Elaine Meinel Supkis
A minor story in this month's news in Europe is one that interests me tremendously since it is on a topic I know a great deal about: the Holy Roman Empire and its strange relationship with Eastern Europe. I think it would be best to tell this story through the saga of the Babenberger family, the earliest rulers of the Austro-Hungarian empire.
&hearts It seems the German Foreign office asked for a map showing Germany's historic sphere of influence.
BERLIN (Own report) - On the eve of Germany's presidency of the EU, German cartographical plans for a "large scale reordering of Europe" have come to light. These maps were produced at the request of the German Foreign Office and are intended for the political and administrative use of German authorities. In these presentations, Germany dominates the area called "Middle Europe" as the country with the largest population. Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are excluded. Denmark, Spain, Italy and Portugal also do not belong to "Middle Europe". Former Yugoslavia up to the Albanian frontier and thirteen other states in Eastern Europe do. According to the themes developed "areas historically ruled by the predominantly German-speaking states" are the most "suitable" for inclusion in the "The cultural space (Kulturraum) of Middle Europe". The accompanying charts designate parts of France, Denmark, the whole of Luxemburg, Switzerland and upper Italy to the political fiction of a German-dominated centre. Naturally, Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary are taken into the project. Various areas are claimed as part of "Middle Europe" because they were originally part of the German Reich, "quite separately" from their later conquest by the Nazis. german-foreign-policy.com is publishing excerpts from these charts which bear a worrying similarity to projections made by the predecessor states of the German Federal Republic.
As I have said in the past, the drawing of maps is a very bloody business. I know, as a property owner of vast tracts of land (my section of this mountain), we all patrol our borders a lot and check out intrusions and we fret about every possible inch, disputing the lines, checking the compasses, looking for stakes marking corners that were sunk into the ground 200 years ago. So it comes as no surprise to learn that maps can agitate people into open warfare.
When I reported about the astonishing map put out by a Pentagon officer that neatly redrew the entire Middle East so Israel could be much bigger and Saudi Arabia much smaller, this caused a very big diplomatic flap that was shoved under the carpet again but violence in the Middle East shot up significantly after that and Cheney had to go to Saudi Arabia to apologize profusely.
&hearts Here is a Serbian site complaining about not just the German map but attempts by the UN to unilaterally redraw what they consider to be Serbia.
We at Free Nations have long provided conclusive proof of the German imperialist nature of the the embryo Euro-State and its effective achievement in the last few decades of the 20th century of everything which two world wars failed to deliver. One of the many ways in which this new power over our country, our parliament and our people and the once free nation states of Europe has been achieved is by the drawing of maps. Regionalism undermines nation states. Economic centralism undermines the logic of nation states. EU bureaucratic centralism overrides national Parliaments. On mainland Europe racial and ethnic politics - funded by the German Government and based on Nazi founded organizations like the Federal Union of European Ethnic Groups - are also exploited to wipe out national boundaries. By eliminating those boundaries Germany can revert to the power of the Volk, (ethnic Germans, wherever they are) to form a new power base. This report translated by Edward Spalton is perhaps the most blatant use of map drawing to promote German ethnic, imperial and economic hegemony over the nations of Europe.No wonder our German journalist friends in this report see echoes of the Nazi era.
It is a terrible business, redrawing Yugoslavia's map. For the ghosts of the early Middle Ages rose up out of the earth to wield their rusty swords and thousands of people died. The events of 1250 AD still shake Europe. The slow death of Constantinople still uncoils its dusty shroud.
In my own mind, the High Middle Ages lives on, I used to fight in armor, ride hefty Austrian horses, swung my sword and blocked blows with my shield. I studied the early poems of the Minnesänger and read a lot of books from that time, in the original language as well as modern languages. The convoluted affairs of the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire and Austria is a true horror-story/romance. No wonder later German and Austrian culture created Dracula and Faust!
