Rudolf I.

Rudolf I of Habsburg was born on May 1, 1218, and died on July 15, 1291, in Speyer. As Rudolf IV, he was Count of Habsburg from around 1240 and, from 1273 until his death, King of the Romans and Germany. His election marked the beginning of the Habsburgs’ rise to one of the most important dynasties in the Empire. Rudolf came from the old noble house of Habsburg, whose namesake castle stood in the Aargau. The family possessed extensive lands between the Reuss and Aare rivers, in northern Switzerland, and in Alsace. Rudolf’s father was Albert IV of Habsburg, while his mother, Heilwig, came from the comital house of Kyburg. Rudolf was not raised at the royal court and apparently received little formal education: he knew neither writing nor Latin. After his father, who had departed on a crusade in 1239, died, Rudolf assumed sole control of the main Habsburg line around 1240. Like his father, Rudolf initially maintained close ties with the Hohenstaufen dynasty. Together with his brother Hartmann, he supported Emperor Frederick II in his conflict with the papacy. Even after Frederick’s death in 1250, Rudolf remained loyal to Conrad IV and was consequently placed under excommunication. After Conrad’s death in 1254, he made peace with the papal court and was released from the ban. By then, he had consolidated his position along the Upper Rhine and in northern Switzerland. Through his marriage to Gertrude of Hohenberg, whom he married around 1253, he acquired additional possessions in Alsace. The decades following Frederick II’s death were marked by weak royal authority and competing kings. This period is traditionally known as the Interregnum. Rudolf used its political and military opportunities to expand his territorial power. In conflicts with the Bishop of Basel, he obtained the protectorate over the monastery of Sankt Blasien. In 1262, he supported the citizens of Strasbourg in their struggle against their bishop and won the Battle of Hausbergen. After the Kyburg dynasty died out, he prevailed against the Count of Savoy and acquired, among other territories, Winterthur, Diessenhofen, Frauenfeld, Fribourg in Üechtland, and the County of Thurgau. Despite these successes, he initially remained a relatively poor count compared with the Hohenstaufens or the powerful Bohemian king Ottokar II. After Richard of Cornwall died, the princes sought to elect a new king in 1273. Among several candidates, the electors eventually agreed on Rudolf, although the Bohemian king refused to support him. Rudolf was elected in Frankfurt on October 1, 1273; on October 24, the Archbishop of Cologne crowned him and his wife together in Aachen. From the outset, Rudolf pursued a deliberate marriage policy to strengthen his family’s position. His daughter Matilda married Louis II, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Upper Bavaria, while his daughter Agnes married Duke Albert II of Saxony. Further marriages linked his daughters to the ruling houses of Brandenburg and Bohemia. In this way, Rudolf gained the secular electors as sons-in-law or relatives. As king, Rudolf sought to recover the imperial property that had been lost since the late Hohenstaufen period. Soon after his coronation, he declared unlawful tolls invalid and demanded the return of alienated lands. For these efforts to reclaim imperial rights and possessions, he established regional bailiwicks, which also administered revenues, supervised the public peace, and enforced royal authority. Rudolf was particularly successful in Swabia, Alsace, and the Rhineland. In the north of the Empire, however, his rule remained weak. There he had to rely on powerful territorial lords who pursued their own interests. The most important opponent of his kingship was Ottokar II of Bohemia, who after the extinction of the Babenberg dynasty had acquired Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and other territories. Rudolf opened proceedings against him in 1274. When Ottokar refused to recognize Rudolf’s election, his imperial fiefs were revoked and he was eventually placed under the imperial ban. Rudolf won allies, including Hungarian forces and the counts of Gorizia-Tyrol, and initially turned against Bohemian rule in Austria. In 1276, Ottokar was forced to make peace in Vienna, recognize Rudolf as king, and surrender Austria, Styria, and Carinthia together with Carniola and Pordenone. The peace did not last long. On August 26, 1278, the decisive Battle of Dürnkrut took place northeast of Vienna. Despite his advanced age, Rudolf took part in the fighting and was nearly killed. He won through a flank attack by knights he had held in reserve. Ottokar was killed after being struck down by Austrian nobles. The victory established Habsburg rule in Austria and Styria and raised the house of Habsburg to the rank of an imperial princely dynasty. Rudolf nevertheless refrained from taking Bohemia and Moravia as well, recognizing Ottokar’s son Wenceslaus as his successor. Several marriages helped secure relations between the ruling houses. In 1282, Rudolf granted his sons Albert and Rudolf joint possession of Austria, Styria, Carniola, and the Windic March. Both were thereby elevated to the rank of imperial princes. Because of opposition from the Austrian nobles, however, Rudolf soon had to grant Albert sole rule. His attempt to secure the succession of one of his sons to the kingship during his own lifetime failed. Hartmann had drowned in the Rhine in 1281, and Rudolf’s son of the same name died unexpectedly in Prague in 1290. The surviving son, Albert, failed to win sufficient support from the electors in 1291 and was not elected king after Rudolf’s death. Rudolf’s government frequently drew on Hohenstaufen traditions. He ruled without a permanent residence and had to travel through the Empire to make his authority visible. Royal assemblies, arbitration proceedings, and the consent of the princes played a central role. He promoted the cities, granted them rights, and integrated them more closely into imperial politics. His tax demands, however, provoked considerable resistance. He also pursued a regional policy for maintaining the public peace and acted forcefully in Thuringia against robber knights and fortified robber castles. Rudolf made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to obtain the imperial crown. Plans for a journey to Rome and a crusade foundered chiefly because of the early death of Pope Gregory X and the shifting priorities of his successors. His attempts to secure the succession of a son likewise failed. When his health deteriorated in 1291, the king traveled to Speyer, seeking burial in the most important burial place of the Roman-German monarchy. He died one day after his arrival, probably of old age combined with gout. Rudolf was buried in Speyer Cathedral beside the Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia. In the late Middle Ages, Rudolf was regarded as the progenitor and founder of the Habsburg royal dynasty. Contemporary stories portrayed him as a just, humorous, popular, and occasionally cunning ruler. Later, poems and dramas especially depicted him as a modest and pious bringer of peace. Historians have assessed him in different ways: some see him as a pragmatic ruler constrained by limited structural possibilities, while others regard him as an important king who, after the Interregnum, restored royal authority to maintain peace and strengthened the influence of the Empire.