Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)
The Franco-Spanish War was a military conflict, the result of French involvement in the Thirty Years' War. After the German allies of Sweden were forced to seek terms with the Holy Roman Empire, the French first minister, Cardinal Richelieu, declared war on Spain because French territory was surrounded by Habsburg territories; the conflict was a continuation of the aims of the War of the Mantuan Succession in which France invaded northern Italy to take possession of territory claimed by the Spanish Habsburgs. Though some minor territorial gains were made by France, the Franco-Spanish War ended inconclusively in 1659 with the Treaty of the Pyrenees. For years, the Kingdom of France, under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, had been the rival of the House of Habsburg, whose two branches ruled the Holy Roman Empire and Spain, respectively. For much of the 16th and 17th centuries, France faced Habsburg territory on three sides: the Spanish Netherlands to the north, the Franche-Comté on its eastern border, Spain to the south.
The Habsburgs thus stood in the way of French territorial expansion, France faced the possibility of invasion from multiple sides. France therefore sought to weaken Habsburg control over its possessions. During the Thirty Years' War, in which various Protestant forces battled Imperial armies, France provided subsidies to the enemies of the Habsburgs. France generously financed the Swedish invasion of the Empire after 1630. After a period of extraordinary success, the Swedish-led Protestant forces were decisively defeated in 1634 by a combined Catholic Imperial-Spanish army in the Battle of Nördlingen, leading many of Sweden's allies to defect to the Imperial side. Although Sweden itself continued to fight, it was weakened. Seeking to ensure that its major ally remained in the war and ensure an outcome favourable to France, the First Minister of France, Cardinal Richelieu, decided in 1635 to involve his kingdom in the active fighting and declared war on Spain; the open war with Spain started with a promising victory for the French at Les Avins in 1635 as part of a combined Franco-Dutch assault on the Spanish Netherlands.
But after defeating the Franco-Dutch invasions, the Spanish forces under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand of Austria hit back with devastating lightning campaigns in northern France the following year, leaving French forces reeling. The Spanish looked set to invade Paris just as their vast commitments forced them to suspend their offensive; the lull in the Spanish attacks gave the French a chance to regroup and force the Spanish back towards the northern border. They sent forces through Lorraine into Alsace to cut the Spanish Road, the vital supply line connecting the Spanish Netherlands to Spain through the Mediterranean port of Genoa. In 1640, internal political tensions caused by the burden of the Thirty Years' War led to simultaneous revolts in Catalonia and Portugal against the Spanish Habsburgs. Spain was now fighting two major wars of secession in addition to a great international conflict; the institutions of Catalonia proclaimed the Catalan Republic allied with France in January 17, ostensibly to help the rebels.
In 1643, the French defeated one of Spain's best armies at Rocroi, northern France. During the last decade of the Thirty Years' War, the Spanish forces in the Spanish Netherlands were sandwiched between French and Dutch forces; the French won a major victory at Lens, but Franco-Dutch forces could not decisively crush the embattled Army of Flanders. When the peace treaty was negotiated, France insisted upon Spain being excluded, but the demand was rejected by other parties to the talks. In the Peace of Westphalia, France gained territory in Alsace. At the signing of the treaty, Spain recognized the independence of the Dutch republic but gave up little else. In Italy, France fought with the more or less reluctant support of its client state Piedmont against the Spanish in the Duchy of Milan. Confusion was added from 1639–1642 by the Piedmontese Civil War; the siege of Turin in 1640 was a famous event in the Franco-Spanish conflict. In 1646, a French fleet commanded by Jean Armand de Maillé-Brézé was defeated in the Battle of Orbetello on the Tuscan coast, the army it was sent to support was repulsed by Spain's Tuscan presidios.
In 1648, a major revolt against royal authority, known as the Fronde, erupted in France. Civil war continued until 1653. At the conclusion of the Fronde, the whole country, weary of anarchy and disgusted with the nobles, came to look to the king's party as the party of order and settled government, thus the Fronde prepared the way for the absolutism of Louis XIV; the general war, initiated by the French nobles continued in Flanders and Italy, wherever a Spanish and a French garrison were face to face, Condé, with the wreck of his army and entered the service of the king of Spain. This "Spanish Fronde" was purely a military affair and, except for a few outstanding incidents, dull to boot. Along with this uprising, Spain was fighting in Italy and still battling the revolt in Portugal and the French-backed Catalan Revolt; the Spanish focused their main efforts on recovering the Principality of Catalonia and various Italian territories for strategic reasons, which helped the Portuguese to consolidate their rebellion.