From the foundation of Vienna (Roman name: Vindobona) by Imperial Rome to the fall of the Babenberger Dynasty in 1250 and the conquest of Austria by the Hapsburg Dynasty, Vienna was the lynchpin that connected the East to the West thanks to the Alps barring the way except for some narrow passes. Because of this, Vienna could engineer the closing of these passes and prevent kings and emperors from dominating Eastern Europe.
The last fully functional Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, was killed in battle in Vienna in 180 AD. It was all downhill after that. His son was the odious Commodus who was featured in 'The Decline and Fall of Rome' by Gibbon as the worst emperor to sit on a very bloody throne.
In 492, the Attila the Hun invaded. The foundation of Venice on the Adriac by refugees from the mainland of Italy, comes from this time. Austria became a wilderness as the invading horsemen, made powerful by the invention of stirrups, spurs and improved horse collars, overran everything. This is the beginning of the Dark Ages.
732--Charles Martel defeats the Muslims at the famous Battle of Tours. He immediately sets out to take over all of Central Europe all the way to Vienna. At this time, most of Germany was overrun by Teutonic tribes which worshipped Wotan. But thanks to Martel controlling the passes, Roman priests could penetrate into the wild forests in the north and by 755, St. Boniface managed to convert the key rulers of the German tribes but when he tried to change the Frisians who were pirates, he was killed, unsurprisingly, by them.
Charlemange was crowned in 800 AD. This is the day the Holy Roman Empire was born. Pope Leo III sanctified the throne. The Roman Pope was at war with Constantinople over religious rites issues and precedence issues. As per usual in religious disputes, lots of people were killed as opposing sides used armies to ravage and ruin each other. At this point, there was still 'one church' but the fissures were growing rapidly.
Interestingly enough, it was in 831 that an abbot in Neustria, just outside Vienna, gave HRE Charles the Bald a book explaining how ordinary bread and wine becomes Christ's actual body via 'transubstantiation'. The ensuing debate caused a fatal rift within the Church and the split it caused still continues. After this, Rome turned her back on Constantinople...!
Charles the Fat broke the Holy Roman Empire in two in 885 AD. His brother, Louis, got the German half. Very soon afterwards, the Mygar horsemen invaded with even better equipment and they ravaged much of the Eastern Holy Roman Empire. For 50 years, they set everything to flame. But Henry the Fowler began to build castles in Swabia and slowly brought the wild Mygars to heel. They settled in what is now Hungary because of the great grazing there.
They, in turn, decide to stop bothering the Frankish/German king and attack Rome, instead. Pope John XII (my goodness, already in the double digits!) asks him to save Rome and he does. He is then crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The eternal struggle for power of the Guelfs and the Ghibellines is born. Actually, these are German families: the Welfs of Altdorf (Old Town) and the Wibelungen (Nibelungen of the Wagner opera, the Ring cycle) of Franconia.
The very first Babenberger is recorded at this time, he was a gallant knight who died fighting at the Battle fo Pressburg (Bratslava). The Mygars overrun all of Austria up to the border of Bavaria. The Battle of Lechfeld is still celebrated in Austria as a great victory, it is the founding of Austria as a political reality.
A note at this point: the people in this timeline are what we can easily call, 'The Ruling Class.' Every one of them earned their titles via the sword. Holding their titles involved lots and lots of direct hand-to-hand combat. Weak kings were killed or assassinated with quick brutality. It is a dog-eat-peasant world. Various restless tribes which brought down the Roman Empire fell under the control of these heavily interlocked warrior families. Everyone in these families, and there were only several dozen of these families, and they intermarried heavily, often to a very astonishing degree whereby a husband and wife could be cousins, aunts and uncles and stepfathers and stepmothers SIMULTANEOUSLY. Their pedigrees were carefully kept by the Church and tracking their complex sexual interactions is a real headache as well as frightful in its consequences.
In 1075, Leopold Babenberger the Handsome establishes the furtherst-east duchy, Ostmark (Austria). He marries the daughter of the HRM Heinrich IV. She is a first degree cousin, his aunt being her mother. Almost instantly, he gets in a brawl with his father-in-law and in retaliation, the f-i-l gives his duchy to Vratislav II who was the Duke of Bohemia (Czech).
