During the negotiations of Rudolph with Gregory X, Ottocar had exerted himself to shake the authority of the new chief of the empire, and to consolidate a confederacy with the German princes. He not only rejected with disdain all the proposals of accommodation made at the instances of Rudolph by the judicious and conciliating Pontiff, but prevented the clergy of Bohemia from contributing the tenths of their revenue or preaching the crusade. He endeavored to alarm the princes of the empire by displaying the views of the new sovereign, to recover the imperial fiefs which they had appropriated during the interregnum, and by his promises and intrigues succeeded in attaching to his cause the Margrave of Baden and the counts of Freiburg, Neuburg, and Montfort. But he secured a still more powerful partisan in Henry, Duke of Lower Bavaria, by fomenting the disputes between him and his brother the Count Palatine, and by ceding to him Scharding and other places wrested from Bavaria by the Duke of Austria.
When summoned by Rudolph to do homage for his fiefs, according to the custom of the empire, he returned a haughty answer, treating him as Count of Hapsburg; a second summons was received with silent contempt; on a third he sent his ambassador, the Bishop of Seccan, to the Diet of Augsburg; and his example was followed by Henry of Bavaria. These ministers were, however, only deputed to raise a feigned contest relative to the vote of Henry and to protest against the election of Rudolph. The ambassador of Henry urged the protest with moderation and respect; but the Bishop of Seccan delivered a virulent invective against the chief of the empire, in a style conformable to the spirit and character of his powerful and haughty master. He declared that the assembly in which Rudolph had been chosen was illegal; that the arbitration of Louis of Bavaria was unprecedented; that a man excommunicated by the Pope for plundering churches and convents was ineligible to the imperial throne, and that his sovereign, who held his dominions by an indisputable title, owed no homage to the Count of Hapsburg.
As he spoke in the Latin tongue, the Emperor interrupted him with a dignified rebuke. "Bishop," he said, "if you were to harangue in an ecclesiastical consistory, you might use the Latin tongue; but when discoursing upon your rights and the rights of the princes of the empire, why do you employ a language which the greater part of those who are present do not comprehend?" The rebuke of the sovereign justly roused the indignation of the assembly; the princes, and particularly the Elector Palatine, started from their seats, and were scarcely prevented from employing violence, even by the interposition of Rudolph; and the ambassadors, quitting the assembly, retired from Augsburg.
The diet, irritated by this insult, passed a decree asserting the unanimity of Rudolph's election; they declared Ottocar guilty of contumacy; required him to restore Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola, which he had usurped, and to do homage for the remainder of his dominions. In case of refusal the ban of the empire was denounced against him, and supplies of men and money were voted to support their sovereign, to assert the imperial dignity, and to reduce the rebellious princes to obedience. The Burgrave of Nuremberg and the Bishop of Basel were despatched to Ottocar in the name of the diet, to demand his instant acknowledgment of Rudolph as king of the Romans, and the restitution of Austria, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola.
They accordingly repaired to Prague, and delivered their message. "Tell Rudolph," replied the spirited monarch, "that he may rule over the territories of the empire, but I will not tamely yield those possessions which, I have acquired at the expense of so much blood and treasure; they are mine by marriage, by purchase, or by conquest." He then broke out into bitter invectives against Rudolph, and after tauntingly expressing his surprise that a petty count of Hapsburg should have been preferred to so many powerful candidates, dismissed the ambassadors with contempt. In the heat of his resentment he even violated the laws of nations, and put to death the heralds who announced to him the resolutions of the diet and delivered the ban of the empire.
During this whole transaction Rudolph acted with becoming prudence and extreme circumspection. He had endeavored by the mildest methods to bring Ottocar to terms of conciliation; and when all his overtures were received with insult and contempt, and hostilities became inevitable, he did not seek a distant war till he had obtained the full confirmation of the Pope and had reëstablished the peace of those parts of the empire which bordered on his own dominions. He first attacked the petty adherents of Ottocar, the Margrave of Baden, and the counts of Freiburg, Montfort, and Neuburg, and, having compelled them to do homage and to restore the fiefs which they had appropriated during the preceding troubles, he prepared to turn his whole force against the King of Bohemia, with a solicitude which the power and talents of his formidable rival naturally inspired.
