Episode 1

Episode one begins over 900 years ago, with a Swiss German family, named after their castle - Schloss Habsburg. A family that emerged from bloody dynastic wars and religious conflict to become a central power in Europe. Choosing diplomacy over the battlefield, Emperor Maximilian I brokered some of the biggest dynastic matches in European history and created an empire that included South America, Spain, Italy and much of Central Europe.

From Maximilian onwards, the history of the Habsburgs became the history of Europe. The dynasty formed Europe's front line in the struggle to defend Christendom from the Ottoman Islamic advance, and the Catholic Church from the Protestant revolutionaries who plotted to destroy it.