A peculiar family rivalry will play out today in Inglewood, California, where Spain and Austria battle it out on the soccer field.

For hundreds of years of history, both countries were ruled by members of a common dynasty: the Habsburgs. Thanks to an extensive, deliberate strategy of dynastic intermarriage, the Germanic clan progressively accumulated territories across Europe, and eventually ended up with members of the family sitting on the thrones of both the Spanish and the Holy Roman Empires (as well as its later, smaller iteration, the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

For centuries, the branches of the clan respectively ruling from imperial courts in Spain and Austria routinely wedded cousins — and sometimes even nieces and uncles — with one another in an effort to keep the family’s lands and riches intact. A lasting testament to the politically-motivated inbreeding policy is on display in both Madrid’s Prado Museum and Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, which are home to portraits that served as calling cards for prospective mates within the dynasty.

The policy helped keep the dynasty in control of their vast territorial possessions but also contributed to hereditary physical deformities — among them, the iconic protruding lower chin and receding upper jaw which is today described as the „Habsburg jaw” — and diseases. Indeed, the clan’s Iberian branch went extinct in 1700 following the death of the final Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II, whose jaw was so massive that he struggled to chew and swallow.

The Austrian line of the family lasted substantially longer, thanks in part to its move away from inbreeding and merge with other noble houses. They remained on the throne in Vienna until 1918, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was dissolved after World War I and Austria became a republic.

Even though it’s been ages since the Habsburgs ruled in Spain or Austria, their presence can still be felt in both countries. Both Madrid and Vienna still bear the imprint of Habsburg rule with monumental squares like the Plaza Mayor or the Heldenplatz and imperial art collections that continue to draw thousands of tourists each year.

When it comes to football, the Habsburg legacy on the pitch is somewhat darker: In Spain, for example, some far-right sports fans have made use of the imperial Cross of Burgundy to promote ultranationalist messages during matches.

But ahead of Thursday’s game, fans in both countries evoked their common heritage with memes referencing the most powerful Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who between 1519 and 1556 ruled over Spain, Austria and other realms included in the vast „empire on which the sun never sets.”

One of the dynasty’s modern-day members, diplomat Eduard Habsburg, retweeted a post in which his most famous ancestor is informed that „there is to be a Spain-Austria match.”

In the caption, the emperor coyly responds, „Against whom?”

Forrás