Babenberg

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
House of Babenberg
CountryMargraviate of Austria
Duchy of Austria
Duchy of Styria
Duchy of Bavaria
Foundedc. 962
FounderLeopold I
Final rulerFrederick II
TitlesDuke, Margrave, Count
Dissolution1246

The House of Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian Dukes and Margraves. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia (present-day Bavaria), the Babenbergs ruled the imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its elevation to a duchy in 1156, and from then until the extinction of the line in 1246, whereafter they were succeeded by the House of Habsburg, to which they were related.

Origin

One or two families

The Babenberg family can be broken down into two distinct groups: 1) The Franconian Babenbergs, the so-called Elder House of Babenberg, whose name refers to Babenburg Castle, the present site of Bamberg Cathedral. Also called Popponids after their progenitor Count Poppo of Grapfeld (d. 839-41), they were related to the Frankish Robertian dynasty and ancestors of the Franconian Counts of Henneberg and of Schweinfurt. 2) The Austrian Babenbergs, descendants of Margrave Leopold I, who ruled Austria from 976 onwards. This second group claimed to have originated from the first, however, scholars have not been able to verify that claim. Today, a direct lineal descent from the Bavarian House of Luitpolding is assumed.

Popponids

Like the French royal

Cancor of Hesbaye
.

One of Poppo's sons,

Poppo II, was margrave in Thuringia from 880 to 892, when he was deposed by King Charles' successor Arnulf of Carinthia. The Popponids had been favoured by Charles the Fat, but Arnulf reversed this policy in favour of rivalling Conrad the Elder, a member of the Conradine dynasty from the Lahngau in Rhenish Franconia[1] and relative of Arnulf's consort Ota
.

Babenberg Feud

The leaders of the Babenbergs were the sons of Duke Henry, who called themselves after their castle of Babenburg on the upper

Rudolf and Gebhard, probably the sons of Count Udo of Neustria
.

The rivalry between the Babenberg and Conradine families was intensified by their efforts to extend their authority in the region of the middle Main, and this quarrel, known as the "Babenberg feud", came to a first head in 892, when King Arnulf deposed Poppo II as Thuringian ruler, appointing Conrad the Elder instead, and installed Conrad's brother Rudolf as

Bishop of Würzburg. The struggle intensified at the beginning of the 10th century during the troubled reign of Arnulf's son King Louis the Child. Clashes of arms occurred in 902, when the Conradine laid siege to Babenburg Castle and arrested Adalhard of Babenberg. The next year, Adalhard was executed at the Reichstag of Forchheim; in return, the Babenbergs occupied the city of Würzburg
and expelled Bishop Rudolf.

Meanwhile, Rudolf's brother Gebhard was appointed

Hatto I of Mainz, a partisan of the Conradines. He refused to appear, held his own for a time in his castle at Theres against the king's forces, but surrendered in 906, and in spite of a promise of safe-conduct by Hatto was beheaded.[1]

Conrad the Younger became Duke of Franconia in 906 and King of East Francia (as Conrad I) in 911, while the Babenbergs lost their influence in Franconia.

Margraves of Austria

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The Babenberg family tree triptych at Klosterneuburg Monastery (c. 1490, based on the genealogy by Ladislaus Sunthaym)

In 962, the Bavarian count

Otto I. He remained a loyal supporter of Otto's son and successor Otto II and in 976 appears as count of the Bavarian Eastern March, then a district not more than 60 miles in breadth on the eastern frontier of the duchy, which grew into the Margraviate of Austria. Leopold, who received the territory as a reward for his fidelity to Emperor Otto II during the uprising of Duke Henry II of Bavaria, extended its area down the Danube river into what is today Lower Austria at the expense of the retreating Magyars
.

Leopold was succeeded in 994 by his son Henry I, who continued his father's policy, was followed in 1018 by his brother Adalbert, whose marked loyalty to Emperor Henry II and his Salian successor Henry III was rewarded by many tokens of favour.[1] Adalbert expanded the Austrian territory up to the present borders on the Leitha, March and Thaya rivers. He was succeeded in 1055 by his nephew, Ernest.

