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41-468: Mercenaries: Mercenaries: 6,000 cavalry The Battle on the Marchfeld ( i.e. Morava Field ; German : Schlacht auf dem Marchfeld ; Czech : Bitva na Moravském poli ; Hungarian : Második morvamezei csata / dürnkruti csata ); Polish : Bitwa pod Suchymi Krutami at Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen took place on 26 August 1278 and was a decisive event for the history of Central Europe for

82-412: A border conflict he had picked with King Béla IV of Hungary . Ottokar II gained the support of the local nobility and was proclaimed Austrian and Styrian duke by the estates one year later. In 1253, Ottokar II became Bohemian king upon the death of his father; the concentration of power on the western Hungarian border was viewed with suspicion by King Béla IV, who campaigned against Austria and Styria but

123-439: A force of 5,000 Cuman horse archers . Surprised by Rudolph's maneuver, Ottokar quickly abandoned the siege at Laa, marched southwards, and on August 26 met the united German and Hungarian forces near Dürnkrut. When he arrived his enemies had already taken the opportunity to explore the topography of the future battleground. From the early morning, the left wing of the advancing Bohemian troops were embroiled in impetuous attacks by

164-482: A fresh heavy cavalry regiment he had concealed behind nearby hills and woods to attack the right flank of Ottokar's troops. Such ambushes were commonly regarded as dishonourable in medieval warfare and Rudolph's commander Ulrich von Kapellen apologized to his own men in advance. Nevertheless, the attack prevailed in splitting and stampeding the Bohemian troops. Ottokar became aware of the surprise attack and tried to lead

205-601: A major part of the Vienna Basin . In the Czech Republic, several larger cities and towns lie on the Morava, particularly Olomouc , Kroměříž , Otrokovice , Uherské Hradiště , Veselí nad Moravou and Hodonín . Brno , the second largest city of the Czech Republic, lies within the river basin. As of 2009, the catchment area of the river had a population of c.  3.5 million people. Downstream of Hodonín,

246-503: A remaining reserve contingent in the rear of von Kapellen's troops, a maneuver that was misinterpreted as a rout by the Bohemian forces. The resulting collapse led to a complete victory for Rudolph and his allies. Ottokar's camp was plundered, and he himself was found slain on the battlefield. Rudolph, to demonstrate his victory, had Ottokar's body displayed in Vienna. The "poor count" from Swabian Habsburg Castle assured his possession of

287-494: The Danube with an average discharge rate of 110 m /s (3,900 cu ft/s), collected from a drainage area of 26,658 km (10,293 sq mi), of which 20,692.4 km (7,989.4 sq mi) is in the Czech Republic. The Morava is a lowland river with a basin that consists of 51% plains ; mountains make up only seven percent of the basin while thirty five percent are considered highland. The average slope of

328-530: The Danube Delta . During the 20th century however, large tracts of the river, especially downstream from Litovel , have been regulated with the ensuing effect of loss of inundation areas (floodplains). Since the river basin is densely populated and, especially the Czech part, industrialised, the river also receives a lot of wastewater. Agriculture also contributes to spreading nitrogen and other nutrients into

369-681: The Kingdom of Hungary (within the Habsburg monarchy during 1526–1918 because of imperial expansion). During the Cold War , this section of the river was part of the Iron Curtain , forming the frontier between Austria and Czechoslovakia . In July 1997, the Morava basin (especially its northern and eastern part) was affected by heavy stratiform rain, which lasted several days and caused catastrophic floods . The Morava originates in

410-831: The New Stone Age . The lower part of the river, downstream of the confluence with the Thaya at Hohenau an der March , which today marks the Austro-Slovakian border, is one of the oldest national boundaries still extant in continental Europe: it was the eastern boundary of the Carolingian Empire with the Avar Khaganate around 800, and from the 10th century onward marked the border of the Imperial marcha orientalis , later Duchy of Austria , with

451-585: The Proto-Indo-European word for 'water', 'marsh', from which the Latin word mare arose. The suffix -ava is a Slavic form of the Proto-Germanic word ahwa , meaning 'water', 'river'. The name of the river was first documented as Maraha in an 892 deed. The river gave its name to the entire historical land of Moravia , yet the oldest surviving record of the land (from 822) is older than

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492-707: The "poor Swabian count" Rudolph of Habsburg King of the Romans on 29 September 1273. As the election had taken place in his absence, Ottokar did not acknowledge Rudolph as King. Rudolph himself had promised to regain the "alienated" territories which had to be conferred by the Imperial power with consent of the Prince-electors. He claimed the Austrian and Carinthian territories for the Empire and summoned Ottokar to

533-580: The 1275 Reichstag at Würzburg . By not appearing before the Diet, Ottokar set the events of his demise in motion. He was placed under the Imperial ban and had all his territorial rights revoked, including even his Bohemian inheritance. Meanwhile, Rudolph was gathering allies and preparing for battle. He achieved two of these alliances through the classic Habsburg style – marriage. First, he married his son Albert to Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol . In return, her father Count Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol received

