«Let justice be done, though the world perish.»—Historical Habsburg Motto
A modest noble house from a rugged alpine valley began as loyal vassals, managing estates with shrewd care. Marriages wove their blood into greater lines, securing lands from misty forests to sunlit plains. Castles rose under their banners, each stone laid with calculated ambition. By the time a golden crown rested on their patriarch’s head, their domains sprawled across rivers and mountains, knit by pacts and dowries. Cathedrals bore their crests, and their court buzzed with envoys from distant realms. Armies marched at their command, while their children, wed to foreign thrones, carried their influence like seeds on the wind. Palaces gleamed, filled with tapestries of their triumphs, as their name became a whisper of power in every corner of the continent.
Continue reading Sarajevo, 1914: The Bullets That Ended a Dynasty