Gertrude of Austria
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Gertrude of Austria (also named Gertrude of Babenberg) (1226 – 24 April 1288) was a member of the
Early years
Gertrude was the only child of
Henry died on 26 September 1228, only twenty years old and without male issue. Two years later, on 28 July 1230, Henry's father Duke Leopold VI also died and was succeeded by Frederick II, Leopold's third son. Because Babenberg Austria was inheritable by females according to the provisions of Privilegium Minus, Gertrude disputed Frederick's ascension, claiming Austria as her inheritance as the only child of Leopold VI's eldest son. Even so, Gertrude's claim was eventually bypassed in her uncle's favor.
Despite this negative turn of events, Gertrude inherited her father's Duchy of Mödling and was placed under the guardianship of her uncle, Frederick II, who, after two unhappy marriages, remained childless. This made Gertrude the primogenitural heiress of the entire Babenberg line of Dukes of Austria and Styria.
Marriage
Complicating Frederick II's hold over Austria was his long-standing quarrel with Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, during which he was placed under an imperial ban. In 1245, in a spectacular change of imperial politics, Frederick II of Austria became one of the emperor's most important allies when negotiations regarding the elevation of Vienna to a bishopric and of Austria (including Styria) to a Kingdom were initiated. One condition effecting a positive outcome was that the 19-year-old Duke's niece, Gertrude, would marry the 51-year-old Emperor who was a widower three times over. Though desirous of the union, Wenceslaus I of Bohemia nevertheless voiced his concerns given a preexisting agreement that Gertrude marry his eldest son and heir Vladislaus. Gertrude herself refused the marriage with the aged Emperor, citing his recent excommunication by the Pope. Other sources claim that she was in love with Vladislaus. After sending an army to Austria in order to pressure Duke Frederick II into agreeing to the union of Gertrude and Vladislaus, the two parties came to terms early in June 1245 in Verona. The rapid rise of Duke Frederick's political ambitions proved short-lived.
On 15 June 1246 Frederick II was killed in battle. King Wenceslaus quickly arranged the formal marriage ceremony of Gertrude and his heir, Vladislaus. Per hoc Wladislaus habebat Austriae ducatum cheered Bohemia and, supported by the rights of his wife and the prospect of inheriting the Bohemian throne, Vladislaus was quickly recognized as Duke by the Austrian aristocracy. However, shortly after their marriage, Vladislaus died on 3 January 1247.
In 1248, in order to bolster her claims, the 22-year-old Duchess married Herman VI, Margrave of Baden. The following year Gertrude gave birth to a son Frederick. In celebration of the happy event, Gertrude gave 30 people in Alland, the place of her son's birth, extended farm lands which became the foundation of the agrarian community of the Allander Urhausbesitzer. In 1250 Gertrude had a second child, a daughter, whom she named Agnes after her maternal grandmother.
Frustrated ambitions
Herman was able to maintain only minimal control in the duchies, failing ultimately to defeat the opposition of the Austrian aristocracy. As a result, Gertrude and her children fled to Meissen in Saxony and her relationship with Herman deteriorated significantly. Gertrude was suspected of poisoning Herman when he died on 4 October 1250.
Gertrude lost the favour of the curia and with it the chance to recover the Babenberg dominions of Austria and Styria when she refused to marry the brother of Count William II of Holland, Floris, who was also the favored candidate of Pope Innocent IV.
In the meantime, her aunt and competitor for the duchies of Austria and Styria, Margaret, married
Eventually, in 1254, Gertrude received a portion of Styria, 400 silver marks annually, and the towns of Voitsberg and Judenburg as her residences. In 1267, as neither Gertrude nor her son Frederick forswore their claim to the duchies of Styria and Austria, King Ottokar II dispossessed them of their lands. Ottokar was largely motivated since he sought to remarry into the Hungarian royal house; he could not expect an heir with the significantly older and barren Margaret. That same year, the death of Margaret made Gertrude the only legitimate heir to the Babenberg dynasty.
Decline
On 8 September 1268, Gertrude's son Frederick, who had accompanied
Gertrude's other claims were ultimately lost when
Her daughter
Gertrude's youngest daughter, Maria Romanovna of Halicz, born from her third marriage, married in the second half of the 1260s with Joachim Gutkeled,[2] Ban of Slavonia between 1270 and 1272 (with short interruption) and from 1276 to 1277, and three times Master of the treasury between 1272 and 1275. He was also ispán, or head, of many counties, including Baranya and Pozsony. The couple produced only a daughter, Clara, who married Roland Borsa, who served as Voivode of Transylvania in 1282 and from 1284 to 1294; they had no children.[3]
See also
References
Bibliography
- Engel, Pál (1996). Magyarország világi archontológiája, 1301–1457, I [Secular Archontology of Hungary, 1301–1457, Volume I] (in Hungarian). História, MTA Történettudományi Intézete. ISBN 963-8312-44-0.
- Markó, László (2006). A magyar állam főméltóságai Szent Istvántól napjainkig: Életrajzi Lexikon [Great Officers of State in Hungary from King Saint Stephen to Our Days: A Biographical Encyclopedia] (in Hungarian). Helikon Kiadó. ISBN 963-547-085-1.
- Mika, Norbert (2008). Walka o spadek po Babenbergach 1246-1278 (in Polish). Racibórz: Wydawnictwo i Agencja Informacyjna WAW Grzegorz Wawoczny.
External links
- Friedrich Wilhelm Schirrmacher (1879), "Gertrud", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 9, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 70–71