AUSTRIA. 
  
  
  
  
declared himself hereditary Emperor of A., and, two 
years afterwards, laid down the title of Emperor of 
Germany and King of the Romans. 
In the earliest times, what is now the Duchy of A. 
was inhabited by the Taurisci, a Celtic people; but 
their name subsequently disappeared before that of 
the Norici. After the conquest of the Norici by the 
Romans (14 B.c.), the country to the north of the 
Danube belonged to the kingdom of the Marcomanni 
(q.v.); on the south of the river lay the Roman pro- 
vinces of Noricum and Pannonia, in which last was 
the municipal city of Vindobona (Vienna). Tyrol 
formed part of Rhwetia. All these boundaries were 
swept away by the irruption of the northern peoples; 
and the regions in question were occupied in suc- 
cession, during the 5th and 6th centuries, by Boii, 
Vandals, Goths, Huns, Lombards, and Avari. After 
the Lombards had settled in Italy, the Ens came, 
about 568, to be the boundary between a tribe of 
Gcmnn origin and the Avari, a pcople who had 
penetrated thither from the east. The Avarihaving, 
in 788, crossed the Ens, and fallen upon Bavaria, 
then part of the Frankish empire, Charlemagne 
drove them back (796) as far as the Raab, and united 
the district from the Ens to that river with Germany, 
under the name of the Kast Mark, Marchia Orientalis, 
or Austria. He sent colonists, mostly Bavarians, 
into the new province, and appointed over it a 
margrave. It came into the possession of the 
Hunfl arians in 900, but was reconquered by Otto I. 
in 955, and reunited with Germany. 
As margrave of the reconquered province, the 
emperor, in 983, appointed Leopold of Babenberg 
(g. v.), whose dynasty ruled A. for 260 years. Under 
Henry Jasomirgott (1141—1177), the Mark above the 
Ens was anncxud to the Lower Mark, the united 
province raised to a duchy, and important privileges 
cenferred on the newly named duke and his heirs. 
This Henry Jasomirgott took part in the second 
crusade ; he also removed the ducal residence from 
Leopoldsberg to Vienna, now first called a city, and 
began the building of the cathedral of St Stephen. 
Under his successors, numerous additions (Styria, |} 
Carniola) were made to the possessions of the House. 
Leopold VI. undertook numerous expeditions against 
the Hungarians and the infidels, and is reckoned the 
best of the Babenberg princes. The line became 
extinet with his successor, Frederic, who fell in battle 
with the Magyars (1246). 
Then followed an interregnum from 1246 to 1282. 
The Emperor Frederic IL. at first treated the duchy 
as a lapsed fief of the empire; shortly, claims were 
set up by Count Hermann of Bavaria, who was 
married to a mniece of the deceased mar grave, 
Frederic; and when Hermann died, and the empire 
was distracted by the contests between rival 
emperors, the ¢States’ of A. and Styria chose 
Ottokar, son of the Bohemian king, as duke, who 
made good his nomination about 1260. Ottokar 
1etusm'> to acknowledge Rudolf of Hapsburg as em- 
peror, was defeated, and lost his life and possessions, 
in thc battle of Marchfdd (1278); and the emperor 
shortly afterwards (1282) conferred the duchies of 
A., Styria, and Carinthia on his son Albrecht. 
The accession of the Hapsburg dynast-y with 
Albrecht I. (q. v.) was the foundation of A.’s subse- 
quent greatness. The despotic Albrecht contended 
uuccesbtvlly with Hungarians and Bavarians, but 
while attempting to subdue the Swiss, he was mur- 
dered near Rheinfelden (1308) by his 110phmv John 
of Swabia, whom he had deprived of his hereditary 
possessions. Of his five sons, Frederic was chosen 
(1314) by a party to the imperial throue, but was de- 
feated (1322) by his rival, Ludwig of Bavaria. Duke 
Leopold was defeated at Morgarten (1315) in his 
attempt to reduce the Swiss cantons that had thrown 
572 
  
