The History of Austria 15
the dynasty ended suddenly when Duke Friedrich II, who was
childless, was killed in a battle against the Magyars.
A dispute erupted as to who would rule the duchies of
Austria and Styria. King Ottokar II Przemysl of Bohemia had
the support of the Austrian nobility and assumed power.
Rudolf of Habsburg, a minor count from Switzerland, was
elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1273 by the German princes,
who assumed erroneously that he could be controlled.
Instead, they helped create a powerful dynasty that would
rule Austria for over 600 years. Rudolf of Habsburg challenged
King Ottokar’s rule over Austria. King Ottokar was killed in
1278 in the Battle of Dürnkrut, and Rudolf assumed power.
The Habsburgs Dynasty
The Habsburgs consolidated their rule in the early 14th
century. In the mid-14th century, Rudolf IV, later known as
Rudolf the Founder, took the throne. He moved to establish
Vienna as one of the premier cities of Europe. During the
14th and 15th centuries, the Habsburgs gained Carinthia,
Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Slovenia and Trieste. Friedrich III raised
the duchy of Austria to that of an archduchy within the
Holy Roman Empire, and consequently from 1438 until
its dissolution in 1806, the Habsburgs were the hereditary
emperors of the empire.
Marriage Diplomacy
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the Habsburgs peacefully
obtained by marriage more lands than they ever could have won in
battle, gaining Netherlands, Burgundy, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and
large territories in the Americas. The line split when Emperor Charles
V’s son, Phillip II, took possession of the Spanish and Dutch lands,
while Charles’s brother, Ferdinand I, became regent not only of the
German-speaking lands, but through shrewd marriage policies of his
own gained Bohemia and Hungary.
The 16th and 17th Centuries
The Family
The Ottoman Empire was also interested in expansion. The
Turks set their sights on Vienna in 1529, but thwarted by
the city’s strong defenses and the approaching winter, they
