custom of the empire, he returned a haughty answer, treating him as
Count of Hapsburg; a second summons was received with silent contempt;
on a third he sent his ambassador, the Bishop of Seccan, to the Diet
of Augsburg; and his example was followed by Henry of Bavaria. These
ministers were, however, only deputed to raise a feigned contest
relative to the vote of Henry and to protest against the election of
Rudolph. The ambassador of Henry urged the protest with moderation and
respect; but the Bishop of Seccan delivered a virulent invective
against the chief of the empire, in a style conformable to the spirit
and character of his powerful and haughty master. He declared that the
assembly in which Rudolph had been chosen was illegal; that the
arbitration of Louis of Bavaria was unprecedented; that a man
excommunicated by the Pope for plundering churches and convents was
ineligible to the imperial throne, and that his sovereign, who held
his dominions by an indisputable title, owed no homage to the Count of
Hapsburg.
As he spoke in the Latin tongue, the Emperor interrupted him with a
dignified rebuke. "Bishop," he said, "if you were to harangue in an
ecclesiastical consistory, you might use the Latin tongue; but when
discoursing upon your rights and the rights of the princes of the
empire, why do you employ a language which the greater part of those
who are present do not comprehend?" The rebuke of the sovereign justly
roused the indignation of the assembly; the princes, and particularly
the Elector Palatine, started from their seats, and were scarcely
prevented from employing violence, even by the interposition of
Rudolph; and the ambassadors, quitting the assembly, retired from
Augsburg.
The diet, irritated by this insult, passed a decree asserting the
unanimity of Rudolph's election; they declared Ottocar guilty of
contumacy; required him to restore Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola,
which he had usurped, and to do homage for the remainder of his
dominions. In case of refusal the ban of the empire was denounced
against him, and supplies of men and money were voted to support their
sovereign, to assert the imperial dignity, and to reduce the
rebellious princes to obedience. The Burgrave of Nuremberg and the
Bishop of Basel were despatched to Ottocar in the name of the diet, to
demand his instant acknowledgment of Rudolph as king of the Romans,
and the restitution of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola.
They accordingly repaired to Prague, and delivered their message.
"Tell Rudolph," replied the spirited monarch, "that he may rule over
the territories of the empire, but I will not tamely yield those
possessions which, I have acquired at the expense of so much blood and
treasure; they are mine by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest." He
then broke out into bitter invectives against Rudolph, and after
tauntingly expressing his surprise that a petty count of Hapsburg
should have been preferred to so many powerful candidates, dismissed
the ambassadors with contempt. In the heat of his resentment he even
violated the laws of nations, and put to death the heralds who
announced to him the resolutions of the diet and delivered the ban of
the empire.
During this whole transaction Rudolph acted with becoming prudence and
extreme circumspection. He had endeavored by the mildest methods to
bring Ottocar to terms of conciliation; and when all his overtures
were received with insult and contempt, and hostilities became
inevitable, he did not seek a distant war till he had obtained the
full confirmation of the Pope and had reëstablished the peace of those
parts of the empire which bordered on his own dominions. He first
attacked the petty adherents of Ottocar, the Margrave of Baden, and
the counts of Freiburg, Montfort, and Neuburg, and, having compelled
them to do homage and to restore the fiefs which they had appropriated
during the preceding troubles, he prepared to turn his whole force
against the King of Bohemia, with a solicitude which the power and
talents of his formidable rival naturally inspired.
The contest in which Rudolph was about to engage was of a nature to
call forth all his resources and talents. Ottocar was a prince of high
spirit, great abilities, and distinguished military skill, which had
been exercised in constant warfare from his early youth. By hereditary
right he succeeded to Bohemia and Moravia, and to these territories he
had made continual additions by his crusades against the Prussians,
his contests with the kings of Hungary, and still more by his recent
acquisition of Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola.
