During the 5th and 6th centuries the country was suc- cf^sively occupied by the Boii, Vandals, Heruli, Rugii, Joths, Huns, Lombards, and Avari. About 568, after the Lombards had settled in Upper Italy, the River Enns became the boundary between the Bajuvarii, a people of German origin, and the Avari, who had come from the east. In 788 the Avari crossed the Enns and attacked Bavaria, but were subsequently driven back by Charle magne, and forced to retreat as far as the Raab, their country from the Enns to that river being then made a part of Germany. It was taken by the Hungarians in 900, but was again annexed to Germany in 955 by Otho I. In 983 the emperor appointed Leopold I., of Babenberg or Bamberg, margrave of Austria, and his dynasty ruled the country for 263 years. He died in 994, and was succeeded by his son, Henry I., who governed till 1018. In 1156 Austria received an accession of territory west of the Enns, and was raised to a duchy by the Emperor Frederick I. The first duke was Henry Jasomirgott, who took part in the second crusade. He removed the ducal residence to Vienna, and began the building of St Stephen s cathedral. His successor, Leopold V., in 1192, obtained Styria as an addition to his territory, and Frederick II. received posses sion of Carniola. Frederick, in the latter years of his life, contemplated the erection of Austria into a kingdom, but his sudden death in a battle against the Magyars, in 1246, put an end to the project, and with him the line became extinct. The Emperor Frederick II. now declared Austria and Styria to have lapsed to the imperial crown, and appointed a lieutenant to govern them on the part of the empire. But claims to the succession were brought forward by descendants of the female branch of the Babenberg line ; and after various contests Ottocar, son of the king of Bohemia, gained possession about 1252 of the duchies of Austria and Styria. In 1269 he succeeded to Carinthia, a part of Carniola and Friuli; but he lost all by refusing to acknowledge the Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg, and eventually fell in battle in an attempt to recover them in 1278.
Hapsburg The emperor now took possession of the country, and dynasty. appointed his eldest son governor; but subsequently, in 1282, having obtained the sanction of the electors of the empire to the act, he conferred the duchies of Austria and Styria, with the province of Carinthia, on his sons Albert and Rudolph, and thus introduced the Hapsburg dynasty. The brothers transferred Carinthia to Meinhard, count of Tyrol; and in 1283 Albert became sole possessor of Austria, Styria, and Carniola. He increased his possessions con siderably by wars with his neighbours, but was murdered at Rheinfelden in 1308, when on an expedition against the Swiss, by his nephew, John of Swabia, whom he had deprived of his hereditary possessions. He was succeeded by his f /e sons, Frederick, Leopold, Henry, Albert, and Otto. In 1314 Frederick, the eldest, was set up by a party as emperor in opposition to Louis, duke of Bavaria, but was defeated and taken prisoner by his rival in 1322. In 1315 Duke Leopold was defeated in an attempt to recover the forest towns of Switzerland which had revolted from his father. Leopold died in 1 326, Henry in 1 327, and Frederick in 1330. The two surviving brothers then made peace with the Emperor Louis, and in 1335 they acquired Carinthia by inheritance. On the death of Otto in 1339 Albert became sole ruler. He died in 1358. His son and successor, Rudolph II., finished the church of St Stephen s and founded the university of Vienna, dying childless in 1365. He was succeeded by his two brothers, Albert III. and Leopold III., who in 1379 divided their possessions between them, the former taking the duchy of Austria, the latter Styria and other parts. Leopold fell at Sempach in 1386, but his descendants continued to rule in Styria. Albert acquired Tyrol and some other districts, and died in 1395. He was succeeded by his son, Albert IV., who was poisoned at Znaim in 1404, when on an expedition against Procopius, count of Moravia. Albert V. succeeded his father, and having married the daughter of the Em peror Sigismund, he obtained the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia, and became emperor (Albert II.) in 1438. He died the following year, and was succeeded by his pos thumous son Ladislaus, who died without issue in 1457. The Austrian branch of the family thus became extinct, and was succeeded by that of Styria. The crowns of Hungary and Bohemia passed for a time into other hands. The possession of Austria, which in 1453 had been raised to an archduchy, was for some years a subject of dispute between the Emperor Frederick III. and his brothers, but at length, on the death of Albert in 1463, the emperor obtained sole possession. His son Maximilian, by marrying the daughter of Charles the Bold, acquired the Netherlands in 1477, but on the death of his father in 1493 he succeeded him as emperor, and transferred the government of the Netherlands to his son Philip. He added Tyrol and some parts of Bavaria to his paternal pos sessions, and made some advances towards the recovery of Hungary and Bohemia. His son Philip, by his marriage with Johanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, acquired a right to the crown of Spain, but died in 1506. Maxi milian died in 1519, and was succeeded by his grand son Charles (son of Philip), who two years before had obtained the Spanish crown, and was now made em peror under the title of Charles V. By treaties dated 1521 and 1524, Charles resigned all his hereditary posses sions in Germany, except the Netherlands, to his brother Ferdinand. The latter, by his marriage with Anna, sister of the king of Hungary, acquired right to the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, together with Moravia, Silesia, and Lausatia. His right to Hungary, however, was con tested by John Zapolya, wayvrode of Transylvania, who was elected by a party of the nobles, and was crowned king in 1527. Being unable to cope single-handed with Ferdinand, John sought the aid of the sultan, Soliman II., who in 1529 advanced with a large army to the very gates of Vienna ; but after several ineffectual attempts to take the city he raised the siege and returned to Buda. At length, in 1535 an agreement was come to, in terms of which John was allowed to retain the title of king, to gether with half of Hungary, but his descendants were to be entitled to Transylvania only. John died in 1540, but the people of Lower Hungary were opposed to Fer dinand, and set up the son of their late king against him. In the struggle which ensued the aid of the Turks was again invoked, and the result was that Ferdinand had to agree to pay an annual sum of 30,000 ducats to the sultan for this part of Hungary. Ferdinand was also under the ne cessity of surrendering Wiirtemberg to Duke Ulrich, on condition of its remaining a fief of Austria and reverting to that country on the extinction of the male line. Not withstanding this, the possessions of the German line of the house of Austria at this time are estimated at 114,000 square miles. On the abdication of Charles V. in 1556, Ferdinand succeeded to the imperial throne. He died in 1564, leaving directions for the division of his possessions among his three sons. The eldest, Maximilian II., received the imperial crown, together with Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia ; the second, Ferdinand, obtained Tyrol and Lower Austria ; and the third, Charles, was made master of Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Gortz. In 1556 the sultan Soli man again marched at the head of a great army into Hun gary, but met with a very determined resistance at Szigeth, before which town he was suddenly cut off by apoplexy.