In Italy, the war along the border between Piedmont and the Spanish-held Duchy of Milan continued. Twice, in 1647–1649 and 1655–1659, France manag
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was a war fought in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. One of the most destructive conflicts in human history, it resulted in eight million fatalities not only from military engagements but from violence and plague. Casualties were overwhelmingly and disproportionately inhabitants of the Holy Roman Empire, most of the rest being battle deaths from various foreign armies. In terms of proportional German casualties and destruction, it was surpassed only by the period January to May 1945. A war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it developed into a more general conflict involving most of the European great powers; these states employed large mercenary armies, the war became less about religion and more of a continuation of the France–Habsburg rivalry for European political pre-eminence. The war was preceded by the election of the new Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, who tried to impose religious uniformity on his domains, forcing Roman Catholicism on its peoples.
The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose, granted in the Peace of Augsburg, banded together to form the Protestant Union. Ferdinand II was a devout Roman Catholic and much more intolerant than his predecessor, Rudolf II, who ruled from the Protestant city of Prague. Ferdinand's policies were considered pro-Catholic and anti-Protestant; these events caused widespread fears throughout northern and central Europe, triggered the Protestant Bohemians living in the relatively loose dominion of Habsburg Austria to revolt against their nominal ruler, Ferdinand II. After the so-called Defenestration of Prague deposed the Emperor's representatives in Prague, the Protestant estates and Catholic Habsburgs started gathering allies for war; the Protestant Bohemians ousted the Habsburgs and elected the Calvinist Frederick V, Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate as the new king of the Kingdom of Bohemia. Frederick took the offer without the support of the Protestant Union.
The southern states Roman Catholic, were angered by this. Led by Bavaria, these states formed the Catholic League to expel Frederick in support of the Emperor; the Empire soon crushed the perceived Protestant rebellion in the Battle of White Mountain, executing leading Bohemian aristocrats shortly after. Protestant rulers across Europe unanimously condemned the Emperor's action. After the atrocities committed in Bohemia, Saxony gave its support to the Protestant Union and decided to fight back. Sweden, at the time a rising military power, soon intervened in 1630 under its king Gustavus Adolphus, transforming what had been the Emperor's attempt to curb the Protestant states into a full-scale war in Europe. Habsburg Spain, wishing to crush the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, intervened under the pretext of helping its dynastic Habsburg ally, Austria. No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the coalition on the side of the Protestants in order to counter the Habsburgs.
The Thirty Years' War devastated entire regions, resulting in high mortality among the populations of the German and Italian states, the Crown of Bohemia, the Southern Netherlands. Both mercenaries and soldiers in fighting armies traditionally looted or extorted tribute to get operating funds, which imposed severe hardships on the inhabitants of occupied territories; the war bankrupted most of the combatant powers. The Dutch Republic enjoyed contrasting fortune; the Thirty Years' War ended with the Treaty of Osnabrück and the Treaties of Münster, part of the wider Peace of Westphalia. The war altered the previous political order of European powers; the rise of Bourbon France, the curtailing of Habsburg ambition, the ascendancy of Sweden as a great power created a new balance of power on the continent, with France emerging from the war strengthened and dominant in the latter part of the 17th century. The Peace of Augsburg, signed by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, confirmed the result of the Diet of Speyer, ending the war between German Lutherans and Catholics, establishing that: Rulers of the 224 German states could choose the religion of their realms.
