Guntram the Rich, Count of Breisgau, passed away on 26 March 973. Known as the Rich in historical annals, he is considered the earliest reliably attested ancestor of the Habsburgs, and the date of his death is the first precisely recorded event in the family calendar.
Very little is known about Guntram’s life. He came from Alsace and was probably born in the 920s. In 952, he was accused of high treason at the Imperial Diet, which led to the confiscation of some of his estates by Otto the Great; however, the further circumstances of the case remain unknown.
In Guntram’s lifetime, of course, no one had yet heard of the House of Habsburg. Even the future family seat in Switzerland, the Habichtsburg Castle, from which the family later derived its name, was not built until decades later by his grandson Radbot of Klettgau. The family’s lineage is recorded in the chronicle of Muri Abbey, also founded by Radbot, and may therefore be regarded as reasonably well established.
No authentic portrait of Guntram exists. All later images — such as this rather card-king-like depiction from around 1500 — must be considered artistic inventions.
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