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52-567: The Eastphalian count Otto of Ballenstedt (d. 1123), ancestor of the House of Ascania, had married Eilika , a daughter of Duke Magnus of Saxony from the House of Billung . As the Billung male line became extinct upon Magnus's death in 1106, Otto hoped to succeed him, however King Henry V of Germany enfeoffed Count Lothair of Supplinburg . During the following long-term dispute between Henry and Lothair, Otto

104-564: A deal with the rising House of Hohenstaufen : He backed the succession of Conrad of Hohenstaufen as German king, who in turn deprived his Welf rival Henry the Proud of the Saxonian Duchy in 1138 and gave it to Albert. However, his rule was strongly contested by the local nobility and in 1142 Albert finally had to resign as duke in favour of Henry the Proud's son Henry the Lion . Albert later took part in

156-532: A new crusade by taking the crusader's vow in 1275. Pope Gregory X , despite the protests of Ottokar II of Bohemia, not only recognised Rudolf himself, but persuaded King Alfonso X of Castile (another grandson of Philip of Swabia ), who had been chosen German (anti-)king in 1257 as the successor to Count William II of Holland , to do the same. Thus, Rudolf surpassed the two heirs of the Hohenstaufen dynasty whom he had earlier served so loyally. In November 1274,

208-469: A number of robber castles . In 1291, he attempted to secure the election of his son Albert as German king. The electors refused, however, claiming inability to support two kings, but in reality, perhaps, wary of the increasing power of the House of Habsburg. Upon Rudolf's death they elected Count Adolf of Nassau . In 1286, Rudolf I instituted a new persecution of the Jews, declaring them servi camerae ("serfs of

260-530: A penance, he took up the cross and joined Ottokar II, King of Bohemia in the Prussian Crusade of 1254 . Whilst there, he oversaw the founding of the city of Königsberg , which was named in memory of King Ottokar. The disorder in Germany during the interregnum after the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty afforded an opportunity for Count Rudolf to increase his possessions. His wife was a Hohenberg heiress; and on

312-599: A principality of his own as his father was still alive. By the admission of Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria instead of the King of Bohemia as the seventh Elector, Rudolf gained all seven votes. Rudolf was crowned in Aachen Cathedral on 24 October 1273. To win the approbation of the Pope, Rudolf renounced all imperial rights in Rome , the papal territory, and Sicily , and promised to lead

364-564: A ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpfen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam. Rudolf died in Speyer on 15 July 1291 and was buried in Speyer Cathedral . Only one of his sons survived him: Albert I . Most of his daughters outlived him, apart from Catherine who had died in 1282 during childbirth and Hedwig who had died in 1285/6. Rudolf's reign

416-455: A result, within the electoral college, King Ottokar II of Bohemia (1230–1278), himself a candidate for the throne and related to the late Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia (being the son of the eldest surviving daughter), was almost alone in opposing Rudolf. Other candidates were Prince Siegfried I of Anhalt and Margrave Frederick I of Meissen (1257–1323), a young grandson of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II, who did not yet even have

468-634: Is most memorable for his establishment of the House of Habsburg as a powerful dynasty in the southeastern part of the realm. In the other territories, the centuries-long decline of Imperial authority since the days of the Investiture Controversy continued, and the princes were largely left to their own devices. In the Divine Comedy , Dante finds Rudolf sitting outside the gates of purgatory with his contemporaries, characterizing him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done". Rudolf

520-586: The Schöllenenschlucht under his direct control, Emperor Frederick II granted Schwyz Reichsfreiheit in the Freibrief von Faenza . In 1242, Hugh of Tuffenstein provoked Count Rudolf through contumelious expressions. In turn, the Count of Habsburg had invaded his domains, yet failed to take his seat of power. As the day passed on, Count Rudolf bribed the sentinels of the city and gained entry, killing Hugh in

572-633: The Harz mountain range was the hereditary lands of Henry the Fowler , the first Saxon duke to become King of the Romans in 919, and his descendants of the Ottonian dynasty . They left several Romanesque abbeys and castles, a cultural landscape that today encompasses three World Heritage Sites with the medieval town of Goslar and Quedlinburg , as well as St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim . As

