316 



AUSTRIA. 



the head of ecclesiastical affairs. After its separation 

 from Verdun, in 843, Avaria formed the eastern 

 boundary of the German empire. On the invasion ol 

 Germany by the Hungarians, in 900, Avaria fell 

 into their hands, and was In Id by them till 955, 

 when the emperor Otlio I., in consequence of the 

 victory of Augsburg, reunited a great part of this 

 province to the empire. By the power and addres: 

 of its margraves, the whole country was joined again 

 with Germany, and, in 1043, under the emperor 

 Henry III., and the margrave Albert I. (the Vic- 

 torious), its limits were extended to the Leytha. 



Austria under the House of Bamberg, till 1282. 

 From 982 to 1156, the margraviate of Austria was 

 hereditary in the family of the counts of Babenberg 

 (Bamberg) ; the succession, however, was not re- 

 gulated by primogeniture, but by the will of the em- 

 peror. In ancient documents, mention is made of 

 the estates of Austria in the year 1096. After 

 Henry the Proud (duke of Bavaria and Saxony) was 

 put under the ban of the empire, Leopold V., mar- 

 grave of A., received the duchy of Bavaria, in 1138, 

 from the emperor Conrad. But when the margrave 

 Henry, son of Leopold, under the title of Ja-so-mir- 

 Gott (Yes-so-me-God), had again ceded it, in 1156, 

 to Henry the Lion, the boundaries of A. were ex- 

 tended so as to include the territory above the Ens, 

 and the whole was created a duchy with certain 

 ]>rivileges. Under this duke the court resided at 

 Vienna. Duke Leopold VI., the son of Henry, re- 

 ceived the duchy of Stiria, in 1192, as a fief from the 

 emperor Henry VI., it having been added to the 

 empire by Otho I., in 955, by his victory over the 

 Hungarians. It was this prince who imprisoned 

 Richard Creur de Lion (q. v.), king of England. 

 Duke Leopold VII., the youngest son of the former, 

 erected a palace within the city of Vienna, which is 

 still occupied by the Austrian monarchs, under the 

 name of the old castle. Leopold VII., called the 

 Glorious, established the hospital of the Holy Cross, 

 made Vienna, which had adopted a municipal con- 

 stitution in 1198, a staple-town, and granted 30,000 

 marks of silver for the promotion of trade and com- 

 merce. In 1229, he purchased a part ofCarniola, from 

 the ecclesiastical principality of Freisingen, for 1650 

 marks, and left the country in a flourishing condition to 

 the youngest of his three sons, Frederic II., sur- 

 named the JVarrior. In 1236, this prince was put 

 under the ban of the empire, on account of his join- 

 ing the alliance of the cities of Lombardy against the 

 emperor Frederic II. ; and Otho, duke of Bavaria, 

 seized upon his territory above the Ens as far as Lintz. 

 The rest of the country was granted, as a fief by the 

 emperor, to a margrave, and Vienna became an im- 

 perial city. During the emperor's campaign in Ita- 

 ly, duke Frederic recovered the principal part of his 

 lands, and his rights were confirmed by the emperor, 

 at Verona, 1245. The rights of Vienna, as an im- 

 perial city, were abolished, and Frederic was to be 

 called king, as sovereign of Austria and Stiria ; but 

 all his expectations of empire were disappointed by 

 his death in the battle of Leytha against Bela IV., 

 king of Hungary, July 15th, 1246, in the thirty-fifth 

 year of his age. Thus the male line of the house of 

 Bamberg became extinct. The period from 1246 

 to 1282 is styled the Austrian interregnum. The 

 emperor Frederic II. declared Austria and Stiria a 

 vacant fief, the hereditary property of the German 

 emperors, and sent a governor to Vienna, the privi- 

 leges of which, as an imperial city, were once more 

 renewed. But the female relations of the deceased 

 duke F.rederic, his sister Margaret (widow of the 

 emperor Henry VI.), and his niece Gertrude, by the 

 persuasion of pope Innocent IV., in 1248, laid claim 

 to the inheritance of their brother. The margrave, 



1 Hermann, with the aid of the pope and a strong 

 party, made himself master cf Vienna, and of several 

 Austrian cities. In Stiria, he was opposed by the 

 governor Meinhard, count of (Jorz. But Hermann 

 died in 1250, and his son Frederic, who was after- 

 wards beheaded, in 12(i8, at Naples, with Conr.ulin 

 of Suabia, was then only a year old. The whole 

 country was distracted by various parties, and the 

 emperor Conrad IV. was prevented, by disputes witn 

 his neighbours, from turning his attention to A. 