Subjects had to follow that emigrate. Prince-bishoprics and other states ruled by Catholic clergy were excluded and should remain Catholic. Prince-bishops who converted to Lutheranism were required to give up their territories. Lutherans could keep the territory they had taken from the Catholic Church since the Peace of Passau in 1552. Although the Peace of Augsburg created a temporary end to hostilities, it did not resolve the underlying religious conflict, made yet more complex by the spread of Calvinism throughout Germany in the years that followed; this added a third major faith to the region, but its position was not recognized in any way by the Augsburg terms, to which only Catholicism and Lutheranism were parties. The rulers of the nations neighboring the Holy Roman Empir
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a Baroque town square, Arras is located in Northern France at the confluence of the Scarpe river and the Crinchon River; the Arras plain lies on a large chalk plateau bordered on the north by the Marqueffles fault, on the southwest by the Artois and Ternois hills, on the south by the slopes of Beaufort-Blavincourt. On the east it is connected to the Scarpe valley. Established during the Iron Age by the Gauls, the town of Arras was first known as Nemetocenna, believed to have originated from the Celtic word nemeton, meaning'sacred space'. Saint Vedast was the first Catholic bishop in the year 499 and attempted to eliminate paganism among the Franks. By 843, Arras was seat of the County of Artois which became part of the Royal domain in 1191; the first mention of the name Arras appeared in the 12th century. Some hypothesize it is a contraction of Atrebates, a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain that used to inhabit the area.
The name Atrebates could have successively evolved to become Atrades, Atradis and Arras. Others believe it comes from the Celtic word Ar, meaning'running water', as the Scarpe river flows through Arras. Louis XIII reconquered Arras in 1640. Arras is Pas-de-Calais' third most populous town after Boulogne-sur-Mer; the town counted 43,693 residents in 2012, with the Arras metropolitan area having a population of 124,200. Arras is located 182 kilometers north of Paris and can be reached in 2 hours by car and in 50 minutes by TGV, it is the historic center of the former Artois province. Its local speech is characterized as a patois; the city of Arras is well known for its architecture and history. It was once part of the Spanish Netherlands, a portion of the Low Countries controlled by Spain from 1556 to 1714; each year Arras attracts thousands of visitors, who explore the city's architecture and historic buildings. Some famous attractions include the splendid Town Hall and its Belfry, the "Boves", the Squares, the Art District, the Abbey District, the Vauban Citadel, the Nemetacum site.
The Canadian National Vimy Memorial is just outside the town. Unlike many French words, the final s in the name Arras should be pronounced. Archaeologists found evidence of prehistoric human settlements in the Scarpe basin; the archaeological sites of Mont-Saint-Vaast in Arras and Biache-Saint-Vaast were Stone Age settlements of the Mousterian culture. They were evidenced by the finds of stone tools; these tools show signs of the Levallois technique, a name given by archaeologists to a distinctive type of stone knapping, developed by forerunners to modern humans during the Paleolithic period 170,000 years ago. Little was found to document the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age in the Arras area. Arras was founded on the boat of Baudimont by the Belgic tribe of the Atrebates, who named it Nemetocenna in reference to a nemeton that existed there, it was renamed Nemetacum/Atrebatum by the Romans, under whom it became an important garrison town. In the Scarpe valley archaeologists' excavations and data recovery revealed Late Iron Age settlements.
These buildings, believed to be farms, were found near the municipalities of Arras, Hamblain-les-Prés and Saint-Pol. In the 4th century, Nemetacum was renowned for its arts and crafts as well as textiles trade throughout the whole empire. Between 406 and 407, the city was destroyed by Germanic invaders. In 428, the Salian Franks led by Clodion le Chevelu took control of the region including the current Somme department. Roman General Aetius chose to negotiate for peace and concluded a treaty with Clodion that gave the Franks the status of «foederati» fighting for Rome; the town's people were converted to Christianity in the late 4th century by Saint Innocent, killed in 410 during a barbarian attack on the town. In 499, after the conversion of Clovis I to Catholicism, a diocese was created in Arras, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arras, given to Saint Vaast, who remains the diocesan patron saint. Saint Vaast established an episcopal see and a monastic community, it was suppressed in 580 to found the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cambrai, from which it would reemerge five centuries later.
