Duke of Austria and Styria from 1308 to 1326
Leopold I
(c. 1290 ? 28 February 1326),
[1]
called
The Glorious
, was
Duke of Austria
and
Styria
? as co-ruler with his elder brother
Frederick the Fair
? from 1308 until his death. A member of the
House of Habsburg
, he was the third son of
Albert I of Germany
and
Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol
, a scion of the
Meinhardiner
dynasty.
Biography
[
edit
]
After the death of his eldest brother Duke
Rudolph III
in 1307 and the assassination of King Albert in 1308, Leopold became administrator of
Further Austria
, where he started a retaliation campaign against his father's murderers.
[1]
He converged with the royal
House of Luxembourg
and accompanied King
Henry VII
on his
Italian
campaign. In 1311, he helped to suppress a
Guelph uprising in Milan
under
Guido della Torre
, and to lay siege to the city of
Brescia
.
Upon Emperor Henry's death, he strongly supported his brother Frederick in the 1314 election as
King of the Romans
.
[1]
Despite all efforts, the Habsburgs only gained the votes of four
prince-electors
, while
Louis IV of Bavaria
, with support of the Luxembourgs, was elected by five. In the following armed conflict between the rivals, the forces of Leopold were supportive of his brother's claims.
[1]
In his ancestral homeland however, he incurred a decisive defeat by the
Swiss Confederacy
at the 1315
Battle of Morgarten
.
[1]
When Frederick and their younger brother
Henry
had been captured at the
Battle of Muhldorf
in 1322, Leopold struggled for their release. He entered into negotiations with King Louis IV and even surrendered the
Imperial Regalia
he had kept at
Kyburg Castle
. The parleys failed and Leopold continued to attack the Bavarian forces of Louis, who unsuccessfully laid siege to the Swabian town of
Burgau
in 1324. After the king had failed to reach the approval of his election by
Pope John XXII
and was even
banned
, he released Frederick in 1325. The captive however had to promise to swear his brother to acknowledge Louis as his suzerain, which Leopold refused.
[1]
Frederick voluntarily returned to the Bavarian court, where he and Louis finally agreed upon a joint rule.
Leopold died in
Strasbourg
shortly afterwards, on 28 February 1326.
[1]
His remains were buried at
Konigsfelden Monastery
in
Windisch
.
Marriage and issue
[
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]
In 1315, Leopold married Catherine of Savoy (1284?1336), daughter of
Amadeus V, Count of Savoy
by his second wife,
Marie of Brabant
. They had two daughters:
- Catherine of Austria
(1320?1349), who married
Enguerrand VI, Lord of Coucy
.
- Agnes of Austria
(1322?1392), who married
Bolko II, Duke of ?widnica
.
Male-line family tree
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
Bibliography
[
edit
]
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