the family's genes had essentially caved in on themselves. For one, Charles’s parents were uncle and niece to each other. For another, alleightof his great-grandparents were descendants of the same couple. And let me tell you, this really showed. ...
For the greater part of Frederick’s reign it was scarcely foreseeable that his descendants would monopolize the imperial succession so long as they did. The Bohemian and Hungarian kingdoms were lost to the Habsburgs for nearly 70 years from the death of Ladislas Posthumus in 1457; the Swiss ...