In 667 Saint Aubert, bishop of Cambrai, decided to found the Abbey of Saint Vaast, which developed during the Carolingian period into an immensely wealthy Benedictine abbey. The modern town of Arras spread around the abbey as a grain market. During the 9th century, both town and abbey suffered from the attacks of the Vikings, who settled to the west in Normandy; the abbey revived its strength in the 11th century and played an important role in the development of medieval painting synthesizing the artistic styles of Carolingian and English art. In 1025, a Catholic council was held at Arras against certain Manichaean heretics who rejected the sacraments of the Church. In 1093, the bishopric of Arras was refounded on territory split from the Diocese of Cambrai. In 1097 two councils, presided over by Lambert d'Arras, dealt with questions concerning monasteries and persons consecrated to God. In this time, Arra
Dunkirk
Dunkirk, is a commune in Nord, a French department in northern France. It is the most northern city of France, it has the third-largest French harbour. The population of the commune at the 2016 census was 91,412; the name of Dunkirk derives from West Flemish dun'dune' or'dun' and kerke'church', which together means'church in the dunes'. Until the middle of the 20th century, the city was situated in the French Flemish area. Today Dunkirk is the world's northernmost Francophone city. A fishing village arose late in the tenth century, in the flooded coastal area of the English Channel south of the Western Scheldt, when the area was held by the Counts of Flanders, vassals of the French Crown. About 960AD, Count Baldwin III had a town wall erected in order to protect the settlement against Viking raids; the surrounding wetlands were cultivated by the monks of nearby Bergues Abbey. The name Dunkirka was first mentioned in a tithe privilege of 27 May 1067, issued by Count Baldwin V of Flanders. Count Philip I brought further large tracts of marshland under cultivation, laid out the first plans to build a Canal from Dunkirk to Bergues and vested the Dunkirkers with market rights.
In the late 13th century, when the Dampierre count Guy of Flanders entered into the Franco-Flemish War with his suzerain King Philippe IV of France, the citizens of Dunkirk sided with the French against their count, who at first was defeated at the 1297 Battle of Furnes, but reached de facto autonomy upon the victorious Battle of the Golden Spurs five years and exacted vengeance. Guy's son, Count Robert III granted further city rights to Dunkirk. Count Louis remained a loyal liensman of the French king upon the outbreak of the Hundred Years' War with England in 1337, prohibited the maritime trade, which led to another revolt by the Dunkirk citizens. After the count had been killed in the 1346 Battle of Crécy, his son and successor Count Louis II of Flanders signed a truce with the English. However, in the course of the Western Schism from 1378, English supporters of Pope Urban VI disembarked at Dunkirk, captured the city and flooded the surrounding estates, they left great devastations in and around the town.
Upon the extinction of the Counts of Flanders with the death of Louis II in 1384, Flanders was acquired by the Burgundian, Duke Philip the Bold. The fortifications were again enlarged, including the construction of a belfry daymark; as a strategic point, Dunkirk has always been exposed to political covetousness, by Duke Robert I of Bar in 1395, by Louis de Luxembourg in 1435 and by the Austrian archduke Maximilian I of Habsburg, who in 1477 married Mary of Burgundy, sole heiress of late Duke Charles the Bold. As Maximilian was the son of Emperor Frederick III, all Flanders was seized by King Louis XI of France. However, the archduke defeated the French troops in 1479 at the Battle of Guinegate; when Mary died in 1482, Maximilian retained Flanders according to the terms of the 1482 Treaty of Arras. Dunkirk, along with the rest of Flanders, was incorporated into the Habsburg Netherlands and upon the 1581 secession of the Seven United Netherlands, remained part of the Southern Netherlands, which were held by Habsburg Spain as Imperial fiefs.
The area remained much disputed between the Kingdom of Spain, the United Netherlands, the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France. At the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, Dunkirk was in the hands of the Dutch rebels, from 1577. Spanish forces under Duke Alexander Farnese of Parma re-established Spanish rule in 1583 and it became a base for the notorious Dunkirkers; the Dunkirkers lost their home port when the city was conquered by the French in 1646 but Spanish forces recaptured the city in 1652. In 1658, as a result of the long war between France and Spain, it was captured after a siege by Franco-English forces following the battle of the Dunes; the city along with Fort-Mardyck was awarded to England in the peace the following year as agreed in the Franco-English alliance against Spain. The English governors were Sir Edward Harley and Lord Rutherford, it came under French rule when King Charles II of England sold it to France for £320,000 on 17 October 1662. The French government developed the town as a fortified port.
