Battle on the Marchfeld (1278): The Rise of the Habsburgs

The Battle on the Marchfeld, fought on 26 August 1278 near Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen in Lower Austria, was a decisive clash between King Rudolf I of Habsburg and King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Rudolf and his Hungarian allies won, and Ottokar was killed on the field. The victory gave the Habsburg family control of Austria, which they would rule for more than six centuries.

Background: two rival kings

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Holy Roman Empire went through a long period without a strong ruler, known as the Great Interregnum. Ottokar II, King of Bohemia from 1253, used the vacuum to build a large realm. He gained the duchy of Austria in 1251, Styria in 1261, and Carinthia and Carniola in 1269, so that his lands stretched from the Sudeten mountains to the Adriatic.

In October 1273, however, the German princes elected a relatively minor Swabian count, Rudolf of Habsburg, as King of the Romans. Ottokar, who had hoped for the crown himself, refused to recognise him. Rudolf demanded the return of the Austrian lands, which he regarded as imperial fiefs that Ottokar held without proper title.

Ottokar was declared an outlaw of the empire in 1275. In 1276 Rudolf marched on Vienna, and Ottokar, abandoned by many Austrian nobles, submitted. By the peace agreed in November 1276 he gave up Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola but kept Bohemia and Moravia.

What happened

The settlement did not last. Ottokar resented his humiliation and in 1278 marched south with a large army to recover his losses. Rudolf, whose own forces were limited, relied heavily on King Ladislaus IV of Hungary, who brought a large army including light Cuman horse archers.

The armies met on the plain beside the March (Morava) river on 26 August 1278. Most of the fighting was done by heavily armoured cavalry. Hungarian and Cuman troops harassed Ottokar’s lines, while the main bodies of knights fought in close combat for several hours.

Rudolf had kept back a hidden reserve of heavy horsemen, commanded by Ulrich von Kapellen. At a critical moment this force charged into the flank of the Bohemian army. Ottokar’s line broke, and many of his men were cut down or drowned trying to flee across the river. The use of a concealed reserve was criticised by some contemporaries as unchivalrous, but it decided the battle.

Ottokar himself was killed after the battle had turned. Chroniclers suggest that he was slain by knights with personal grudges against him. His body was taken to Vienna and displayed publicly. It was later buried in Moravia and eventually reburied in St Vitus Cathedral in Prague, where his tomb can still be seen.

Key people

• Rudolf I (1218–1291): Count of Habsburg, elected King of the Romans in 1273; never crowned emperor, but restored royal authority in Germany.
• Ottokar II (c. 1233–1278): King of Bohemia from 1253, one of the most powerful rulers in Central Europe, known as the “Iron and Golden King”.
• Ladislaus IV (1262–1290): King of Hungary, whose army made Rudolf’s victory possible.

Consequences

Ottokar’s six-year-old son, Wenceslaus II, inherited Bohemia and Moravia but grew up under the guardianship of Otto of Brandenburg. Bohemian power south of the mountains was finished.

In December 1282, Rudolf granted Austria and Styria to his sons Albert and Rudolf. This gave the Habsburgs, until then a dynasty with lands mainly in what is now Switzerland and south-western Germany, a powerful base on the Danube. Their attempts to tighten control in their old Alpine lands soon provoked resistance, seen in the Federal Charter of 1291 and the Battle of Morgarten.

Timeline

• 1251–1269: Ottokar II acquires Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola.
• 1 October 1273: Rudolf of Habsburg is elected King of the Romans.
• 1275: Ottokar is placed under the ban of the empire.
• November 1276: Ottokar surrenders the Austrian lands but keeps Bohemia.
• 26 August 1278: Battle on the Marchfeld; Ottokar is killed.
• December 1282: Rudolf grants Austria and Styria to his sons.
• 1918: Habsburg rule in Austria ends after the First World War.

Legacy

The battlefield lies in farmland near the villages of Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen, about 40 kilometres north-east of Vienna. A memorial stands there today, and local exhibitions explain the battle to visitors.

The battle is remembered in both Austria and the Czech lands, though in very different ways. For Austrians it marked the beginning of the Habsburg era; for Czechs it was the fall of one of their greatest medieval kings. The Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer made it the climax of his play König Ottokars Glück und Ende (1825).

The Habsburg rise that began here ultimately produced an empire that, like the earlier power of Otto I, shaped the history of Central Europe for centuries.

Why it matters

The Battle on the Marchfeld turned a modest Swabian count’s family into rulers of Austria. Without it, the Habsburg monarchy, one of Europe’s longest-lasting dynasties, might never have existed.