The Hohenstaufen dynasty, also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynasty's most prominent rulers – Frederick I (1155), Henry VI (1191) and Frederick II (1220) – ascended the imperial throne and also reigned over Italy and Burgundy. The non-contemporary name of 'Hohenstaufen' is derived from the family's Hohenstaufen Castle on Hohenstaufen mountain at the northern fringes of the Swabian Jura, near the town of Göppingen. Under Hohenstaufen rule, the Holy Roman Empire reached its greatest territorial extent from 1155 to 1268.
Rudolf I was the first King of Germany of the Habsburg dynasty from 1273 until his death.
Philip of Swabia, styled Philip II in his charters, was a member of the House of Hohenstaufen and King of Germany from 1198 until his assassination.
Ottokar II, the Iron and Golden King, was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty who reigned as King of Bohemia from 1253 until his death in 1278. He also held the titles of Margrave of Moravia from 1247, Duke of Austria from 1251, and Duke of Styria from 1260, as well as Duke of Carinthia and landgrave of Carniola from 1269.
Wenceslaus I, called One-Eyed, was King of Bohemia from 1230 to 1253.
The Duchy of Bohemia, also later referred to in English as the Czech Duchy, was a monarchy and a principality of the Holy Roman Empire in Central Europe during the Early and High Middle Ages. It was formed around 870 by Czechs as part of the Great Moravian realm. Bohemia separated from disintegrating Great Moravia after Duke Spytihněv swore fealty to the East Frankish king Arnulf in 895.
Vladislaus Henry, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was elected Duke of Bohemia in 1197 and Margrave of Moravia from 1197 until his death. He only served as duke during the year 1197 and was indeed the last ruler of Bohemia to hold that title. It was his brother Ottokar I, whose forces overthrew him, who finally achieved the elevation of the Duchy of Bohemia to the status of a kingdom starting in 1198.
Henry Bretislav, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Bishop of Prague from 1182, then Duke of Bohemia as "Bretislav III" from 1193 to his death.
The Golden Bull of Sicily was a decree issued by the King of Sicily and future Emperor Frederick II in Basel on 26 September 1212 that confirmed the royal title obtained by Ottokar I of Bohemia in 1198, declaring him and his heirs kings of Bohemia. The kingship signified the exceptional status of Bohemia within the Holy Roman Empire.
The Přemyslid dynasty or House of Přemysl was a Bohemian royal dynasty that reigned in the Duchy of Bohemia and later Kingdom of Bohemia and Margraviate of Moravia, as well as in parts of Poland, Hungary and Austria.
Soběslav I was Duke of Bohemia from 1125 until his death in 1140. He was a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, the youngest son of Vratislaus II, by his third wife Świętosława of Poland.
Frederick, a member of the Přemyslid dynasty, was Duke of Bohemia from 1172 to 1173 and again from 1178 to his death.
The Duchy of Austria was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus, when the Margraviate of Austria (Ostarrîchi) was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own right. After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct in male line, there was as much as three decades of rivalry on inheritance and rulership, until the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the patrimony and ancestral homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.
Vladislaus III, also called Vladislaus Henry III, was the margrave of Moravia and duke of Austria from 1246 until 1247.
Maria of Brabant, a member of the House of Reginar, was Holy Roman Empress from 1214 until 1215 as the second and last wife of the Welf emperor Otto IV.
Otto I, a member of the House of Andechs, was Duke of Merania from 1204 until his death. He was also Count of Burgundy from 1208 to 1231, by his marriage to Countess Beatrice II, and Margrave of Istria and Carniola from 1228 until his death.
Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen or Kunigunde of Swabia was the third daughter of Philip, Duke of Swabia and his wife, Irene Angelina.
Adelaide of Meissen, a member of the House of Wettin, was Queen of Bohemia from 1198 to 1199 as the first wife of King Ottokar I. When her husband declared their marriage null and void, she began a longstanding legal dispute that involved numerous religious and secular dignitaries of her time.
The Margraviate of Moravia was one of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown within the Holy Roman Empire and then Austria-Hungary, existing from 1182 to 1918. It was officially administered by a margrave in cooperation with a provincial diet. It was variously a de facto independent state, and also subject to the Duchy, later the Kingdom of Bohemia. It comprised the historical region called Moravia, which lies within the present-day Czech Republic.
The German throne dispute or German throne controversy was a political conflict in the Holy Roman Empire from 1198 to 1215. This dispute, between the House of Hohenstaufen and the House of Welf, was over the successor to Emperor Henry VI, who had just died. After a conflict lasting 17 years, the Hohenstaufen Frederick II prevailed.
