The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order: 1905-1922

by Edmond Taylor

In the fifteenth century however, a Habsburg Emperor, Frederick III, finally made it practically hereditary by the simple device of having his son elected heir-presumptive during his lifetime; successive Habsburgs adopted the practice as a family tradition. The same Frederick, a colorless but ambitious ruler, founded another Habsburg tradition, that of expansion by matrimony. “Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube” (“Let others wage war, but you, happy Austria, marry”) became the unofficial Habsburg motto. Frederick’s son, Maximilian, (1459-1519) who married the Netherlands and a nice strip of eastern France, perfected the policy. He betrothed his heir to a bride whose intellect was cloudy but whose dowry was brilliant; Joan the Crazy, daughter to their Most Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (and, thanks to Christopher Columbus, of certain lands beyond the ocean sea).