Editing Rudolf I of Germany (section)

==King of the Germans==
[[File:Habsburger-Portraits (van Sompel nach Sutman) c1640 Rudolf I.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|Engraving of Rudolf I of Habsburg, c. 1640]]
On 1 October 1273, Rudolf was voted in unanimously as king by the electors who were present at [[Frankfurt]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Abulafia |editor-first1=David |editor-last2=McKitterick |editor-first2=Rosamond
 |date=1999 |title=The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 5, C.1198-c.1300 |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_New_Cambridge_Medieval_History_Volum/bclfdU_2lesC?hl=en |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=395 |isbn=9780521362894 |access-date=February 4, 2025 |quote=Once again a league of prominent episcopal and imperial towns wished to acknowledge only a unanimously chosen king, and sent delegates to the electors' meeting in Frankfurt. On 1 October 1273 all the electors except the absent Ottokar of Bohemia voted for Rudolf, count of Habsburg.}}</ref> He was then crowned in [[Aachen Cathedral]] on 24 October 1273. To win the approbation of the Pope, Rudolf renounced all imperial rights in [[Rome]], the papal territory, and [[Sicily]], and promised to lead a new [[crusade]] by taking the crusader's vow in 1275.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Peter H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=opmtCwAAQBAJ |title=Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire |date=2016-04-04 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-91592-3 |language=en |chapter=Chapter 3}}</ref> [[Pope Gregory X]], despite the protests of Ottokar II of Bohemia, not only recognised Rudolf himself, but persuaded King [[Alfonso X of Castile]] (another grandson of [[Philip of Swabia]]), who had been chosen German (anti-)king in 1257 as the successor to Count [[William II of Holland]], to do the same. Thus, Rudolf surpassed the two heirs of the Hohenstaufen dynasty whom he had earlier served so loyally.

In November 1274, the [[Reichstag (Holy Roman Empire)|Imperial Diet]] at [[Nuremberg]] decided that all Crown estates seized since the death of the Emperor Frederick II must be restored, and that King Ottokar II must answer to the Diet for not recognising the new king. Ottokar refused to appear or to restore the duchies of [[Duchy of Austria|Austria]], [[Duchy of Styria|Styria]] and [[Duchy of Carinthia|Carinthia]] together with the [[March of Carniola]], which he had claimed through his first wife, a [[House of Babenberg|Babenberg]] heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, Margrave [[Hermann VI, Margrave of Baden|Hermann VI of Baden]]. Rudolf refused to accept Ottokar's succession to the Babenberg patrimony, declaring that the provinces reverted to the Imperial crown due to the lack of male-line heirs. King Ottokar was placed under the [[imperial ban]]; and in June 1276 war was declared against him.

Having persuaded Ottokar's former ally [[Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria|Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria]] to switch sides, Rudolf compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces to the control of the royal administration in November 1276. Rudolf then re-invested Ottokar with the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]], betrothed one of his daughters to Ottokar's son [[Wenceslaus II of Bohemia|Wenceslaus II]], and made a triumphal entry into [[Vienna]]. Ottokar, however, raised questions about the execution of the treaty, and procured the support of several German princes, again including Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria. To meet this coalition, Rudolf formed an alliance with King [[Ladislaus IV of Hungary]] and gave additional privileges to the Viennese citizens. On 26 August 1278, the rival armies met at the [[Battle on the Marchfeld]], where Ottokar was defeated and killed. The [[Margraviate of Moravia]] was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolf's representatives, leaving Ottokar's widow [[Kunigunda of Slavonia]] in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus II was again betrothed to Rudolf's youngest daughter [[Judith of Habsburg|Judith]].

Rudolf'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, at the [[Hoftag]] (imperial diet) in [[Augsburg]], Rudolf invested his sons, [[Albert I of Germany|Albert]] and [[Rudolf II, Duke of Austria|Rudolf II]], 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, a merely titular dignity, as the duchy had been without an actual ruler since [[Conradin]]'s execution.{{citation needed|date=December 2013}} The 27-year-old Duke Albert, married since 1274 to a daughter of Count [[Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia|Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol]] (1238–95), was capable enough to hold some sway in the new patrimony.
[[File:Rudolph I of Austria.jpg|thumb|left|Rudolph I of Austria]]

In 1286, King Rudolf fully invested Albert's father-in-law Count Meinhard with the [[Duchy of Carinthia]], one of the conquered provinces taken from Ottokar.<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4jcEAAAQBAJ |title =Letters of Rudolph I Habsburg |isbn = 9798868920592 |last1 = Curtin|first1 = D. P.|date = December 2012|publisher =Dalcassian Press }}</ref> The [[Princes of the Holy Roman Empire|Princes of the Empire]] did not 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 Count [[Philip I, Count of Savoy|Philip I of Savoy]] to cede some territory to him, then forced the citizens of [[Bern]] to pay the tribute that they had been refusing. After his son [[Rudolf II, Duke of Austria|Rudolf II]] defeated Bern at the [[Battle of Schosshalde]], he strengthened his authority in Switzerland. He further expanded his Swiss possessions and granted some ecclesiastical posts to his family. In 1289 he marched against Count Philip's successor, [[Otto IV, Count Palatine of Burgundy|Otto IV]], compelling him to do homage.

In 1281, Rudolf's first wife died. On 5 February 1284, he married [[Isabelle of Burgundy|Isabella]], daughter of Duke [[Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy|Hugh IV of Burgundy]], the Empire's western neighbor in the [[Kingdom of France]].

Rudolf was not very successful in restoring internal peace. Orders were indeed issued for the establishment of [[Landfrieden|territorial peaces]] in [[History of Bavaria|Bavaria]], [[Franconia]] and Swabia, and at the [[Synod of Würzburg (1287)|Synod of Würzburg]] in March 1287 for the whole Empire. But the king lacked the power, resources, and determination to enforce them, although in December 1289 he led an expedition into [[Thuringia]], where he destroyed a number of [[Robber baron (feudalism)|robber castles]]. In 1291, he attempted to secure the election of his son Albert as German king. The electors refused, however, claiming inability to support two kings, but in reality, perhaps, wary of the increasing power of the House of Habsburg. Upon Rudolf's death they elected Count [[Adolf, King of Germany|Adolf of Nassau]].