The early Hapsburgs
- Clocktower and church of Meyenheim. Meyenheim and Ensisheim make up the heart of the Hapsburg possessions on the Rhine.
Rudolf is the son of Lanzelin, the Count of Altenburg, who lived in the 10th century. His brother Radbot is elected Count of Klettgaus in 1023 and dies in 1045. Radbot's wife Ita is the daughter of Duke Frederick of Haute-Lorraine, who dies in 978, and the sister of Thierry, Duke of Haute-Lorraine. Rudolf can be considered as one of the two leaders of the Papal Army which fights the Normans of Sicily in Civitella. When conflicts arise between the Alsatian Pope Leo IX and neighbors from the south of the Papal possessions in Italian, arms are taken up. This fact attests to the importance of Count Rudolf, chief of the Papal army, whose political power extends beyond the provincial borders. Rudolf dies in the battle against the Normans who defeat the Papal Army. From 1002 to 1028 the episcopate of Strasbourg is held by an important personage: Wernher, a relative of the Hapsburgs, who dies far from his diocese on October 28, 1028 in Constantinople after being sent there by the Emperor.Otto, the grandson of Radbot, is the first to receive the title of Count of Hapsburg in 1108.
- The oldest emblem of the Hapsburgs is the lion. It is worn as personal arms emblem until the end of the 14th century when the Austrian emblem asserts itself definitively.