In the tenth century Austria, with both Styria and Carniola, under the
title of a margravate, was governed by Leopold I of the house of
Bamberg. It continued in the possession of his family, and in 1156 was
erected into an independent duchy by the emperor Frederick II, and
conferred on Henry, fifth in descent from Leopold, as an indivisible
and inalienable fief; in failure of male issue it was made descendible
to his eldest daughter, and, in failure of female issue, disposable by
will. In 1245 Frederick the Warlike, last duke of the Bamberg line,
obtained a confirmation of this decree; but, dying in the ensuing year
without issue and without disposing of his territories by will, a
dispute arose relative to his succession. The claimants were his two
sisters, Margaret, widow of Henry VII, King of the Romans, and
Constantia, wife of Henry the Illustrious, Margrave of Misnia; and his
niece Gertrude, daughter of Henry, his elder brother, the wife of
Premislaus, eldest son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia and brother of
Ottocar. But on the plea that neither of the claimants was a daughter
of the last Duke, the Emperor Frederick II sequestrated these
territories as fiefs escheating to the empire, and transferred the
administration to Otho, Count of Werdenberg, who took possession of
the country and resided in Vienna.
As this event happened during the contest between the see of Rome and
the house of Swabia, Innocent IV, who had deposed and excommunicated
Frederick, laid Austria under an interdict, and encouraged the kings
of Bohemia and Hungary and the Duke of Bavaria to invade the country.
The Pope first patronized the claims of Margaret, and urged her to
marry a German prince; but on her application to the Emperor to bestow
the duchy on her eldest son Frederick, he supported Gertrude, who,
after the death of Premislaus, had espoused Herman, Margrave of Baden,
nephew of Otho, Duke of Bavaria, and induced the anticæsar, William of
Holland, to grant him the investiture.
On the demise of Frederick II his son Conrad was too much occupied
with the affairs of Italy to attend to those of Germany; the imperial
troops quitted Austria, and, Herman dying, Otho of Bavaria occupied
that part of Austria which lies above the Ems. But Wenceslaus of
Bohemia, prevailing on the states to choose his eldest surviving son
Ottocar as their sovereign, under the condition that he should espouse
Margaret, expelled the Bavarians and took possession of the whole
country. Gertrude fled to Bela, King of Hungary, whose uncle Roman, a
Russian prince, she married, and ceded to him her pretensions on
Styria, on condition that he should assert her right to Austria. A war
ensued between Ottocar and the King of Hungary, in which Ottocar,
being defeated, was compelled to cede part of Styria to Stephen, son
of Bela, and a small district of that country was appropriated for the
maintenance of Gertrude. But the Hungarian governors being guilty of
the most enormous exactions the natives of Styria rose and transferred
their allegiance to Ottocar, who secured that duchy by defeating Bela
at Cressenbrum, and by the treaty of peace which followed that
victory. Ottocar had scarcely obtained possession of Styria before he
deprived Gertrude of her small pittance, and the unfortunate princess
took refuge from his tyranny in a convent of Misnia. Having thus
secured Austria and Styria, and ascended the throne of Bohemia,
Ottocar divorced Margaret, who was much older than himself; and to
acquire that right of succession of Frederick the Warlike which he had
lost by this separation from his wife he, in 1262, procured from
Richard of Cornwall the investiture of Austria, Styria, and Carniola,
as fiefs devolved to the empire. He either promised or gave
compensation to Agnes, daughter of Gertrude by Herman of Baden, and to
Henry, Margrave of Misnia, husband of Constantia.
Ottocar next purchased of Ulric, Duke of Carinthia and Carniola, who
had no issue, the right of succeeding to those duchies on his death.
In the deed of transfer, instituted December, 1268, Ulric describes
himself as without heirs; although his brother Philip, Archbishop of
Salzburg, was still living. On the death of Ulric, in 1269 or 1270,
Ottocar took possession of those duchies, defeated Philip, who
asserted his claims, and forced the natives to submit to his
authority.
By these accessions of territory, Ottocar became the most powerful
prince of Europe, for his dominions extended from the confines of
Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the
Baltic. On the contrary, the hereditary possessions of Rudolph were
comparatively inconsiderable, remote from the scene of contest, and
scattered at the foot of the Alps and in the mountains of Alsace and
Swabia; and though head of the empire, he was seated on a tottering
throne, and feebly supported by the princes of Germany, who raised him
to that exalted dignity to render him their chief rather in name than
in power.