 In 1251, the states of Austria and Stiriu determined 

 to appoint one of the sons of the second sister of Fred- 

 eric the Warrior, Constantia (widow of the margrave. 

 Henry the Illustrious), to the office of duke. Their 

 deputies were on the way to Misnia, when they were 

 persuaded by king Wenzeslau-, on their entrance 

 into Prague, to declare his son Ottocar duke of Aus- 

 tria and Stiria, who made every effort to support his 

 appointment, by arms, money, and especially by his 

 marriage with the empress-widow Margaret Otto- 

 car wrested Stiria from Bela, king of Hungary, by 

 his victory of July, 1260, in the Marchfield ; and, 

 in 12C2, forced the emperor Richard to invest him 

 with both duchies. Soon after, by the will of his 

 uncle Ulrich, the last duke of Carinthia and Friuli 

 (who died 1269), Ottocar became master of Carin- 

 thia, a part ofCarniola connected with it, the king- 

 dom of Istria, and a part of Friuli. But his arro- 

 gance soon caused his fall. In 1272, he refused to 

 acknowledge count Rudolph of Hapsburg emperor, 

 and was obliged to defend himself against his arms. 

 After an unsuccessful war, he was forced to cede all 

 his Austrian possessions in Nov. 1276. In 1277, he 

 attempted to recover these territories, but, in the 

 battle of the Marchfield, Aug. 26, 1278, he was 

 slain, and his son Wenceslaus was obliged to re- 

 nounce all claim to them, in order to preserve his 

 hereditary estates. The emperor Rodolph remained 

 three years in Vienna, and then appointed his eldest 

 son governor. But, having succeeded in gaining 

 the consent of the electors of Saxony and Branden- 

 burg, of the three ecclesiastical electors, and of the 

 count-palatine of the Rhine, he granted the duchies 

 of Austria and Stiria, with the province of Carinthiu 

 to his two sons, Albert and Rodolph, Dec. 27, 1282. 

 This brings us to the History of Austria under the 

 House of Hapsburg. I. From 1282 to 1526. Albert 

 and Rodolph transferred Carinthia to Meinhard, 

 count of Tyrol, father-in-law to Albert. In 1283, 

 they concluded a treaty, by which Albert was made 

 sole possessor of Austria, Stiria, and Carniola. Vi- 

 enna, having again renounced its privileges as an 

 imperial city, was made the residence of the court, 

 and the successors of Rodolph, from this time, as 

 sumed Austria as the family title. The intro- 

 duction of the Hamburg dynasty was the foun- 

 dation of the future greatness of A. The de- 

 spotic Albert was assailed by Hungary and I?n- 

 varia, and, in 1298, he won the Roman crown 

 in an engagement with Adolphus of Nassau. Aftei 

 this, he undertook the conquest of Switzerland ; but 

 was assassinated, May I, 1398, at Rheinfelden, by 

 his nephew, John of Suabia (see John the Parricide) 

 from whom he had basely withheld his hereditary es 

 tales. The inheritance of John now fell to the five 

 sons of the murdered Albert Frederic, surnnined 

 the Fair, Leopold, Henry, Albert, and Otho. They 

 were forced to purchase of the emperor Henry VII. 

 the investiture of their paternal estates (consisting, in 

 1308, of 26,572 square miles), for 20,OOO marks of 

 silver. Under their father, in 1301, the inargraviate 

 of Suabia was added to the territories of Austria, and 

 ;he contest with Bavaria ended in the cession of 

 Neuberg. On the contrary, the attempt of duke 

 Leopold, in 1315, to recover the- forest towns of Swit- 



