The Habsburgs’ rise ensured by Hungarian forces – the Battle on the Marchfeld was fought 741 years ago

The decisive battle between Rudolph I of Habsburg and Ottokar II, Bohemian king of Přemyslid was fought on Marchfeld in 1278. This battle determined the fate of the two dynasties. Without the help of the Hungarian king, Ladislaus IV, the entire history of Central-Europe would have taken another direction. The German-Hungarian alliance won the battle, and this opened the way in front of the rise of the Habsburg dynasty.

The career of Ottokar II was extremely successful at the beginning. He was crowned to be Bohemian king in 1253, after conquering Lower Austria and Vienna. He took part in a crusade against the pagan Prussians and Lithuanians in alliance with the Teutonic Order between 1254-1255. Königsberg was named in honour of him.

As the prince of Austria, he wanted to get the entire heritage of the Babenberg dynasty (which died out in 1246), and after defeating the Hungarian army in 1260, led by Béla IV in the battle Kressenbrunn, he made a big step forward for that purpose – Styria was conquered. Continuing his conquest, he defeated the Hungarians again, led by István V and conquered the territories of Carinthia and Carniola in 1269 – later he also broke into Hungary and caused severe damage in Trans-Danube. As his dominion was growing and developing, he started to strive to become the Holy Roman Emperor and did everything he could for that purpose – extending his territories on the first place.

By 1272 he ruled from Silesia to the shores of the Adrian Sea within the Holy Roman Empire – so he had a serious chance of reaching his goal. 

Being distrustful and afraid of his power, the prince-electors (Kurfürsten) elected the insignificant Swabian count Rudolph I. of Habsburg from Switzerland to be king of the Germans on 29th September 1273. Rudolph demanded the Austrian regions from Ottokar, which was automatically refused by the Bohemian king. In 1274 Ottokar was deprived of all his titles and rights of Ostmark, Styria, Carinthia and even Bohemia at the Diet of Regensburg. In 1276 he was excommunicated from the Empire, and Rudolph broke into his dominion. At the siege of Vienna, Ottokar was forced to surrender and sign a peace treaty – he had to resign from his Austrian dominions. He could only keep Bohemia and Moravia, and Rudolph occupied the rest of his territories.