Although the princes and states of the empire had voted succors, many
had failed in their promised assistance, and, had the war been
protracted, those few would have infallibly deserted a cause in which
their own interests were not materially concerned. The wise but severe
regulations of Rudolph for extirpating the banditti, demolishing the
fortresses of the turbulent barons, and recovering the fiefs which
several of the princes had unjustly appropriated, excited great
discontent. Under these circumstances the powerful and imperious
Ottocar cannot be deemed rash for venturing to contend with a petty
count of Switzerland, whom he compared to those phantoms of
sovereignty, William of Holland and Richard of Cornwall, or that he
should conclude a king of Bohemia to be more powerful than an emperor.
The event, however, showed that he had judged too hastily of his own
strength and of Rudolph's comparative weakness, and proved that, when
the reins of government were held by an able hand, the resources of
the empire were still considerable, and its enmity an object of
terror.
Rudolph derived considerable support from his sons-in-law the Electors
of Palatine and Saxony, and from the Elector of Brandenburg; the
Burgrave of Nuremberg, the nobles of Alsace and Swabia, and the
citizens and mountaineers of Switzerland. Having made the necessary
preparations, he, with a judicious policy, turned his attention to
those princes who, from the vicinity of their dominions, were in a
state of continual enmity or warfare with the King of Bohemia. He
concluded a treaty with Ladislaus, King of Hungary, and strengthened
the bond of union by betrothing his daughter to Andrew, Duke of
Slavonia and brother of Ladislaus. He entered into an alliance with
Meinhard, Count of Tyrol, which he cemented by the marriage of his
eldest son Albert with Elizabeth, daughter of Meinhard. But his views
were still more promoted by the general discontent which pervaded
every part of the Austrian dominions, and by the anathemas of Philip,
titular Duke of Carinthia and Archbishop of Salzburg, who absolved the
people of his diocese from their oath of allegiance, and exhorted them
to shake off the yoke of a tyrant and receive the chief of the empire.
The prelate made repeated exhortations to Rudolph to hasten his
expedition. He drew a hideous picture of Ottocar's oppressions;
expatiated on the discontents of the natives, and their inveterate
hatred to the Bohemians, and used all his eloquence to encourage the
King of the Romans to invade the country. "I observe," he says, "the
countenances of your adversaries pale with terror; their strength is
withered; they fear you unknown; your image is terrible in their
imaginations; and they tremble even at the very mention of your name.
How will they act, and how will they tremble when they hear the voice
of the approaching thunder, when they see the imperial eagles rushing
down on them like the flash of the lightning!"
The plan formed by Rudolph for the prosecution of the war was
calculated to divide the forces and distract the attention of Ottocar.
He himself was to penetrate into Bohemia, while his son was to invade
Austria, and Meinhard of Tyrol to make a diversion on the side of
Styria. To oppose this threatened invasion, Ottocar assembled a
considerable army, sent a reënforcement to Henry of Bavaria, augmented
the garrison of Klosterneuburg, a fortress deemed impregnable,
fortified Vienna, and despatched a considerable party of his army
toward Teppel to secure his frontier; but resigning himself to
supineness and careless security, he passed that time, which should
have been employed in repressing the discontented by his presence and
rousing the courage of his troops, in hunting and courtly diversions.
Rudolph, apprised of these dispositions, changed his plan, marched
against Henry of Bavaria, and compelled him, by force of arms, to
desert the Bohemian alliance. He meditated a reconciliation between
the Duke and his brother the Count Palatine, and, to secure his
coöperation, gave his daughter Hedwige in marriage to Otho, son of
Henry, with the promise of assigning a part of Upper Austria as a
pledge of her portion. This success opened to him a way into Austria.
Accompanied by Henry with a reënforcement of one thousand horses, he
traversed Lower Bavaria, by Ratisbon and Passau; overran that part of
Austria which lies to the south of the Danube, without resistance, was
received with joy by the natives, and rapidly marched toward Vienna.
This well-concerted expedition bore rather the appearance of a journey
than a conquest, and Ottocar, awakened from his lethargy, received the
intelligence with astonishment and terror. He now found even his ally
Henry, in whose assistance he had confided, serving with his enemies,
his Austrian territories invaded by a powerful army, the people
hailing the King of the Romans as their deliverer, and the adversary,
whom he had despised and insulted, in the very heart of his dominions.
