Rudolph I of Germany

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Image:Rudolph I of Habsburg.png Rudolph I (German: Rudolf von Habsburg, Latin Rudolfus; May 1, 1218 – July 15, 1291) was a king of the Holy Roman Empire, who played a vital role in raising the Habsburg family to a leading position among the royal dynasties of Germany.

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Life

Rudolph was the son of Albert IV, Count of Habsburg, and Hedwig, daughter of Ulrich, Count of Kyburg, and was born at Limburg an der Lahn. At his father's death in 1239, Rudolph inherited the family estates in Alsace, and in 1245 he married Gertrude, daughter of Burkhard III, Count of Hohenberg. He paid frequent visits to the court of his godfather the Emperor Frederick II, and his loyalty to Frederick and to his son Conrad IV of Germany was richly rewarded by grants of land, but in 1254 he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV. 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 uncle, Hartmann VI, Count of Kyburg, in 1264, he seized his valuable estates. Successful feuds with the bishops of Strassburg and Basel further augmented his wealth and his reputation; rights over various tracts of land were purchased from abbots and others; and he was also the possessor of large estates in the regions now known as Switzerland and Alsace.

These various sources of wealth and influence had rendered Rudolph the most powerful prince and noble in south-western Germany when, in the autumn of 1273, the princes met to elect a king. His election at Frankfurt on 29 September 1273 was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law, Frederick III of Hohenzollern, Burgrave of Nuremberg. The support of Albert, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, 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; so that Otakar II, King of Bohemia, a candidate for the throne, was almost alone in his opposition. Rudolph was crowned at Aachen on 24 October 1273, and the feast which followed has been described by Friedrich Schiller in Der Graf von Habsburg ("The Count of Habsburg"). 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; and Pope Gregory X, in spite of Otakar's protests, not only recognized Rudolph himself, but persuaded Alfonso X, King of Castile, who had been chosen German king in 1257, to do the same. In November 1274 it was decided by the diet at Nuremberg that all crown estates seized since the death of the emperor Frederick II must be restored, and that Otakar of Bohemia 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 had seized. He was placed under the ban; and in June 1276 war was declared against him. Having detached Henry I, Duke of Lower Bavaria, from his side, Rudolph compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces in November 1276. Otakar was then invested with Bohemia by Rudolph, and his son Wenceslaus was betrothed to a daughter of the German king, who 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 combination Rudolph entered into 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, and Otakar was defeated and killed. Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolph's representatives, while Wenceslaus was again betrothed to one of his daughters.

Rudolph's attention was next turned to his new possessions in Austria and the adjacent countries. He spent several years in establishing his authority there, but found some difficulty in making these provinces hereditary in his family. At length the hostility of the princes was overcome, and in December 1282 Rudolph invested his sons Albert and Rudolph with the duchies of Austria and Styria at Augsburg, and so laid the foundation of the importance of the house of Habsburg.

Turning to the west he compelled Philip, Count Palatine of Burgundy, to cede some districts to him in 1281, forced the citizens of Bern to pay the tribute which they had previously refused, and in 1289 marched against Philip's successor, Otto IV, and compelled him to do homage. In 1281 his first wife died, and on 5 February 1284 he married Isabella, daughter of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy. Rudolph was not 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, or the 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; but the princes refused on the pretext of their inability to support two kings, but perhaps because they feared the increasing power of the Habsburgs. Rudolph died at Speyer on July 15, 1291 and was buried in the Speyer Cathedral. He had a large family, but only one of his sons, Albert, afterwards the German king Albert I, survived him.

Rudolph was a tall man with pale face and prominent nose. He possessed many excellent qualities, bravery, piety and generosity; but his reign is memorable rather in the history of the house of Habsburg than in that of the kingdom of Germany.

In the Divine Comedy, Dante finds Rudolph sitting outside the gates of Purgatory with his contemporaries, and berates him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done".

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Family and children

He was married twice. First, 1245 to Gertrude of Hohenberg and second, 1284 to Agnes/Isabelle of Burgundy, daughter of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy and Beatrice of Champagne. All children were from the first marriage.

  1. Albert I of Germany (July 1255 – 1 May, 1308).
  2. Hartmann (1263, Rheinfelden–21 December 1281), drowned at Rheinau.
  3. Rudolph II, Duke of Austria (1270–10 May 1290, Prague).
  4. Matilde (ca. 1251/53, Rheinfelden–23 December 1304, Munich), married 1273 in Aachen to Louis II, Duke of Bavaria.
  5. Katharina (1256–4 April 1282, Landshut), married 1279 in Vienna to Otto III, Duke of Bavaria.
  6. Agnes (ca. 1257–11 October 1322, Wittenberg), married 1273 to Albert II, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg.
  7. Hedwig (d. 1285/86), married 1270 in Vienna to Otto VI, Margrave of Brandenburg.
  8. Klementia (ca. 1262–after 7 February 1293), married 1281 in Vienna to Charles Martel d'Anjou.
  9. Jutte/Bona (13 March 1271–18 June 1297, Prague), married 24 January 1285 to King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia.

He also had an illegitimate son, Albrecht I of Schenkenberg, Count of Löwenstein.

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References

Template:Succession box Template:Succession box one to two Template:End boxcs:Rudolf Habsburský de:Rudolf I. (HRR) es:Rodolfo I de Habsburgo et:Rudolf I (Saksa kuningas) fr:Rodolphe Ier du Saint-Empire hu:Habsburg Rudolf nl:Rudolf I van het Heilige Roomse Rijk ja:ルドルフ1世 (神聖ローマ皇帝) pl:Rudolf I Habsburg sl:Rudolf I. Habsburški fi:Rudolf I Habsburgilainen sv:Rudolf I uk:Рудольф I zh:鲁道夫一世 (德意志)

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