During the Emperor's campaign in Italy Duke Frederick recovered the principal part of his lands, and his rights were confirmed by the Emperor at Verona, 1245. The rights of Vienna as an imperial city were abolished, and Fred erick was to be called king, as sovereign of Austria and Styria; but all his expectations of empire were disappointed by his death in the battle of the Leitha against Bela IV, King of Hungary, 15 July 1246, in the 35th year of his age. Thus the male line of the house of Barn berg became extinct. The period from 1246 to 1282 is styled the Austrian interregnum. The Emperor Frederick II declared Austria and Styria a vacant fief, the hereditary property of the German emperors, and sent a governor to Vienna, the privileges of which, as an imperial city, were once more renewed. But the female relations of the deceased Duke Frederick, his sister Margaret (widow of the Emperor Henry VI), and his niece Gertrude, by the persuasion of Pope Innocent IV, in 1248, laid claim to the inheritance of their brother. The Margrave Hermann, with the aid of the Pope and a strong party, made himself master of Vienna, and of several Austrian cities. In Styria he was op posed by the governor Meinhard, Count of Gorz. But Hermann died in 1250, and his son Frederick, who was afterward beheaded in 1268, at Naples, with Conradin of Suabia, was then only a year old. The whole country was dis tracted by various parties, and the Emperor Conrad IV was prevented, by disputes with his neighbors, from turning his attention to Aus tria. In 1251 the states of Austria and Styria determined to appoint one of the sons of the second sister of Frederick the Warrior, Con stantia (widow of the Margrave Henry the Illustrious), to the office of duke. The deputies were on the way to Misnia when they were persuaded by King Wenceslaus, on their en trance into Prague, to declare his son Ottocar Duke of Austria and Styria, who made every effort to support his appointment byarms, money, and especially by his marriage with the Empress widow Margaret. Ottocar wrested Styria from Bela, King of Hungary, by his victory of July 1260, in the Marchfield; and in 1262 forced the Emperor Richard to invest him with both duchies. Soon after, by the will of his uncle Ulrich, the last Duke of Carinthia and Friuli (who died 1296), Ottocar became master of Carinthia, a part of Carniola con nected with it, the kingdom of Istria and a part of Friuli. But his arrogance soon caused his fall. In 1272 he refused to acknowledge Count Rudolph of Hapsburg emperor, and was obliged to defend himself against Rudolph. After an unsuccessful war he was forced to cede all of his Austrian possessions in Novem ber 1276. In 1277 he attempted to recover these territories, but, in the battle of the Marchfield, 26 Aug. 1278, he was slain, and his son Wences laus was obliged to renounce all claim to them, in order to preserve his hereditary estates. The Emperor Rudolph remained three years in Vienna, and then appointed his eldest son Al bert governor. But having succeeded in gain ing the consent of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, of the three ecclesiastical electors and of the Count-Palatine of the Rhine, he granted the duchies of Austria and Styria, with the province of Carinthia, to his two sons, Al bert and Rodolph, 27 Dec. 1280.
Austria under the House of Hapsburg.— I. From 1282 to 1526. Albert and Rodolph transferred Carinthia to Meinhard, Count of Tyrol, father-in-law to Albert. In 1283 they concluded a treaty, by which Albert was made sole possessor of Austria, Styria and Carniola. Vienna having again renounced its privileges as an Imperial city, was made the residence of the court, and the successors of Rodolph, from this time, assumed Austria as the family title. The introduction of the Hapsburg dynasty was the foundation of the future greatness of Aus tria. The despotic Albert was assailed by Hun gary and Bavaria and in 1298 he won the Roman crown in an engagement with Adolphus of Nassau. After this he undertook the conquest of Switzerland; but was assassinated I May 1308, at Rheinfelden, by his nephew, John of Suabia, from whom he had basely withheld his hereditary estates. The inheritance of John now fell to the five sons of the murdered Albert — Frederick, surnamed the Fair, Leo pold, Henry, Albert and Otho. They were forced to purchase of the Emperor Henry VII the investiture of their paternal estates (con sisting, in 1308, of 26,572 square miles) for 20,000 marks of silver. Under their father, in 1301, the margraviate of Suabia was added to the territories of Austria, and the contest with Bavaria ended in Austria obtaining Neuberg. On the contrary, the attempt of Duke Leopold, in 1315, to recover the forest towns of Switzer land, which had been lost under Albert, was frustrated by the valor of the troops of the Swiss confederacy in the battle of Morgarten.
