Rheinfeld house rules

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The Rheinfeld house rules (also called the Treaty of Rheinfelden ) of June 1, 1283 were the first house law of the House of Habsburg . It contained a regulation of the succession of King Rudolf I of Habsburg and laid an essential basis for the power of the Habsburg dynasty and the later Habsburg hereditary lands .

background

House rules in the Middle Ages

Since the Middle Ages, the Central European nobility have set their own standards for their own family law issues, in particular property and inheritance law . In these house rules , among other things, the legal succession , marriage law , guardianship , the inalienability of the master property and division into different lines were regulated. These house rules are also an expression of the development of a dynasty consciousness.

Rudolf's victory over Ottokar of Bohemia and enfeoffment of his sons

After Rudolf I, the first Habsburg on the German royal throne since 1273 , his lifelong adversary Ottokar Přemysl - the Bohemian King and Duke of Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola - after years of disputes and fights in the Battle of the Marchfeld (Battle of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen ) on August 26, 1278 and Ottokar was killed after the battle at the hands of personal enemies, the imperial estates in the Eastern Alps that had been taken over by him fell back to the empire. As early as 1276, Rudolf had convinced the electors to give goods in this catchment area to his sons. In 1277 Bavarian bishops gave fiefs to Rudolf's sons, who had previously owned the families of the Babenbergs and, in Carinthia, the Spanheimers .

In 1281 Rudolf appointed his eldest son Albrecht (* 1255), who was born in Rheinfelden , from his first marriage to Gertrud Anna von Hohenberg , as imperial administrator . On December 17, 1282, at the Imperial Diet in Augsburg , Rudolf obtained the necessary consent from the Electors for his decision, his sons Albrecht and Rudolf (* 1271), who was then still underage , and later Rudolf II of Austria, together with the re-conquered duchies To enfeoff Austria , Styria as well as Carniola and the Windischen Mark ; Carinthia went to Meinhard II von Görz – Tirol . The written certification that decision was made after the end of Hoftages in a will Letter of Elector of 27 December 1282. The house coat of arms Babenberger was after the investiture integrated by the Habsburgs in their own house crest.

The loan was initially made “in common hands”, that is, according to the traditional principle of “community” ( Ganerbschaft ) in order to prevent the family possessions from being split up. As part of the enfeoffment, Rudolf's sons also rose to become imperial princes .

Rheinfeld house rules

However, after the Austrian and Styrian aristocrats soon asked King Rudolf to repeal the dual government, the Rheinfeld house rules (named after the place where they were drawn up) deviated from the principle of " joint hands " and a restriction on the joint exercise of government was established, with priority being given to the eldest son ( Primogenitur ) and with a clear division of responsibilities in the area of ​​administration ( administrative division ). Rule in the Austrian states was separated from the Habsburg ancestral lands on the Upper Rhine ( Breisgau , Upper Rhine ) and on the High Rhine (in today's Swiss canton of Aargau ), and Albrecht alone was given over.

As compensation, Rudolf II was to receive compensation in cash or other territories in southwest Germany within four years. He died in 1290 without having received the agreed settlement. His son Johann asserted the inherited claims against Albrecht several times without success, the last time on May 1, 1308. Since this attempt also failed, Johann murdered his uncle Albrecht in revenge on the same day near Brugg an der Reuss . He was therefore later given the nickname “ Parricida ”(killer of relatives).

The place of the contract

The city of Rheinfelden , which had been free from the empire since 1218, was regained its imperial freedom in 1273 after it was taken over by the Bishop of Basel, under pressure from Rudolf, who had just been crowned king . Since Rudolf was often on the road, he chose the former Zähringerburg , Stein Castle , on an island in the Rhine near Rheinfelden - due to its convenient and impregnable location as his family's residence. The imperial insignia (crown and scepter) were temporarily kept there. His wife Anna lived with her children at the castle, son Karl was born there in 1276, but died that same year. Also in that year the family moved to Vienna forever.

Effects

The Rheinfeld house rules laid an essential basis for the power of the Habsburg ruling dynasty in Austria and the later Habsburg hereditary lands . Rudolf's attempt to have himself crowned emperor in the following years in order to secure his son Albrecht's successor as Roman-German king during his lifetime failed, however, because several previously scheduled coronation dates did not materialize due to frequent changes of pope.

The principle of inheritance distribution and primogeniture applied in the Rheinfeld house rules , which was already widespread in the French nobility ( House of Savoy ), was gradually adopted in German-speaking countries from the 13th century.

After Duke Rudolf IV († 1365) had initially agreed the indivisibility of the Habsburg lands with his younger brothers Albrecht and Leopold in another house rules almost 100 years later, the Rudolfinische Hausordnung from 1364, they decided in the Treaty of Neuberg of 25 September In 1379, for the first time, several real divisions separated into two lines:

  • The Albertine line kept Austria whether the Enns and nid , but without the county Pitten with Wiener Neustadt, which belonged to Styria.
  • The Leopoldine line received the Styria, Carinthia, Tyrol and the Habsburg foothills as well as Carniola with the Windische Mark, Inneristrien and the new acquisitions on the Adriatic (later the coastal region).

Further divisions took place in 1406 (death of Wilhelm the Ambitious / Friendly ) and 1411 (death of Leopold the Fat ). In the end, three country complexes emerged:

  • The Lower Austrian States (Upper and Lower Austria)
  • the inner Austrian states (Styria, Carinthia, Carniola and Inner-Istria as well as Trieste)
  • the Upper Austrian states (Tyrol, Vorarlberg and the Swabian and Alsatian foothills).

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