The Battle of the Marchfeld

JAN 01 1278 · 12:00

Mór Than, The Meeting of Ladislas IV and Rudolf of Habsburg on the Marchfeld (1873); the battle that killed Otakar II. Place: Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen, on the Marchfeld plain north of Vienna Figures: Přemysl Otakar II, king of Bohemia, called Iron and Golden · Rudolf I of Habsburg, king of the Romans · Ladislaus IV of Hungary, allied with Rudolf · Milota of Dědice, Czech commander accused (probably unfairly) of treason Přemysl Otakar II inherits the kingdom in 1253 and within fifteen years has stitched together a personal dominion stretching from the Sudetes to the Adriatic: Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, parts of Friuli. He founds towns from Český Krumlov to Marchegg. He stands for election as king of the Romans in 1273 and loses to a minor Swabian count, Rudolf of Habsburg, whom no one has heard of and whom the electors prefer for that reason. Přemysl Otakar refuses to do homage. Rudolf strips him of the Alpine duchies. War follows. By August 1278 Přemysl Otakar has assembled an army of perhaps fifteen thousand: Bohemian and Moravian heavy cavalry, Polish and Brandenburg auxiliaries, Silesian crossbowmen. Rudolf, with Hungarian cavalry from Ladislaus IV, fields about as many, with the advantage of Cuman horse archers from the Hungarian plain.