Rudolf of Habsburg(1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was a German nobleman and the first member of theHouse of Habsburg to becomeKing of the Romans, reigning from 1273 until his death. Born into a relatively minor noble family, Rudolf succeeded his father as Count of Habsburg in 1240, gradually expanding his power through military campaigns, political alliances, and the construction of key fortresses such as Neuhabsburg Castle. His marriage to Gertrude of Hohenberg further strengthened his position among the Swabian nobility. During the turbulent period of theGreat Interregnum, Rudolf distinguished himself both as a formidable military leader—participating in regional conflicts and even joining thePrussian Crusade in 1254—and as a restorer of order, often intervening against robber barons and feuding nobles. Despite facing excommunication due to disputes with the Church, Rudolf ultimately reconciled with ecclesiastical authorities and built a reputation for fairness and pragmatism. In 1273, he was elected King of the Romans, ending decades of imperial vacancy and division. As king, Rudolf reasserted imperial authority in Germany, notably defeating King Ottokar II of Bohemia and securing Habsburg control overAustria,Styria, andCarinthia. His reign laid the foundations for the rise of the Habsburg dynasty, which would become one of the most influential royal houses in European history. Rudolf died in 1291, leaving a legacy of restored stability and dynastic ambition within the Holy Roman Empire.
Rudolf was born on 1 May 1218 at Limburgh Castle nearSasbach am Kaiserstuhl in theBreisgau region of present-day southwesternGermany.[1] He was the son of CountAlbert IV of Habsburg and Hedwig, daughter of Count Ulrich ofKyburg.[2] The Habsburgs derive their name from Habichtsburg Castle nearBrugg in Aargau, which was probably built byGuntram the Rich in 1020.[3] According to the chroniclerMatthias of Neuchâtel from the mid-14th century, Emperor Frederick II was Rudolf'sgodfather. However, Rudolf was not educated at the royal court and probably knew neither writing nor Latin. Rudolf had four siblings: two brothers, Albrecht and Hartmann, and two sisters, Kunigunde and another whose name is unknown. Rudolf's father Albrecht IV joined theBarons' Crusade in the summer of 1239. When news of his death arrived in 1240, Rudolf assumed sole rule of the main Habsburg line.[4]
At his father's death in 1239, Rudolf inherited from him large estates around the ancestral seat ofHabsburg Castle in theAargau region of present-daySwitzerland as well as inAlsace. Thus, in 1240,[5] Early in his rule, Rudolf became embroiled in disputes with neighboring nobles such as Hugo von Tiefenstein, which led to military confrontations and the eventual destruction of Tiefenstein’s stronghold. Around 1244, Rudolf constructedNeuhabsburg Castle on Lake Lucerne, strengthening his family's presence in central Switzerland and consolidating his territorial base. In 1253, Rudolf married Gertrude of Hohenberg, an alliance that enhanced his political standing and brought valuable connections, particularly inSwabia. Amidst the ongoing conflicts between secular and ecclesiastical authorities, Rudolf sometimes clashed with church officials; at one point, his actions against the Bishop of Basel resulted in hisexcommunication, though he later reconciled with the Church. In 1254, Rudolf joined the Prussian Crusade, a campaign led by theTeutonic Order against paganPrussian tribes, which not only enhanced his reputation as a Christian knight but also expanded his network among the German nobility.[6]
After the death of Frederick II in 1250, the Holy Roman Empire plunged into a period of political turmoil known as the Great Interregnum. Frederick’s son,Conrad IV, briefly attempted to assert his claim to the throne but faced strong opposition from the papacy and rival princes, ultimately dying in 1254 without consolidating his rule. In the ensuing chaos,William of Holland was elected king by a faction of princes but struggled to establish authority beyond his core territories and died in 1256. The double election of 1257 resulted in two kings being installed in the empire:Alfonso X of Castile andRichard of Cornwall. However neither of them was able to secure effective control over the Holy Roman Empire or achieve imperial coronation by the pope. Richard visited Germany only a few times and lacked a strong power base there, while Alfonso, ruling from Spain, never set foot in Germany and was unable to assert his authority. Both men struggled to gain widespread recognition, enforce their rule, or gain the papal approval necessary for imperial coronation.[7]
The disorder in Germany during the interregnum 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 ofKyburg in 1264, Rudolf seized Hartmann's valuable estates. Successful feuds with theBishops of Strasbourg andBasel further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased fromabbots and others.[8]
In August 1273, in view of the situation in the Holy Roman Empire, the popeGregory X issued an ultimatum to the electors to choose a king. The pope added the threat that he would appoint an emperor if the electors could not agree on the election of a king. In September 1273, the electors, with the exception of Ottokar II, agreed on Rudolf. Ottokar II stayed away from the election; his place was taken byHenry XIII, Duke of Lower Bavaria.[9]The electors assembled inFrankfurt unanimously elected Rudolf on October 1, 1273. Soon after, Rudolf reached Frankfurt and proceeded toAachen with the princes, where on October 24, 1273,ArchbishopEngelbert II of Cologne formally crowned him inCharlemagne's cathedral. Rudolf ignored Pope Gregory X's claim to approval. Despite the Curia's reluctance, the Habsburg's support for the Staufers, for which he had been excommunicated in 1248, had not yet been forgotten, the pope eventually acknowledged Rudolf's election on September 20, 1274.[10]
Rudolf met with Gregory X on October 20, 1275, to discuss the Lausanne Cathedral's consecration. King Rudolf promised the pope during this meeting that he would defend the Church's rights and property and that Sicily and the Empire would not be merged. The king's legally enforceable pledge marked a break from the Staufer dynasty's power-politics strategy. Rudolf was invited to Rome for his imperial coronation after he accepted the cross from the pope's hand and was officially acknowledged as king. It was widely accepted that the coronation date would be February 2, 1276. Before the agreed date, Pope Gregory X died on January 10, 1276, and the king was initially busy dealing with the aftermath of the interregnum and fully occupied with the fight against King Ottokar II of Bohemia.[10]
In November 1274, theImperial Diet atNuremberg 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 ofAustria,Styria andCarinthia together with theMarch of Carniola, which he had claimed through his first wife, aBabenberg heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, MargraveHermann 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 theimperial ban; and in June 1276war was declared against him.
