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.

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