Gertrude of Austria (1226 – 24 April 1288) was a member of the House of Babenberg, Duchess of Mödling and later Titular Duchess of Austria and Styria, she was the niece of Duke Frederick II of Austria

Frederick II, Duke of Austria

Frederick II, known as the Quarrelsome or the Warlike , from the House of Babenberg, was the duke of Austria and Styria from 1230 to 1246....

, the last male member of the Babenberg

Babenberg

Originally from Bamberg in Franconia, now northern Bavaria, an apparent branch of the Babenbergs or Babenberger went on to rule Austria as counts of the march and dukes from 976–1248, before the rise of the house of Habsburg.-One or two families:...

 dynasty. She was, according to the Privilegium Minus

Privilegium Minus

The Privilegium Minus is a document issued by Emperor Frederick I on September 17, 1156. It included the elevation of the Margraviate of Austria to a Duchy, which was given as an inheritable fief to the House of Babenberg. Its recipient was Frederick's paternal uncle Margrave Henry II Jasomirgott...

 the first in line to inherit the Duchies of Austria and Styria

Duchy of Styria

The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present...

 after the death of childless Frederick, but these claim were disputed by her aunt Margaret

Margaret, Duchess of Austria

Margaret of Austria , was a Queen Consort of the Romans 1225–35, titular Duchess of Austria in 1252–60, and Queen consort of Bohemia 1253–60....

.

Early years

Gertrude was the only child of Henry of Austria, Duke of Mödling, by his wife Agnes, daughter of Hermann I, Landgrave of Thuringia. Henry, in turn, was the second son of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. In 1216, after the death of his older brother Leopold, Henry became his father's heir.

Henry died on 26 September 1228, only twenty years old and without male issue. Two years later, on 28 July 1230, Henry's father Duke Leopold II also died and was succeeded by Frederick II, Leopold's third son. Because Babenberg Austria was inheritable by females according to the provisions of Privilegium Minus, Gertrude disputed Frederick's ascension, claiming Austria as her inheritance as the only child of Leopold VI's eldest son. Even so, Gertrude's claim was eventually bypassed in her uncle's favor.

Despite this negative turn of events, Gertrude inherited her father's Duchy of Mödling and was placed under the guardianship of her uncle, Frederick II, who, after two unhappy marriages, remained childless. This made Gertrude the primogenitural heiress of the entire Babenberg line of Dukes of Austria and Styria.

Marriage

Complicating Frederick II's hold over Austria was his long-standing quarrel with Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...

, during which he was placed under an imperial ban. In 1245, in a spectacular change of imperial politics, Frederick II of Austria became one of the emperor's most important allies when negotiations regarding the elevation of Vienna to a bishopric and of Austria (including Styria) to a Kingdom

Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...

 were initiated. One condition effecting a positive outcome was that the 19-year-old Duke's niece, Gertrude, would marry the 51-year-old Emperor who was a widower three times over. Though desirous of the union, Wenceslaus I of Bohemia nevertheless voiced his concerns given a preexisting agreement that Gertrude marry his eldest son and heir Vladislaus

Vladislaus, Margrave of Moravia

Vladislaus was Margrave of Moravia and heir to the Bohemian Kingdom of the Přemyslid dynasty.Vladislaus was born as the eldest son to Wenceslaus I, King of Bohemia, and his wife Kunigunde of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Philip of Swabia, King of Germany...

. Gertrude herself refused the marriage with the aged Emperor, citing his recent excommunication by the Pope. Other sources claim that she was in love with Vladislav. After sending an army to Austria in order to pressure Duke Frederick II into agreeing to the union of Gertrude and Vladislaus, the two parties came to terms early in June 1245 in Verona

Verona

Verona ; German Bern, Dietrichsbern or Welschbern) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy, with approx. 265,000 inhabitants and one of the seven chef-lieus of the region. It is the second largest city municipality in the region and the third of North-Eastern Italy. The metropolitan area of Verona...

. The rapid rise of Duke Frederick's political ambitions proved short-lived.

On 15 June 1246 Frederick II was killed in battle. King Wenceslaus quickly arranged the formal marriage ceremony of Gertrude and his heir, Vladislaus. Per hoc Wladislaus habebat Austriae ducatum cheered Bohemia and, supported by the rights of his wife and the prospect of inheriting the Bohemian throne, Vladislaus was quickly recognized as Duke by the Austrian aristocracy. However, shortly after their marriage, Vladislaus died on 3 January 1247.

In 1248, in order to bolster her claims, the 22-year-old Duchess married Herman VI, Margrave of Baden. The following year Gertrude gave birth to a son Frederick

Frederick I, Margrave of Baden

Frederick I of Baden was Margrave of Baden and claimant Duke of Austria from October 4, 1250 until his death...

. In celebration of the happy event, Gertrude gave 30 people in Alland

Alland

Alland is a town in the district of Baden in Lower Austria in Austria. It is about 20 km southwest of Vienna and is one of the many towns in Lower Austria located in the Wienerwald.-History:...

, the place of her son's birth, extended farm lands which became the foundation of the agrarian community of the Allander Urhausbesitzer. In 1250 Gertrude had a second child, a daughter, whom she named Agnes after her maternal grandmother.