The future complications of this particular high-strung, gloriously handsome family troubles European history in a thousand ways. This family was not like many who marry for lands but can't bear to have children, a common problem. Because the men were very dashing, they had many children. Leopold's son, for example, married another HRE princess and they had 12 children! One son was named 'Leopold the Liberal'! Heh. If he ran for office today, he would be a shoo-in.
Henry II came along in 1143 and rode to Constantinople on crusade. The Emperor had just killed off his rival and his rival's daughter, Theodora, had to be taken care of. He decided to marry her off to a barbarian. So he sent Henry to her chambers. Her maids and her mother were wailing with fear and horror when he ventured in. Within minutes, he put his sword at the trembling Princess' feet and swore she was the loveliest woman on earth and he would kill anyone who dared to dishonor or upset her.
She fell in love. It helped that he was tremendously handsome, of course. And he could fight her uncle. Frederick Barbarrossa, the first Hohenstauffen Emperor, is crowned by the Pope. Henry is his uncle and he gives him all the Eastern lands.
1177, Leopold the Pious of Austria marries the daughter of the fierce Mygars of Hungary. His sister, Agnes Babenberger, is married to the king of Hungary. The dynastic marriages get increasingly complicated as now, the Byzantine Emperors are trying to form alliances with the barbarians around them but due to Byzantine palace politics, this always gets screwed up as the women are married off, they often seek revenge on whoever sits on the throne there, this causes many headaches as well as head detachments.
Just before this, King Phillip of France and Richard the Lionhearted are born. The crusaders hold Jerusalem which they took unexpectedly in 1099, less than 100 years earlier. All the ruling elites are excited about crusading but they can't stop fighting each other as they squabble over their various inheritances. The epic struggle between Phillip and Richard thanks to both men's fathers being married to the same woman, is the stuff of thousands of legends and tales.
Both kings are persuaded by the Pope at Verzelai to go on crusade. This starts out very badly with Richard and Phillip quarreling over who marries whom. Richard spurns Phillip's sister for Berengaria. Up to this point, they slept together (hahaha). Um, seriously.
Meanwhile, the HRE, Barbarossa (we know this name from the Nazi code-word for the invasion of Russia which takes us back to that map in the news this month) marched from Germany to Constantinople. He picks up Leopold of Austria and but to the despair of the Germans, he drowns while attempting to cross a river in flood. This has many ramifications in the future, of course.
So the super-hunk, Leopold, takes up the banner of crusaders and rides to the Holy Land where he meets up with King Phillip of France who is super pissed off at Richard the Lionhearted. Richard is off looting Christian lands like Cyprus. He is acting pretty much like his Viking ancestors, of course. He arrives late to the Holy Lands.
At the port of Acre, Richard's army, full of themselves after looting their way over, go about the city, filled with bravdo and insults. They spot the Holy Roman Emperor's banner held by Leopold's men. This leads to a quarrel over who has precedence. Since Leopold is the son of not just a mother from Byzantia, an empress but his grandmother was one, too! So he won the argument but the English troops toss down his banner.
When Leopold, with Phillip next to him, demanded restitution, Richard, angry at Phillip and attracted to the handsome Leopold, refused this. This led to a nasty personal challenge and Leopold, shocked, packed his bags and left with his army. Soon afterwards, Phillip slipped away, too.
We all know what happens next, of course. When a triumphant but foolish Richard got his fill of fighting, he too, slipped out of the Holy Land, secretly, to run home after hearing things were not quite right with brother John Lackland and his Robin Hood problems. Deciding to go way north to the Rhine where his sister was Queen, he decided to hike right through the center of Leopold's lands. Where he was spotted and caught.
