1.
King of the Romans
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King of the Romans was the title used by the German king following his election by the princes from the time of Emperor Henry II onward. The title was predominantly a claim to become Holy Roman Emperor and was dependent upon coronation by the Pope, the title originally referred to any elected king who had not yet been granted the Imperial Regalia and title of Emperor at the hands of the Pope. Later it came to be used solely for the apparent to the Imperial throne between his election and his succession upon the death of the Emperor. The territory of East Francia was not referred to as the Kingdom of Germany or Regnum Teutonicum by contemporary sources until the 11th century, during this time, the kings claim to coronation was increasingly contested by the papacy culminating in the fierce Investiture Controversy. Pope Gregory VII insisted on using the derogatory term Teutonicorum Rex in order to imply that Henrys authority was merely local, Henry continued to regularly use the title Romanorum Rex until he finally was crowned Emperor by Antipope Clement III in 1084. Henrys successors imitated this practice, and were also called Romanorum Rex before, candidates for the kingship were at first the heads of the Germanic stem duchies. As these units broke up, rulers of principalities and even non-Germanic rulers were considered for the position. The only requirements generally observed were that the candidate be a male, a Catholic Christian. The kings were elected by several Imperial Estates, often in the city of Frankfurt after 1147. They were the Prince-Archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne as well as the King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Saxon duke, after the Investiture Controversy, Charles intended to strengthen the legal status of the Rex Romanorum beyond Papal approbation. Consequently, among his successors only Sigismund and Frederick III were still crowned Emperors in Rome, the Golden Bull remained effective as constitutional law until the Empires dissolution in 1806. After his election, the new king would be crowned as King of the Romans, though the ceremony was no more than a symbolic validation of the election result, it was solemnly celebrated. The details of Ottos coronation in 936 are described by the medieval chronicler Widukind of Corvey in his Res gestae saxonicae, the kings received the Imperial Crown from at least 1024, at the coronation of Conrad II. In 1198 the Hohenstaufen candidate Philip of Swabia was crowned Rex Romanorum at Mainz Cathedral, at some time after the ceremony, the king would, if possible, cross the Alps, to receive coronation in Pavia or Milan with the Iron Crown of Lombardy as King of Italy. Finally, he would travel to Rome and be crowned Emperor by the Pope, in such cases, the king might retain the title King of the Romans for his entire reign. At this time Maximilian also took the new title King of the Germans or King in Germany, the following were ruling Kings of the Romans, i. e. men who ruled the Kingdom without subordination to another King but who had not yet been crowned Emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was an elective monarchy, no person had a legal right to the succession simply because he was related to the current Emperor. However, the Emperor could, and often did, have an elected to succeed him after his death
2.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
3.
Aachen Cathedral
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Aachen Cathedral, traditionally known in English as the Cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, is a Roman Catholic church in Aachen, western Germany, and the see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Aachen. It is one of the oldest cathedrals in Europe and was constructed by order of the emperor Charlemagne, for 595 years, from 936 to 1531, the Palatine Chapel, heart of the cathedral, was the church of coronation for thirty-one German kings and twelve queens. The church has been the church of the Diocese of Aachen since 1802. Charlemagne began the construction of the Palatine Chapel around 796, along with the building of the rest of the palace structures, the construction is credited to Odo of Metz. The exact date of completion is unclear, however, a letter from Alcuin, in 798, states that it was nearing completion, and in 805, Leo III consecrated the finished chapel. A foundry was brought to Aachen near the end of the 8th century and was utilized to cast multiple bronze pieces, from doors, Charlemagne was buried in the chapel in 814. It suffered a large amount of damage in a Viking raid in 881, after Frederick Barbarossa canonized Charlemagne, in 1165, the chapel became a draw for pilgrims. A cupola, several chapels and a steeple were also constructed at later dates. It was restored again in 1881, when the Baroque stucco was removed, in 1978, it was one of the first 12 items to make the entry into the UNESCO list of world heritage sites, as the first German and one of the first three European historical ensembles. Secondly, the choir was constructed in the Gothic style, finally, there are portions that show Ottonian style, such as the area around the throne. The octagon in the centre of the Cathedral was erected as the chapel of the Palace of Aachen between 796 and 805 on the model of other contemporary Byzantine buildings. The architect was Odo of Metz, and the design was of a domed octagonal inner room enveloped by a 16 sided outer wall. The span and height of Charlemagnes Palatine chapel was unsurpassed north of the Alps for over two hundred years, the Palatine chapel consisted of a high octagonal room with a two story circuit below. The inner octagon, with a diameter of 14.46 metres, is made up of strong piers, on which a cloister vault lies. Around this inner octagon is a sixteen sided circuit of low groin vaults and this upper story was known as the Hochmünster. The arched openings of the story are only about half as high as those of the Hochmünster. The two floors are separated from each other by an expansive cornice, the high altar and Imperial throne are located on the upper circuit of the Palatine chapel in an octagonal side room, covered by a barrel vault lying on an angle. This area was connected with the palace by a passage, above the arches of the gallery, an octagonal drum with window openings rises, on top of which is the cupola
4.
Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall
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Richard, second son of John, King of England, was the nominal Count of Poitou, Earl of Cornwall and King of Germany. He was born 5 January 1209 at Winchester Castle, the son of John, King of England. Richards revenues from Cornwall helped make him one of the wealthiest men in Europe, though he campaigned on King Henrys behalf in Poitou and Brittany, and served as regent three times, relations were often strained between the brothers in the early years of Henrys reign. Richard rebelled against him three times, and had to be bought off with lavish gifts, in 1225 Richard traded with Gervase de Tintagel, swapping the land of Merthen for Tintagel Castle. It has been suggested that a castle was built on the site by Richard in 1233 to establish a connection with the Arthurian legends that were associated by Geoffrey of Monmouth with the area. The castle was built in a more old-fashioned style for the time to make it more ancient. Richard hoped that, in way, he could gain the Cornish peoples trust. The castle itself held no real strategic value, sidney Toy, however, has suggested an earlier period of construction for the castle. Richard became stepfather to Isabels six children from her first husband, in that same year he acquired his main residence, Wallingford Castle in Berkshire, and spent much money on developing it. He had other favoured properties at Marlow and Cippenham in Buckinghamshire, Isabel and Richard had four children, of whom only their son, Henry of Almain, survived to adulthood. Richard opposed Simon de Montfort, and rose in rebellion in 1238 to protest against the marriage of his sister, Eleanor, once again he was placated with rich gifts. When Isabel was on her deathbed in 1240, she asked to be buried next to her first husband at Tewkesbury, as a pious gesture, however, he sent her heart to Tewkesbury. Later that year Richard departed for the Holy Land, leading the second host of crusaders to arrive during the Barons Crusade and he fought no battles but managed to negotiate for the release of prisoners and the burials of crusaders killed at a battle in Gaza in November 1239. He also refortified Ascalon, which had been demolished by Saladin, on his return from the Holy Land, Richard visited his sister Isabella, the empress of Frederick II. After the birth of Prince Edward in 1239, provisions were made in case of the kings death, to keep him from becoming discontented King Henry and Queen Eleanor brought up the idea of a marriage with Eleanors sister Sanchia shortly after his return on 28 January 1242. On his journey to the Holy Land, Richard had met her in Provence, Richard and Sanchia married at Westminster in November 1243. This marriage tied him closely to the royal party, Eleanor and Sanchias youngest sister Beatrice would marry Charles I of Naples, while their oldest sister Margaret had married Louis IX of France. The marriages of the kings of France and England, and their two brothers to the four sisters from Provence improved the relationship between the two countries, which led up to the Treaty of Paris, Richard was appointed count of Poitou some time before August 1225
5.
Interregnum (HRE)
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
6.
