ABSTRACT
Rudolf of Habsburg, at the time of his election as king of Germany in 1273, was head of a House which traced its origins back to the eleventh century and which had considerable possessions in Alemannic Switzerland and Upper Alsace. The heart of these domains was the present-day canton of Aargau, the fortress of Habichtsburg mentioned as early as 1020 and which yields by contraction the name Habsburg. The cradle of the House of Austria is situated in what was once the kingdom of Lotharingia, at the very heart of Europe and the crossroads of commerce and culture.