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624-782: The Imperial Diet at Nuremberg decided that all Crown estates seized since the death of the Emperor Frederick II must be restored, and that King Ottokar II must answer to the Diet for not recognising the new king. Ottokar refused to appear or to restore the duchies of Austria , Styria and Carinthia together with the March of Carniola , which he had claimed through his first wife, a Babenberg heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, Margrave Hermann VI of Baden . Rudolf refused to accept Ottokar's succession to

676-468: The Kingdom of Bohemia , betrothed one of his daughters to Ottokar's son Wenceslaus II , and made a triumphal entry into Vienna . Ottokar, however, raised questions about the execution of the treaty, and procured the support of several German princes, again including Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria. To meet this coalition, Rudolf formed an alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary and gave additional privileges to

728-646: The Saxon Wars , his lands were integrated into the Frankish Empire and the Saxons were increasingly converted to Christianity . The bishoprics of Halberstadt and Hildesheim were established in eastern Saxony, bounded by the Oker river, in 804 and 815 respectively. The medieval Duchy of Saxony was divided between the districts of Eastphalia ( Ostfalahi ), Westphalia, Nordalbingia, and Angria . The Eastphalian territory at

780-564: The Wendish Crusade of 1147 and in 1157 established the Margraviate of Brandenburg . He died in 1170. The third chance for the Ascanians came, when in 1180 ambitious Henry the Lion was deposed as Saxon Duke by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa . Frederick partitioned Saxony among his allies into more than a dozen immediate territories. Among the supporters, Archbishop Philip of Cologne received

832-623: The electoral dignity and later established the Electorate of Saxony on the upper Elbe. Eastphalia consisted of several Gaue . The exact list is not known for sure and differs among authorities. From North to South, the Gaue were (where available, modernized names are used): Rudolf I of Germany Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was the first King of Germany of the Habsburg dynasty from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked

884-691: The Ascanian County of Anhalt , while his younger brother Albert I inherited the title of a Duke of Saxony and retained three territorially unconnected Eastphalian estates on the Elbe river around the towns of Wittenberg and Belzig as well as the northern lordship of Lauenburg with Amt Neuhaus and Land Hadeln at the Elbe estuary . After Albert I's death in 1260, his two heirs, John I and his younger brother Albert II ruled jointly. In 1269, 1272, and 1282, they gradually divided their governing competences within

936-733: The Ascanian line in the Electorate of Saxony died out in 1422, the Ascanian Duke Eric V of Saxe-Lauenburg failed to assert his succession in Wittenberg. King Sigismund granted the Electorate to Margrave Frederick IV of Meissen from the House of Wettin , who united the Meissen and the Saxon lands of Wittenberg under his rule. He assumed the electoral title and thereby transferred the state of Saxony up

988-722: The Babenberg patrimony, declaring that the provinces reverted to the Imperial crown due to the lack of male-line heirs. King Ottokar was placed under the imperial ban ; and in June 1276 war was declared against him. Having persuaded Ottokar's former ally Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria to switch sides, Rudolf compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces to the control of the royal administration in November 1276. Rudolf then re-invested Ottokar with

1040-682: The Eastphalian territory bordered on the lands of the Polabian Slavs beyond the Elbe and Saale rivers, it became the starting point of the German Ostsiedlung ("settling of the East") started by the invasions of King Henry and continued by the Saxon margraves . After the Welf duke Henry the Lion was placed under Imperial ban in 1180, Eastphalia was increasingly subdivided into smaller states, foremost

1092-523: The Elbe river to his Meissen residence. His lands were also called "Upper Saxony" (see: Upper Saxon Circle ) to distinguish them from the territory of the medieval stem duchy, the later Lower Saxony . The territory of former Saxe-Wittenberg became known as the Kurkreis ("Electoral District"). By the division of the Saxon Electorate according to the 1485 Treaty of Leipzig , the Wittenberg lands including

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1144-701: The Empire's western neighbor in the Kingdom of France . Rudolf was not very successful in restoring internal peace. Orders were indeed issued for the establishment of territorial peaces in Bavaria , Franconia and Swabia, and at the Synod of Würzburg in March 1287 for the whole Empire. But the king lacked the power, resources, and determination to enforce them, although in December 1289 he led an expedition into Thuringia , where he destroyed