In these circumstances he recalled his army from Teppel, and led them
through the woods and mountains of Bohemia to Drosendorf, on the
frontiers of Austria, with the hope of saving the capital. But his
troops being harassed by the fatigues of this long and difficult
march, and distressed for want of provisions, he was unable to
continue his progress, while Rudolph, advancing along the southern
bank of the Danube, made himself master of Klosterneuburg by
stratagem, and encamped under the walls of Vienna. Here, being joined
by Meinhard of Tyrol, who had overrun Styria and Carinthia, and drawn
the natives to his standard, he laid siege to the city. The garrison
and people, who were warmly attached to Ottocar and encouraged with
the hopes of speedy relief, held out for five weeks; at length the
want of provisions and the threats of Rudolph to destroy the vineyards
excited a small tumult among the people, and the governor proposed a
capitulation.
During this time the discontents in Ottocar's army increased with
their increasing distress; he was threatened by the approach of the
Hungarians toward the Austrian frontiers; he saw his own troops
alarmed, dispirited, and mutinous; and he was aware that on the
surrender of the capital Rudolph had prepared a bridge of boats to
cross the Danube and carry the war into Bohemia. In this situation,
surrounded by enemies, embarrassed by increasing difficulties,
deserted or opposed by his nobles, his haughty spirit was compelled to
bend; he sued for peace, and the conditions were arranged by the
arbitration of the Bishop of Olmuetz, the Elector Palatine, and the
Burgrave of Nuremberg. It was agreed, on the 22d of November, 1276,
that the sentence of excommunication and deprivation which had been
pronounced against Ottocar and his adherents should be revoked; that
he should renounce all his claims to Austria, Styria, Carinthia,
Carniola, and Windischmark; that he should take the oath of
allegiance, do homage for the remainder of his territories to the head
of the empire, and should receive the investiture of Bohemia, Moravia,
and his other fiefs. An article was also inserted, by which Ottocar
promised to deliver up to Ladislaus, King of Hungary, all the places
wrested from him in that kingdom. To cement this union a double
marriage was to be concluded between a son and daughter of each of the
two sovereigns; Rudolph engaged to give a portion of forty thousand
marks of silver to his daughter, and, as a pledge for the payment,
assigned to Ottocar a part of that district of Austria which lies
beyond the Danube. The peace being concluded, the city of Vienna
opened its gates and readily acknowledged the new sovereign.
Ottocar was obliged to submit to these humiliating conditions, and on
the 25th of November, the day appointed for doing homage, crossed the
Danube with a large escort of Bohemian nobles to the camp of Rudolph,
and was received by the King of the Romans, in the presence of several
princes of the empire. With a depressed countenance and broken spirit,
which he was unable to conceal from the bystanders, he made a formal
resignation of his pretensions to Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and
Carniola, and, kneeling down, did homage to his rival, and obtained
the investiture of Bohemia and Moravia, with the accustomed
ceremonies.
Rudolph, having thus secured these valuable provinces, took possession
of them as fiefs reverted to the empire, and issued a decree placing
them under the government of Louis of Bavaria as vicar-general to the
empire, in case of his death or during an interregnum. He at the same
time established his family in the Austrian dominions, by persuading
the Archbishop of Salzburg and the bishops of Passau, Freising, and
Bamberg to confer on his sons, Albert, Hartman, and Rudolph, the
ecclesiastical fiefs held by the dukes of Austria. His next care was
to maintain the internal peace of those countries by salutary
regulations; and he gained the affection of the nobles by confirming
their privileges and permitting them to rebuild the fortresses which
Ottocar had demolished. To superintend the execution of these
regulations he fixed his residence at Vienna, where he was joined by
his Queen and family.
In order to reward his retainers he was, however, compelled to lay
considerable impositions on his new subjects, and to obtain free gifts
from the bishop and clergy; and the discontents arising from these
measures probably induced Ottocar to attempt the recovery of the
territories which he had lost.
Although the King of Bohemia had taken leave of Rudolph with the
strongest professions of friendship, and at different intervals had
renewed his assurances of unalterable harmony, yet the humiliating
conditions which he had subscribed, and the loss of such valuable
provinces, filled him with resentment; his lofty spirit was still
further inflamed by his queen Cunegunda, a princess of an imperious
temper, who stimulated her husband with continual reproaches. He
accordingly raised obstacles to the execution of the treaty, and
neglected to comply with many of the conditions to which he had
agreed.
