I very much appreciate your obituary to Otto von Habsburg, son of the last Austro-Hungarian emperor and great-nephew of Franz Joseph, its greatest emperor ever (July 16, 2011). It shows nobility at its best. Since the end of World War I, as well as of the empire in question, the feats of nobility have been largely forgotten. “A family history going back to the Eighth Century helped him see the continent’s destiny in grand terms,” you put it so well, “with the European Union a wider and better version of the Holy Roman Empire.” Which is why he became a member of the European Parliament in 1979, long before that body acquired real punch. Amazingly, few beyond nobility can see the continent’s destiny in grand terms. It apparently takes a family history going a long way back for that feat. Would that there were more people like Otto von Habsburg to keep the Union on a steady course worthy of ancient Rome and its Frankish successor.