1196-541: The Land of Ratzeburg , the Land of Darzing (today's Amt Neuhaus ), and the Land of Hadeln are mentioned as the separate territory of the brothers. Duke Albert II received the Wittenberg lands around the eponymous city, Brehna and Gommern. He thus became the founder of the Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg. When Rudolph succeeded his father Albert II as Duke of Saxe-Wittenberg in 1298, he and the Dukes of Saxe-Lauenburg rivallingly claimed

1248-611: The Palatinate , and Duke Rudolph I of Saxe-Wittenberg, equally exercising the Saxon electoral dignity. However, only Louis the Bavarian, co-elected with Saxe-Lauenburg's vote, finally asserted himself as emperor after the 1322 Battle of Mühldorf by the Treaty of Trausnitz on March 13, 1325. As an obvious opponent, Duke Rudolph I failed with his claims to Brandenburg after the line of his Ascanian cousins became extinct in 1319: King Louis IV seized

1300-570: The Saxon electoral privilege. Upon the assassination of his brother-in-law King Albert I in 1308, he voted for Count Henry of Luxembourg . In 1314 both duchies participated in the double election of the German kings, Frederick III, the Fair from the House of Habsburg and his Wittelsbach cousin Louis IV, the Bavarian . Louis received five of the seven votes, to wit Archbishop-Elector Baldwin of Trier ,

1352-611: The Viennese citizens. On 26 August 1278, the rival armies met at the Battle on the Marchfeld , where Ottokar was defeated and killed. The Margraviate of Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolf's representatives, leaving Ottokar's widow Kunigunda of Slavonia in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus II was again betrothed to Rudolf's youngest daughter Judith . Rudolf's attention next turned to

1404-565: The Welf Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and the counties of Anhalt , Wernigerode and Blankenburg as well as the Imperial city of Goslar, but also the ecclesiastical territories of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg , the prince-bishoprics of Hildesheim and Halberstadt and Quedlinburg Abbey . The Saxon tradition was perpetuated by the Ascanian dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg , who secured for themselves

1456-550: The citizens of Bern to pay the tribute that they had been refusing. After his son Rudolf II defeated Bern at the Battle of Schosshalde , he strengthened his authority in Switzerland. He further expanded his Swiss possessions and granted some ecclesiastical posts to his family. In 1289 he marched against Count Philip's successor, Otto IV , compelling him to do homage. In 1281, Rudolf's first wife died. On 5 February 1284, he married Isabella , daughter of Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy ,

1508-493: The core of the Habsburg monarchy and the present-day country of Austria . Rudolf played a vital role in raising the comital House of Habsburg to the rank of Imperial princes . Rudolf was born on 1 May 1218 at Limburgh Castle near Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl in the Breisgau region of present-day southwestern Germany . He was the son of Count Albert IV of Habsburg and Hedwig, daughter of Count Ulrich of Kyburg . Around 1232, he

1560-408: The course of researching Eastphalian as a West Low German dialect. With the rise of racial studies in the 19th and early 20th century, mention began to be made – notably by Hans F. K. Günther  – of a "Phalian" subtype ( fälische Rasse ) of an " Aryan race ", which he stated was the primary subtype found in Germany. With Charlemagne 's defeat and baptism of Duke Widukind in 785 during

1612-553: The court of his godfather, the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II , and his loyalty to Frederick and his son, King Conrad IV of Germany , was richly rewarded by grants of land. In 1254, he engaged with other nobles of the Staufen party against Bertold II, Bishop of Basle . When night fell, he penetrated the suburbs of Basle and burnt down the local nunnery, an act for which Pope Innocent IV excommunicated him and all parties involved. As

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1664-498: The death of his childless maternal uncle Count Hartmann IV of Kyburg in 1264, Rudolf seized Hartmann's valuable estates. Successful feuds with the Bishops of Strasbourg and Basel further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased from abbots and others. These various sources of wealth and influence rendered Rudolf the most powerful prince and noble in southwestern Germany (where

