Rudolf I of Bohemia

Rudolf I
File:Rudolph III Habsburg.jpg
King of Bohemia
Reign	1306 – 3/4 July 1307
Predecessor	Henry of Carinthia
Successor	Henry of Carinthia
Duke of Austria and Styria
Reign	1298 – 3/4 July 1307
Predecessor	Albert I
Successor	Albert I
Born	c. 1281
Died	July 3/4, 1307 (aged 26) Horažďovice, Bohemia
Burial	St. Vitus Cathedral, Prague
Spouse	Blanche of France Elisabeth Richeza
House	Habsburg
Father	Albert I of Germany
Mother	Elizabeth of Gorizia

Rudolf of Habsburg (Czech: Rudolf Habsburský; c. 1281 – 3/4 July 1307) was Duke of Austria and Styria (as Rudolf III) from 1298 as well as King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland (as Rudolf I) from 1306 until his death.

Life

A member of the House of Habsburg, he was the eldest son of King Albert I of Germany and his wife Elizabeth of Gorizia. Upon the election of his father as King of the Romans, Rudolph was vested as a co-ruler with the Austrian and Styrian hereditary lands of the Habsburg dynasty. According to the Rheinfelden order of succession, Rudolf acted as ducal regent on behalf of his younger brothers Frederick the Fair and Leopold I.

On May 25, 1300, King Albert I arranged his marriage with Blanche, a daughter of King Philip III of France by his second wife Marie of Brabant. The intended union with the French House of Capet however failed as the couple's son and daughter died young and Blanche herself died in 1305. Rudolf accompanied his father on his 1304 expedition against King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, who had placed his son Wenceslaus III on the Hungarian throne after the Árpád dynasty died out in 1301 with the death of King Andrew III.

Another opportunity for a Habsburg gain in power opened when in 1306 King Wenceslaus III, the last Bohemian ruler of the Přemyslid dynasty, was killed and Albert I as rex Romanorum was able to seize his kingdom as a reverted Imperial fief. Rudolph was vested with the Bohemian throne, however contested by his maternal uncle Henry of Gorizia, Duke of Carinthia and husband of Wenceslaus' sister Anne. When several Bohemian nobles elected Henry King of Bohemia, Albert I placed his brother-in-law under the Imperial ban and marched against Prague. Henry fled, first to Bavaria, then back to his Carinthian homelands. To further legitimate the Habsburg claims to the Bohemian and the Polish throne, Albert had Rudolph married to Princess Elizabeth Richeza of Poland, a member of the Piast dynasty and widow of the predeceased King Wenceslaus II.

Mocked as král kaše ("king porridge") for his stomach problems, Rudolf was rejected by several Bohemian nobles, who continued to hold out for Henry. His aims to take hold of the silver deposits at Kutná Hora (Kuttenberg) sparked a rebellion led by the noble House of Strakonice. The king besieged the rebel fortress of Horažďovice, but died at the campsite in the night of 3 to 4 July 1307, probably of gastrointestinal perforation. As Rudolf left no children, the first grab of the Habsburgs for the Crown of Saint Wenceslas failed when the Bohemian nobles restored Henry as king in return for a charter of privileges, who in turn had to renounce the throne in favour of Count John of Luxembourg three years later. Instead Rudolph's enfeoffment intensified the inner Habsburg inheritance conflict, culminating in the assassination of King Albert I by his nephew John Parricida in 1308.

Rudolph is buried at the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague.

Ancestry

Family of Rudolf I of Bohemia

16. Rudolph II, Count of Habsburg               8. Albert IV, Count of Habsburg                       17. Agnes of Staufen               4. Rudolph I of Germany                             18. Ulrich, Count of Kiburg and Dillingen               9. Heilwig of Kiburg                       19. Anna von Zähringen               2. Albert I of Germany                                   20. Burckhard IV, Count of Hohenburg               10. Burckhard V, Count of Hohenburg                       5. Gertrude of Hohenburg                             22. Rudolph II, Count Palatine of Tübingen               11. Mechtild of Tübingen                       1. Rudolph I of Bohemia                                         24. Engelbert III, Count of Gorizia               12. Meinhard I of Gorizia-Tyrol                       25. Matilda of Andechs               6. Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia                             26. Albert IV, Count of Tyrol               13. Adelaide of Tyrol                       27. Uta of Frontenhausen               3. Elisabeth of Tirol                                   28. Louis I, Duke of Bavaria               14. Otto II Wittelsbach, Duke of Bavaria                       29. Ludmilla of Bohemia               7. Elisabeth of Bavaria                             30. Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine               15. Agnes of the Palatinate                       31. Agnes of Hohenstaufen

See also

• List of rulers of Bohemia
• List of rulers of Austria

Rudolf I of Bohemia House of Habsburg Born: c. 1281 Died: 3 or 4 July 1307
Preceded by Henry	King of Bohemia 1306–1307	Succeeded by Henry
Preceded by Albert I	Duke of Austria and Styria with Albert I 1298–1307	Succeeded by Albert I