Everything about Rudolf I Of Germany totally explained
Rudolph I, also known as
Rudolph of Habsburg (
German:
Rudolf von Habsburg,
Latin Rudolfus)
May 1,
1218 –
July 15,
1291) was
King of the Romans from 1273 until his death. He played a vital role in raising the
Habsburg family to a leading position among the
German feudal dynasties.
Early life
Rudolf was the son of
Albert IV, Count of Habsburg, and Hedwig, daughter of
Ulrich, Count of Kyburg, and was born in Limburg im
Breisgau. At his father's death in 1239, Rudolf inherited the family estates in
Alsace and
Aargau. In 1245 he married Gertrude, daughter of
Burkhard III, Count of Hohenberg. As a result, Rudolf became an important vassal in
Swabia, the ancient
Alemannic stem duchy.
Rudolf paid frequent visits to the court of his godfather, the
Emperor Frederick II, and his loyalty to Frederick and his son,
Conrad IV of Germany, was richly rewarded by grants of land. In 1254 he was excommunicated by
Pope Innocent IV as a supporter of king Conrad, due to ongoing political conflicts between the Emperor, who held the Kingdom of Sicily and wanted to reestablish his power in Northern Italy, especially in
Lombardy, and the Papacy, whose
States lay in between and feared being overpowered by the Emperor.
Rise to power
The disorder in Germany after the fall of the
Hohenstaufen afforded an opportunity for Rudolph to increase his possessions. His wife was an heiress; and on the death of his childless maternal uncle,
Hartmann VI, Count of Kyburg, in 1264, he seized Hartmann's valuable estates. Successful feuds with the
bishops of Strassburg and
Basel further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased from
abbots and others. He also possessed large estates inherited from his father in the regions now known as
Switzerland and Alsace.
These various sources of wealth and influence rendered Rudolph the most powerful prince and noble in southwestern Germany (where the tribal duchy
Swabia had disintegrated, leaving room for its vassals to become quite independent) when, in the autumn of 1273, the princes met to elect a king after the death of
Richard of Cornwall. His election in
Frankfurt on
29 September 1273, when he was 55 years old, was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law,
Frederick III of
Hohenzollern,
Burgrave of
Nuremberg. The support of
Albert II, Duke of Saxony (Wittenberg) and of
Louis II, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Duke of Upper Bavaria, had been purchased by betrothing them to two of Rudolph's daughters. As a result,
Otakar II (1230-78), King of
Bohemia, a candidate for the throne and grandson of
Philip of Swabia, King of Germany (being the son of the eldest surviving daughter), was almost alone in opposing Frederick. Another candidate was
Frederick of Meissen (1257-1323), a young grandson of the excommunicated
Emperor Frederick II who didn't yet have a principality of his own as his father yet lived.
King of Germany
Rudolph was crowned in
Aachen Cathedral on
24 October 1273.
Friedrich Schiller in
Der Graf von Habsburg ("The Count of Habsburg") presents a fictionalized rendering of the feast King Rudolf held following his coronation. To win the approbation of the Pope, Rudolph renounced all imperial rights in
Rome, the
papal territory, and
Sicily, and promised to lead a new
crusade.
Pope Gregory X, in spite of Otakar's protests, not only recognized Rudolph himself, but persuaded
Alfonso X, King of Castile (another grandson of
Philip of Swabia), who had been chosen German king in 1257 as the successor to
William of Holland, to do the same. Thus, Rudolph surpassed the two heirs of the Hohenstaufen dynasty that he'd earlier served so loyally.
In November 1274 it was decided by the
Diet of the Realm in Nuremberg that all crown estates seized since the death of the Emperor Frederick II must be restored, and that
Otakar must answer to the Diet for not recognizing the new king. Otakar refused to appear or to restore the provinces of
Austria,
Styria,
Carinthia and
Carniola, which he'd claimed through his first wife, a
Babenberg heiress, and which he'd seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir,
Hermann VI, Margrave of Baden. Rudolf refuted Otakar's succession to the Babenberg patrimony, declaring that the provinces reverted to the crown due to the lack of male-line heirs (a position that conflicted with the provisions of
Privilegium Minus). King Otakar was placed under the state ban; and in June 1276 war was declared against him. Having persuaded Otakar's ally
Henry I, Duke of Lower Bavaria, to switch sides, Rudolph compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces to the control of the royal administration in November 1276. Rudolf then invested Otakar with Bohemia, betrothed one of his daughters to Otakar's son
Wenceslaus, and made a triumphal entry into
Vienna. Otakar, however, raised questions about the execution of the treaty, made an alliance with some
Polish chiefs, and procured the support of several German princes, including his former ally, Henry of Lower Bavaria. To meet this coalition, Rudolph formed an alliance with
Ladislaus IV,
King of Hungary, and gave additional privileges to the citizens of Vienna. On
26 August 1278 the rival armies met on the banks of the
River March in the
Battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen where Otakar was defeated and killed.
Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolph's representatives, leaving
Kunigunda, the Queen Regent of Bohemia, in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus was again betrothed to one of Rudolf's daughters.
Rudolph's attention next turned to the possessions in Austria and the adjacent provinces, which were taken into the royal domain. He spent several years establishing his authority there but found some difficulty in establishing his family as successors to the rule of those provinces. At length the hostility of the princes was overcome. In December 1282, in
Augsburg, Rudolph invested his sons,
Albert and
Rudolph, with the duchies of Austria and Styria and so laid the foundation of the House of Habsburg. Additionally, he made the twelve-year-old Rudolf Duke of
Swabia, which had been without a ruler since Conradin's execution. The 27-year-old Duke Albert (married since 1274 to a daughter of Count
Meinhard II of Tirol (1238-95)) was capable enough to hold some sway in the new patrimony.
In 1286 King Rudolf fully invested the
Duchy of Carinthia, one of the provinces conquered from Otakar, to Albert's father-in-law
Meinhard. The princes of the realm didn't allow Rudolf to give everything that was recovered to the royal domain to his own sons, and his allies needed their rewards too.
Turning to the west, in 1281 he compelled
Philip, Count Palatine of Burgundy, to cede some territory to him, then forced the citizens of
Bern to pay the tribute that they'd been refusing, and in 1289 marched against Philip's successor,
Otto IV, compelling him to do homage.
In 1281 his first wife died. On
5 February 1284 he married Isabella, daughter of
Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy, his western neighbor.
Rudolph wasn't very successful in restoring internal peace to Germany. Orders were indeed issued for the establishment of landpeaces in
Bavaria,
Franconia and
Swabia, and afterwards for the whole of Germany. But the king lacked the power, resources, or determination, to enforce them, although in December 1289 he led an expedition into
Thuringia where he destroyed a number of
robber-castles.
In 1291 he attempted to secure the election of his son Albert as German king. However, the princes refused claiming inability to support two kings, but in reality, perhaps, leery of the increasing power of the Habsburgs.
Death
Rudolph died in
Speyer on
July 15,
1291, and was buried in the
Speyer Cathedral. Although he'd a large family, he was survived by only one son, Albert, afterwards the German king
Albert I.
Rudolph was a tall man with a pale face and a prominent nose. He was known for his bravery, piety and generosity. His reign is memorable, however, chiefly for his establishment of the House of Habsburg, which henceforth held sway over the southeastern and southwestern parts of the realm. In the rest of Germany, he left the princes largely to their own devices.
In
the Divine Comedy,
Dante finds Rudolph sitting outside the gates of
Purgatory with his contemporaries, who berate him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done".
Family and children
He was married twice. First, in 1245, to
Gertrude of Hohenberg and second, in 1284, to
Isabelle of Burgundy, daughter of
Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy and
Beatrice of Champagne. All children were from the first marriage.
- Albert I of Germany (July 1255 – 1 May, 1308), Duke of Austria and also of Styria.
- Hartmann (1263, Rheinfelden–21 December 1281), drowned in Rheinau.
- Rudolph II, Duke of Austria and Styria (1270–10 May 1290, Prague), titular Duke of Swabia, father of John the Patricide of Austria.
- Matilda (ca. 1251/53, Rheinfelden–23 December 1304, Munich), married 1273 in Aachen to Louis II, Duke of Bavaria and became mother of Rudolf I, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor.
- Katharina (1256–4 April 1282, Landshut), married 1279 in Vienna to Otto III, Duke of Bavaria who later (after her death) became the disputed King Bela V of Hungary and left no surviving issue.
- Agnes (ca. 1257–11 October 1322, Wittenberg), married 1273 to Albert II, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg and became the mother of Rudolf I, Elector of Saxony.
- Hedwig (d. 1285/86), married 1270 in Vienna to Otto VI, Margrave of Brandenburg and left no issue.
- Klementia (ca. 1262–after 7 February 1293), married 1281 in Vienna to Charles Martel of Anjou, the Papal claimant to the throne of Hungary and mother of king Charles I of Hungary, as well as of queen Clementia of France, herself the mother of the baby king John I of France.
- Jutte/Bona (13 March 1271–18 June 1297, Prague), married 24 January 1285 to King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia and became the mother of king Wenceslaus III of Bohemia, Poland and Hungary, of queen Anna I of Bohemia, duchess of Carinthia, and of queen Elisabeth I of Bohemia, countess of Luxembourg.
King Rudolf also had an illegitimate son,
Albrecht I of Schenkenberg, Count of
Löwenstein.
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