Both Leopold and Phillip had a great time, toying with him. He was kept in a very isolated castle. His mother was driven to distraction, trying to deal with the political difficulties of springing him. Phillip wanted him penned up because Phillip feared fighting him but delighted in fighting his cowardly brother. And Leopold was cold-bloodedly teaching Richard a lesson. In the end, so many people were offering him so much money, he sold his captive for a fine randsom. He then established a community for Jews from Venice, in Styria called, of course, Judenburg (Jewish mountain). He then lives high off the hog on the proceeds which is invested in several enterprises (one of which lost much of it in the end) and decided to host fancy tournaments for the chivalry.
Where he gets thrown off a horse, breaks his leg and dies.
At this point, the marriages of the many daughters of the prolific (sexy) Babenbergers have made alliances in Bohemia, Russia, Hungary, Italy, Byzantia and Germany. These women are known to be attractive and good for a roll and thus, popular with monarchs. This dynasty looks like it will go on forever.
But in 1212, Frederick the Streitbar (stressed-out or vicious) was born. He was not only gay as Richard, he loved to brawl and was totally spoiled rotten by his Byzantine Princess mother, being the youngest child. Alas, his handsome and very heterosexual brothers died in the Crusades. His aunt Gertrude, queen of Hungary, was murdered by the nobility there because she wanted to marry her daughte to a Teutonic Knight while her husband was on crusade with her brother. This caused Streitbar a lot of stress and he hated the kings of Hungary the rest of his turbulent life.
The HRE, Frederick II, was uncle to Streitbar. They hated each other's guts. And didn't hide it one bit, either. Streitbar's older sister, Agnes, marries the son of this Holy Roman Emperor. But alas, the Emperor also hated his own son. And his son hated Margaret who was much older than him. Like nearly 20 years older. And unlike all other Babenbergers, she didn't get the 'sexy' gene, either. She was pretty grim. Behind all this messy family stuff, Leopold, before he died, made what he thought was a nice deal for his dynasty but it really set in motion the disaster that was to destroy everyone: he took in the daughter of the king of Bohemia, Agnes, to teach her courtly manners and graces so she could become the empress.
But his wife wanted her own daughter to be empress (Byzantine pride here) so the poor girl was popped into a nunnery. Leopold then told the king of Hungary he would represent him in Rome while negotiating with the Emperor. Louis VIII of France wanted his daughter to marry Frederick II, too. And the Electors of Germany chose poor Agnes. But Leopold persuaded the Emperor to pick his own child and this back-stabbing infuriated three major kingdoms that surrounded Austria. But Leopold thought he could handle this because he had the entire Emperor at his beck and call. Only he died in that accident.
Out of this entire generation of Babenbergers, only the eldest son, Henry, had a child, a lovely girl. She never saw her father who died on the crusades. She was raised by her crazy uncle who found himself ruler of this troubled, difficult land while still a teenager. He doted on his niece and loved her and only her. He was instantly married off to yet another Byzantine princess. They never consumated their marriage and it was a very loud, messy divorce. Meanwhile, Gertrude's mother ran off with a Teutonic Knight (wild sex time here), Henry-Raspe of Thuringia (he is briefly and bloodily, the Emperor).
Margaret's marriage with the Emperor's son collapses. He decides he really wants Agnes after all, she is a year younger than himself. This is another very messy divorce. For the next ten years, the Emperor, his son and Streitbar fight each other, ally with each other and humiliate each other in increasingly bloody confrontations which of course, storm up and down Austria. In between, various Popes excommunicate one or the other or all three, not once but repeatedly...to no avail. Sounds like my own family here.
The Old Man of the Mountain in Lebanon sends assassins after everyone, killing the Duke of Bavaria (everyone's uncle in this saga). Agnes of Bohemia meanwhile remained in her convent. But the Emperor, Frederick II, decides she is a real sexy teenager and demands to marry her and forces the King of Bohemia to hand her over. But just like in romances, St. Claire, plutonic love of St. Francis of Assizi, rode swiftly north to save her and she forcibly intervened and stood literally between the crazed Emperor and his prey, thwarting him.