Adolf of Germany
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Adolf was Count of Nassau from about 1276 and elected King of Germany from 1292 until his deposition by the prince-electors in 1298. He was never crowned by the Pope, which would have secured him the title of Holy Roman Emperor and he was the first physically and mentally healthy ruler of the Holy Roman Empire ever to be deposed without a papal excommunication. Adolf died shortly afterwards in the Battle of Göllheim fighting against his successor Albert of Habsburg and he was the second in the succession of so-called count-kings of several rivalling comital houses striving after the Roman-German royal dignity. Adolf was the count of a small German state. He was born about 1255 and was the son of Walram II, Count of Nassau, Adolf’s brother was Dieter of Nassau, who was appointed Archbishop of Trier in 1300. Adolf was married in 1270 to Imagina of Isenburg-Limburg and they had eight children, Agnes of Isenburg-Limburg, the sister of Imagina, was married to Henry of Westerburg, the brother of Siegfried II of Westerburg, the Archbishop of Cologne. In 1276 or 1277, Adolf followed his father as Count of Nassau, from his father, he inherited the family’s lands south of the Lahn River in the Taunus Mountains. These included Wiesbaden and Idstein, as fiefdoms, and the Vogtship in Weilburg under the Bishopric of Worms and he also shared ownership of the family homelands around the castles of Nassau and Laurenburg. Around 1280, Adolf became involved in the Nassau-Eppstein Feud with the Lords of Eppstein, in which the city of Wiesbaden was devastated, the feud was settled in 1283, after which the city and the castle were rebuilt. Sonnenberg, along with Idstein, became Adolf’s residence and he granted Idstein town privileges in 1287 and built its fortifications. Through his uncle, Eberhard I of Katzenelnbogen, Adolf came to the court of King Rudolf I of Habsburg, King Rudolf awarded him with the Burghauptmannamt of Kalsmunt Castle in Wetzlar and a year later that of Gutenfels Castle near Kaub. Before his election, Adolf’s political activities had been limited to his role as Bundesgenosse of the Archbishop of Cologne, Adolf had no particular office, but likely became known through his involvement with the Archbishops of Cologne and Mainz in the politics of the Middle Rhine and Mainz areas. He spoke German, French, and Latin, which was rare at that time for nobles, after his election, King Adolf of Nassau would only rarely be in his home country, having transferred the government there to his burgmen. On 17 January 1294, he purchased Weilburg for 400 pounds from the Bishopric of Worms and he granted Weilburg town privileges on 29 December 1295. He also established the Clarisse abbey of Klarenthal near Wiesbaden in 1296, Rudolf I of Habsburg died on 15 July 1291. For many years before his death, Rudolf had tried to secure the election of his eldest son Albert as his successor and he was thwarted, however, by the opposition of the Archbishop of Cologne, Siegfried II of Westerburg, and the King of Bohemia, Wenceslaus II. Only the Count Palatine Louis II of Upper Bavaria the Rigorous promised to choose Albert, Wenceslaus, despite Rudolfs recognition of his electoral vote, refused to support Albert because he would not cede Carinthia to him. He took the side of the nobles in the core Habsburg areas of Swabia and in their newly acquired territories in Austria, Wenceslaus was supported by Duke Otto III of Lower Bavaria, whose family were traditional enemies of the Habsburgs
7.
Duchy of Carinthia
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The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies. Carinthia remained a State of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, a constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy and of the Austrian Empire, it remained a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until 1918. By the Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920, the area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia. In the seventh century the area was part of the Slavic principality of Carantania, the Bavarian stem duchy was incorporated into the Carolingian Empire when Charlemagne deposed Odilos son Duke Tassilo III in 788. In the 843 partition by the Treaty of Verdun, Carinthia became part of East Francia under King Louis the German, after Berthold became Duke of Bavaria in 938, both territories were ruled by him. Duke Henrys son Henry II the Quarreller from 974 onwards, revolted against his cousin Emperor Otto II, at the same time Emperor Otto II created a sixth duchy in addition to the original stem duchies, the new Duchy of Carinthia. He reverted the possession of the territories to the Luitpoldings, when he split Carinthia from the Bavarian lands, over the centuries, the name Carinthia gradually replaced former Carantania. The realm of the Carinthian dukes initially comprised a vast territory including the marches of Styria, Carniola and Istria, though Henry once again managed to regain the ducal title in 985, Carinthia upon his death in 989 fell back to the Imperial Ottonian dynasty in Bavaria. Adalbero was removed from office in 1035 after he had out of favour with the Salian Emperor Conrad II. In 1039 Carinthia was inherited by Emperor Henry III himself, who split off the Carniolan march the following year and granted it to Margrave Poppo of Istria. In 1077, the duchy was given to Luitpold, again a member of the Eppensteiner family, upon his death the duchy was further reduced in area, a large part of the Eppenstein lands in what is today Upper Styria passed to Margrave Ottokar II of Styria. The remainder of Carinthia passed from Duke Henry III to his godchild Henry from the House of Sponheim, the most outstanding of the Spanheim dukes was Bernhard, the first Carinthian duke who was actually described and honoured in documents as prince of the land. The last Spanheim duke was Ulrich III, he signed a treaty with his brother Archbishop Philip of Salzburg. In spite of being supported by the Habsburg king Rudolf I of Germany, the duchy was seized by Rudolph and Philip died a year later in 1279. Rudolf, after being elected King of the Romans and defeating King Ottokar II, the Habsburgs would continue to rule Carinthia until 1918. As with the component parts of the Habsburg Monarchy, Carinthia remained a semi-autonomous state with its own constitutional structure for a long time. The Habsburgs divided up their territories within the family twice, according to the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, each time, the Duchy of Carinthia became part of Inner Austria and was ruled jointly with the adjacent duchies of Styria and Carniola
8.
Ottokar II of Bohemia
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Ottokar II, the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He also held the titles of a Margrave of Moravia from 1247, Duke of Austria from 1251, Duke of Styria from 1260, as well as Duke of Carinthia, with Ottokars rule, the Přemyslids reached the peak of their power in the Holy Roman Empire. His expectations of imperial crown, however, were never fulfilled, Ottokar was the second son of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia. He was possibly educated by the Bohemian chancellor Philip of Spanheim, when his brother Vladislaus died in 1247, Ottokar suddenly became the heir to the Bohemian throne. According to popular tradition, he was profoundly shocked by his brothers death and did not involve himself in politics. As new heir, his father appointed him Margrave of Moravia and Ottokar took his residence in Brno, in 1248 he was enticed by discontented nobles to lead a rebellion against his father King Wenceslaus. During this rebellion he was elected the younger King on 31 July 1248, Přemysl Ottokar II held the title of King of Bohemia until November 1249. However, he was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV, whereafter Wenceslaus finally managed to defeat the rebels, King Wenceslaus had initially attempted to acquire Austria by marrying his heir, Vladislav, to the last dukes niece Gertrude of Babenberg. That match had been cut short by Vladislavs death and Gertrudes remarriage to the Zähringen margrave Herman VI of Baden, the latter was rejected by the Austrian nobility and could not establish his rule. Wenceslaus used this as pretext to invade Austria when Herman died in 1250 — according to some sources, Wenceslaus released Přemysl Ottokar very soon and in 1251 again made him Margrave of Moravia and installed him, with the approval of the Austrian nobles, as governor of Austria. The same year Ottokar entered Austria, where the estates acclaimed him as Duke, to legitimize his position, Přemysl Ottokar married the late Duke Frederick IIs sister Margaret of Babenberg, who was his senior by 30 years and the widow of the Hohenstaufen king Henry of Germany. Their marriage took place on 11 February 1252 at Hainburg, in 1253, King Wenceslaus died and Přemysl Ottokar succeeded his father as King of Bohemia. After the death of the German King Konrad IV in 1254 while his son Conradin was still a minor, however, his election bid was unsuccessful and Count William II of Holland, the German anti-king since 1247, was generally recognised. Feeling threatened by Ottokars growing regional power beyond the Leitha River, the conflict was quelled through papal mediation, it was agreed that Ottokar was to yield large parts of Styria to Béla in exchange for recognition of his right to the remainder of Austria. During the following peace phase, King Ottokar II led two expeditions against the pagan Old Prussians. Königsberg, founded in 1255 by the Teutonic Order, was named in his honour, however, after a few years the conflict resumed and Ottokar defeated the Hungarians in July 1260 at the Battle of Kressenbrunn, ending years of disputes over Styria with Béla IV. Béla now ceded Styria back to Ottokar, and his claim to those territories was formally recognized by Richard of Cornwall, then king of Germany and this peace agreement was also sealed by a royal marriage. Ottokar ended his marriage to Margaret and married Bélas young granddaughter Kunigunda of Halych, the youngest of them became his only legitimate son, Wenceslaus II
9.
Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia
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Meinhard II redirects here, it can also refer to Meinhard II, Count of Gorizia. In 1286 he was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Carinthia and the adjacent March of Carniola, Meinhard II was the son of Count Meinhard III of Gorizia and his wife Adelheid, daughter and heiress of Count Albert IV of Tyrol. However, he was defeated near Greifenburg and had to leave his minor sons Meinhard II and Albert held in hostage by Duke Bernhards son, after their fathers death in 1258, Meinhard II and his brother emerged from the Salzburg custody at Hohenwerfen Castle to secure their Gorizia-Tyrol heritage. In 1259 Meinhard married Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, the widow of the Hohenstaufen king Conrad IV of Germany, the joint rule with Albert came to an end, when the inheritance rights to Gorizia and Tyrol were divided in 1271. Meinhard received the County of Tyrol, becoming the progenitor of the Gorizia-Tyrol line of the Meinhardiner dynasty and he and his wife Elisabeth founded Stams Abbey as a proprietary monastery in 1273. He turned out to be a ruler, and therefore is known as the creator of Tyrol as an autonomous Imperial State. Meinhard also had built and coins minted, especially the silver coin Zwainziger. The type was copied elsewhere in Europe and became known as Groschen. Already in 1267 Count Meinhard had once tried to strengthen the ties with the Hohenstaufen dynasty by accompanying his stepson Conradin of Swabia on his campaign to Italy. However, after Conradins defeat at the Battle of Tagliacozzo and his execution in 1268, in 1276 Meinhard married his daughter Elisabeth off to Rudolfs eldest son Albert. Meinhard backed Rudolfs campaign against Ottokar and in turn received Carinthia with the Carniolan march as a pledge in 1276, on September 1, Meinhard was enthroned at the Dukes Chair and thus became the first Carinthian duke of the Gorizia-Tyrol dynasty. As far as can be ascertained, he had no ancestry in earlier Carinthian ducal families, whereas he was a distant descendant of some early Meranian lords of Istria and Carniola. His investiture of the duchy included a provision that in extinction of his male line and this materialized in 1335 upon the death of his son Henry. The Habsburgs also acquired the County of Tyrol from Henrys daughter Margaret in 1363, Meinhard died in 1295 at Greifenburg in Carinthia. His younger son Henry succeeded him as Carinthian duke and in 1307 was even elected King of Bohemia, meinhards wife from 1258 was Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, the daughter of Duke Otto II of Bavaria and widow of King Conrad IV of Germany. Thus he was the stepfather of Conradin of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia and claimant of the Kingdom of Sicily and their daughter, Margaret of Görz-Tyrol, married Frederick IV of Nuremberg, Burgrave of Nuremberg. Tirol, Kärnten und ihre Nachbarländer am Ende des 13, - Das Werden Tirols, Catalogue, Dorf Tirol/Innsbruck 1995
10.
Duchy of Styria
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The Duchy of Styria was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, margrave Ottokar IV thereby became the first Duke of Styria and also the last of the ancient Otakar dynasty. Upon his death in 1192, Styria as stipulated fell to the Babenberg duke Leopold V of Austria, the Austrian Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Duke Frederick II the Quarrelsome was killed in battle against King Béla IV of Hungary. It passed quickly through the hands of Hungary in 1254, until the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl conquered it, rudolph finally defeated Ottokar at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, seized Austria and Styria and granted them to his sons Albert I and Rudolf II. The House of Habsburg provided Styria with dukes of their lineage ever since, in 1456 they could significantly enlarge the Styrian territory by acquisition of the comital Celje estates in Lower Styria. Both duchies were ruled in personal union, when Leopolds grandson Frederick V inherited Austria in 1457. In 1496 Fredericks son Maximilian I signed an order expelling all Jews from Styria, in 1512 the duchy joined the Empires Austrian Circle. A second Inner Austrian cadet branch of the Habsburgs ruled over Styria from 1564, the Protestant population was expelled, including the astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1600. Meanwhile, at the time of the Ottoman invasions in the 16th and 17th centuries after the 1526 Battle of Mohács, Styria remained a part of the Habsburg Monarchy and from 1804 belonged to the Austrian Empire. He also forwarded the construction of the Semmering railway to Mürzzuschlag and the Austrian Southern Railway line from Vienna to Trieste completed in 1857, history of Styria Map of the Balkans, 1815–59, showing the Duchy of Styria
11.
Albert I of Germany
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From 1273 Albert ruled as a landgrave over his fathers Swabian possessions in Alsace. Albert and his Swabian ministeriales appear to have ruled the Austrian and Styrian duchies with conspicuous success, upon Rudolfs death in 1291, the Prince-electors, fearing Alberts power and the implementation of a hereditary monarchy, chose Count Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg as King of the Romans. A rising among his Styrian dependents compelled Albert to recognize the sovereignty of his rival, the armies of the rival kings met at the Battle of Göllheim near Worms, where Adolf was defeated and slain. Although a hard, stern man, Albert had a sense of justice when his own interests were not involved. He encouraged the cities, and not content with issuing proclamations against private war, the serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to the claims of common humanity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the despised and persecuted Jews. Stories of his cruelty and oppression in the Swiss cantons did not appear until the 16th century, Albert sought to play an important part in European affairs. He also renewed the claim made by his predecessor, Adolf, on Thuringia, the Thuringian attack ended in Alberts defeat at the Battle of Lucka in 1307 and, in the same year, the death of his son Rudolph weakened his position in eastern Europe. His action in abolishing all tolls established on the Rhine since 1250, led the Rhenish prince-archbishops, aided by the Imperial cities, however, he soon crushed the rising. The baptismal name Leopold, patron saint margrave of Austria, was given to one of their sons, Albert and his wife had twelve children, Rudolph III, Married but line extinct and predeceased his father. Anna, married, in Graz c. 1295 to Herman, Margrave of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, agnes, married in Vienna 13 February 1296 King Andrew III of Hungary. Elizabeth, married 1304 Frederick IV, Duke of Lorraine, catherine, married Charles, Duke of Calabria in 1316. Jutta, married Ludwig V, Count of Öttingen in Baden,26 March 1319, attribution, This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Albert I. Bemühungen um die Nachfolge im Reich J. F. A. Mücke, Albrecht I. von Habsburg A. L. J. Michelsen, Die Landgrafschaft Thüringen unter den Königen Adolf, Albrecht, und Heinrich VII
12.
Speyer
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Speyer is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located beside the river Rhine, Speyer is 25 km south of Ludwigshafen, founded by the Romans, it is one of Germanys oldest cities. The first known names were Noviomagus and Civitas Nemetum, after the Teutonic tribe, Nemetes, around AD500 the name Spira first appeared in written documents and, as well as the French, this is still reflected in the names Spira and Espira used in Italian and Spanish. The citys name may be the origin of the Ashkenazi Jewish name, Shapiro, Speyer is dominated by the Speyer Cathedral, a number of churches and the Altpörtel. In the cathedral, beneath the altar, are the tombs of eight Holy Roman emperors. In 10 BC, the first Roman military camp is established, in AD150, the town appears as Noviomagus on the world map of the Greek geographer Ptolemy. In 346, a bishop for the town is mentioned for the first time, 4th century, Speyer appears on the Peutinger Map. In 1030, emperor Conrad II starts the construction of Speyer Cathedral, in 1076, emperor Henry IV embarks from Speyer, his favourite town, for Canossa. In 1084, establishment of the first Jewish community in Speyer, in 1294, the bishop loses most of his previous rights, and from now on Speyer is a Free Imperial Town of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1349, the Jewish community of Speyer is wiped out, between 1527 and 1689, Speyer is the seat of the Imperial Chamber Court. In 1526, at the Diet of Speyer interim toleration of Lutheran teaching, in 1529, at the Diet of Speyer the Lutheran states of the empire protest against the anti-Reformation resolutions. In 1635, Marshal of France Urbain de Maillé-Brézé, together with Jacques Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force, conquers Heidelberg, in 1689, the town is heavily damaged by French troops. Between 1792 and 1814, Speyer is under French jurisdiction, in 1816, Speyer becomes the seat of administration of the Palatinate and of the government of the Rhine District of Bavaria, and remains so until the end of World War II. Between 1883 and 1904, the Memorial Church is built in remembrance of the Protestation of 1529, in 1947, the State Academy of Administrative Science is founded. In 1990, Speyer celebrates its 2000th anniversary
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Speyer Cathedral
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The cathedral, which is dedicated to St. Mary, patron saint of Speyer and St. Stephen is generally known as Kaiserdom zu Speyer. Pope Pius XI raised Speyer Cathedral to the rank of a basilica of the Roman Catholic Church in 1925. As the burial site for Salian, Staufer and Habsburg emperors, with the Abbey of Cluny in ruins, it remains the largest Romanesque church. It is considered to be a point in European architecture, one of the most important architectural monuments of its time. In 1981, the cathedral was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List of culturally important sites as a monument of Romanesque art in the German Empire. In 1025, Conrad II ordered the construction of the Christian Western worlds largest church in Speyer which was supposed to be his last resting place. Construction began 1030 on the site of a basilica which stood on an elevated plateau right by the Rhine. Along with Santiago de Compostela, Cluny Abbey, and Durham Cathedral, neither Conrad II, nor his son Henry III, were to see the cathedral completed. Conrad II died in 1039 and was buried in the cathedral while it was still under construction, the graves were placed in the central aisle in front of the altar. Nearly completed, the cathedral was consecrated in 1061 and this phase of construction, called Speyer I, consists of a Westwerk, a nave with two aisles and an adjoining transept. The choir was flanked by two towers, the original apse was round inside but rectangular on the outside. The nave was covered with a wooden ceiling but the aisles were vaulted. Around 1090, Conrads grandson, Emperor Henry IV, conducted a reconstruction in order to enlarge the cathedral. He had the eastern sections demolished and the foundations enforced to a depth of up to eight metres, only the lower floors and the crypt of Speyer I remained intact. The nave was elevated by five metres and the wooden ceiling replaced with a groin vault of square bays. Each vault extends over two bays of the elevation, every second pier was enlarged by adding a broad pilaster or dosseret, which formed a system of interior buttressing. Engaged shafts had appeared around 1030 in buildings along the Loire from where the spread to Normandy. The only other example of such a bay system is in the church of San Vincente, Cardona
