Duke of Austria from 1386 to 1406
William
(
c.
1370
? 15 July 1406),
[1]
known as
William the Courteous
(
German
:
Wilhelm der Freundliche
), a member of the
House of Habsburg
and
Wilhelm
, was
Duke of Austria
from 1386. As head of the
Leopoldian line
, he ruled over the
Inner Austrian
duchies of
Carinthia
,
Styria
and
Carniola
as well as the
County of Tyrol
and
Further Austria
from 1396 until his death.
Biography
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Born in
Vienna
, William was the oldest son of Duke
Leopold III of Austria
(1351?1386) and his consort
Viridis Visconti
(1352?1414), a daughter of Lord
Bernabo of Milan
. Leopold III had already acted as regent over the Tyrol and the Further Austrian possessions in Swabia; in 1379 he signed the
Treaty of Neuberg
with his elder brother Duke
Albert III
, whereupon he also received the Inner Austrian lands.
At the age of 8, William was betrothed to the
Anjou
princess
Hedwig
(
Jadwiga
; 1373?1399), the youngest daughter of King
Louis I of Hungary
, who had also become
King of Poland
in 1370. This was one of the first attempts of the Habsburgs to extend their dominions by marrying heiresses, as Louis intended his elder daughter
Mary
and her fiance
Sigismund of Luxembourg
to succeed in
Poland
, while Jadwiga was designated heir to the
Kingdom of Hungary
. When King Louis died in 1382, Mary succeeded in Hungary. However, the
Polish
nobles rejected Mary and Sigismund, and instead chose Jadwiga as
queen regnant
. They also repudiated her betrothal to William and enforced the break-up of the engagement.
The Polish lords did not want to accept Jadwiga's fourteen-year-old fiance, William of Habsburg, as their sovereign.
They thought that the inexperienced William and his Austrian kinsmen could not safeguard Poland's interests against its powerful neighbours, especially the
Luxemburgs
which controlled
Bohemia
and
Brandenburg
, and had a strong claim on Hungary.
According to Halecki, the lords of Lesser Poland were the first to suggest that Jadwiga should marry the pagan duke
Jogaila of Lithuania
.
Jogaila sent his envoys – including his brother,
Skirgaila
, and a German burgher from
Riga
, Hanul – to Krakow to request Jadwiga's hand in January 1385.
Jadwiga refused to answer, stating only that her mother would decide.
Jogaila's two envoys left for Hungary and met Queen Elizabeth.
She informed them that "she would allow whatever was advantageous to Poland and insisted that her daughter and the prelates and nobles of the Kingdom had to do what they considered would benefit Christianity and their kingdom",
according to Jan Długosz's chronicle.
The nobles from Krakow,
Sandomierz
and Greater Poland assembled in Krakow in June or July and the "majority of the more sensible"
voted for the acceptance of Jogaila's marriage proposal.
In the meantime, William's father, Leopold III hurried to Buda in late July 1385, demanding the consummation of the marriage between William and Jadwiga before 16 August.
Queen Elizabeth confirmed the previous agreements about the marriage, ordering Vladislaus II of Opole to make preparations for the ceremony.
According to
canon law
, Jadwiga's marriage sacrament could only be completed before her twelfth birthday if the competent prelate testified her precocious maturity.
Demetrius
,
Archbishop of Esztergom
, issued the necessary document.
William went to Krakow in the first half of August, but his entry to Wawel Castle was barred.
Długosz states that Jadwiga and William would only be able to meet in the nearby
Franciscan
convent.
Contemporary or nearly contemporaneous records of the completion of the marriage between William and Jadwiga are contradictory and unclear.
The official accounts of the municipal authorities of Krakow record that on 23 August 1385 an amnesty was granted to the prisoners in the city jail on the occasion of the celebration of the Queen's marriage.
On the other hand, a contemporary Austrian chronicle, the
Continuatio Claustroneubuzgis
states that the Poles had tried to murder William before he consummated the marriage.
In the next century, Długosz states that William was "removed in a shameful and offensive manner and driven from the castle" after he entered "the Queen's bedchamber"; but the same chronicler also mentions that Jadwiga was well aware that "many people knew
that ...
she had for a fortnight shared her bed with Duke William and that there had been physical consummation".
On the night when William entered the queen's bedchamber, a group of Polish noblemen broke into the castle, forcing William to flee, according to Długosz.
After this humiliation, Długosz continues, Jadwiga decided to leave Wawel and join William, but the gate of the castle was locked.
She called for "an axe and [tried] to break it open",
but
Dymitr of Goraj
convinced her to return to the castle.
Oscar Halecki says that Długosz's narrative "cannot be dismissed as a romantic legend";
Robert I. Frost
writes that it is a "tale, almost certainly apocryphal".
There is no doubt, however, that William of Austria was forced to leave Poland.
In 1386, Leopold III was killed in the
Battle of Sempach
. William and his brother
Leopold IV
succeeded him as Duke of
Austria
, ruling jointly with their uncle
Albert III
. A fierce inheritance dispute arose when Duke Albert III died in 1395 and was succeeded by his only son
Albert IV
, William's first cousin. An agreement was reached in the following year, based on the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, whereupon William left the rule over Austria proper to Albert IV and, as eldest members of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, went on to rule over the three Inner Austrian duchies and the County of Tyrol taking his residence in
Graz
.
In 1401, William married another presumptive heiress, Princess
Joanna of Durazzo
, Hedwig's cousin and also of Angevin descent. The marriage did not produce any offspring and William did not live to see his wife succeed her brother
Ladislaus of Naples
as Queen Joanna II in 1414.
In 1404, his cousin Albert IV died, leaving the lands of the elder
Albertinian line
to his seven-year-old son Duke
Albert V
. William acted as
regent
and again tried to take the Albertinian territories from his minor nephew, but did not succeed before his death.
William died in 1406 without heirs in Vienna. He is buried in the
Ducal Crypt
in Vienna's
St. Stephen's Cathedral
. Upon his death, another division of the Habsburg hereditary lands took place, whereafter William's brother Leopold IV took over the regency in Austria proper, the third-born
Ernest the Iron
inherited the Inner Austrian duchies, and
Frederick IV
, the youngest, Tyrol and Further Austria.
Male-line family tree
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References
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Sources
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