In 1314 his brother Frederick, chosen Einperor of Germany by the electors, was conquered by his rival, the Emperor Louis (of Bavaria), in 1322, at Miihldorf, and was his prisoner for two years and a half in the castle of Trausnitz. The dispute with the house of Luxemberg, in Bohemia, and with Pope John XXII induced the Emperor, in 1325, to liberate his captive. Upon this the latter renounced all share in the government, and pledged himself to surrender all the Imperial domains which were still in the possession of Austria. But Leopold con sidered the agreement derogatory to his dignity and continued the war against Louis. Fred erick, therefore, again surrendered himself a prisoner in Munich. Moved by his faithful ad herence to his word, Louis concluded a friendly compact with Frederick, and made preparations for their common government, 7 Sept. 1325. These preparations, however, were never car ried into execution; for the agreement had been concluded without the consent of the electors. Leopold died in 1326, and Henry of Austria in 1327; Frederick also died without children, 13 Jan. 1330, after which his brothers, Albert II and Otho, came to a reconciliation with the Emperor Louis. After the death of their uncle, Henry, Margrave of Tyrol and Duke of Ca rinthia (the father of Margaret Maultasch), they persuaded the Emperor to grant them the investiture of Tyrol and Carinthia, in May 1335; they ceded Tyrol, however, to John, King of Bohemia, by the treaty of 9 Oct. 1356, in behalf of his son John Henry, or rather of his wife, Margaret Maultasch. In 1344, after the death of Otho and his sons, Albert II, called the Wise, united all his Austrian territories, which, by his marriage with the daughter of the last Count of Pfirt, had been augmented by the es tates of her father in 1324, and by the Kyburg estates in Burgundy in 1326. Of the four sons of Albert II (Rodolph, Albert, Leopold and Frederick), Rodolph II (IV) completed the church of Saint Stephen's and laid the founda tion of the University of Vienna. He died in Milan in 1365, without children, a short time after his youngest brother, Frederick. In 1379 the two surviving brothers divided the kingdom, so that Albert III (with the Queue) became master of Austria, and gave the other terri tories to his brother, Leopold III, the Pious. Leopold had made repeated attempts to gain the Hapsburg possessions in Switzerland and extended the territory of his realm to a con siderable degree, having purchased, among other minor provinces, the county of Feld kirche, Bludenz, Hohenberg, upper and lower Suabia and, 1382, Trieste. He was killed 9 July 1386, on the field of Sempach, where he lost the battle, in consequence of the valor of Winkelried, and Albert administered the gov ernment of the estates of his brother's minor sons. Margaret Maultasch ceded Tyrol to him on the death of Meinhard, her only son, who was married to the sister of Albert. She re tained nothing but a few castles and 6,000 marks of gold. Her claims to Bavaria also she renounced in consideration of receiving Schard ing and three Tyrolese cities, ICitzbiihel, Ballen berg and Kuff stein, and 116,000 florins of gold. In 1365 Leopold III had bought the claims of the Count of Feldkirch for 36.000 florins; for 55,000 florins Austria received Brisgau from the Count of Fiirstenberg, with the cities of Neuberg, Old Brisach, Kentzingen and Billin gen. The remainder of Carniola and the Windisch Mark, after the death of the last Count of Gorz, were purchased, together with the county of Pludentz, from the Count of Wer denberg, and the possessions of the Count of Hogenberg, for 66,000 florins ; and the city of Trieste was acquired in 1380 by aiding in the war between Hungary and Venice. Moreover, the two governments of upper and lower Sua bia were pledged for 40,000 florins by the King of Rome, Wenceslaus, to Duke Leopold. The Austrian and Styrian lines, founded by Albert III and Leopold III, his brother, continued for 78 years. In 1395, when Albert III died, his only son, Albert IV, was in Palestine. On his return he determined to take vengeance on Procopius, Margrave of Moravia, for his hostile conduct; but he was poisoned in 1404 at Znaym. His young son and successor, Albert V, was declared of age in 1410; and being the son-in law of the Emperor Sigismund, he united the crowns of Hungary and Bohemia in 1437, and connected them with that of Germany in 1438. But in the following year the young prince died. His posthumous son, Ladislaus, was the last of the Austrian line of Albert, and its pos sessions devolved on the Styrian line, 1457.