marcus Koloman Volkhold Maria Habsburg-Lothringen or Eduard Habsburg for short recently released a new book entitled The Habsburg Way in which he provides seven principles, or what he calls rules for turbulent times, that the notable family lived by for generations that he seeks to impart to the rest of the world.
Spanning the 13th to 20th centuries the Habsburgs, with origins as mere Swiss nobles, gained vast territories stretching from Eastern Europe to the Americas with Catholicism central to their rule. The family dynasty even lay claim to land closer to home as Spanish King Philip II, also a Habsburg, was provided with Offaly, or King’s County in his name, following a plantation also of neighbouring Laois or Queen’s County named after his wife Queen Mary.
Encompassing various dukes, archdukes and emperors from the Holy Roman Emperor at the height of the reformation Charles V to the beheaded Queen Consort of France during the revolution Marie Antoinette iconic figures and portentous events throughout European history are related to the Habsburgs without you even realising.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic Ambassador Habsburg says Catholicism was “crucial” to the dynasty maintaining their power for so long.
“It [Catholicism] really shaped the Habsburgs and everything they did,” he says.
Legacy
While there were a few rulers who did not share the faith or only provided lip service to it Eduard says the vast majority were devout and that shaped everything they did.
Speaking candidly to this newspaper he says his knowledge of and respect for the scion’s history and legacy is what inspired him to write the book: “While I was compiling the list and going through all my Habsburg history books and picking out all the examples for these for these principles, I realised ‘hang on, these things have sort of gone today, they’ve disappeared in our world today.’”
So what are those rules?
Rule number one is to get married and have lots of children.
“One of the core elements of understanding the Habsburgs is that they had huge families with lots of children.”
He insists that their philoprogenitive nature was inherently tied to their faith: “They had lots of children because they were Catholic,” he says.
Without such fecundity amongst generations of Habsburgs, their rule could not have lasted for as long as it did for over 600 years.
His full title, Archduke Eduard Habsburg, immediately stand out denoting a symbolic and antiquated meaning.
Eduard doesn’t exude Ambassador: he is a renowned social media influencer who adopts Millennial/Gen Z vernacular”
Eduard says that every one of his namesakes is entitled to the arch-dukedom: “Well, if you are cynical, you would say it’s a title that the Habsburgs invented in the 15th century because every Habsburg is an archduke, and it’s a title that only exists in our family.”
He notes that a recovered document written by Julius Caesar in the 15th century in “clumsy handwriting” conferred the title but mentions the scepticism among Renaissance scholars who claim it’s a forgery.
“It’s our private title. You couldn’t compare it to any other Dukes or counts or whatever, because it only exists within our family,” he says.
As well as being Hungary’s Ambassador to the Holy See he is also a Sovereign of the Order of Malta.
At first glance, Eduard doesn’t exude Ambassador: he is a renowned social media influencer who adopts Millennial/Gen Z vernacular posting memes to his over 80,000 followers on X thus making the centuries old dynasty more familiar to modern audiences.
“I’m very present on Twitter. I interact and I have lots of fun. I think it’s a rather wholesome and nice account. I don’t take big fights and I’m never nasty.“
He never misses an opportunity to debunk the theory that the Habsburg enlarged chin is a result of inbreeding.
‘I’d like to point out, once more, that the Habsburg jaw was NOT “a result of intermarriage/inbreeding”, but present in the family at least two generations before Spanish Habsburgs began marrying Austrian Habsburgs. There, another myth gone’ he recently posted on X.
Faith
The 57-year-old German born Habsburg refers to the Vatican diplomatic posting as “very rewarding”, adding that, “This is the job where I really can bring everything that interests me: my faith, my historical knowledge, my, I hope, diplomatic talents, my love for protocol and style, I think this is all very important to the Holy See.”
“This is not a diplomatic post like any other,” he adds.
Rule number two is to be Catholic and practise your faith.
For Eduard, Christianity is essential for any ruler to live by: “A ruler, a political leader, who believes in God, and who believes that he’s a sinner, and who tries to better himself by living a Christian life will be less tempted to be corrupt, to do horrible things during his work as a ruler, because one day God will ask.”
He worries about the decline in religiosity in Europe presently: “We are in the last waves of a crisis that began in the 1950s in Europe and exploded after the 1960s… I have the impression that in many ways the Catholic hierarchy is incredibly weak, crumbling in many places and helpless at the same time.”
“Despite the weakness of the Catholic hierarchy he notices a strong rebounding of faith driven mainly by young people”
Ireland is not immune to this phenomenon with “the Irish Church in a crisis,” he says
“There seems to be something like a backlash against a perceived over-dominance of the Catholic Church in the last centuries in Ireland.”
He recalls his father living in Ireland in the early 1960s near Shannon Airport. “Ireland is always on the back of my mind,” he adds.
Despite the weakness of the Catholic hierarchy he notices a strong rebounding of faith driven mainly by young people: “I see a very strong rebirth of Catholic faith among the young in small numbers but very strong.
“When young people discover the Catholic faith in its fullest form, with sacraments, with devotions, with rosary with all of that in an attractive way, they will never leave again… that’s why I believe that the Church is being reborn from the grassroots right now.“
Dynasty
Rule number three of the book, which holds a contemporary resonance, is a belief in the Empire but also subsidiarity.
For many, the Habsburg dynasty’s rule over Europe has all the hallmarks of an overbearing empire seeking to rule over the affairs of individual countries.
In 1867 Hungarian nationalists declared autonomy by revolting against the Habsburg dominated Austria which subsequently led to the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which inspired Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith to advocate a similar dual monarchy model between Ireland and Great Britain.
But according to Eduard, the Habsburgs respected the particularisms of each country they ruled over in stark contrast to those who attempt to globalise the world today.
“Globalism is the opposite of subsidiarity… people are afraid of globalism; they are afraid because they feel that we humans are fiercely local.
“We belong to a local community. We belong to a city to a town perhaps to a region, perhaps you belong to a nation.
“The Hapsburgs tried to centralise their multicultural empire and force one language, one standard one something onto all those countries there was trouble”
“That’s what is missing in the European Union today.”
Quoting the infamous Habsburg Emperor Charles V in a letter to his son Philip II: “If you rule over an empire with different countries, you better respect their laws, their rights, their Parliaments, their languages, and their special situations.”
Eduard mentions that while “that was in the 16th century” it still holds true today.
“Whenever the Hapsburgs tried to centralise their multicultural empire and force one language, one standard, one something onto all those countries, there was trouble, there was revolution. But when the Habsburgs respected the different countries… then the Habsburg Empire went really well.”
Other rules include “Be Brave in Battle” and “Die Well.”
The Habsburg Way is available on Amazon.