Whew. Meanwhile, the King of Hungary dies and the nobles offer the throne to Streitbar. But Bela rose from the ranks of the chivalry there and defeats Streitbar in battle and gets this throne which is about to go up in flames. For across Asia, Ghengis Khan is already burning cities and has turned his attention to the rumors of vast, rich grazing lands for herds of war horses...Hungary.
Everyone joins together to attack Streitbar who loses Austria except for one mountain stronghold. He hangs out there with his buddies and his little niece who he won't let anyone touch or else. The minute the Holy Roman Emperor left, he retook Vienna and put up his niece in the grand castles there. So the Emperor returns in rage and puts his own 9 year old son on the throne. But he then has to leave again and the Streitbar returns in triumph.
The Pope hears about Gertrude growing up as a lovely duchess and anxious to stop the eternal and worsening wars in Middle Europe and to weaken the Holy Roman Emperor, his rival in Rome, he has his envoys arrange a marriage of this protected duchess to the son of the King of Bohemia, both children are only 12 years old! Well, Streitbar rode up to Bohemia to arrange the final paperwork of this diplomatic marriage. Of course, he got drunk, got in a fight with King Wenscaslas, called him names and stormed out of the kingdom.
This same year, the King of Hungary got a good look at the Mongolian hordes which already destroyed every single city along the Silk Road and were rapidly approching Hungary. In alarm, he sent a sword throughout Europe, begging everyone to help defend his kingdom 'Or you too will be destroyed!'
He even asked the Streitbar for help. So Streitbar comes to Hungary (he hates the Hungarian king with a deadly passion). He immediately starts fights with all of the allies of the King. After thoroughly destroying the alliances and killing lots of people, he happily returns to his mountainous castles to watch the carnage unfold.
That March, the Mongols entered Hungary and killed nearly everyone except for the King who fought them with tremendous bravery. The Queen and daughters flee to Austria but had to hand over all the crown jewels for protection. The Mongols had to chase poor Bela, king of Hungary, all over the Yugoslavian countryside while he successfully evading them. So they decided to attack Vienna and off they went to fight the deranged Streitbar in Austria. After just one foray into Austria which the wild Streitbar repelled successfully, they were suddenly called back to Mongolia because the succession of rule had to be decided with the death of Ogedei Khan. Of course, the Duke of Austria didn't know this, he imagined they gave up because of his wild, relentless fighting. This boosted his already out of control ego no end.
King Bela, furious with Streitbar, returned to a kingom that was in total ruin. Back in Austria, Gertrude was growing up, happy as a lark with her dotting uncle giving her great freedom. The son of the Holy Roman Emperor was killed and father had wrecked yet another wife, he was very cruel to wives, he turned his eyes upon Gertrude now that he was friendly with Streitbar again, and he decided she should be his empress.
The Pope, at war with the Emperor, was very distressed by this, he didn't want the Emperor to control the North/South passes in the Alps nor the East/West trade routes so he put out a letter accusing the Emperor of murdering his previous three wives. Of course, Henry VIII of England beat him in this bloody battle of the sexes. But the main thing is, an Archbishop was sent post-haste to see Gertrude who had no idea of what was going on until this harried old man, red in the cheeks from his hurry, rushed up to her rooms in the tower. She is preparing her wardrobe for the coronation/wedding. The maids were sent from the room and as doves flew from the window sill and the scent of roses graced the room, the weeping Archbishop showed her the Pope's personal letter to her. She recoiled in fear as he told her step by step, how each empress begged for help, how they told their families how they were in prison, unable to go out of the harem. How they mysteriously died.
He is a Bluebeard! The Archbishop said. Horrified, this slender young girl rose up and cried out, she would never marry such a man.
Streitbar agreed. He loved her more than anyone. So he did as she wished. The Emperor was enraged and swore he would take her by force. The Archbishop rode off to Thuringa to her step-father, Henry-Raspe and offered him the crown of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1246, armies clash at the Battle of Lietha where the Streitbar is slain byt the King of Hungary. The Bela got his revenge. But he was also faster than the Emperor and rode to the castle where the young duchess was ensconced and he took her by force and married her to his son, Vladislav who was 19 years old, like her. The fighting and rough riding made the young prince ill and he suddenly died in her arms right after the wedding.
