Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb.

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Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb and welcome to not just the Tudors from History Hit, the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenots, from Shakespeare to Samarise.

Relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors.

In the haze of medieval Europe, a modest Swiss noble house rose to become the most enduring

imperial dynasty the continent has ever seen.

The Habsburgs first recorded near the River Air in the 10th century did not look destined for

empire building. Yet through a potent mix of marriage, inheritance, political instinct and sheer

persistence, they rose to dominate Europe for nearly four centuries.

From their first imperial coronation in 1273 to their rule over the vast and fragmented

transcontinental domain by the 16th century, the Habsburg story is one of improbable

elevation and relentless adaptation.

They presided over a patchwork of territories,

each with its own laws, languages and customs.

Their power rested not on national identity or conquest,

but on dynastic prestige, legal tradition,

and a dazzlingly successful marriage policy.

In this space of just a few decades

in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, they absorbed Burgundy, Spain, the New World, Hungary and Bohemia, stretching their influence from the Americas to the edge of the Ottoman Empire.

...