1716-407: The duchies of Austria and Styria and so laid the foundation of the House of Habsburg. Additionally, he made the twelve-year-old Rudolf Duke of Swabia, a merely titular dignity, as the duchy had been without an actual ruler since Conradin 's execution. The 27-year-old Duke Albert, married since 1274 to a daughter of Count Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol (1238–95), was capable enough to hold some sway in

1768-610: The electoral dignity fell to Ernest of Wettin . Eastphalia Eastphalia ( German : Ostfalen [ɔstˈfaːlən] ; Eastphalian : Oostfalen ) is a historical region in northern Germany , encompassing the eastern Gaue (shires) of the historic stem duchy of Saxony , roughly confined by the River Leine in the west and the Elbe and Saale in the east. The territory corresponds with modern southeastern Lower Saxony , western Saxony-Anhalt , and northern Thuringia . Together with Westphalia , Angria , and Nordalbingia , it

1820-625: The end of the Great Interregnum which had begun after the death of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II in 1250. Originally a Swabian count, he was the first Habsburg to acquire the duchies of Austria and Styria in opposition to his mighty rival, the Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia , whom he defeated in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld . The territories remained under Habsburg rule for more than 600 years, forming

1872-555: The former Alemannic German stem duchy . That same year, Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV at the Council of Lyon . Rudolf sided against the Emperor, while the forest communities sided with Frederick. This gave them a pretext to attack and damage Neuhabsburg. Rudolf successfully defended it and drove them off. As a result, Rudolf, by siding with the Pope, gained more power and influence. Rudolf paid frequent visits to

1924-516: The hilly region to the south, the Central Uplands of Franconia and Thuringia . Unlike the name Westphalia, which was perpetuated by the Duchy of Westphalia held by the archbishop-electors of Cologne , the name Eastphalia gradually fell out of use when the Saxon stem duchy dissolved upon the deposition of Duke Henry the Lion in 1180. German linguists reintroduced the term in the 19th century in

1976-436: The largest share as the newly created Duchy of Westphalia . The Saxon ducal title at least passed to late Albert's youngest son, Count Bernhard of Ballenstedt , who nevertheless only ruled over small, mostly Eastphalian fringes of the old duchy. Duke Bernard died in 1212 and his two surviving sons divided the Saxon heritage: the elder Henry took the old Ascanian allodial possessions around Ballenstedt where he established

2028-495: The legitimate King John of Bohemia , Duke John II of Saxe-Lauenburg , claiming the Saxon prince-electoral power, Archbishop Peter of Mainz , and Albert's Ascanian cousin Margrave Waldemar of Brandenburg . Frederick the Fair received in the same election four of the seven votes, with the deposed King Henry of Bohemia , illegitimately assuming electoral power, Archbishop Henry II of Cologne , Louis' brother Count Rudolph I of

2080-477: The margraviate and enfeoffed his son Louis V instead. Rudolph I in turn allied with the rivaling House of Luxembourg . He supported Count Charles IV of Luxembourg as anti-king to Louis IV and on that account exclusively received the Saxon electoral dignity with the Golden Bull of 1356 , thus slighting Saxe-Lauenburg. Saxe-Wittenberg thereupon came to be known as the Electorate of Saxony ( Kursachsen ). When

2132-453: The new patrimony. In 1286, King Rudolf fully invested Albert's father-in-law Count Meinhard with the Duchy of Carinthia , one of the conquered provinces taken from Ottokar. The Princes of the Empire did not allow Rudolf to give everything that was recovered to the royal domain to his own sons, and his allies needed their rewards too. Turning to the west, in 1281 he compelled Count Philip I of Savoy to cede some territory to him, then forced

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2184-573: The possessions in Austria and the adjacent provinces, which were taken into the royal domain. He spent several years establishing his authority there but found some difficulty in establishing his family as successors to the rule of those provinces. At length, the hostility of the princes was overcome. In December 1282, at the Hoftag (imperial diet) in Augsburg , Rudolf invested his sons, Albert and Rudolf II , with

