Rudolf I of Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor

1218 - 1291  (73 years)

• Name	Rudolf I of Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor
  Born	01 May 1218	Sasbach, Emmendingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
  Gender	Male
  Died	15 Jul 1291	Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
  Person ID	I482924	Little Chute Genealogy
  Last Modified	9 May 2016

  
  

  Father	Albrecht IV of Habsburg,   b. 1188, Schloss Limburg, Freiburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany ,   d. 13 Dec 1239, Schloss Limburg, Freiburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany  (Age 51 years)
  Mother	Heilwig of Kyburg,   b. 1192, Kyburg, Zurich, Switzerland ,   d. 30 Apr 1260  (Age 68 years)
  Married	1217	Schloss Limburg, Freiburg, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany
  Family ID	F179554	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Gertrud Anna of Hohenberg,   b. 1225,   d. 16 Feb 1281  (Age 56 years)
  Married	1245
  Children	1. Matilda of Habsburg,   b. 1253,   d. 23 Dec 1304, Munich, Bavaria, Germany  (Age 51 years)   2. Albert I of Germany,   b. Jul 1255, Rheinfelden, Aargau, Switzerland ,   d. 01 May 1308, Windisch, Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland  (Age ~ 52 years)   3. Jutta of Habsburg,   b. 13 Mar 1271,   d. 18 Jun 1297, Prague, Czech Republic  (Age 26 years)
  Last Modified	21 Jul 2022
  Family ID	F179553	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

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• Notes

  Rudolf I, also known as Rudolf of Habsburg (German: Rudolf von Habsburg, Czech: Rudolf Habsburský; 1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291), was Count of Habsburg from about 1240 and was elected King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum in the Holy Roman Empire after the death of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II in 1250. Originally a Swabian count, he was the first Habsburg to acquire the duchies of Austria and Styria against his mighty rival, the Premyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia, whom he defeated in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld. The territories would remain under Habsburg rule for more than 600 years, forming the core of the Habsburg Monarchy and the present-day country of Austria. Rudolf was the first German king of the Habsburg dynasty, and he played a vital role in raising the comital house to the rank of Imperial princes. He was also the first in a number of late medieval count-kings, so-called by the historian Bernd Schneidmüller, from the rivalling noble houses of Habsburg, Luxembourg, and Wittelsbach, all striving after the Roman-German royal dignity, which ultimately was taken over by the Habsburgs in 1438. Rudolf died in Speyer on 15 July 1291 and was buried in the Speyer Cathedral. Although he had a large family, he was survived by only one son, Albert, afterwards the German king Albert I. Most of his daughters outlived him, apart from Katharina who had died in 1282 during childbirth and Hedwig who had died in 1285/6. Rudolf's reign is most memorable for his establishment of the House of Habsburg as a powerful dynasty in the southeastern part of the realm. In the other territories, the centuries-long decline of Imperial authority since the days of the Investiture Controversy continued, and the princes were largely left to their own devices. In the Divine Comedy, Dante finds Rudolf sitting outside the gates of Purgatory with his contemporaries and berates him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done".