drapers’ shops. The word, found in Chaucer, and even earlier (1311), is of obscure origin; the suggestion that it is connected with an Icelandic haprtask, “haversack,” is, according to the New English Dictionary, impossible. Hapertas occurs in an early Anglo-French customs list, which includes articles such as were sold by haberdashers, but this word may itself have been a misspelling of “haberdash.” The obscurity of origin has left room for many conjectures such as that of Minsheu that “haberdasher” was perhaps merely a corruption of the German Habt ihr das? “Have you that?” or Habe das, Herr, “Have that, sir,” used descriptively for a general dealer in miscellaneous wares. The Haberdashers’ Company is one of the greater Livery Companies of the City of London. Originally a branch of the mercers, the fraternity took over the selling of “small wares,” which included not only articles similar to those sold as “haberdashery” now, but such things as gloves, daggers, glass, pens, lanterns, mousetraps and the like. They were thus on this side connected with the Milliners. On the other hand there was early a fusion with the old gild of the “Hurers,” or cap makers, and the hatters, and by the reign of Henry VII. the amalgamation was complete. There were long recognized two branches of the haberdashers, the haberdashers of “small wares,” and the haberdashers of hats (see further Livery Companies). The haberdashers are named, side by side with the capellarii, in the White Book (Liber Albus) of the city of London (see Munimenta Gildhallae Londiniensis, ed. H. T. Riley, Rolls Series, 12, 1859–1862), and a haberdasher forms one of the company of pilgrims in the Canterbury Tales (Prologue, 361).
HABINGTON, WILLIAM (1605–1654), English poet, was born
at Hendlip Hall, Worcestershire, on the 4th of November 1605.
He belonged to a well-known Catholic family. His father,
Thomas Habington (1560–1647), an antiquary and historical
scholar, had been implicated in the plots on behalf of Mary
queen of Scots; his uncle, Edward Habington, was hanged in
1586 on the charge of conspiring against Elizabeth in connexion
with Anthony Babington; while to his mother, Mary Habington,
was attributed the revelation of the Gunpowder Plot. The poet
was sent to the college at St Omer, but, pressure being brought
to bear on him to induce him to become a Jesuit, he removed to
Paris. He married about 1632 Lucy, second daughter of Sir
William Herbert, first Baron Powys. This lady he had addressed
in the volume of lyrical poems arranged in two parts and entitled
Castara, published anonymously in 1634. In 1635 appeared a
second edition enlarged by three prose characters, fourteen new
lyrics and eight touching elegies on his friend and kinsman,
George Talbot. The third edition (1640) contains a third part
consisting of a prose character of “A Holy Man” and twenty-two
devotional poems. Habington’s lyrics are full of the far-fetched
“conceits” which were fashionable at court, but his
verse is quite free from the prevailing looseness of morals.
Indeed his reiterated praises of Castara’s virtue grow wearisome.
He is at his best in his reflective poems on the uncertainty of
human life and kindred topics. He also wrote a Historie of
Edward the Fourth (1640), based on notes provided by his father;
a tragi-comedy, The Queene of Arragon (1640), published without
his consent by his kinsman, the earl of Pembroke, and revived
at the Restoration; and six essays on events in modern history,
Observations upon History (1641). Anthony à Wood insinuated
that during the Commonwealth the poet “did run with the times,
and was not unknown to Oliver the usurper.” He died on the
30th of November 1654.
The works of Habington have not been collected. The Queene of Arragon was reprinted in Dodsley’s “Old Plays,” vol. ix. (1825); Castara was edited by Charles Elton (1812), and by E. Arber with a compact and comprehensive introduction (1870) for his “English Reprints.”