off their allegiance to Albrecht I. At last, by the 
death of all his brothers, Albrecht IT. reunited the 
Austrian possessions, increased by various additions. 
After his death (1358), two sons, Rudolf and Albrecht 
IIL., successively followed in the Duchy of Austria. 
Another son, Leopold, held the other lands, but lost 
his life at bempach, in seeking to regain the Haps- 
burg possessions in Switzerland. The posterity of 
Albert and Leopold formed the two lines of A. and 
Styria. During Albrecht IIL’s reign, Tyrol and 
other districts were ceded to Austria. After his 
death (1395), the dukedom was held by his son, 
Albrecht IV. Albrecht V., who succeeded his father 
in 1404, by marrying the dmuOh’cer of the Emperor 
Slmsmund succeeded (1438) to the thrones of Hun- 
gary and bohemm, and was at the same time raised 
to the dignity of German Emperor, as Albrecht II. 
With his death, in 1439, Bohemia and Hungary were 
for a time lost to the House of A., as were also, after 
a bloody struggle, the last of the family possessions 
in Switzerland. But the imperial dignity was hence- 
forth uninterruptedly held by them. With Ladislaw, 
Albrecht’s son, the Austrian line of the House closed 
(1457), and their possessions went to the Styrian 
line. Of this line was the Emperor Frederic III, 
who raised the dignity of his House by making A. 
an archduchy. After the death of Ladislaw and of 
his own brother, Albrecht, Frederic came into the 
undivided possession of the archduchy (1464). 
His son, Maximilian I., by marrying Maria, 
daughter of Charles the Bold, acquired (1477) the 
Netherlands. Becoming emperor on the death of 
his father (1493), he ceded the government of the 
Netherlands to his son Philip. Under Maximilian, 
Tyrol fell again to the chief branch of the House of 
A., several districts were acquired from Bavaria, 
and fresh claims were established on Hungary and 
Bohemia. The court of Vienna began to be the seat 
of German art and science. The marriage of the 
emperor’s son Philip with Johanna of hpfun set the 
House of Hapshurg on the throne of Spain and the 
Indies. Philip died in 1506 ; and on the death of 
Maximilian I., in 1519, Philip’s son, Charles I. of 
Spain, was elected German emperor as Charles V. 
(q. v.). Charles resigned by treaty all the German 
possessions, except the Netherlands, to his brother, 
Ferdinand I. (q.v.). 
Ferdinand I. had married the sister of Lewis IT, 
of Hungary ; and on the death of the latter in the 
battle of Mohacz (1526), he claimed the kingdoms of 
Hungary and Bohemia, along with Moravia, Silesia, 
and Lausatia. His claim was contested by John 
Zapolya, who secured the aid of Sultan Soliman 
II.; and TFerdinand, after contests extending 
over twenty years, had finally to pay an annual 
tribute of 30,000 ducats to Soliman for possession 
of Lower Hungary. Ferdinand was also fain to 
sarrender Wiirtemberg to Duke Ulrich (1534), on 
condition of its 1eveltmrr to A. on the death of the 
male line. I\vaerthelobs, the possessions of the 
House of A. (in the German line) were at this time 
already of the extent of 110,000 square miles. 
On the abdication of Charles V. (1556), Ferdinand 
succeeded to the imperial dignity ; he died 1564, 
with the reputation of a good ruler, though he was 
strongly conservative of everything established, and 
introduced the Jesuits. 
In the partition of the inheritance that took place 
among his three sons, the eldest, Maximilian IL, 
received the imperial crown along with A., Hungary, 
and Bohemia ; the second, I erdinand, Jytol and 
Upper A.; the third, I&'Lfl Styria, ().uinthia &e. 
Maximilian was more Tortunate in Hungary than his 
father. The death of Soliman before %/weth (1566) 
led to atruce ; he got his eldest son, hudolf crowned 
king of Hunoaly in 1572, and shortly after, of