Rudolph, desirous to avoid a rupture, despatched his son Albert to
Prague, Ottocar received him with affected demonstrations of
friendship, and even bound himself by oath to fulfil the articles of
the peace. But Albert had scarcely retired from Prague before Ottocar
immured in a convent the daughter he had promised to one of the sons
of Rudolph, and sent a letter to the King of the Romans, filled with
the most violent invectives, and charging him with a perfidious
intention of renewing the war.
Rudolph returned a dignified answer to these reproaches, and prepared
for the renewal of the contest which he saw was inevitable. He
instantly reoccupied that part of Austria which he had yielded to
Ottocar as a pledge for the portion of his daughter. He also obtained
succors from the Archbishop of Salzburg, the bishops of Passau,
Ratisbon, and the neighboring prelates and princes, and collected
levies from Austria and Styria for the protection of Vienna. In an
interview at Hainburg, on the frontiers of Austria, with Ladislaus,
King of Hungary, he adopted that Prince as his son, and concluded with
him an offensive and defensive alliance. Unwilling, however, to trust
his hopes and fortune to his new subjects, many of whom were ready to
desert him, or to allies whose fidelity and attachment were doubtful,
he applied to the princes of the German empire, but had the
mortification to be disappointed in his expectations. He was joined by
a few only of the inferior princes; but many who had not taken part in
the former war were still less inclined to support him on the present
occasion; several gained by Ottocar either remained neutral or took
part against him; those who expressed an inclination to serve him
delayed sending their succors, and he derived no assistance even from
his sons-in-law the Electors of Palatine and Saxony.
On the other hand, he was threatened with the most imminent danger,
for Ottocar, who during the peace had prepared the means of gratifying
his vengeance, had formed a league with Henry of Bavaria, had
purchased either the neutrality or assistance of many of the German
princes, had drawn auxiliaries from the chiefs of Poland, Bulgaria,
Pomerania, and Magdeburg, and from the Teutonic hordes on the shores
of the Baltic. He had also excited a party among the turbulent nobles
of Hungary, and spread disaffection among his former subjects in
Austria and Styria. In June he quitted Prague, effected a junction
with his allies, directing his march toward the frontiers of Austria,
carried Drosendorf, after a short siege, by storm, and, descending
along the banks of the Taya, invested the fortress of Laa.
Rudolph, convinced that his cause would suffer by delay, waited with
great impatience the arrival of a body of troops from Alsace, under
the command of his son Albert. But as these troops did not arrive at
the appointed time he was greatly agitated and disturbed, became
pensive and melancholy, and frequently exclaimed that there was not
one in whom he could confide or on whose advice he could depend. His
household and attendants partook of his despondency. To use the words
of a contemporary chronicle, "All the family of King Rudolph ran to
confessors, arranged their affairs, forgave their enemies, and
received the communion, for a mortal danger seemed to hang over them."
The citizens of Vienna caught the contagion and began to be alarmed
for their safety. Seeing him almost abandoned by his German allies,
and without a sufficient army to oppose his adversaries, they
requested his permission to capitulate and choose a new sovereign,
that they might not be involved in his ruin. Roused from his
despondency by this address, Rudolph prevailed on the citizens not to
desert their sovereign; he confirmed their privileges, declared Vienna
an imperial city, animated them with new spirit, and obtained from
them a promise to defend the ramparts to the last extremity.
At this period he was joined by some troops from Alsace and Swabia,
and particularly by his confidant and confessor, the Bishop of Basel,
at the head of one hundred chosen horse, and a body of expert
slingers. This small but timely reënforcement revived his confidence,
and although he was privately informed that his son Albert could not
supply him with further succors, and was advised not to hazard an
engagement with an enemy so superior in number, he resolved to commit
his fortune to the decision of arms. Turning then to the chosen body
newly arrived, he addressed them with a spirit which could not fail of
inspiring them with courage, and gave at the same time the most
flattering testimony to their zeal and fidelity. "Remain," he said,
"one day at Vienna, and refresh yourselves after the fatigues of your
march, and we will then take the field. You shall be the guard of my
person, and I trust that God, who has advanced me to this dignity,
will not forsake me in the hour of danger."