Rudolf I (Bohemia)

Rudolf VI. Count of Habsburg ( Czech Rudolf Habsburský ; * around 1282; † July 4, 1307 at Horaschdowitz ) was called Rudolf III. Duke of Austria and Styria from 1298 to 1306 and as Rudolf I, King of Bohemia and Titular King of Poland from 1306 to 1307.

Rudolf I (medieval stained glass window in St. Stephen's Cathedral )

Life

Rudolf was the eldest son of King Albrecht I of the House of Habsburg and Elisabeth of Görz-Tirol . His motto was “ Alienae vocis aemula ”, illustrated with a parrot in a cage.

At the first Reichstag in Nuremberg , shortly after his father's coronation, he was enfeoffed with Austria and Styria on November 21, 1298 together with his brothers Friedrich the Beautiful and Leopold the Glorious , whereby he himself was designated as regent in order to meet the demands to do justice to the Rheinfeld house rules of the Habsburgs as well as the feudal relationships of the empire. However, he was only 16 years old, which is why his father provided him with several councilors, in particular Hermann von Landenberg, the incumbent Land Marshal of Austria , and three Wallseer brothers; he also had to bow to his father's decisions.

His first marriage in 1300 to Blanka of France , the half-sister of King Philip IV of France , was initiated by his father. Albrecht I wanted to combine his empire with France and make his grandson the sole heir. In 1305 Blanka died childless.

In 1304 Albrecht and Rudolf moved together against Wenceslaus II (Václav) of Bohemia , who after the death of Andreas III. (András the Venetian) his son Wenceslaus III. made the Hungarian king. During the campaign, Albrecht and Rudolf Kuttenberg ( Kutná Hora ) besieged , their Cuman auxiliary troops committed atrocities in the country. With the onset of winter, hunger broke out in the army and they withdrew.

In 1306, after the assassination of Wenceslas III, who has since become King of Bohemia and Poland, and the associated extinction of the ruling family of the Přemyslids, he was given the Bohemian feud. At the same time Rudolf had to give up Austria and handed over the reign to Friedrich the Beautiful. Some of the estates in Bohemia favored his uncle Heinrich of Carinthia , the Meinhardiner , and elected him king. Albrecht I, the German king, who wanted to see his son on the Bohemian throne, placed the imperial ban on his brother-in-law Heinrich. Albrecht and Rudolf now moved against Heinrich, who fled to Bavaria and then back to Carinthia. Through Rudolf's marriage to Elisabeth Richza , the widow of King Wenceslas II , which took place on the day of the coronation on October 16, 1306 and was one of the conditions of the Bohemian nobility for the election, Rudolf could now also claim the title of Polish king.

First he tried to pay off the high debt of Bohemia with the help of the rich silver deposits in Kuttenberg. There was a revolt of Bohemian nobles, led by Bavor III. von Strakonitz and Wilhelm Zajíc von Waldeck , whom he had however crushed by Heinrich I. von Rosenberg . During the siege of Bavor's seat in Horažďovice, Rudolf died on the night of July 3rd to 4th, 1307 in the camp opposite the Jarov mill, leaving no heir. Since the royal troops were about to take the city at that time, the king's death was initially kept a secret.

The cause of death was probably abdominal cavity poisoning as a result of a ruptured gastric ulcer . Rudolf I suffered from stomach problems and therefore had to eat porridge and other light foods. Hence his nickname Král kaše ( king porridge ) comes from . The assumption made in various literature about his death from a dysentery infection appears unlikely, since the traditions do not reveal anything about such an infection in the camp and no other deaths are reported. At the time, there were also suspicions about poisoning, which can be found in the Erfurt Chronicle. The anthropologist Emanuel Vlček carried out an examination of the bones of Rudolf I, in which, however, he could not find any traces of poison.

After his death, Heinrich von Kärnten ( Jindřich Korutanský ) was elected king, who had already claimed the throne when Rudolf was elected. Rudolf is buried in St. Vitus Cathedral ( Chrám Svatého Víta ).

In the 14th century, the death of Rudolf I was transfigured by chroniclers before Horažďovice, Přibík Pulkava reports of the death of the king in a sword fight with Bavor III. from Strakonitz.

Marriages

Monument at the place of death near Horažďovice

Rudolf VI. von Habsburg (Duke Rudolf III of Austria, then King Rudolf I Kaše of Bohemia and Poland) was married twice:

∞ (I) 1300 Blanche (1282–1305) from the house of the Capetians , daughter of Philip III, King of France

∞ (II) October 16, 1306 Elisabeth Richza (1286 / 8–1335) from the house of the Piasts , daughter of Przemysław II, Duke of Greater Poland

Both marriages were short and childless.

literature

• Heinz Dopsch:  Rudolf III .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 178 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Constantin von Wurzbach : Rudolph III., King of Bohemia .  No. 277. In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 7th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1861, p. 136 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Entry to Duke Rudolf III. in the database of the state's memory for the history of Lower Austria ( Museum Niederösterreich )

Web links

• Illustration by Francesco Terzio from 1569: Rodolphus Rex Bohemiae ( digitized version )

Individual evidence

1. ^ János Nepomuk Jozsef Mailáth: History of the Austrian imperial state . Series History of European states . F. Perthes, 1834, p. 81 ( Google eBook, full view in Google Book Search).
2. ^ János Nepomuk József Mailáth: History of the Austrian imperial state. 1218-1526 . 1834, p. 86 ( Google eBook ).
3. ↑ Wurzbach: Rudolph III.
4. ↑ Jindřich Šlechta: Od založení města Horažďovic ke smrti Rudolfa I. Habsburského před jeho branami ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

predecessor	Office	successor
Albrecht I.	Duke of Austria and Styria (III.) 1298–1306 (with Friedrich I , Leopold I )	Friedrich I. (with Leopold I. )
Wenceslaus III	King of Bohemia (I.) 1306-1307	Heinrich