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Gertrude of Hohenberg
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Gertrude of Hohenberg was the first wife of Rudolph I of Germany. Gertrude was born to Burkhard V, Count of Hohenberg, and his wife, in 1251, Gertrude married Rudolph IV, Count of Habsburg. They had eleven children, Matilda, married 1273 in Aachen to Louis II, Duke of Bavaria and became mother of Rudolf I, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Louis IV, Albert I of Germany, Duke of Austria and also of Styria. Catherine, married 1279 in Vienna to Otto III, Duke of Bavaria who later became the disputed King Bela V of Hungary, agnes, married 1273 to Albert II, Duke of Saxony and became the mother of Rudolf I, Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg. Hedwig, married 1270 in Vienna to Otto VI, Margrave of Brandenburg-Salzwedel, Rudolf II, Duke of Austria and Styria, titular Duke of Swabia, father of John the Patricide of Austria. Her husband was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 29 September 1273, largely due to the efforts of her cousin Frederick III, Rudolph was crowned in Aachen on 24 October 1273. She served as his Queen consort for the eight years. She died in Vienna, early in 1281, and buried in the Münster of Basel, Rudolph remained a widower for three years and proceeded to marry Isabelle of Burgundy
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Isabella of Burgundy, Queen of Germany
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Isabella of Burgundy, Lady of Vieux-Château, was the second and last Queen consort of Rudolph I of Germany. She was the daughter of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy. Isabella was betrothed in 1272 to Charles of Flandres and he was born in 1266 to the later Robert III of Flanders and his first wife Blanche of Sicily. On 6 February 1284, Isabella became the wife of Rudolf I of Germany. The bride was fourteen years old and the groom almost sixty-six, Rudolph died on 15 July 1291. He was succeeded as Duke of Austria by his co-ruling sons Albert I and she returned to the Court of Burgundy and was granted the title of Lady of Vieux-Château on 20 November 1294. She had a marriage to Pierre IX de Chambly, Lord of Neaufles who died c. Isabella and Pierre had at least one daughter, through whom she has living descendants, a listing of descendants of Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy
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Matilda of Habsburg
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Matilda of Habsburg or Melchilde was the eldest daughter of Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenburg. She was regent of Bavaria in the minority of her son, on 24 October 1273, Matilda married Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, in Aachen, she was his third and final wife. There was an age difference, Louis was twenty three years older than Matilda. Matilda and Louis had the children, Agnes, married to,1290 in Donauwörth Landgrave Henry the Younger of Hesse, 1298/1303 Henry I Lackland. Mechthild, married 1288 to Duke Otto II of Brunswick-Lüneburg, on her husbands death in 1294, Matilda acted as regent for her young son Rudolf. A decision was made for Matilda to take part of the duchy, Matilda took a large part of Upper Bavaria while her son took the cities such as, Ingolstadt, Neuberg, Langenfeld and Rietberg. Within a couple of years her son came of age and ruled the kingdom by himself, a civil war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich. Matildas son, Louis, defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Handsome, originally, he was a friend of Frederick, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the tutelage over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria was entrusted to Frederick, on 9 November 1313, Frederick was beaten by Louis in the Battle of Gamelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage. Matilda died on 23 December 1304 at Munich, Bavaria
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Albert II, Duke of Saxony
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Albert II of Saxony was a son of Duke Albert I of Saxony and his third wife Helen of Brunswick and Lunenburg, a daughter of Otto the Child. He supported Rudolph I of Germany at his election as Roman king, after the death of their father Albert I in 1260 Albert II jointly ruled the Duchy of Saxony with his elder brother John I, and thereafter with the latters sons. In 1269,1272 and 1282 the brothers divided their governing competences within the three territorially unconnected Saxon areas, thus preparing a partition. In the imperial election in 1273 Albert II represented the jointly ruling brothers, in return Rudolph I had married his daughter Agnes of Habsburg to Albert II. When the County of Brehna was reverted to the Empire after the extinction of its family the king enfeoffed Duke Rudolf. In 1290 Albert II gained the County of Brehna and in 1295 the County of Gommern for Saxony, on 27 April 1292 Albert II, with his nephews still minor, wielded the Saxon electoral vote, electing Adolf of Germany. The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295, Albert II received Saxe-Wittenberg around the eponymous city and Belzig. Albert II thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg
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Clemence of Austria
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Clemence of Austria was a daughter of King Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenberg. She was a member of the House of Habsburg, on 8 January 1281, Clemence married Charles Martel of Anjou. All of his children were with Elisabeth and his only illegitimate child was Kalman, later Bishop of Győr. Beatrice of Hungary, the wife of John II of Viennois Clemence of Hungary and it is believed that Clemence died in 1293, in relation to the birth of her youngest daughter and namesake, Clemence. Others argue that she died in 1295, months after Charles Martel and he never managed to govern the Kingdom of Hungary, where an agnate of the Árpád dynasty, his cousin Andrew III of Hungary actually ruled that period. Charles Martel was, however, successful in asserting his claims in parts of Croatia, Charles Martel died young in Naples, during the lifetime of his parents. Charles Martel and Clemences son, Charles would ultimately succeed where he had failed in winning the throne of Hungary
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Judith of Habsburg
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Judith of Habsburg was the youngest daughter of Rudolph I of Germany and his wife Gertrude of Hohenburg. Judith was a member of the Habsburg family, when Judith was five, she became the object of her fathers political plans. Her father signed the Vienna peace treaty with Premysl Otakar II of Bohemia, Judiths sisters also married powerful kings and dukes, her sister Klementia married Charles Martel of Anjou, son of Charles II of Naples, and her sister Matilda married Louis II, Duke of Bavaria. The formal marriage was in 1279 in Jihlava, the marriage took place in early 1285 in Cheb. The wedding in Cheb was followed by a wedding night. Wenceslaus IIs coronation had to be canceled because Judith was not present and she did eventually leave her family in Germany and came to Prague to be with her husband. Like her father, Judith hated Zavis, Lord of Falkenstein and he had acted as regent with the Dowager Queen, Kunigunda of Slavonia, whom he secretly married. Judith helped bring Zavis to trial and he was executed in 1290. Judith tried to reconcile her husband and Albert I of Germany and she also brought German influences to the Prague court, like the introduction of knights at court. She made Prague a cultural centre, Judith and her husband Wenceslaus II were crowned Queen and King of Bohemia in 1297. Judith was not in good health during the time of the coronation having just given birth to her tenth child, according to the family chronicles, Judith was described as beautiful, noble and virtuous. She supported her husbands claim on Poland, Judith died 21 May 1297 in Prague, aged only twenty six. She was having constant pregnancies over the years of marriage. Worn out by childbirth, Judith died weeks after giving birth to her youngest child and namesake and her husband went on to marry Elisabeth Richeza of Poland who bore him a daughter, Agnes. All of the Habsburg rulers of Bohemia from 1526 onward were descended from Judith through her daughter Elizabeth, Wenceslaus II and Judith had ten children, Přemysl Otakar. Wenceslaus III, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary and King of Poland, Agnes, twin of Wenceslaus III, betrothed to Rupert, son of Adolf, King of Germany but died young. Anna, married in 1306 to Henry of Carinthia, Elisabeth, married in 1310 to John I of Bohemia. Margareta, married to Bolesław III the Generous, Duke of Wrocław, of the ten children only four lived to adulthood
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Dynasty
