Grand title of the emperor of Austria
The house also produced kings of Bohemia, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, England and Ireland, as well as rulers of several Dutch and Italian principalities amongst many others.
; Archduke of Austria; Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow; Duke of Lorraine, Salzburg, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Bukovina; Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia; Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friaul, Ragusa and Zara; Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca; Prince of Trento and Brixen; Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria; Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg etc.
It was previously claimed by the Habsburg emperors in their capacity as kings of Hungary and Croatia, as it was part of the Croatian and later Hungarian royal title since the High Middle Ages.
His descendant Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor officially elevated it to an archduchy in 1453, confirming a 1356 forgery by Duke Rudolf IV.
He later passed the grand duchy to a younger son, but the main branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine continued to use the title.
The male line of the original House of Habsburg went extinct with Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor.
His daughter Maria Theresa married the aforementioned Francis, Duke of Lorraine (later Emperor Franics I), and their progeny became the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
Silesia was originally owned by the Kingdom of Poland, but it was gradually broken up and acquired by Bohemia as a crown land.
Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d'Este, daughter of the last duke of the House of Este, married Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este, allowing this title to pass to the Habsburgs.
The Habsburgs controlled the Duchy of Guastalla between 1746-1748 following the death of Giuseppe Maria Gonzaga, but it was then also lost in the same war.
When Leopold's son Francis I married Maria Theresa of Austria, the title returned to the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.
The title was created in order to strengthen the Emperor's claim to the region, but the Habsburgs acquired Friuli only in 1797 with the Treaty of Campo Formio, and then again after Napoleon's defeat.
Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik) was a maritime republic, which in the late Middle Ages recognized the suzerainty of the Hungarian kings.
A brief period of rule by the city of Zürich became permanent from 1452 when it was used as collateral for a loan the Habsburgs never repaid; they continued to use the title despite no longer being in possession of the land.
In 1647, the nearby town of Gradisca and the surrounding area on the right bank of the Isonzo river was elevated to an immediate status and given to the Eggenberg family as a principality.
With the annexation of Venetian Istria in 1797, the Habsburgs joined all their Istrian possessions into one unit and revived this title which had been abandoned in the late 13th century.
When the last count of Feldkirch Frederick VII died in 1436 the county passed back under the suzerainty of the House of Habsburg.
However, in 1805, it was assigned to the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg, although in fact held by a Russian squadron under Dmitry Senyavin.
In 1282, a cadet branch of the House of Gorizia was enfeoffed with part of the region, which became known as the County in Metlika and in the Windic March.
After 1918, the grand title was invoked for historical commemorative reasons in two Habsburg burial ceremonies in Vienna.
Zita's son Otto von Habsburg was buried on 16 July 2011, and a prayer was said in the mausoleum: "Otto of Austria, first Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, royal prince of Hungary and Bohemia ..." The titles of King of Jerusalem and Archduke of Austria were omitted.
No Austrian emperor was actually sovereign over Jerusalem, and in 1961 Otto had renounced all claims of sovereignty in the Republic of Austria.