The town's existing defences were adapted to create ten bastions. The port was expanded in the 1670s by the construction of a basin that could hold up to thirty warships with a double lock system to maintain water levels at low tide; the basin was linked to the sea by a channel. This work was completed by 1678; the jetties were defended a few years by the construction of five forts, Château d'Espérance, Château Vert, Grand Risban, Château Gaillard, Fort de Revers. An additional fort was built in 1701 called Fort Blanc; the jetties, their forts, the port facilities were demolished in 1713 under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht. During
Luis Méndez de Haro
Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio or Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, Grandee of Spain, was a Spanish nobleman, political figure and general. He was the son of don Diego de Haro, marquis of Carpio, of doña Francisca de Guzmán, sister of count Olivares, he made a career at the Spanish court under protection of his uncle, whom he succeeded as valido or favourite in the king's confidence when Olivares was driven from office in 1643. He never achieved the same influence and control as his uncle because Philip IV relied on Sister María de Ágreda, she convinced the king to abolish the function of valido. Luis de Haro was the main Spanish negotiator of the Treaty of the Pyrenees on Pheasant Island in 1659, he did not succeed in avoiding a negative result, nor did he reach an anti-French alliance with Oliver Cromwell. The treaty was accompanied by a marriage between Maria Theresa of Spain. Luis de Haro played the part of the bridegroom in the proxy marriage that took place at Fuenterrabia on June 3, 1660.
His main success was the suppression of the Catalan uprising and the reconquest of Barcelona in 1652. His campaign during the Portuguese Restoration War on the contrary was a complete failure. Luis de Haro led the Spanish troops at the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659, which ended in total defeat, he married in Barcelona on April 26, 1625 Catalina, youngest daughter of Enrique de Córdoba Cardona y Aragón and had 6 children: Gaspar, his successor and Viceroy of Naples. Juan Domingo, Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands and Viceroy of Catalonia. Francisco Antonia, married Gaspar Juan Pérez de Guzmán, 10th Duke of Medina Sidonia. Manuela, married Gaspar Vigil de Quiñones Alonso Pimentel y Benavides. María Méndez, married Gregorio María Domingo de Silva Mendoza y Sandoval
Gravelines
Gravelines is a commune in the Nord department in Northern France. It lies at the mouth of the river Aa 15 miles southwest of Dunkirk, it was formed in the 12th century around the mouth of a canal built to connect Saint-Omer with the sea. As it was on the western borders of Spanish territory in Flanders it became fortified, some of which still remains. There is a market in the town square on Fridays; the "Arsenal" approached from the town square is home to an extensive and displayed art collection. There are modern bronze statues in the grounds; the town is home to French basketball club BCM Gravelines. In the early 12th century, Saint-Omer was an important port in western Flanders. Silting cut it off from the North Sea, resulting in the construction of a canal to the new coast at what is now Gravelines; the name is derived from the Dutch Gravenenga. The new town became fortified as it guarded the western borders of Spanish territory in Flanders. Gravelines was taken by Henry le Despenser's English forces during the Norwich Crusade of 1383 and was that year destroyed on his orders as the English retreated towards Calais.
There was a famous meeting at Gravelines in 1520, between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Henry VIII of England. There were two battles fought nearby: the first was a land battle in 1558 resulting in a victory by Spanish forces of Lamoral, Count of Egmont over the French under Marshal Paul des Thermes, while the second was a naval attack using fire ships in 1588 launched by England's Royal Navy under Lord Howard against the Spanish Armada at anchor. Gravelines was the setting for Sir Philip Sidney's failure to deliver the town from Spanish occupation in July 1586, described in the anonymous A Discourse of the enterprise of Gravelines; the town was captured and recaptured several times by the French and Spanish between 1639 and 1658. It was annexed to France in the Treaty of the Pyrenees of 1659. Only in the 19th century did the population become French-speaking. On May 24, 1940, during the Fall of France, German Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commanding Army Group A, ordered his armored divisions to close up the "Canal Line" of Lens-Gravelines, halt there.
