Rudolf I of Bohemia

Rudolf I
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

See also

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

Monarchs of Bohemia Přemyslid c. 870–1198 (Dukes) Bořivoj I Spytihněv I Vratislaus I Saint Wenceslaus Boleslaus I Boleslaus II Boleslaus III Vladivoj Boleslaus the Brave1 Jaromír Oldřich Bretislaus I Spytihněv II Vratislaus II (I)2 Conrad I Bretislaus II Bořivoj II Svatopluk the Lion Vladislaus I Sobeslaus I Vladislaus II (I)2 Frederick Sobeslaus II Frederick Conrad II Otto Wenceslaus II Ottokar I Henry Bretislaus Vladislaus III Henry 1198–1306 (Kings) Ottokar I Wenceslaus I Ottokar II Wenceslaus II Wenceslaus III Non-dynastic 1306–1310 Henry the Carinthian Rudolph I Luxembourg 1310–1437 John the Blind Charles IV (I) Wenceslaus IV Sigismund Habsburg 1437–1457 Albert Interregnum Ladislaus the Posthumous Non-dynastic 1457–1471 George Matthias Corvinus3 Jagiellonian 1471–1526 Vladislaus II Louis Habsburg 1526–1780 Ferdinand I Maximilian Rudolph II Matthias Ferdinand II Frederick4 Ferdinand III Leopold I Joseph I Charles II Charles Albert (II)3, 5 Maria Theresa Habsburg-Lorraine 1780–1918 Joseph II Leopold II Francis II (I) Ferdinand V Francis Joseph Charles I (III) 1 Duke of Poland from the Piast dynasty 2 During his reign obtained non-hereditary royal title 3 Antiking 4 Elector Palatine from the Wittelsbach dynasty 5 Prince-elector of Bavaria from the Wittelsbach dynasty

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