Altmann of Passau. Though Leopold had to cope with the invading troops of Duke Vratislaus II of Bohemia and was defeated at the 1082 Battle of Mailberg, the emperor was unable to oust him from his march or to prevent the succession of his son Leopold III in 1096. Between 1075 - 1095 the dynasty had its seat at Babenberg Castle of Gars am Kamp.[4]

Leopold III supported Henry V, the son of Emperor Henry IV, in his rising against his father, but was soon drawn over to the emperor's side. In 1106 he married the daughter of Henry IV,

Lothair of Supplinburg. His zeal in founding monasteries, such as Klosterneuburg Monastery, earned for him his surname "the Pious", and canonization by Pope Innocent VIII in 1485. He is regarded as the patron saint of Lower and Upper Austria.[1]

Dukes of Austria

One of Leopold's younger sons was Bishop

Leopold IV became margrave in 1136, and in 1139 received the Duchy of Bavaria from the hands of King Conrad III, who had banned the Welf duke Henry the Proud
.

Leopold's brother

Frederick Barbarossa who gave the duchy of Bavaria to Henry the Proud's son, Duke Henry the Lion of Saxony. As compensation for this, Austria, the capital of which had been transferred to Vienna about 1155, was elevated into a duchy according to the Privilegium Minus.[1]

Rise to power

The second duke was Henry's son

Leopold; but on Frederick's death in 1198 they were again united by Leopold as Duke Leopold VI, surnamed "the Glorious".[1]

The new duke fought in the crusades in

Minnesingers. His later years were spent in strife with his son Frederick, and he died in 1230 at San Germano, now renamed Cassino, whither he had gone to arrange the peace between Emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX.[1]

Extinction

Theodora Angelina, succeeded his father as duke upon the elder man's death in 1230. Frederick II soon earned the epithet "the Quarrelsome" from his ongoing disputes with the kings of Hungary and Bohemia and with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Duke Frederick deprived his mother and sisters of their possessions, was hated by his subjects on account of his oppressive rule, and, in 1236, was placed under the imperial ban and driven from Austria.[1]
However, he was later restored to his duchy when Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated. Subsequently, Duke Frederick II treated with Emperor Frederick II in vain to make Austria a kingdom.

The male line of the Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Frederick II was killed in battle (the

Wettin family
).

Frederick's heir general was Gertrude of Austria, the only child of his late elder brother, Henry of Austria by that man's wife, Agnes of Thuringia. However, neither her husbands nor her son succeeded in settling the Babenberg inheritance under their power. Gertrude's only surviving child, Agnes of Baden, tried to reclaim at least part of her inheritance through her third husband Ulrich II of Heunburg, but was unsuccessful.

After some years of struggle known as the

Habsburg
, whose descendants were to rule Austria until 1918.

Genetic legacy

Byzantine blood

All the Babenberg dukes from

Theodora), Frederick II
, who married Sophia Laskarina.

The Babenbergs and the Habsburgs

The next dynasty in Austria—the Habsburgs—were originally not descendants of the Babenbergs. It was not until the children of Albert I of Germany that the Babenberg blood was brought into the Habsburg line, though this blood was from the pre-ducal Babenbergs. A side effect of this marriage was the use of the Babenberg name Leopold by the Habsburgs for one of their sons.

The Habsburgs did eventually gain descent from the Babenberg dukes, though at different times. The first

Ladislas V Posthumus of Bohemia
.

The next

Ladislas V Posthumus of Bohemia
, that the Styrian line gained their Babenberg blood.

The Spanish line was the last Habsburg line to gain Babenberg blood. Again it was via the previous

Anna. As a result, after 1598, all Habsburg
scions descended from the Babenberg Dukes.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Babenberg". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 91–92.
  2. ISBN 9781101105184
    .
  3. ISBN 9780813226934
    .
  4. ^ "Wo Babenberger und Habsburger residierten", Styria books, p 17
Bibliography

External links

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