Biblis, Germany Fáskrúðsfjörður, Iceland Dartford, United KingdomThe charter between Dartford and Gravelines was signed in Gravelines on the 22 September 1991 by The Mayor, Councillor Tony Gillham, on behalf of Dartford Borough Council and Councillor A. May on behalf of the Dartford and District Twinning Association together with The Mayor of Gravelines, Monsieur A. Denvers and Monsieur C. Marquis, Chairman of their Jumelage. Today, the small town is famous for its nuclear energy plant, it hosts two OVH data centers, GRA-1 and GRA-2. Communes of the Nord department INSEE commune file Allington-Smith, R.. Henry Despenser: the fighting bishop. Dereham: Larks Press. ISBN 1-904006-16-7. Webpage about the fortifications Le zouave de l'Alma
Austria
Austria the Republic of Austria, is a country in Central Europe comprising 9 federated states. Its capital, largest city and one of nine states is Vienna. Austria has an area of 83,879 km2, a population of nearly 9 million people and a nominal GDP of $477 billion, it is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north and Slovakia to the east and Italy to the south, Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps; the majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects as their native language, German in its standard form is the country's official language. Other regional languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, Slovene. Austria played a central role in European History from the late 18th to the early 20th century, it emerged as a margraviate around 976 and developed into a duchy and archduchy. In the 16th century, Austria started serving as the heart of the Habsburg Monarchy and the junior branch of the House of Habsburg – one of the most influential royal houses in history.
As archduchy, it was a major component and administrative centre of the Holy Roman Empire. Following the Holy Roman Empire's dissolution, Austria founded its own empire in the 19th century, which became a great power and the leading force of the German Confederation. Subsequent to the Austro-Prussian War and the establishment of a union with Hungary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was created. Austria was involved in both world wars. Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy with a President as head of state and a Chancellor as head of government. Major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz and Innsbruck. Austria is ranked as one of the richest countries in the world by per capita GDP terms; the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2018 was ranked 20th in the world for its Human Development Index. The republic declared its perpetual neutrality in foreign political affairs in 1955. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955 and joined the European Union in 1995.
It is a founding member of the OECD and Interpol. Austria signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, adopted the euro currency in 1999; the German name for Austria, Österreich, derives from the Old High German Ostarrîchi, which meant "eastern realm" and which first appeared in the "Ostarrîchi document" of 996. This word is a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Another theory says that this name comes from the local name of the mountain whose original Slovenian name is "Ostravica" - because it is steep on both sides. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976; the word "Austria" was first recorded in the 12th century. At the time, the Danube basin of Austria was the easternmost extent of Bavaria; the Central European land, now Austria was settled in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes. The Celtic kingdom of Noricum was claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province. Present-day Petronell-Carnuntum in eastern Austria was an important army camp turned capital city in what became known as the Upper Pannonia province.
Carnuntum was home for 50,000 people for nearly 400 years. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the area was invaded by Bavarians and Avars. Charlemagne, King of the Franks, conquered the area in AD 788, encouraged colonization, introduced Christianity; as part of Eastern Francia, the core areas that now encompass Austria were bequeathed to the house of Babenberg. The area was known as the marchia Orientalis and was given to Leopold of Babenberg in 976; the first record showing the name Austria is from 996, where it is written as Ostarrîchi, referring to the territory of the Babenberg March. In 1156, the Privilegium Minus elevated Austria to the status of a duchy. In 1192, the Babenbergs acquired the Duchy of Styria. With the death of Frederick II in 1246, the line of the Babenbergs was extinguished; as a result, Ottokar II of Bohemia assumed control of the duchies of Austria and Carinthia. His reign came to an end with his defeat at Dürnkrut at the hands of Rudolph I of Germany in 1278. Thereafter, until World War I, Austria's history was that of its ruling dynasty, the Habsburgs.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, the Habsburgs began to accumulate other provinces in the vicinity of the Duchy of Austria. In 1438, Duke Albert V of Austria was chosen as the successor to his father-in-law, Emperor Sigismund. Although Albert himself only reigned for a year, henceforth every emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was a Habsburg, with only one exception; the Habsburgs began to accumulate territory far from the hereditary lands. In 1477, Archduke Maximilian, only son of Emperor Frederick III, married the heiress Maria of Burgundy, thus acquiring most of the Netherlands for the family. In 1496, his son Philip the Fair married Joanna the Mad, the heiress of Castile and Aragon, thus acquiring Spain and its Italian and New World appendages for the Habsburgs. In 1526, following the Battle of Mohács, Bohemia and the part of Hungary not occupied by the Ottomans came under Austrian rule. Ottoman expansion into Hungary led to frequent conflicts between the two empires evident in the Long War of 1593 to 1606.
The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly 20 times, of which some are c
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