306 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



hands of his paternal uncle, * who, 

 with his five sons, lived at LaufFen- 

 burg, on the Rhine. The property 

 Rudolph inherited was moderate : 

 his lands were all in sight of the 

 great hall in his castle. Some ad- 

 vocacies extended his influence to 

 more distant parts; but the power 

 annexed to the title of landgrave 

 of Alsace, to which he succeeded, 

 was, by the refractory spirit of the 

 times, rendered almost nugatory. 

 In the eager pursuit of his ambi- 

 tious views, he despised the tardy 

 means of prudence, and suffered 

 the vehemence of his temper to 

 betray him into indiscretions, which 

 in men less audacious, would have 

 led to ruin. Before the age of forty 

 he had already incurred the odium 

 of his whole family, been disinhe- 

 rited by his maternal uncle, the 

 count of Kyburg, and twice ex- 

 communicated by the church. His 

 first contest was with his uncle of 

 LaufFenburgh, whom he taxed with 

 having made an unfair partition of 

 the family estates : but the helpless 

 debility of the old count was so ef- 

 fectually protected by his son God- 

 fried, that Rudolph soon beheld 

 from his castle, the flames which 

 consumed his principal town of 

 Bruck; and was compelled to ac- 

 quiesce in the grant the old count 

 made of the castle of new Haps- 

 burgh on the lake of Lucern, to the 

 nunnery at Zuric. He next gave 

 offence to his uncle Hartnian, who 

 had no issue; and extorted from 

 him a large sum, as compensation 

 for his claim upon the estates of 



Kyburg: Hartman complied, that 

 he might transfer the bulk of his 

 property to the see of Strasburg; 

 and in order to preclude all farther 

 importunities from this intrusive 

 nephew, he made his grant irrevo- 

 cable. In a contest with the 

 bishop of Basle, Rudolph approached 

 with his forces, and burnt the con- 

 vent of the penitent sisters in one of 

 the suburbs of that city; for which 

 sacrilegious deed he, and all his 

 adherents, were put under a severe 

 interdict. He then (perhaps as an 

 atonement to the church) engaged 

 with Ottocarus king of Bohemia, 

 in the crusade against the infidels of 

 Prussia, who were contending with 

 the Teutonic knights for the gods, 

 and the freedom of their ancestors. 

 His fortunes, which his rashness 

 more frequently obstructed than 

 promoted, took a more favourable 

 turn, as soon as adversity had tem- 

 pered the impetuosity of his unruly 

 passions. 



His mother Hedwig lived to see 

 him reconciled to her family, and 

 to witness an alliance conti-acted 

 between Hapsburg and Kyburg. 

 Godfried of LaufFenburg f also be- 

 came his friend. Tlie days of the 

 old count of Kyburg drawing near 

 to a conclusion, Rudolph sought, 

 both by persuasion and kind offices, 

 to induce the bishop of Strasburg to 

 relinquish the hasty grant of Hart- 

 man. In this however he failed; 

 and thenceforth he espoused the 

 cause of the citizens of Strasburg 

 against their bishop, and seized on 

 the towns of Colmar and Mulhau- 



• Likewise called Rudolph, who died in 1249. 



•f The son of this Godfried, who bore the same name as his father, is reported to 

 have fled to England from the persecutions of his cousin Rudolph (in 1310), and 

 under the name of Fielding, to have been the founder of the illustrious line of the 

 earls of Denbigh. See Dugdale's English Baronage, c. ii. p. 440. 



