Genealogy of the Houses Habsburg and Württemberg

Visual representations of family or family trees were designed to create a dynastic identity, legitimising one's rule and creating a sense of a ruling family that differed from that of their neighbours. This example of a family tree illustrates not only one family's rule but the relationship between the houses of Habsburg and Württemberg on the basis of genealogy. The two family trees cross only once and are based on the ancestors Emperor Rudolf I of Habsburg and Eberhard I of Württemberg, who are both depicted on a throne in the image's lower half. The two houses only found their way to a peaceful coexistence after many fierce conflicts.

Jonathan Sauter (1549–1612): Allianztafel der Häuser Habsburg und Württemberg, water colour on paper, 134 cm x 152 cm, 1612; source: Landesmuseum Württemberg, inventory number E14, https://bawue.museum-digital.de/object/447, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-SA), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.