The contest in which Rudolph was about to engage was of a nature to call forth all his resources and talents. Ottocar was a prince of high spirit, great abilities, and distinguished military skill, which had been exercised in constant warfare from his early youth. By hereditary right he succeeded to Bohemia and Moravia, and to these territories he had made continual additions by his crusades against the Prussians, his contests with the kings of Hungary, and still more by his recent acquisition of Austria, Carinthia, and Carniola.
In the tenth century Austria, with both Styria and Carniola, under the title of a margravate, was governed by Leopold I of the house of Bamberg. It continued in the possession of his family, and in 1156 was erected into an independent duchy by the emperor Frederick II, and conferred on Henry, fifth in descent from Leopold, as an indivisible and inalienable fief; in failure of male issue it was made descendible to his eldest daughter, and, in failure of female issue, disposable by will. In 1245 Frederick the Warlike, last duke of the Bamberg line, obtained a confirmation of this decree; but, dying in the ensuing year without issue and without disposing of his territories by will, a dispute arose relative to his succession. The claimants were his two sisters, Margaret, widow of Henry VII, King of the Romans, and Constantia, wife of Henry the Illustrious, Margrave of Misnia; and his niece Gertrude, daughter of Henry, his elder brother, the wife of Premislaus, eldest son of Wenceslaus, King of Bohemia and brother of Ottocar. But on the plea that neither of the claimants was a daughter of the last Duke, the Emperor Frederick II sequestrated these territories as fiefs escheating to the empire, and transferred the administration to Otho, Count of Werdenberg, who took possession of the country and resided in Vienna.
As this event happened during the contest between the see of Rome and the house of Swabia, Innocent IV, who had deposed and excommunicated Frederick, laid Austria under an interdict, and encouraged the kings of Bohemia and Hungary and the Duke of Bavaria to invade the country. The Pope first patronized the claims of Margaret, and urged her to marry a German prince; but on her application to the Emperor to bestow the duchy on her eldest son Frederick, he supported Gertrude, who, after the death of Premislaus, had espoused Herman, Margrave of Baden, nephew of Otho, Duke of Bavaria, and induced the anticæsar, William of Holland, to grant him the investiture.
On the demise of Frederick II his son Conrad was too much occupied with the affairs of Italy to attend to those of Germany; the imperial troops quitted Austria, and, Herman dying, Otho of Bavaria occupied that part of Austria which lies above the Ems. But Wenceslaus of Bohemia, prevailing on the states to choose his eldest surviving son Ottocar as their sovereign, under the condition that he should espouse Margaret, expelled the Bavarians and took possession of the whole country. Gertrude fled to Bela, King of Hungary, whose uncle Roman, a Russian prince, she married, and ceded to him her pretensions on Styria, on condition that he should assert her right to Austria. A war ensued between Ottocar and the King of Hungary, in which Ottocar, being defeated, was compelled to cede part of Styria to Stephen, son of Bela, and a small district of that country was appropriated for the maintenance of Gertrude. But the Hungarian governors being guilty of the most enormous exactions the natives of Styria rose and transferred their allegiance to Ottocar, who secured that duchy by defeating Bela at Cressenbrum, and by the treaty of peace which followed that victory. Ottocar had scarcely obtained possession of Styria before he deprived Gertrude of her small pittance, and the unfortunate princess took refuge from his tyranny in a convent of Misnia. Having thus secured Austria and Styria, and ascended the throne of Bohemia, Ottocar divorced Margaret, who was much older than himself; and to acquire that right of succession of Frederick the Warlike which he had lost by this separation from his wife he, in 1262, procured from Richard of Cornwall the investiture of Austria, Styria, and Carniola, as fiefs devolved to the empire. He either promised or gave compensation to Agnes, daughter of Gertrude by Herman of Baden, and to Henry, Margrave of Misnia, husband of Constantia.