RUDOLF, or RonoLF, of the founder of the imperial dynasty of Austria. which for a time was that of Germany, was b. in 1218, and was the son of Albert, count of Hapsburg and Hedwig of Kyburg-Zitringen. Rudolf early exhibited grez.t personal daring and military skill, and acquired celebrity in his native canton of Aargau for the prowess and ability with which he repulsed many bands of banditti who infested the district. The death, in 1264, of his uncle. Hartmann of Kyburg, to whose rich heritage he succeeded, raised him from the condition of a poor noble to the rank of an influential lord of extended territories, which included the greater part of Aargau, and various domains in the cantons of Bern, Lucerne, and Zurich. The able man ner in which he governed these dominions, and exercised the functions of protector of the Waldstiitter or forest cantons, attracted the notice of some of the great electoral princes of Germany; and on the death of the emperor Albert in 1273, Rudolf was elected his successor, chiefly through the instrumentality of his powerful friend, the archbishop of Mainz. The ratification by pope Gregory XI. of Rudolf's title was olitained at the cost of various concessions, as, for instance, the renunciation of all juris diction in Rome, and of all feudal superiority over Spoleto and the marches of Ancona; together with the cession of all right on the part of the emperor and his successors to interfere in ecclesiastical elections, or in the internal administration and manage ment of the German church. By this as the feuds were appeased which had existed for nearly 200 years between the empire and the see of Rome, and Rudolf was able to turn his attention to the settlement of the internal disturbances of Germany. His chief enemy was Ottocar, king of Bohemia, under whom he had once served against the Prussians and Hungarians, and who now refused to do homage to him. Fortune, however, favored Rudolf in the war with the Bohemian king, who,
after a first defeat, again rose in arms against the empire, but was ultimately defeated and killed in battle (1278), when the emperor seized all the Austrian territories which Ottocar had possessed. Wenceslaus, the son of the slain king, having lost no time in tundaring homage for the kingdoms of Bohemia and Moravia, the cause of the war was at an end, and peace being restored, Rudolf thenceforth devoted himself to the organi zation of the state. His great merit was in breaking the arbitrary power of the nobles, by compelling them to demolish the fortresses and strongholds, by means of which they carried on plundering expeditions against one another, and defended themselves from the power of the law; and we are told that in one year he condemned to death 20 refractory nobles, who had long disturbed the public peace, and razed to the gruuud doublelhat number of strongholds. He also granted charters to many trading towns and municipalities, and thus gave considerable impetus to trade. The policy of his rule generally was indeed so greatly to favor the burgher and working classes, and to repress the tyranny of the powerful nobles, that his reign presented in this respect. a favorable contrast to those of his predecessors, and the respect in which he was held by all ranks bears the strougest testimony to his admirable qualities as a ruler. Rudolf died in 1291, and was succeeded in Austria by his son, Albert I., duke of Austria. Sec Schonhuth's Geschichte Dudolf's von Habsburg (2 vols., Leips. 1843-44.