The Battle of Dürnkrut

One of the largest European knightly battles ends with the victory of King Rudolf I

The fall of the Staufer dynasty in the mid-13th century plunged the Holy Roman Empire into an interregnum with no functioning central authority. Many nobles, both great and small, sought to exploit the resulting power vacuum to expand their territories. King Ottokar II of Bohemia, which was also part of the empire, seized the territories of the defunct Babenbergs, including Austria and Carinthia. The newly elected German king, Rudolf of Habsburg, who came to power in 1273, sought to enforce feudal law, which stipulated that these territories should revert to the empire. For his part, Ottokar refused to recognize Rudolf as king, thereby inviting a decision on the battlefield.

Rudolf and his ally, the King of Hungary, were waiting for Ottokar near Vienna on 26 August 1278. One of the largest battles ever fought between knights in Europe then played out on the Marchfeld at Dürnkrut. Both sides were numerically matched, and mounted Hungarian archers faced off against Ottokar’s superior force of armoured knights. The outcome of the battle was decided by Rudolf’s unchivalrous trickery: he kept a group of knights hidden and they waited until Ottokar’s warriors were exhausted before attacking. After Rudolf’s forces shouted, “They’re fleeing!”, Ottokar’s army panicked and fled, and its commander was killed. Having secured the former Babenberg territories for his sons, the victorious Rudolf laid the foundation for the rise of the Habsburgs as a major force in Austria, the Holy Roman Empire and beyond.