Rudolf

or Rudolph (1218-1291), the founder of the Austrian house of Hapsburg. The Hapsburgs were of Swiss origin. Rudolf, partly by inheritance and partly by force of character, acquired an ascendency over the Swiss cantons of Lucerne, Zug. Zurich, and Berne. He was granted the title of protector of the French cantons. In 1273, chiefly through the instrumentality of his powerful friend, the Archbishop of Mainz, Rudolf was elected emperor. He made peace with Pope Gregory XI by renouncing all imperial claim to interfere in the appointment of bishops and other dignitaries of the German church. He brought Bohemia and Moravia unmistakably under the rule of the empire. He reduced many refractory nobles to subjugation by storming and destroying their strongholds. It is said that in one year he razed sixty castles and beheaded thirty of their robber owners. Under his strong rule the pack trains of the merchants were comparatively safe, and the free cities of the empire prospered. See Hapsburgs; Hanseatic League