THE HOUSE OF HABS-BURG.

The House of Habs-Burg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential Royal Houses of Europe. The progenitor of the House was Gunt-Ram the Rich. He was a Count in Breis-Gau, who lived in the 10th century, and was a member of the noble family of the Eticho-Nids. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habs-Burg founded the Habs-Burg Castle, after which the Habs-Burgs are named.
The origins of the castle's name located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aar-Gau, are uncertain. The Habs-Burg Castle was the family seat in the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries.
The Eti-Chonids were an important noble family of Frankish, Burgundian or Visigothic origin, who rose to dominate the Region of Alsace, located on France's Eastern border and on the West bank of the Upper Rhine adjacent to Germany and Switzerland.
By 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a Plain surrounded by the Vosges Mountains (West) and the Black Forest Mountains (East). It creates Foehn Winds, along with natural irrigation, participates to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always bee a rich Region which explain why it suffered so many invasions and annexions in its history.
The earliest account records of the family's beginnings is around Dijon, a city in Eastern France in Northern Burgundy. In the mid-7th century a Duke of the Region named Amalgar and his wife Aquilina were noticed as major founders and patrons of monasteries. King Dagobert I and his father made donations to them to recover their loyalty and compensate them for the losses that they had sustained  as supporters of Queen Brunhild and her grandson, Sig-Ebert II. Almagar and his wife founded a convent at Bregille and a abbey at Beze, Eastern France, installing a son and a daughter in the abbacies. They were succeeded by their 3rd child, Adal-Rich, who was the father of Adal-Rich, Duke of Alsace. This 2nd Adal-Rich was the true founder of the family greatness in Alsace, where he secured the Ducal Title. His name, Eticho, a varation od Adal-Rich, is used in modern language.
Under the Eticho-Nids, Alsace was divided into a Nord-Gau and a Sund-Gau. These counties, as well as the monasteries of the Duchy, were brought under tighter control of the dukes with the rise of the Eticho-Nids. There exist concerns whether they were in conflict or alliance with the Carolingians, but it is possible that they were both: opponents of the extension of Charles Martel's authority in the 720s when he first made war on Alemannia, but allies when the Alemanni , under Duke Theu-De-Bald invaded Alsace (which had a large Alemannic element in its population) in the early 740s. The last Eticho-Nid Duke, Liut-Frid, died fighting Theu-De-Bald on behalf of Pepin the Short.
Among the descendants of the Eticho-Nids, in the female line were Hugh of tours and his family, including his daughter Ermen-Gard, who was the wife of Lothair I (eldest son of the Carolingian emperor Louis the Pious) and thus mother of 3 Carolingian kings.
In the 10th century the Eticho-Nids remained powerful in Alsace as Counts, but their power was circumscribed significantly by the Ottonian Dynasty (Saxon Dynasty , successors of the Carolingians in East Francia), and by the 11th century, Pope Leo IX seemed unaware that his ancestors, the lords (or Counts) of Dabo (Northe-Eastern France) and Eguis-Heim (North-Eastern France and Birthplace of the Pope) for the previous half century were direct descendants of the last Eticho-Nides. Many notable European families trace their lineage to the Etchonides.
The Habs-Burgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, especially Count-ships rights in Zurich-Gau, Aar-Gau, and Thur-Gau. In the 13the centuty, the House aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to gain positions in the Church Hierarchy for their members. Territorially they often profited from the extinction of other noble families such as the House of Ky-Burg (Zurich, Switzerland).
By the 2nd half of the 13th century, Count Rudolph IV (1218-1291) had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance. Due to these impressive pre-conditions, on 1 October 1273 Rudolph was chosen as the King of the Romans and received the name of Rudolph I of Germany. In 1282, the Habs-Burgs gained the rulership of the Duchy of Austria, which they held for over 600 years, until 1918.
The Habs-Burgs sought to consolidate their power by frequent use of consanguineous marriages. They were said to have a proverb that "the best spouse for a Habs-Burg is another Habs-Burg." this resulted in cumulatively deterioration effect on their gene pool. Marriages between first cousins, or between uncle and niece, were commonplace in the family. The inbreeding directly led to their extinction. The gene pool eventually became so small that the last of the Spanish line Charles II, who was severely disable from birth, possessed a genome comparable to taht of a child born to a brother and sister, as did his father, because of remote inbreeding custom of the family. The Austrian branch went extinct in the male line in 1740 with the death of Charles VI and in the female line in 1780 with the death of his daughter Maria Theresa; it was succeeded by the Vaude-Mont branch of the House of Lorraine in the person of her son Joseph II.
On 6 August 1806 the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved under the French Emperor Napoleon I's reorganization of Germany.
On 11 November 1918, with his empire collapsing around him, the last Habs-Burg ruler, Charles I (who also reigned as Charles IV of Hungary) issued a proclamation recognizing Austria's right to determine the future of the state and renouncing any role in state affairs. Two days later, he issued a separate proclamation for Hungary. Even though he did not officially abdicate, this is considered the end of the Habs-Burg Dynasty.