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A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a feudal or monarchical system but sometimes also appearing in elective republics. The dynastic family or lineage may be known as a house, historians periodize the histories of many sovereign states, such as Ancient Egypt, the Carolingian Empire and Imperial China, using a framework of successive dynasties. As such, the dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which the family reigned and to describe events, trends. The word dynasty itself is often dropped from such adjectival references, until the 19th century, it was taken for granted that a legitimate function of a monarch was to aggrandize his dynasty, that is, to increase the territory, wealth, and power of his family members. The longest-surviving dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, dynasties throughout the world have traditionally been reckoned patrilineally, such as under the Frankish Salic law. Succession through a daughter when permitted was considered to establish a new dynasty in her husbands ruling house, however, some states in Africa, determined descent matrilineally, while rulers have at other times adopted the name of their mothers dynasty when coming into her inheritance. It is also extended to unrelated people such as poets of the same school or various rosters of a single sports team. The word dynasty derives via Latin dynastia from Greek dynastéia, where it referred to power, dominion and it was the abstract noun of dynástēs, the agent noun of dynamis, power or ability, from dýnamai, to be able. A ruler in a dynasty is referred to as a dynast. For example, following his abdication, Edward VIII of the United Kingdom ceased to be a member of the House of Windsor. A dynastic marriage is one that complies with monarchical house law restrictions, the marriage of Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, to Máxima Zorreguieta in 2002 was dynastic, for example, and their eldest child is expected to inherit the Dutch crown eventually. But the marriage of his younger brother Prince Friso to Mabel Wisse Smit in 2003 lacked government support, thus Friso forfeited his place in the order of succession, lost his title as a Prince of the Netherlands, and left his children without dynastic rights. In historical and monarchist references to formerly reigning families, a dynast is a member who would have had succession rights, were the monarchys rules still in force. Even since abolition of the Austrian monarchy, Max and his descendants have not been considered the rightful pretenders by Austrian monarchists, nor have they claimed that position. The term dynast is sometimes used only to refer to descendants of a realms monarchs. The term can therefore describe overlapping but distinct sets of people, yet he is not a male-line member of the royal family, and is therefore not a dynast of the House of Windsor. Thus, in 1999 he requested and obtained permission from Elizabeth II to marry the Roman Catholic Princess Caroline of Monaco. Yet a clause of the English Act of Settlement 1701 remained in effect at that time and that exclusion, too, ceased to apply on 26 March 2015, with retroactive effect for those who had been dynasts prior to triggering it by marriage to a Catholic
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House of Habsburg
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The House of Habsburg, also called House of Hapsburg, or House of Austria, was one of the most influential royal houses of Europe. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was continuously occupied by the Habsburgs between 1438 and 1740, from the sixteenth century, following the reign of Charles V, the dynasty was split between its Austrian and Spanish branches. Although they ruled distinct territories, they maintained close relations. The House takes its name from Habsburg Castle, a built in the 1020s in present-day Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, by Count Radbot of Klettgau. His grandson Otto II was the first to take the name as his own. The House of Habsburg gathered dynastic momentum through the 11th, 12th, by 1276, Count Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph of Habsburg had moved the familys power base from Habsburg Castle to the Duchy of Austria. Rudolph had become King of Germany in 1273, and the dynasty of the House of Habsburg was truly entrenched in 1276 when Rudolph became ruler of Austria, which the Habsburgs ruled until 1918. A series of dynastic marriages enabled the family to expand its domains to include Burgundy, Spain and its colonial empire, Bohemia, Hungary. In the 16th century, the separated into the senior Habsburg Spain and the junior Habsburg Monarchy branches. The House of Habsburg became extinct in the 18th century, the senior Spanish branch ended upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 and was replaced by the House of Bourbon. It was succeeded by the Vaudemont branch of the House of Lorraine, the new successor house styled itself formally as the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, although it was often referred to as simply the House of Habsburg. His grandson Radbot, Count of Habsburg founded the Habsburg Castle, the origins of the castles name, located in what is now the Swiss canton of Aargau, are uncertain. There is disagreement on whether the name is derived from the High German Habichtsburg, or from the Middle High German word hab/hap meaning ford, the first documented use of the name by the dynasty itself has been traced to the year 1108. The Habsburg Castle was the seat in the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries. The Habsburgs expanded their influence through arranged marriages and by gaining political privileges, in the 13th century, the house aimed its marriage policy at families in Upper Alsace and Swabia. They were also able to high positions in the church hierarchy for their members. Territorially, they often profited from the extinction of other families such as the House of Kyburg. By the second half of the 13th century, count Rudolph IV had become one of the most influential territorial lords in the area between the Vosges Mountains and Lake Constance
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Albert IV, Count of Habsburg
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Albert IV was Count of Habsburg in the Aargau and a progenitor of the royal House of Habsburg. He was the son of Count Rudolph II of Habsburg and Agnes of Staufen, about 1217 Albert married Hedwig, daughter of Count Ulrich of Kyburg and Anna of Zähringen. Upon the death of his father in 1232 he divided his familys estates with his brother Rudolph III, a follower of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, he took part in the Barons Crusade with King Theobald I of Navarre and died near Ashkelon
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German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
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Czech language
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Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. It is spoken by over 10 million people and is the language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of being intelligible to a very high degree. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the written standard was codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main vernacular, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, the Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are mostly also counted as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak. The Czech phoneme inventory is moderate in size, comprising five vowels, words may contain uncommon consonant clusters, including one consonant represented by the grapheme ř, or lack vowels altogether. Czech orthography is simple, and has used as a model by phonologists. Czech is classified as a member of the West Slavic sub-branch of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family and this branch includes Polish, Kashubian, Upper and Lower Sorbian and Slovak. Slovak is by far the closest genetic neighbor of Czech, the West Slavic languages are spoken in an area classified as part of Central Europe. Around the 7th century, the Slavic expansion reached Central Europe, the West Slavic polity of Great Moravia formed by the 9th century. The Christianization of Bohemia took place during the 9th and 10th centuries, the Bohemian language is first recorded in writing in glosses and short notes during the 12th to 13th centuries. Literary works written in Czech appear in the early 14th century, the first complete Bible translation also dates to this period. Old Czech texts, including poetry and cookbooks, were produced outside the university as well, literary activity becomes widespread in the early 15th century in the context of the Bohemian Reformation. There was no standardization distinguishing between Czech and Slovak prior to the 15th century, the publication of the Kralice Bible between 1579 and 1593 became very important for standardization of the Czech language in the following centuries. In 1615, the Bohemian diet tried to declare Czech to be the official language of the kingdom. After the Bohemian Revolt which was defeated by the Habsburgs in 1620 and this emigration together with other consequences of the Thirty Years War had a negative impact on the further use of the Czech language. In 1627, Czech and German became official languages of the Kingdom of Bohemia and in the 18th century German became dominant in Bohemia and Moravia, the modern standard Czech language originates in standardization efforts of the 18th century. Changes include the shift of í to ej and é to í and the merging of í
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Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
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Hohenstaufen
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The Hohenstaufen, also called the Staufer or Staufen, were a dynasty of German kings during the Middle Ages. Besides Germany, they ruled the Kingdom of Sicily. In Italian historiography, they are known as the Svevi, since they were dukes of Swabia from 1079, three members of the dynasty—Frederick I, Henry VI and Frederick II—were crowned Holy Roman Emperor. The name Staufen derives from Stauf, meaning chalice, and was applied to conical hills in Swabia in the Middle Ages. The family derives its name from the castle which the first Swabian duke of the lineage built there in the half of the 11th century. Staufen castle was finally called Hohenstaufen by historians in the 19th century. The name of the dynasty followed, but in recent decades the trend in German historiography has been to prefer the name Staufer, the noble family first appeared in the late 10th century in the Swabian Riesgau region around the former Carolingian court of Nördlingen. A local count Frederick is mentioned as progenitor in a pedigree drawn up by Abbot Wibald of Stavelot at the behest of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1153. He held the office of a Swabian count palatine, his son Frederick of Buren married Hildegard of Egisheim-Dagsburg and their son Frederick I was appointed Duke of Swabia at Hohenstaufen Castle by the Salian king Henry IV of Germany in 1079. At the same time, Duke Frederick I was engaged to the kings approximately seventeen-year-old daughter, Fredericks brother Otto was elevated to the Strasbourg bishopric in 1082. Upon Fredericks death, he was succeeded by his son, Duke Frederick II, Frederick II remained a close ally of the Salians, he and his younger brother Conrad were named the kings representatives in Germany when the king was in Italy. Around 1120, Frederick II married Judith of Bavaria from the rival House of Welf, when the last male member of the Salian dynasty, Emperor Henry V, died without heirs in 1125, a controversy arose about the succession. A civil war between Fredericks dynasty and Lothairs ended with Fredericks submission in 1134, after Lothairs death in 1137, Fredericks brother Conrad was elected King as Conrad III. In 1147, Conrad heard Bernard of Clairvaux preach the Second Crusade at Speyer, conrads brother Duke Frederick II died in 1147, and was succeeded in Swabia by his son, Duke Frederick III. When King Conrad III died without heir in 1152, Frederick also succeeded him. As royal access to the resources of the church in Germany was much reduced and he was soon crowned emperor in Italy, but decades of warfare on the peninsula yielded scant results. The Papacy and the prosperous city-states of the Lombard League in northern Italy were traditional enemies, under the skilled leadership of Pope Alexander III, the alliance suffered many defeats but ultimately was able to deny the emperor a complete victory in Italy. During Fredericks long stays in Italy, the German princes became stronger, offers of reduced taxes and manorial duties enticed many Germans to settle in the east in the course of the Ostsiedlung
27.