Almost immediately, her step-father, the alternate Emperor, gets ill and dies, too. But Hermann von Baden from the Neckar and Rhine, rode to her castle and swore he would die for her, he would protect her. Alone and terrified, she touched his naked sword and agreed to marry him. And she loved him, they had two children.
But the Emperor was even angrier and he fought Hermann at every possible turn. Ottokar, the new King of Bohemia, finds Gertude's aunt in a convent. She is 50 years old now and he is only 20 years old. He marries her and tells Gertrude she is no longer the Duchess of Austria. But Hermann fights him. And dies.
Gertrude is only 21 years old. Even as her husband's corpse lay on the field of battle, Bela of Hungary, stormed off to her castle and seized her again, with force. One can easily imagine the dramatic scene. Her one thought was to save her babies. She agreed to go peacefully with him if he spared them.
To punish her and to keep close, he marries her off to a prince of Kiev, Prince von Galicia, his grandson. He brings this youth to her castle and stands over the marriage to insure she doesn't keep him out of her bed due to mourning her husband he killed.
She still refused him. He eventually divorced her but Bela and Ottokar split her duchy between them and left her only one castle which overlooked Judenburg. The Jewish community felt her sorrow and pain and protected her and protected her children. So she lived a simple but well-cared for life. Her son was a dashing, handsome lad. His mother has intense pride in him. Alas for her, he becomes close friends with the grandson of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II. When Conradin, the heir to the Empire and Frederick III, hier to Austria, rode off to fight in Italy when they were only 15 years old. The battles over Rome raged but alas for poor Gertrude, both boys were captured by Papal forces.
They were executed in front of a huge crowd. Both boys showed touching dignity and their youth and beauty moved the crowds but this made the French even more determined to kill them, the last thing they wanted was handsome, dashing fighters on their tail for the next thirty years. And so, they died and Gertrude shrieked with intense pain when a priest came to her, bearing the news. She locked herself in a cloister which had armed guards so no king or emperor could take her again and she, at a still young age, became an abbess. She lived a remarkably long time, until she was over 80 years old. By then, the Hapsburgs took Austria by the sword and became the new rulers and they ruled until WWI.
But by then, she considered such things to be a curse, not a blessing. And of course, this map in the news is all about the Holy Roman Empire, her own Duchy and her lands in marriage that went all the way to Kiev, down to Venice and up to the Baltic.
We saw a perfect tidalwave of blood shed during the 20th Century over the lines on the map of Europe, lines drawn long ago and disputed for centuries. To this day, Vienna is the hingepin of Europe. Radiating out of it are many paths, many roads, many historical forces. When we see events today, they are like plucking strings of this vast instrument of tremendous age. The pipeline disputes between Russia and Belarus cause resonating discords in Vienna and are transmitted beyond to Germany and France.
The futility, fighting and fear within the ruling elites is also an old story that continues to this day. The people within this community do morph over time but also they keep themselves 'pure' by choice marriage. The old elites were nearly destroyed by WWI and WWII and the sexual deviancies within these inbred families leads to uncertainties. We see tragedies like Gertrude today, too, such as poor Princess Di and her ugly divorce and even uglier death. And her death still roils the royals of England for many of the populace still are most suspicious and this grows over time despite all efforts to quell it.
It is worse in the Middle East: the wars there go back in time thousands of years and feature many invasions and many tragedies and worse, is also the birth place of three very violent, uncompromising religions which are, like the royals of Europe, incestuously related to each other. Undoing that mess defies resolution. It can destroy all humans on earth! It is truly a nightmare.
But this short history is a reminder that many civilizations have been brutally eradicated. And yet, hope springs eternal and families rebuild and wonderous things are built. So we struggle onwards. Despite ourselves.
Thank you for taking time to read my longest posting yet.
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