2236-520: The process. Then in 1244, to help control Lake Lucerne and restrict the neighboring forest communities of Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden , Rudolf built near its shores Neuhabsburg Castle . In 1245 Rudolf married Gertrude, daughter of Count Burkhard III of Hohenberg . He received as her dowry the castles of Oettingen , the valley of Weile , and other places in Alsace, and he became an important vassal in Swabia,

2288-598: The same as Wenceslaus). In 1295, Albert II would again enlarge his Saxon territory when he acquired the County of Gommern . The last document, mentioning the joint government of Albert II with his nephews as Saxon fellow dukes dates back to 1295. The definite partitioning of the Duchy of Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg ( German : Herzogtum Sachsen-Lauenburg ), jointly ruled by the brothers Albert III, Eric I and John II and Saxe-Wittenberg ( German : Herzogtum Sachsen-Wittenberg ), ruled by Albert II took place before 20 September 1296. The Vierlande , Sadelbande (Land of Lauenburg),

2340-585: The succession in the lands of the extinct Counts of Brehna were more successful: when their fiefs were reverted to the Empire in 1290, the king enfeoffed his son Rudolph. After King Rudolph had died, Albert II with his nephews still minor, wielded the Saxon electoral vote , electing Adolph of Nassau , the brother-in-law of Archbishop Siegfried II of Cologne on 27 April 1292. The bishop, together with King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia , had succeeded in bringing Albert II in favour of electing Adolph (Albert II had signed an elector pact on 29 November 1291 that he would vote

2392-497: The then three territorially unconnected Saxon areas (Hadeln, Lauenburg, and Wittenberg), thus preparing a partition, whereby Albert II, Burgrave of Magdeburg since 1269, concentrated on the Wittenberg territory. He consolidated his position by marrying Agnes , daughter of Rudolph of Habsburg , whom he elected King of the Romans in 1273. After Duke John I had resigned in 1282 in favour of his three minor sons Eric I , John II and Albert III , followed by his death three years later,

2444-424: The three brothers and their uncle Albert II continued the joint rule as Saxon dukes. Upon the death of Margrave Henry III of Meissen in 1288, Duke Albert II applied at his father-in-law King Rudolph I for the enfeoffment of his son and heir Rudolph with the Saxon County palatine on the Unstrut river, which ensued a long lasting dispute with the eager clan of the House of Wettin . Albert's attempts to secure

2496-489: The treasury"), which had the effect of negating their political freedoms. Along with many others, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg left Germany with family and followers, but was captured in Lombardy and imprisoned in a fortress in Alsace . Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks silver was raised for him (by the Rosh ), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. Fourteen years after his death

2548-572: The tribal Duchy of Swabia had disintegrated, enabling its vassals to become completely independent). In the autumn of 1273, the prince-electors met to choose a king after Richard of Cornwall had died in England in April 1272. Rudolf's election in Frankfurt on 1 October 1273, when he was 55 years old, was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law, the Hohenzollern burgrave Frederick III of Nuremberg . The support of Duke Albert II of Saxony and Elector Palatine Louis II had been purchased by betrothing them to two of Rudolf's daughters. As

2600-408: Was able to gain the title of a Saxon (anti-)duke, though only for a short time in 1122. Lothair was elected King of the Romans in 1125 and in 1134 he vested Otto's son Albert the Bear with the Saxon Northern March . Upon his death in 1137, Albert once again strived for the Saxon duchy, which however fell to Lothair's son-in-law Henry the Proud from the Bavarian House of Welf . Albert concluded

2652-447: Was given as a squire to his uncle, Rudolf I, Count of Laufenburg , to train in knightly pursuits. At his father's death in 1239, Rudolf inherited from him large estates around the ancestral seat of Habsburg Castle in the Aargau region of present-day Switzerland as well as in Alsace . Thus, in 1240, in order to quell the rising power of Rudolf and in an attempt to place the important " Devil's Bridge " ( Teufelsbrücke ) across

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2704-438: Was one of the four main Saxon administrative regions. The name Ostfalen probably means "east plain". Falen is a Germanic word meaning "flat", "level" and "plain" and is related to the Old Swedish word fala , found today in place names such as Falbygden and Falun , as well as in the northern German town of Fallstedt. The North German Plain of Eastphalia and Westphalia, divided by the Weser river, stands in contrast to

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