HABIT (through the French from Lat. habitus, from habere,
to have, hold, or, in a reflective sense, to be in a certain condition;
in many of the English senses the French use habitude, not habit),
condition of body or mind, especially one that has become
permanent or settled by custom or persistent repetition, hence
custom, usage. In botany and zoology the term is used both
in the above sense of instinctive action of animals and tendencies
of plants, and also of the manner of growth or external appearance
of a plant or animal. From the use of the word for external
appearances comes its use for fashion in dress, and hence as a
term for a lady’s riding dress and for the particular form of
garment adopted by the members of a religious order, like
“cowl” applied as the mark of a monk or nun.
HABITAT (a French word derived from habiter, Lat. habitare,
to dwell), in botany and zoology, the term for the locality in
which a particular species of plants or animals thrives.
HABSBURG, or Hapsburg, the name of the famous family
from which have sprung the dukes and archdukes of Austria
from 1282, kings of Hungary and Bohemia from 1526, and
emperors of Austria from 1804. They were also Roman emperors
and German kings from 1438 to 1806, and kings of Spain from
1516 to 1700, while the minor dignities held by them at different
times are too numerous to mention.
The name Habsburg, a variant of an older form, Habichtsburg (hawk’s castle), was taken from the castle of Habsburg, which was situated on the river Aar not far from its junction with the Rhine. The castle was built about 1020 by Werner, bishop of Strassburg, and his brother, Radbot, the founder of the abbey of Muri. These men were grandsons of a certain Guntram, who, according to some authorities, is identical with a Count Guntram who flourished during the reign of the emperor Otto the Great, and whose ancestry can be traced back to the time of the Merovingian kings. This conjecture, however, is extremely problematical. Among Radbot’s sons was one Werner, and Werner and his son Otto were called counts of Habsburg, Otto being probably made landgrave of upper Alsace late in the 11th or early in the 12th century. At all events Otto’s son Werner (d. 1167), and the latter’s son Albert (d. 1199), held this dignity, and both landgraves increased the area of the Habsburg lands. Albert became count of Zürich and protector of the monastery of Säckingen, and obtained lands in the cantons of Unterwalden and Lucerne; his son Rudolph, having assisted Frederick of Hohenstaufen, afterwards the emperor Frederick II., against the emperor Otto IV., received the county of Aargau. Both counts largely increased their possessions in the districts now known as Switzerland and Alsace, and Rudolph held an influential place among the Swabian nobility. After his death in 1232 his two sons, Albert and Rudolph, divided his lands and founded the lines of Habsburg-Habsburg and Habsburg-Laufenburg. Rudolph’s descendants, counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg, were soon divided into two branches, one of which became extinct in 1408 and the other seven years later. Before this date, however, Laufenburg and some other districts had been sold to the senior branch of the family, who thus managed to retain the greater part of the Habsburg lands.
Rudolph’s brother Albert (d. 1239), landgrave of Alsace, married Hedwig of Kyburg (d. 1260), and from this union there was born in 1218 Rudolph, the founder of the greatness of the house of Habsburg, and the first of the family to ascend the German throne. Through his mother he inherited a large part of the lands of the extinct family of Zähringen; he added in other ways to his possessions, and was chosen German king in September 1273. Acting vigorously in his new office, he defeated and killed his most formidable adversary, Ottakar II., king of Bohemia, in 1278, and in December 1282 he invested his sons, Albert and Rudolph, with the duchies of Austria and Styria, which with other lands had been taken from Ottakar. This was an event of supreme moment in the history of the Habsburgs, and was the first and most important stage in the process of transferring the centre of their authority from western to eastern Europe, from the Rhine to the Danube. On Rudolph’s death in July 1291 the German crown passed for a time away from the Habsburgs, but in July 1298 it was secured by his son, Albert, whose reign, however, was short and uneventful. But before 1308, the year of Albert’s death, the long and troubled connexion of the Habsburgs with Bohemia had already begun. In 1306 Wenceslas III., the last Bohemian king of the Přemyslide dynasty, was murdered. Seizing the opportunity and declaring that the vacant kingdom was an imperial fief, King Albert
