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History >1918 - From the Dawn of History to a Border Province |
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Rule of the Babenbergs
The new rulers of the margravate initially resided in Melk. In 1156 Duke Heinrich II (Jasomirgott) made Vienna his permanent residence. The Babenbergs extended their empire to the north of the Danube and further to the east and the south. Before the turn of the millennium (996) a document referred to the region of the Alpine foothills under its present name Österreich (Ostarrîchi = Austria).
 In 1156 the Babenbergs secured the transformation of the margravate into a duchy by Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa, which induced greater independence from imperial power. In 1192 the Babenberg Leopold V acquired the Duchy of Styria through a contract of inheritance. After the chiildless Duke Friedrich II was killed in the 1246 Battle of the Leitha against the Magyars his lands became the object of his neighbors' power politics. The Austrian nobility then sided with the Bohemian king Ottokar II Premysl who secured the heritage for himself by marrying the last Babenberg's sister.
He quickly succeeded in restoring order, reconquering Styria and subjugating Carinthia through a contract of inheritance. However, the Holy Roman Empire's newly-elected king, Rudolf von Habsburg, was not willing to recognize the Bohemian king's power without his swearing an oath of allegiance. When both sides took up arms Ottokar was killed in the Battle of Dürnkrut in 1278. In 1282 Rudolf invested his two sons with the Duchies of Austria and Styria, thus laying the foundation for Habsburg's dynastic power.
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