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Frederick II was a Holy Roman Emperor and King of Sicily in the Middle Ages, a member of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, however, his enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his death. As such, he was King of Germany, of Italy, at the age of three, he was crowned King of Sicily as a co-ruler with his mother, Constance of Hauteville, the daughter of Roger II of Sicily. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage, Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist. Speaking six languages, Frederick was a patron of science. He played a role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, from around 1220 to his death, saw the first use of a form of an Italo-Romance language. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature and he was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational. After his death, his line died out and the House of Hohenstaufen came to an end. Born in Iesi, near Ancona, Italy, Frederick was the son of the emperor Henry VI and he was known as the puer Apuliae. Some chronicles say that his mother, the forty-year-old Constance, gave birth to him in a square in order to forestall any doubt about his origin. In 1196 at Frankfurt am Main the infant Frederick was elected King of the Germans and his rights in Germany were disputed by Henrys brother Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick. At the death of his father in 1197, Frederick was in Italy travelling towards Germany when the bad news reached his guardian, Conrad of Spoleto. Frederick was hastily brought back to his mother Constance in Palermo, Sicily, Constance of Sicily was in her own right queen of Sicily, and she established herself as regent. Upon Constances death in 1198, Pope Innocent III succeeded as Fredericks guardian, Fredericks tutor during this period was Cencio, who would become Pope Honorius III. However, Markward of Annweiler, with the support of Henrys brother, Philip of Swabia, reclaimed the regency for himself, in 1200, with the help of Genoese ships, he landed in Sicily and one year later seized the young Frederick. He thus ruled Sicily until 1202, when he was succeeded by another German captain, William of Capparone, Frederick was subsequently under tutor Walter of Palearia, until, in 1208, he was declared of age. His first task was to reassert his power over Sicily and southern Italy, Otto of Brunswick had been crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Innocent III in 1209
28.
Duke of Swabia
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The Dukes of Swabia were the rulers of the Duchy of Swabia during the Middle Ages. Swabia was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, the most notable family to rule Swabia was the Hohenstaufen family, who held it, with a brief interruption, from 1079 until 1268. For much of period, the Hohenstaufen were also Holy Roman Emperors. With the death of Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen duke, the duchy itself disintegrated, some of the more important immediate successor states were, During the following century, several of these states were acquired by the County of Württemberg or the Duchy of Austria, as marked above. In 1803 Bavarian Swabia was annexed by Bavaria and shortly became part of the Kingdom of Bavaria
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Duchy of Austria
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After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct, the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1453, the title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III. Initially, the duchy was comparatively small in area, roughly comprising the modern-day Austrian state of Lower Austria. As a former border march, it was located on the periphery of the Empire, on the northern and southern shores of the Danube River. In the east, the Imperial border with the Kingdom of Hungary had gradually shifted towards the plains of the Morava River, on the right shore of the Danube, the lower Leitha River marked the Imperial–Hungarian border for centuries. In the south, Austria bordered the Styrian lands which were elevated to a duchy. The Avar Khaganate established in 567 comprised most of the later Austrian march up to the Enns river, temporarily part of Samos Empire from 631 to 658, the territory was under constant attack by the Carolingian forces of Charlemagne from 791 onwards. In 976 Emperor Otto II enfeoffed the Babenberg count Leopold the Illustrious with the Austrian margraviate, a large-scale German settlement along the Danube down to the border with Hungary followed, which ultimatively disrupted the Slavic continuity between the West Slavic and South Slavic lands. Although today closely associated with the Habsburg dynasty, Austria was, until 1246, Margrave Leopold the Generous was a loyal liensman of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen in the struggle against the Bavarian Welf dynasty. In 1139, after King Conrad III of Germany deposed the Welf duke Henry the Proud, leopolds brother and successor Henry Jasomirgott was enfeoffed with Bavaria in 1141. In 1156 the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick Barbarossa approached a settlement with the Welfs, at the 1156 Imperial Diet in Regensburg, Henry Jasomirgott had to renounce the Bavarian duchy in favour of Henry the Lion. In compensation, the Babenberg margraviate was elevated to an equal duchy, the new Austrian duke took his residence at Vienna at the site of the later Hofburg Palace. He also founded Schottenstift Abbey as the Babenberg proprietary church, settled with Irish monks, the Austrian lands prospered, due to their favourable location on the Danube, as an important trade route from Krems and Mautern via Vienna down to Hungary and the Byzantine Empire. For a short time, the Babenbergs came to be one of the most influential ruling families in the Empire, peaking under the reign of Leopold V the Virtous and Leopold VI the Glorious. They also expanded their territory into the old Bavarian lands west of the Enns River, along the Traun to the city of Linz, in 1191 Duke Leopold V joined the Third Crusade and the Siege of Acre. When the English kingpassed through Austria on his way home, Leopold had him abducted and arrested at Dürnstein Castle. Handed over to Emperor Henry VI, Richard was only released after paying a ransom
30.
Battle on the Marchfeld
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The Battle on the Marchfeld at Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen took place on 26 August 1278 and was a decisive event for the history of Central Europe for the following centuries. The opponents were a Bohemian army led by the Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia, the battle was finally won by an ambush attack of the united German-Hungarian forces. That same year, Ottokar II, son of king Wenceslaus I of Bohemia, the last Babenberg duke Frederick II of Austria had been killed at the 1246 Battle of the Leitha River, in a border conflict he had picked with King Béla IV of Hungary. Ottokar II gained the support of the nobility and was proclaimed Austrian and Styrian duke by the estates one year later. As the election had taken place in his absence, Ottokar did not acknowledge Rudolph as King, Rudolph himself had promised to regain the alienated territories which had to be conferred by the Imperial power with consent of the Prince-electors. He claimed the Austrian and Carinthian territories for the Empire and summoned Ottokar to the 1275 Reichstag at Würzburg, by not appearing before the Diet, Ottokar set the events of his demise in motion. He was placed under the Imperial ban and had all his territorial rights revoked, meanwhile, Rudolph was gathering allies and preparing for battle. He achieved two of these alliances through the classic Habsburg style – marriage, first, he married his son Albert to Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol. In return, her father Count Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol received the Duchy of Carinthia as a fief and he also concluded an alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, who intended to settle old scores with Ottokar. Rudolph, so strengthened, besieged Ottokar at the Austrian capital Vienna in 1276, Ottokar was forced to surrender and to renounce all his acquisitions, receiving only Bohemia and Moravia as a fief from King Rudolph. Heavily deprived by this, he was determined to regain his territories and contracted an alliance with the Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg, in 1278 he campaigned against Austria, supported by Duke Henry I of Lower Bavaria, who had switched sides. Surprised by Rudolphs maneuver, Ottokar quickly abandoned the siege at Laa, marched southwards, when he arrived his enemies had already taken the opportunity to explore the topography of the future battleground. From the early morning, the wing of the advancing Bohemian troops were embroiled in impetuous attacks by the Cuman forces. After three hours of continued fighting on a hot day, Ottokars knights in their heavy armour were exhausted. At noon Rudolph ordered a heavy cavalry regiment he had concealed behind nearby hills. Such ambushes were indeed commonly regarded as dishonourable in warfare and Rudolphs commander Ulrich von Kapellen apologized to his own men in advance, nevertheless, the attack prevailed in splitting and stampeding the Bohemian troops. Ottokar realized the attack and tried to lead a remaining reserve contingent in the rear of von Kapellens troops. The following collapse resulted in a victory of Rudolph and his allies
31.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
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Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
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Princes of the Holy Roman Empire
