Austrian Interregnum

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The Austrian Interregnum refers to the period between 1246 and 1256 (or 1278 or 1282). This is the period in which the Babenbergs died out in the Duchy of Austria and the Habsburgs came to power.

After the childless Frederick II, Duke of Austria, fell in the Battle of the Leitha River on 15 June 1246, the Babenberg male line died out with him.

Since the Privilegium Minus also provided for female succession, his sister Margaret and his niece Gertrude were now entitled to inherit. When the duchies were awarded to Margaret, she married Ottokar Přemysl, King of Bohemia, who was more than twenty years her junior, whereupon Austria became a field of conflict between the House of Přemysl and the House of Árpád, in which Ottokar was able to prevail and in 1256 he became Duke of Austria, Styria and Carinthia.

However, the Wittelsbachs and the Habsburgs under Rudolph of Habsburg also claimed the Duchy of Austria. After Rudolph's victory over Ottokar Přemysl in the Battle on the Marchfeld on 26 August 1278, Rudolph's successor, his son Albert I of Habsburg, was confirmed as Duke of Austria on 17 December 1282 at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg.

Other “Austrian Interregna”

• The Hungarian king Matthias Corvinus conquered large parts of the Habsburg lands in the Austrian–Hungarian War (1477–1488), which he ruled from Vienna between 1485 and 1490.

• After the death of Emperor Charles VI in 1740, Charles Albert of Bavaria of the House of Wittelsbach was Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire until 1745, when Francis, the husband of Maria Theresa, was crowned emperor.

Sources

• Stephan Vajda: Felix Austria. Eine Geschichte Österreichs. Ueberreuter, Wien und Heidelberg 1980, ISBN 3-8000-3168-X Search this book on ..

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