The Battle on the Marchfeld is a little known but important event in military history. As a result of the battle, the Habsburgs came to power and ruled the Holy Roman Empire and later Austria and Spain until the 20th century.
By Stephen T. Harris, Historian
Background
In 1250, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194-1250) died. He had quarreled with the pope and was excommunicated multiple times. The pope had gone so far as to depose Frederick II. As the pope refused to allow one of his descendants to take the throne, the imperial throne fell vacant, leading to the Great Interregnum (1254-1273). A group of princes known as the electors[1] elected Richard of Cornwall (1209-1272), brother of Henry III of England, as King of the Romans in 1257. Still, Richard held little real power in the empire. Richard often remained in England for long periods. The German princes were virtually independent and could do whatever they wished. Some historians argue Richard’s election was intentionally designed to prevent a strong ruler from trying to curb the princes’ power. During the Great Interregnum, the princes worked to increase their power, and many did. The most successful was Ottokar II (1233-1278), King of Bohemia, who used conquest and political marriages to build a massive kingdom that stretched to the Adriatic.
One of those marriages was with the daughter of the Duke of Austria, a woman named Margaret of Babenberg (1204-1266). However, the duchy was not rightfully Ottokar’s. It was an imperial fief and as such should have gone back to the emperor, to grant to whomever he chose. Several years after he married, the pope granted Ottokar an annulment to marry a woman his age and have children. However, this meant he no longer had a legal right to Austria through marriage.
Richard of Cornwall died in 1272. Ottokar expected to be elected King of the Romans, but the princes were wary of such a powerful man running the empire. The Hohenstaufen dynasty and the Welf dynasty had fought over the empire for over a century, and no one wanted a return to that. Instead, they chose Rudolf von Habsburg. Rudolf’s ancestors were not particularly notable. They only held the title of count of Aargau in what is now Switzerland. The emperor had picked one of the Habsburgs to be his godson, but the family was not particularly distinguished or famous. They were one of many families that supported Hohenstaufen rights over the empire. As other dynasties died out, the Habsburgs were able to gradually amalgamate lands in what is now Switzerland. During the Great Interregnum, Rudolf built a power base in Switzerland and what is now Swabia, but it was nothing compared to Ottokar’s. However, Rudolf’s relative weakness made him the perfect candidate for emperor, as he could not impose his will on the princes, and so they could retain their autonomy. Rudolf moved to confiscate the lands that Ottokar had seized from the other princes, which started the war.
Rudolf was able to take most of Ottokar’s lands quickly. Ottokar’s neighbors were happy to see him cut down to size, and he had few allies. He had angered the Austrian nobility. Ottokar had refused to attend the Diets of Nuremberg and Augsburg (1275) and was considered in rebellion against imperial authority by the neighboring princes. Rudolf also had the support of the pope. Ottokar was left with only Bohemia and Moravia, nothing compared to the lands he had owned before the war, which had extended to present-day Slovenia.
Ottokar desired to retake his lands and restarted the war in 1278, taking advantage of a rebellion in Austria against Rudolf. He also worked to gain allies, which he had not had previously. One important advantage that Rudolf had over Ottokar was that he was able to secure the support of the King of Hungary, Ladislaus IV. Ottokar had decisively defeated Hungary 18 years earlier at Kressenbrunn, and Ladislaus wanted revenge for that defeat. The two armies met on the Marchfeld, a plain between the Morava River and Dunkrut, Austria, on August 26th of 1278.
Battle
Like many medieval battles, there were few soldiers. However, given its era, the battle had more troops engaged than most. Modern estimations are 15- 20,000 for Rudolf and 6,000 for Ottokar, but medieval battle sizes are relatively hard to decipher because reliable documentation is sparse. The Bohemians had a relatively large amount of heavy cavalry. Rudolf had a more polyglot army with a contingent of Cumans. Cumans were a tribal people known for their skill as horsemen. Cumans were from the steppe and were good horse archers, making them useful mercenaries.
The battle began when the Cumans attacked the Bohemian heavy cavalry. This was part of an offensive organized by Rudolf, who noticed that Ottokar’s forces were smaller than usual and aimed for the key opportunity to devastate them. The other important fact about medieval battles is that they were rare. Wars largely consisted of sieges of castles. Therefore, battles were key events in war. Both sides wanted to maximize any advantages and win, given that the entire war might hinge on one battle. Rudolf cannily concealed his heavy cavalry from Ottokar, aiming for the best possible moment to reveal them and utilize them to devastate Ottokar’s forces. [2]
Eventually, the battle seemed to turn against Rudolf. Ottokar’s heavy cavalry was gradually defeating the forces Rudolf had put against it. Rudolf almost fell in battle after his horse was killed, but he was saved by his men. At this point, Rudolf revealed his heavy cavalry and sent it towards the Bohemian cavalry. The Bohemian cavalry was exhausted by this time, as it had been fighting for hours to defeat Rudolf’s light cavalry, Cumans, and infantry.
The right flank of Ottokar’s force was now dangerously close to breaking. Ottokar called up reserves to prevent his flank from collapsing, but they failed to arrive. Betrayal has been alleged, but that accusation remains unproven. The failure of reserves to come may have just been cowardice on the part of their commander, Milota of Dedic. The Bohemians were encircled and their backs pinned to the river Morava. Most of them fell, including King Ottokar.
Impact
Rudolf’s victory enabled the Habsburg family to create a power base that they would utilize to eventually monopolize the imperial crown after 1452, when Frederick III became Holy Roman Emperor. Instead of counts with little influence, as they had been before the 1270s, the Habsburgs became the masters of Europe and the Holy Roman Empire, who controlled empires that spanned continents. They remained on the throne of Austria until 1918, though the male line went extinct in 1740 with the death of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685-1740).
The battle also damaged Bohemia. The death of Ottokar led to his son, Wenceslaus II (1271-1305), becoming king. However, Wenceslaus II was a child, and so instability hurt Bohemia until Wenceslaus II came of age several years later. Bohemia did eventually have an emperor with his base there, Charles IV (1316-1378), but by then, Ottokar’s dynasty had died out, and Bohemia gradually faded into the background as Austria became the premier province of the Holy Roman Empire. Hungary was unaffected by this war, but its demise and absorption into Austria took place later and for far different reasons.
Conclusion
Overall, the Battle on the Marchfeld (August 26th, 1278) influenced the rise of the Habsburgs. Still, it did not prevent a continuing century and a half of disputes over the crown before Frederick III (1415-1493) monopolized the crown until Charles VI’s death in 1740. A Wittelsbach, Charles VII, briefly took the throne but died not long after and was succeeded by Francis I (1708-1765), the husband of Maria Theresa (1717-1780). Their descendants kept the imperial crown until it was abolished in 1806.
References
[1] These were the Archbishop of Cologne, the Archbishop of Mainz, the Count Palatine, the King of Bohemia, the Duke of saxony the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Archbishop of Trier
[2] Battle on the Marchfeld 1278 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj24yTIc-HE
Battle on the Marchfeld – Crossword Puzzle
