What is the secret of the Habsburgs? How did the successive heads of the family – counts, territorial princes, kings, and emperors – navigate the dynasty for eight centuries? Is there a formula for empire-building? And what is perhaps even more challenging: maintaining one? What unites those who bear the Habsburg name today, in an era of mass democracies and artificial intelligence, in a (post-)postmodern world? Does a Habsburg brand exist?

Eduard Habsburg, descendant of the Hungarian branch, and until recently Hungary’s ambassador to Malta and the Holy See, guides his readers with a sure hand through the portrait gallery of his lineage. Under the pretext of seven themes, he recalls the history of the past centuries of Europe, while individual members of the family appear as flesh-and-blood human beings: they emerge from the pedestals of their statues, leave the gilded frames of their portraits, sketched in a few apt strokes as vivid figures passing before us – magnificent heroes, fallible sinners, world-conquering generals, and wavering mortals searching for their place and faith. One might wonder: who is truly impartial when it comes to their own kin?

Several of the rules may even be adopted by people today as daily exhortations towards self-realisation: Know who you are! Get married! Be Catholic! Die well! Others can be understood on a communal level: Stand up for law and justice! Be courageous in battle! Believe in the empire! It is for us to decide which of these we consider important and worthy of being taken to heart. According to the testimony of the book, the successful Habsburgs strove to embody all of these principles simultaneously.