Battle of Kressenbrunn

Battle of King Béla and King Ottokar of Bohemia, Chronica Hungarorum by Johannes de Thurocz, about 1488

Date	July 1260
Location	near Kressenbrunn, today Groißenbrunn, part of Engelhartstetten, Lower Austria
Result	Bohemian victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Bohemia

Duchy of Austria

Kingdom of Hungary

Commanders and leaders

Strength

30,000-100,000 (?)

35,000-140,000 (?)

Casualties and losses

Unknown

30,000 (?)

The Battle of Kressenbrunn was fought in July 1260 near Groissenbrunn in Lower Austria between the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary for the possession of the duchies of Austria and Styria. The Bohemian forces were led by King Ottokar II Přemysl, while the Hungarians were led by King Béla IV.

In 1251 Ottokar's father King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia had not only granted him the title of a Margrave of Moravia but also installed him as duke of Austria and Styria, territories that were princeless after the ruling Babenberg dynasty had become extinct in 1246. To legitimate his succession, Ottokar in 1252 married the Duchess Margaret of Austria, the sister of the last Babenberg duke and about 26 years his senior.

When Ottokar followed his father as King of Bohemia in 1253, Béla, distrustful of his rising power, claimed the Styrian duchy. Meanwhile, Margaret's niece Gertrude had married Roman Danylovich, son of King Daniel of Galicia and relative of the Árpád dynasty. The quarrels were at first settled with the aid of Pope Innocent IV in 1254, when Béla received large parts of Styria and later installed his son Stephen as a duke. However, in 1260 the conflict rekindled, after the Styrian nobility had revolted against the Árpáds and Ottokar campaigned the duchy. Béla allied with Daniel of Galicia and Bolesław V the Chaste of Poland and marched against Ottokar. Kingdom of Hungary couldn't recover from the devastation of Mongol invasion of 1240 and 1241, therefore it lost much of its former political and military positions. Historians estimate that up to half of Hungary's then population of 2,000,000 were victims of the Mongol invasion

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