to the daughter of the last duke of Austria,[1] Ottokar had no hereditary rights to the duchy. In order to strengthen his position by an alliance with the former reigning dynasty, he married Adela, sister of the late Duke Frederick, though she was then forty-six and he only twenty-five years of age.
The duchy of Styria had long been connected with that of Austria, and Ottokar therefore claimed it after his election by the Austrian Estates. He thus became involved in war with Bela, King of Hungary, who had long coveted Styria. Whilst occupied with this war, Ottokar received news of the death of his father, King Venceslas (1253). The necessity of returning to Bohemia induced him to conclude peace with Hungary (1254); and it was settled that while certain districts of Styria—since incorporated with Upper and Lower Austria—were to be made over to Ottokar, the greater part of the disputed lands, consisting of Styria in its present limits, was to be ruled by King Bela's eldest son Stephen, with the title of duke.
Přemysl Ottokar II, who now became ruler of Bohemia, was certainly one of the greatest sovereigns that country has ever had. Though his reign ended disastrously, he undoubtedly for some time raised Bohemia to the rank of a great European Power. The great reproach levelled against him by Bohemian writers is that he unduly favoured the German element; and it is undeniable that he endeavoured by all means to attract German colonists to Bohemia. The towns of Bohemia and Moravia during his reign became almost entirely German, and in consequence of the large degree of autonomy that was granted them, governed themselves according to the old German town-laws.
One of the great motives of Ottakar's policy was, no doubt, the intention of counterbalancing the excessive power of Bohemian nobility by the formation of a middle class, composed of the citizens of the towns; but he may have been influenced by other less obvious considerations. As Duke of Upper and Lower Austria, and later of Styria and Carinthia, Ottokar had become lord of vast German lands, and indeed the most powerful prince of the German Empire, over which he aspired to rule either with the title of king or by his influence over an insignificant and nominal
- ↑ Frederick II, Duke of Austria, commonly known as "der Streitbare" (the Warlike), died in 1246; he was the last Austrian duke of the Babenberg line.
