Duchy of Austria
| Duchy of Austria | ||||||||||
| Herzogtum Österreich | ||||||||||
| State of the Holy Roman Empire | ||||||||||
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.svg) Map of the Austrian duchy in the 13th century: Austria proper shown in solid red, the Duchy of Styria, an Austrian possession since 1192, in hatched red. The pale highlighted area roughly corresponds with the anachronistic Austrian Circle (est. 1512), and is merely for context. The rest of the Holy Roman Empire is shown in pale orange.
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| Capital | Vienna | |||||||||
| Languages | Austro-Bavarian German | |||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism | |||||||||
| Government | Principality | |||||||||
| Duke of Austria | ||||||||||
| • | 1141–1177 |
Henry II (first duke, from 1156) |
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| • | 1230–1246 |
Frederick II (last Babenberg duke) |
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| • | 1251–1276 |
Ottokar (Přemyslid dynasty) |
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| • | 1282–1291 |
Albert I (first Habsburg duke) |
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| • | 1440–1457 |
Ladislaus I (last duke, archduke from 1453) |
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| Historical era | Middle Ages | |||||||||
| • | Privilegium Minus | 17 September 1156 | ||||||||
| • | Georgenberg Pact | 17 August 1186 | ||||||||
| • | Battle on the Marchfeld | 26 August 1278 | ||||||||
| • | Privilegium Maius | 1358-59 | ||||||||
| • | Treaty of Neuberg | 25 September 1379 | ||||||||
| • | Archduchy recognized | 1453 | ||||||||
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The Duchy of Austria (German: Herzogtum Österreich) was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus, when the Margraviate of Austria (Ostarrîchi) was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own right. After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct, the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the ancestral homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy. In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.
Initially, the duchy was comparatively small in area, roughly comprising the modern-day Austrian state of Lower Austria. As a former border march, it was located on the eastern periphery of the Empire, on the northern and southern shores of the Danube River, east of ("below") the Enns tributary.
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Wikipedia