Rudolf I (redirected from Rudolph I)

Rudolf I or Rudolf of Hapsburg (r`dŏlf), 1218–91, German king (1273–91), first king of the Hapsburg dynasty. Rudolf's election as king ended the interregnum (1250–73), during which time there was no accepted German king or Holy Roman emperor. The election was prompted by Pope Gregory X, who needed the support of a strong German ruler to counter the power of Charles I of Anjou in Italy. Rudolf's election was contested by the powerful King Ottocar II of Bohemia. Rudolf finally defeated Ottocar at Marchfeld (1278) and invested (1282) his own sons Albert (later King Albert I) and Rudolf with Austria, Styria, and Carniola, which he had won from Ottocar; these lands became the core of the Hapsburg possessions. Rudolf thus laid the foundations for a strong kingship based on large dynastic holdings. In Germany, Rudolf attempted to recover the rights lost to the crown during the interregnum. He issued local land peaces to overcome internal anarchy and imposed taxes on the imperial towns in order to strengthen the central government, but these measures had little success. In his Italian policy Rudolf attempted to conciliate the new pope, Nicholas III (reigned 1277–80), in the hope of securing the pope's approval for his coronation as Holy Roman emperor; Rudolf renounced his sovereignty over the Papal States and sought to bring about the withdrawal of the house of Anjou from central Italy. With Nicholas's death, however, and the election of an anti-German pope, Rudolf's plans for imperial coronation fell through. He also failed to have his son Albert elected king, which would have insured Albert's succession as emperor. Instead, Adolf of Nassau succeeded Rudolf.

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Rudolf I

 or Rudolf of Habsburg

(born May 1, 1218, Limburg-im-Breisgau—died July 15, 1291, Speyer) First German king (1273–91) of the Habsburg dynasty. He inherited lands in Alsace, the Aargau, and Breisgau and extended his territory by marriage and through negotiation. Crowned king in 1273, he was recognized by Pope Gregory X only after promising to lead a new Crusade and to renounce imperial rights in Rome, the papal territories, and Italy. Rudolf defeated his rival Otakar II (1276, 1278) and gained lands in Austria, which he granted to his sons. He worked to combat the expansionist policies of France, but French influence at the papal court kept him from being crowned Holy Roman emperor. Although he created the core of later Habsburg territorial power, Rudolf was unable to make the throne a hereditary possession of his family, because the German electors would not raise his son to the kingship.

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Rudolf I, Rudolph I

1218--91, king of Germany (1273--91): founder of the Hapsburg dynasty based on the duchies of Styria and Austria

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Rudolf I 

Born May 1, 1218; died July 15, 1291, in Speyer. German king from 1273; first of the Hapsburgs.

Rudolf laid the foundations for the Hapsburg Empire by taking from the Bohemian king Otakar II in the years 1276–78 Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola and handing over Austria and Styria to his sons in 1282. Using the Hapsburg family holdings as a base, he sought, for example, by announcing Landfriede (resolutions forbidding private wars), to strengthen central authority in the German kingdom, which was greatly weakened during the Great Interregnum of 1254–73.