Editing Rudolf I of Germany (section)

== Rise to power ==
The disorder in Germany during the [[interregnum]] after the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty afforded an opportunity for Count Rudolf to increase his possessions. His wife was a Hohenberg heiress; and on the death of his childless maternal uncle Count Hartmann IV of [[House of Kyburg|Kyburg]] in 1264, Rudolf seized Hartmann's valuable estates. Successful feuds with the [[Bishopric of Strasbourg|Bishops of Strasbourg]] and [[Bishopric of Basel|Basel]] further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased from [[abbot]]s and others.

These various sources of wealth and influence rendered Rudolf the most powerful prince and noble in southwestern Germany (where the tribal [[Duchy of Swabia]] had disintegrated, enabling its vassals to become completely independent). In the autumn of 1273, the [[prince-elector]]s met to choose a king after [[Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall|Richard of Cornwall]] had died in [[Kingdom of England|England]] in April 1272. Rudolf's election in [[Frankfurt]] on 1 October 1273,<ref>''Die Habsburger. Eine Europäische Familiengeschichte'', Brigitte Vacha, Sonderausgabe 1996, ''Zeittafel'' p. 16</ref> when he was 55 years old, was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law, the [[House of Hohenzollern|Hohenzollern]] burgrave [[Frederick III, Burgrave of Nuremberg|Frederick III of Nuremberg]]. The support of Duke [[Albert II, Duke of Saxony|Albert II of Saxony]] and Elector Palatine [[Louis II, Duke of Bavaria|Louis II]] had been purchased by betrothing them to two of Rudolf's daughters.

As a result, within the electoral college, King [[Ottokar II of Bohemia]] (1230–1278), himself a candidate for the throne and related to the late Hohenstaufen king [[Philip of Swabia]] (being the son of the eldest surviving daughter), was almost alone in opposing Rudolf. Other candidates were Prince [[Siegfried I, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst|Siegfried I of Anhalt]] and Margrave [[Frederick I, Margrave of Meissen|Frederick I of Meissen]] (1257–1323), a young grandson of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II, who did not yet even have a principality of his own as his father was still alive. By the admission of Duke [[Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria|Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria]] instead of the King of Bohemia as the seventh Elector,<ref>Vacha, "1273 wurde Rudolf von Habsburg von den sieben Kurfürsten zum König gewählt" – "statt dem Böhmenkönig dem bayerischen Herzogtum die siebente Kurstimme übertragen wurde", pp. 32–33</ref> Rudolf gained all seven votes.