Having persuaded Ottokar's former allyDuke 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 theKingdom of Bohemia, betrothed one of his daughters to Ottokar's sonWenceslaus II, and made a triumphal entry intoVienna. 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 KingLadislaus IV of Hungary and gave additional privileges to the Viennese citizens. On 26 August 1278, the rival armies met at theBattle on the Marchfeld, where Ottokar was defeated and killed. TheMargraviate of Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolf's representatives, leaving Ottokar's widowKunigunda of Slavonia in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus II was again betrothed to Rudolf's youngest daughterJudith.
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 theHoftag (imperial diet) inAugsburg, Rudolf invested his sons,Albert andRudolf 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 sinceConradin's execution.[citation needed] The 27-year-old Duke Albert, married since 1274 to a daughter of CountMeinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol (1238–95), was capable enough to hold some sway in the new patrimony.
Rudolph I of Austria
In 1286, King Rudolf fully invested Albert's father-in-law Count Meinhard with theDuchy of Carinthia, one of the conquered provinces taken from Ottokar.[11] ThePrinces 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 CountPhilip I of Savoy to cede some territory to him, then forced the citizens ofBern to pay the tribute that they had been refusing. After his sonRudolf II defeated Bern at theBattle 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, compelling him to do homage.
Rudolf was not very successful in restoring internal peace. Orders were indeed issued for the establishment ofterritorial peaces inBavaria,Franconia and Swabia, and at theSynod 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 intoThuringia, where he destroyed a number ofrobber 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 CountAdolf of Nassau.
In 1286, Rudolf I instituted a new persecution of the Jews, declaring themservi camerae ("serfs of the treasury"), which had the effect of negating their political freedoms. Along with many others, RabbiMeir of Rothenburg left Germany with family and followers, but was captured inLombardy and imprisoned in a fortress inAlsace. Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000marks silver was raised for him (by theRosh), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. Fourteen years after his death a ransom was paid for his body byAlexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpfen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam.[12]
Rudolf died inSpeyer on 15 July 1291 and was buried inSpeyer Cathedral. Only one of his sons survived him:Albert I. Most of his daughters outlived him, apart fromCatherine who had died in 1282 during childbirth and Hedwig who had died in 1285/6.
Rudolf's reign is most memorable for his establishment of the House of Habsburg as a powerful dynasty in the southeastern part of the realm. In the other territories, the centuries-long decline of Imperial authority since the days of theInvestiture Controversy continued, and the princes were largely left to their own devices.
In theDivine Comedy,Dante finds Rudolf sitting outside the gates ofpurgatory with his contemporaries, characterizing him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done".[13]
^Dante (1892).The Divine Comedy; Purgatorio: Canto VII. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company.He who sits highest, and the semblance bears Of having what he should have done neglected, And to the others' song moves not his lips, Rudolph the Emperor was, who had the power To heal the wounds that Italy have slain, So that through others slowly she revives.
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Kohlrausch, Frederick (1847).History of Germany. New York: D. Appleton & Co.
Redlich, Oswald (1903).Rudolf von Habsburg. Das Deutsche Reich nach dem Untergange des alten Kaisertums. Innsbruck: Verlag der Wagnerischen Universitätsbuchhandlung.
Reifenscheid, Richard (2000).Die Habsburger in Lebensbildern von Rudolf I. bis Karl I. Kreuzlingen: Hugendubel.ISBN3-7205-2102-8.
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