The Cradle of the Hapsburgs

ed by any member of it for generations. Indeed, but for her, it is difficult to imagine how the Hapsburgs would ever have occupied the position to which afterwards they rose; and the strange part of the matter is that, whereas the various chieftains of the house forged forward by acts premeditated as they were sometimes questionable, this simple daughter of the house threw ambition and scheming to the winds, attaining success by the dictates of her own open and disinterested nature. The Countess Richenza's life is a romance. ' For the pedigree of the early Hapsburgs see p. n. After the death of her father and of his brother Wejahej j3isjhoj3£Sirash11rg, who indeed was one of the builders of Hapsburg Castle, she and her sister Matilda, finding the schloss an uncongenial residence under the arbitrary ownership of their brother, lived in a distant possession of the family, an old fortress overlooking the Rhine. Chaperoned by an elderly dame, a kinswoman of their mother's of the noble family of Von Lothrin- gen, they passed pleasant enough days, inasmuch as the castle was beautiful and situated amid exquisite scenery. Moreover, they were much spoilt, and had their own way not a little, but otherwise their life was not exhilarating. Few suitors came their way, the girls being of a new nobility, orphaned, and not over well dowered, and more or less neglected by the brothers, who were too much occupied in warfare and the augmentation of their house to consider the ...