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Prince of the Holy Roman Empire was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Originally, possessors of the title bore it as immediate vassals of the Empire, secular or ecclesiastical. However, by the time the Holy Roman Empire was abolished in 1806, the first came to be reckoned as royalty in the sense of being treated as sovereigns, entitled to inter-marry with reigning dynasties. The second tier consisted of high-ranking nobles whose princely title did not, however, the actual titles used by Imperial princes varied considerably for historical reasons, and included archdukes, dukes, margraves, landgraves, counts palatine, princely counts, as well as princes. The estate of princes or Reichsfürstenstand was first established in a legal sense in the Late Middle Ages. Not all states met all three requirements, so one may distinguish between effective and honorary princes of the Holy Roman Empire, from the 13th century onwards, further estates were formally raised to the princely status by the emperor. The resolutions of the Diet of Augsburg in 1582 explicitly stated that the status was linked with the possession of a particular Imperial territory. Most of the Counts who ruled territories were raised to Princely rank in the decades before the end of the Empire in 1806, ecclesiastical Princes were the Prince-Bishops as well as the actual Prince-abbots. They comprised a number of entities which were secularized and mediatized after the 1648 Peace of Westphalia. The honorary status of prince of the Holy Roman Empire might be granted to certain individuals, sovereigns outside the Empire, such as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Prince of Piombino was another example, nobles allowed to bear the princely title, but who had neither a vote nor a seat in the Imperial Diet, individual or shared, such as the House of Kinsky. This included nobles who lacked immediacy, but who were allowed, motu proprio, by the Emperor to enjoy the title, although this courtesy tended to become hereditary for families, the right to princely status was called Personalist and could be revoked by the Emperor. List of states in the Holy Roman Empire List of Imperial Diet participants German mediatization Structure of Princes of The Holy Roman Empire
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House of Luxembourg
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The House of Luxembourg was a late medieval European royal family, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as King of the Romans and Holy Roman Emperors as well as Kings of Bohemia and Hungary. Their rule over the Holy Roman Empire was twice interrupted by the rival House of Wittelsbach and her father, Count Henry IV of Luxembourg, was related on his mothers side to the Ardennes-Verdun dynasty, which had ruled the county since the late 10th century. Count Henry Vs grandson Henry VII, Count of Luxembourg upon the death of his father Henry VI at the 1288 Battle of Worringen, was elected Rex Romanorum in 1308. One year after being crowned Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, Henry VII, still on campaign in Italy, John instead concentrated on securing his rule in Bohemia and gradually vassalized the Piast dukes of adjacent Silesia from 1327 until 1335. His son Charles IV, in 1346 mounted the Imperial throne and his Golden Bull of 1356 served as a constitution of the Empire for centuries. Charles not only acquired the duchies of Brabant and Limburg in the west, the familys decline began under Charles son King Wenceslaus, deposed by the prince-electors in 1400 who chose the Wittelsbach Elector Palatine Rupert. He was succeeded by his son-in-law, the Habsburg archduke Albert V of Austria, the Habsburgs finally prevailed as Luxembourg heirs, ruling the Empire until their extinction upon the death of Maria Theresa in 1780. Henry VII — elected King of the Romans in 1308 succeeding assassinated Albert of Habsburg and he was succeeded by Louis IV from the House of Wittelsbach. Baldwin — brother of Henry, Prince-Archbishop of Trier and thereby Archchancellor of Burgundy 1307–54, John the Blind — only son of Henry. He was enfeoffed with the Bohemia by his father in 1310, married the Přemyslid heiress Elisabeth of Bohemia, Charles IV — eldest son of John. He was elected King of the Romans in opposition to Louis IV in 1346 and succeeded his father as king of Bohemia in the same year, John Henry, Margrave of Moravia — younger brother of Charles. He married Margaret, Countess of Tyrol, daughter of Henry the Carinthian in 1330, jobst of Moravia — eldest son of John Henry. Margrave of Brandenburg 1388–1411, elected King of the Romans in 1410, Wenceslaus — eldest surviving son of Charles. As Margrave of Brandenburg from 1373 to 1378, he was elected King of the Romans in 1376, declared deposed by the prince-electors in 1400, he was succeeded by Rupert of Wittelsbach. Sigismund — younger son of Charles, Jacquetta of Luxembourg — Mother of Queen Consort, Elizabeth Woodville and subsequent ancestress of all English and British monarchs since Henry VIII including the current monarch, Elizabeth II. According to the Salic law, the succession could have been disputed and that branch descended from a younger son of Henry V, and was headed by Louis de Luxembourg, Count of Saint-Pol, before he was executed for treason by Louis XI of France. The first instance of the house of Luxembourg seems to be, Two houses descended from the women of the counts of Luxembourg, the Counts of Loon, both families had a place in relation to the succession of the House of Ardennes. The Counts of Loon are also in position to claim the inheritance Luxembourg, albeit weaker position, Jacquetta of Luxembourg
35.
House of Wittelsbach
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The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria. The family also provided two Holy Roman Emperors, one King of the Romans, two Anti-Kings of Bohemia, one King of Hungary, one King of Denmark and Norway, the familys head, since 1996, is Franz, Duke of Bavaria. Berthold, Margrave in Bavaria, was the ancestor of Otto I, Count of Scheyern, whose third son Otto II, the Counts of Scheyern left Scheyern Castle in 1119 for Wittelsbach Castle and the former was given to monks to establish Scheyern Abbey. Duke Ottos son Louis I, Duke of Bavaria acquired also the Electorate of the Palatinate in 1214. On Duke Otto IIs death in 1253, his sons divided the Wittelsbach possessions between them, Henry became Duke of Lower Bavaria, and Louis II Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count Palatine of the Rhine. When Henrys branch died out in 1340 the Emperor Louis IV, the Bavarian branch kept the duchy of Bavaria until its extinction in 1777. His six sons succeeded him as Duke of Bavaria and Count of Holland, the Wittelsbachs lost the Tyrol with the death of duke Meinhard and the following Peace of Schärding - the Tyrol was finally renounced to the Habsburgs in 1369. In 1373 Otto, the last Wittelsbach regent of Brandenburg, released the country to the House of Luxembourg, on Duke Alberts death in 1404, he was succeeded in the Netherlands by his eldest son, William. A younger son, John III, became Bishop of Liège, however, on Williams death in 1417, a war of succession broke out between John and Williams daughter Jacqueline of Hainaut. This last episode of the Hook and Cod wars finally left the counties in Burgundian hands in 1432, with the Landshut War of Succession Bavaria was reunited in 1505 against the claim of the Palatinate branch under the Bavarian branch Bavaria-Munich. From 1549 to 1567 the Wittelsbach owned the County of Kladsko in Bohemia, strictly Catholic by upbringing, the Bavarian dukes became leaders of the German Counter-Reformation. From 1583 to 1761, the Bavarian branch of the dynasty provided the Prince-electors and Archbishops of Cologne and many other Bishops of the Holy Roman Empire, namely Liège. Wittelsbach princes served for example as Bishops of Regensburg, Freising, Liège, Münster, Hildesheim, Paderborn and Osnabrück, in 1623 under Maximilian I the Bavarian dukes were invested with the electoral dignity and the duchy became the Electorate of Bavaria. His grandson Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria served also as Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and his son Emperor Charles VII was also king of Bohemia. With the death of Charles son Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria the Bavarian branch died out in 1777, the Palatinate branch kept the Palatinate until 1918 and succeeded also in Bavaria in 1777. With the Golden Bull of 1356 the Counts Palatine were invested with the electoral dignity, princes of the Palatinate branch served as Bishops of the Empire and also as Elector-Archbishops of Mainz and Elector-Archbishops of Trier. Jülich and Berg fell to the Wittelsbach Count Palatine Wolfgang William of Neuburg, in 1619, the Protestant Frederick V, Elector Palatine became King of Bohemia but was defeated by the Catholic Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria, a member of the Bavarian branch. As a result, the Upper Palatinate had to be ceded to the Bavarian branch in 1623, when the Thirty Years War concluded with the Treaty of Münster in 1648, a new additional electorate was created for the Count Palatine of the Rhine
36.
Breisgau
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Breisgau is an area in southwest Germany between the Rhine River and the foothills of the Black Forest. Part of the state of Baden-Württemberg, it centers on the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, the district Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald, which partly consists of the Breisgau, is named after the Black Forest area. Parts of the Breisgau are also situated in the districts of Freiburg im Breisgau. In earlier times the Breisgau was known as Breisachgau, meaning the county around the town of Breisach on the east bank of the Rhine, the earliest historically attested inhabitants were Celts. In Roman times, the area was part of the province of Germania Superior, but after the rupture of the limes Germanicus in 260, the area was settled by the Alemanni. It remained a part of Alemannia throughout the Early Middle Ages and was a zone between the central Alemannic lands and Alsace, which was less strongly colonized by the Alemanni. In the mid-9th century it was a march-like county guarding the frontier with southern Lotharingia, in 859, it was bestowed on Charles the Fat, the son of King Louis I, a sign of its importance. In the 10th century, Breisgau was a county within the Duchy of Swabia, ruled by the Zähringer family, the dukes founded Freiburg in it, which became their chief city. In 1805, by the Treaty of Pressburg, the area was ceded to the Grand Duchy of Baden, the Breisgau includes the flat area around river Rhine, the foothills of the Black Forest and the western faces of the southern Black Forest mountains and the Kaiserstuhl hills. In the south the Breisgau borders onto the Markgräflerland, in the west onto the Sundgau, in the east onto the Black Forest, the climate of the Breisgau is warm, in fact, it is the warmest region in Germany. The average annual temperature is 11 degrees Celsius, the rainfall is 900 mm. The Breisgau is known for its wine and used for fruit tree orchards, the by far biggest city in the Breisgau region is Freiburg. Other notable cities and towns are Bad Krozingen, Breisach, Emmendingen, Endingen, Kenzingen, Neuenburg, Staufen, a prominent mountain is the Schauinsland
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
38.