Frustrated ambitions

Herman was able to maintain only minimal control in the duchies, failing ultimately to defeat the opposition of the Austrian aristocracy. As a result, Gertrude and her children fled to Meissen

Meissen

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrechtsburg castle, the Gothic Meissen Cathedral and the Meissen Frauenkirche...

 in Saxony

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

 and her relationship with Herman deteriorated significantly. Gertrude was suspected of poisoning Herman when he died on 4 October 1250.

Gertrude lost the favour of the curia and with it the chance to recover the Babenberg dominions of Austria and Styria when she refused to marry the brother of Count William II of Holland, Floris, who was also the favored candidate of Pope Innocent IV

Pope Innocent IV

Pope Innocent IV , born Sinibaldo Fieschi, was pope from June 25, 1243 until his death in 1254.-Early life:...

.

In the meantime, her aunt and competitor for the duchies of Austria and Styria, Margaret, married Prince Ottokar of Bohemia

Ottokar II of Bohemia

Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....

, the second son and next heir of Wenceslaus I. The aristocracy accepted Margaret and Ottokar as the rulers of Austria. On 12 July 1252, having lost most of her support, Gertrude formed an alliance with Bela IV of Hungary

Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV , King of Hungary and of Croatia , duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Bela III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the...

 and married his relative, Roman Danylovich

Roman Danylovich

Roman Danylovich , Prince of Black Ruthenia 1254–1258, Prince of Slonim?.He was born as a younger son of Danylo of Halych, a powerful prince of lands east from Poland and later king of those regions, which was most of the times called Volhynia or Ruthenia .In 1252 he was married to Gertrude,...

, Prince of Halicz, a member of the Rurikid dynasty. In 1253, Gertrude gave birth to her only child from this union, Maria. However, after failing to establish himself as Duke of Austria, Roman left Gertrude and their daughter to return to Hungary. Shortly thereafter, the marriage was formally dissolved.

Eventually, in 1254, Gertrude received a portion of Styria, 400 silver marks annually, and the towns of Voitsberg

Voitsberg

Voitsberg is a small city in the district of Voitsberg in Styria, Austria, with a population of c. 9,700 as of 2009. It grew upon the St. Margaret church at the Tregistbach river and was first mentioned in 1220 as Civitas. Remains of the Greisenegg palace and Obervoitsberg castle can be seen...

 and Judenburg

Judenburg

- People :* Renate Götschl* Egon Haar * Herbert Hufnagl, journalist * Gernot Jurtin* Christian Muthspiel, jazz musician, painter* Kurt Muthspiel, composer * Wolfgang Muthspiel* Christian Pfannberger* Walter Pfrimer* Georg Pichler...

 as her residences. In 1267, as neither Gertrude nor her son Frederick forswore their claim to the duchies of Styria and Austria, King Ottokar II dispossessed them of their lands. Ottokar was largely motivated since he sought to remarry into the Hungarian royal house; he could not expect an heir with the significantly older and barren Margaret. That same year, the death of Margaret made Gertrude the only legitimate heir to the Babenberg dynasty.

Decline

On 8 September 1268, Gertrude's son Frederick, who had accompanied Conradin

Conradin

Conrad , called the Younger or the Boy, but usually known by the diminutive Conradin , was the Duke of Swabia , King of Jerusalem , and King of Sicily .-Early childhood:Conradin was born in Wolfstein, Bavaria, to Conrad...

 on his Italian expedition, was captured in Astura

Astura

Astura could refer to:*Torre Astura, a former island of Lazio, Italy, containing Roman villas*Esla River, a river of Spain known to the Romans as Astura...

 to the south of Anzio

Anzio

Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about south of Rome.Well known for its seaside harbour setting, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene...

. Handed over to Charles of Anjou, he remained in degrading imprisonment in the Castel dell'Ovo

Castel dell'Ovo

Castel dell'Ovo is a castle located on the former island of Megaride, now a peninsula, on the gulf of Naples...

 in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 until his public beheading in the Piazza del Mercato in Naples on 29 October. The following year, Gertrude was exiled and lost her claim to Windisch-Feistritz. Again, she found refuge with her family in Meissen.

Gertrude's other claims were ultimately lost when Rudolf I of Germany granted her duchies to his own sons in 1282. Six years later, Gertrude died as an Abbess of the Poor Clare convent of Saint Afra

Saint Afra

Saint Afra was a Christian martyr. Her actual existence is not mentioned until the 5th century martyrologies, giving her dubious historicity.-Biography:...

 near Seusslitz in Meissen.

Her daughter Agnes of Baden became mother and brother's heir, but in 1279, renounced her rights to Baden and the Duchies of Austria and Styria. From her second marriage with Count Ulrich III of Heunburg, Agnes had five children, two sons (Frederick and Herman) and three daughters (Margaret, Elisabeth and Katharina).

Gertrude's youngest daughter, Maria Romanovna of Halicz, born from her third marriage, married Joachim of Guthkeled, son of Ban Stephan IV of Zagreb, the former Hungarian National Captain (German: Landeshauptmanns) in Styria. The date of her death or if she left any descendants is unknown.