Kyburg family
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Kyburg was a noble family of grafen in the Duchy of Swabia, a cadet line of the counts of Dillingen, who in the late 12th and early 13th century ruled much of what is now Northeastern Switzerland. The family was one of the four most powerful families in the Swiss plateau beside the House of Habsburg, House of Zähringen. The first line of counts of Kyburg were influential in politics during the 1020s. Kyburg castle, southeast of Winterthur, passed on to the Swabian counts of Dillingen, through the marriage of Hartmann von Dillingen with a certain Adelheid, the House of Dillingen acquired the old Kyburg possessions as well as territorial claims in the Thurgau. The exact origin of Adelheid is unclear and she is either the granddaughter of the Count of Grüningen-Winterthur or from a cadet branch of the Winterthur family, the Counts of Nellenburg. She might also be the daughter of Adalbert II von Winterthur, the last knight from Winterthur, the Kyburg land continued to be part of the possessions of the House of Dillingen until the grandson of Hartmann von Dillingen, Hartmann III, split the Dillingen lands. Adalbert received the Swabian territories, while Hartmann III von Dillingen got the Swiss lands, the House of Kyburg were vassals of the Duke of Swabia, who was of the House of Hohenstaufen and would become the Kings of Germany from 1138-1254. When the House of Lenzburg died out in 1172/73, the Kyburgs together with the Hohenstaufen and Zähringen split the Lenzburg possessions between them, the Kyburg family acquired the allodial title to the Vogtei of Windegg or Gaster and land around Baden. Later additional Lenzburg territories, the Schänis Abbey and Beromünster, were acquired by the House of Kyburg. In 1180 the family began to consolidate their power and they founded the cities of Diessenhofen and Winterthur to help spread their power. They also appointed many of the Lenzburg, and later Zähringen, when the Zähringen family died out in 1218, the Kyburgs grabbed another chance to expand. Anna von Zähringen, the sister of the last Duke of Zähringen, from the Zähringen line the Kyburgs acquired land west of the Rhine and in Burgundy including the cities of Fribourg, Thun and Burgdorf as well as estates in the canton of Zurich. However, the House of Hohenstaufen, the family of the Holy Roman Emperors, refused to support the Kyburg claims on the city of Zurich and in 1226 on the Abbey of St. Gall. As a result, they turned away from the Hohenstaufens and in 1243 and were one of the mainstays of the pro-Pope. Around 1220 they started to make claims on property and rights that had unclear ownership and was property that they already owned. Both sites were endowed with property that they had taken from the Weisslingen and these two properties served to define the borders between the Kyburg and Rapperswil families. At the same time the Kyburg family attempted to strengthen themselves through marriage, Hartmann V, a grandson of Ulrich III was engaged to Anna of Rapperswil in 1227. In 1230 they founded Zug and Baden, then Frauenfeld, Aarau, Lenzburg, in 1250 they founded Sursee, Weesen and the fortified towns of Kyburg and Laupen
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Habsburg Castle
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Habsburg Castle is a medieval fortress located in Habsburg, Switzerland, in the canton of Aargau, near the Aar River. At the time of its construction, the location was part of the Duchy of Swabia, Habsburg Castle is the originating seat of the House of Habsburg, which became one of the leading imperial and royal dynasties in Europe. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance, around 1020–1030 Count Radbot, of the nearby county of Klettgau in the Duchy of Swabia, had the castle erected 35 km southwest of Klettgau, on the Aar, the largest tributary of the High Rhine. It is believed that he named the castle after a hawk seen sitting on its walls, some historians and linguists believe the name may come from the Middle High German word hab / hap meaning ford, as it is located near a ford of the Aar River. Radbots grandson, Otto II, was the first to take the Habsburg Castle name as his own, adding von Habsburg to his title, Habsburg Castles importance diminished after Radbots seventh generation descendant Rudolph moved the familys power base to Austria in 1276. Habsburg Castle remained property of the House of Habsburg until 1415, the original coat of arms to fly over Habsburg Castle, a red lion on a golden field, remained part of the Austrian arms up to the end of the Imperial period. The modern arms of the municipality of Habsburg, Switzerland, depict Habsburg Castle, the area around the castle was covered by forests that were only cleared around 1500, nearly half a millennium after Habsburg Castle was first constructed. Today the large and small towers of the castle are preserved, attached to a residential building of the 13th century. The extent of its part is recognizable only by foundation walls. The palatial residence hosts a restaurant and a small exhibition, media related to Habsburg Castle at Wikimedia Commons
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Aargau
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The canton of Aargau is one of the more northerly cantons of Switzerland. It is situated by the course of the Aare, which is why the canton is called Aar-gau. It is one of the most densely populated regions of Switzerland, the Romans built a major settlement called Vindonissa, near the present location of Brugg. In early medieval times, the Aargau was a border region between the duchies of Alamannia and Burgundy. A line of the von Wetterau intermittently held the countship of Aargau from 750 until about 1030, from the extinction in 1254 of the Hohenstaufen dynasty until 1415, the area was ruled by the Habsburgs, and many castles from that time still stand. The Habsburgs founded a number of monasteries, the closing of which by the government in 1841 was a factor to the outbreak of the Swiss civil war – the Sonderbund War – in 1847. When Frederick IV of Habsburg sided with Antipope John XXIII at the Council of Constance, in July 1414, the Pope visited Bern and received assurances from them, that they would move against the Habsburgs. A few months later the Swiss Confederation denounced the Treaty of 1412, shortly thereafter in 1415, Bern and the rest of the Swiss Confederation used the ban as a pretext to invade the Aargau. The Confederation was able to conquer the towns of Aarau, Lenzburg, Brugg. Bern kept the southwest portion, northward to the confluence of the Aare, the important city of Baden was taken by a united Swiss army and governed by all 8 members of the Confederation. Some districts, named the Freie Ämter – Mellingen, Muri, Villmergen, shortly after the conquest of the Aargau by the Swiss, Frederick humbled himself to the Pope. The Pope reconciled with him and ordered all of the lands to be returned. The Swiss refused and years later after no serious attempts at re-acquisition, berns portion of the Aargau came to be known as the Unteraargau, though can also be called the Berner or Bernese Aargau. In 1514 Bern expanded north into the Jura and so came into possession of several strategically important mountain passes into the Austrian Fricktal and this land was added to the Unteraargau and was directly ruled from Bern. It was divided into seven rural bailiwicks and four cities, Aarau, Zofingen, Lenzburg. While the Habsburgs were driven out, many of their nobles were allowed to keep their lands and offices. The bailiwick administration was based on a small staff of officials, mostly made up of Bernese citizens. When Bern converted during the Protestant Reformation in 1528, the Unteraargau also converted, at the beginning of the 16th century a number of anabaptists migrated into the upper Wynen and Rueder valleys from Zürich
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Switzerland
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Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a federal republic in Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, and the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in western-Central Europe, and is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning an area of 41,285 km2. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation, it has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy and is frequently involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to international organisations. On the European level, it is a member of the European Free Trade Association. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties, spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions, German, French, Italian and Romansh. Due to its diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names, Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera. On coins and stamps, Latin is used instead of the four living languages, Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Zürich and Geneva have each been ranked among the top cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the former ranked second globally, according to Mercer. The English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, a term for the Swiss. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse, also in use since the 16th century. The name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, the Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for Confederates, Eidgenossen, used since the 14th century. The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes, ultimately related to swedan ‘to burn’
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Alsace
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Alsace is a cultural and historical region in eastern France now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Alsace is located on Frances eastern border and on the west bank of the upper Rhine adjacent to Germany, from 1982 until January 2016, Alsace was the smallest of 22 administrative regions in metropolitan France, consisting of the Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin departments. Territorial reform passed by the French legislature in 2014 resulted in the merger of the Alsace administrative region with Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine to form Grand Est. The predominant historical language of Alsace is Alsatian, a Germanic dialect also spoken across the Rhine, but today most Alsatians primarily speak French, the political status of Alsace has been heavily influenced by historical decisions, wars, and strategic politics. The economic and cultural capital as well as largest city of Alsace is Strasbourg, the city is the seat of several international organizations and bodies. The name Alsace can be traced to the Old High German Ali-saz or Elisaz, an alternative explanation is from a Germanic Ell-sass, meaning seated on the Ill, a river in Alsace. In prehistoric times, Alsace was inhabited by nomadic hunters, by 1500 BC, Celts began to settle in Alsace, clearing and cultivating the land. It should be noted that Alsace is a surrounded by the Vosges mountains. It creates Foehn winds which, along with irrigation, contributes to the fertility of the soil. In a world of agriculture, Alsace has always been a region which explains why it suffered so many invasions and annexations in its history. By 58 BC, the Romans had invaded and established Alsace as a center of viticulture, to protect this highly valued industry, the Romans built fortifications and military camps that evolved into various communities which have been inhabited continuously to the present day. While part of the Roman Empire, Alsace was part of Germania Superior, with the decline of the Roman Empire, Alsace became the territory of the Germanic Alemanni. The Alemanni were agricultural people, and their Germanic language formed the basis of modern-day dialects spoken along the Upper Rhine, Clovis and the Franks defeated the Alemanni during the 5th century AD, culminating with the Battle of Tolbiac, and Alsace became part of the Kingdom of Austrasia. Under Clovis Merovingian successors the inhabitants were Christianized, Alsace formed part of the Middle Francia, which was ruled by the eldest grandson Lothar I. Lothar died early in 855 and his realm was divided into three parts, the part known as Lotharingia, or Lorraine, was given to Lothars son. The rest was shared between Lothars brothers Charles the Bald and Louis the German, the Kingdom of Lotharingia was short-lived, however, becoming the stem duchy of Lorraine in Eastern Francia after the Treaty of Ribemont in 880. Alsace was united with the other Alemanni east of the Rhine into the duchy of Swabia. Alsace experienced great prosperity during the 12th and 13th centuries under Hohenstaufen emperors, Frederick I set up Alsace as a province to be ruled by ministeriales, a non-noble class of civil servants
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