574-596: The Austrian capital Vienna in 1276. Ottokar was forced to surrender and to renounce all his acquisitions, receiving only Bohemia and Moravia as a fief from King Rudolph. Heavily deprived by this, he was determined to regain his territories and contracted an alliance with the Ascanian Margraves of Brandenburg and the Polish princes. In 1278 he campaigned against Austria, supported by Duke Henry I of Lower Bavaria, who had switched sides. Ottokar first laid siege to

615-565: The Cuman forces, which the heavily armed knights could not ward off. Nevertheless, as the main armies collided and the battle wore on, Ottokar's outnumbering cavalry seemed to gain the upper hand, when even Rudolph's horse was stabbed under him and the 60-year-old narrowly escaped with his life, rescued by his liensmen. After three hours of continuous fighting on a hot summer day, Ottokar's knights in their heavy armour were suffering from heat exhaustion and were not able to move. At noon Rudolph ordered

656-665: The Danube Valley and the plains of northern Europe , for animals as well as, at least historically, for humans. Its weak slope across flat plains furthermore means that the river is prone to meander and flood, creating vast floodplains . Because of these reasons, the floodplains of the Morava River are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in Europe. Its richness in plant and animal species (some 12,000 species have been identified) ranks it second in diversity only to

697-596: The Duchies of Austria and Styria, the heartland and foundation of the rise of the House of Habsburg . At the 1282 Diet of Augsburg , he installed his sons Albert and Rudolf II as Austrian dukes; their descendants held the ducal dignity until 1918. However, in Bohemia, Rudolph acted cautiously and reached an agreement with the nobility and Ottokar's widow Kunigunda of Slavonia on the succession of her son Wenceslaus II to

738-545: The Duchy of Carinthia as a fief. Second, he established an — unstable — alliance with Duke Henry I of Lower Bavaria by offering Rudolph's daughter Katharina as wife for the Duke's son, Otto , in addition to the region of present-day Upper Austria as a pledge for her dowry. He also concluded an alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary , who intended to settle old scores with Ottokar. Rudolph, so strengthened, besieged Ottokar at

779-563: The Leitha and the Duke himself was killed on the battlefield. The battle marked the end of the ruling House of Babenberg and sparked another conflict, for the rule over the ceased Imperial fiefs of Austria and Styria between Árpád Hungary and the Bohemian king Ottokar II , leading to the Battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260 and the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278. The Leitha river remained

820-404: The battle. In fact, Margaret had died in 1266. The opera The Brandenburgers in Bohemia , by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana in 1863, was inspired by the battle and the following events. 48°28′53.45″N 16°52′38.34″E  /  48.4815139°N 16.8773167°E  / 48.4815139; 16.8773167 Morava (river) The root of the river's name, mor- , is derived from

861-576: The course of the Mongol invasion of Europe , culminating in the disastrous Battle of Mohi . The Babenberg duke Frederick II, haughty and overambitious, made use of this weakness, attacked Hungary and claimed the western comitati of Moson , Sopron and Vas . The Hungarian King Bela IV Árpád however was able to make a stand against the Austrian invasion: Supported by the liensmen of his son-in-law Prince Rostislav Mikhailovich he gathered his troops and marched against Frederick's forces, which were challenged at

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902-602: The enemy piecemeal. In the first phase of the battle, the Cuman horse archers in the Hungarian army outflanked and distracted the Bohemian left flank by launching arrows while the Hungarian light cavalry crashed into the Bohemians, driving them from the field. In the second phase, a great collision of knights and heavy cavalry took place in the center, with Rudolf's forces being driven back. Rudolf's third division, led by

943-590: The fleeing Bohemians with impunity. The battle marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the House of Habsburg in Austria and Central Europe. The influence of the Přemyslid kings of Bohemia was diminished and restricted to their inheritance in Bohemia and Moravia. The deposition of Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen by Pope Innocent IV in 1245 created a grave crisis for the Holy Roman Empire , as in

984-682: The following centuries. The opponents were a Bohemian (Czech) army led by the Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia and the German army under the German king Rudolph I of Habsburg in alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary . With 15,300 mounted troops, it was one of the largest cavalry battles in Central Europe during the Middle Ages . The Hungarian cavalry played a significant role in

1025-534: The following decades several nobles were elected as Rex Romanorum and Emperor-to-be, none of whom were able to gain actual governing power upon the Emperor's death in 1250. That same year, Ottokar II, son of King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia , moved into the princeless Duchies of Austria and Styria . The last Babenberg duke Frederick II of Austria had been killed at the 1246 Battle of the Leitha River , in

1066-589: The former Roman province of Pannonia , where they established the Kingdom of Hungary . The adjacent territories west of the Leitha were incorporated as the March of Styria into the Holy Roman Empire . In 1180 Emperor Frederick Barbarossa raised the Styrian lands to a duchy , which in 1192 was acquired by the Austrian dukes from the House of Babenberg . Since 1241 the Hungarian kingdom suffered heavy losses in

1107-441: The king personally, attacked and halted Ottokar's charge. Rudolf was unhorsed in the melee and nearly killed. At a decisive moment, a German cavalry force of 200 riders, commanded by Ulrich von Kapellen, ambushed and attacked the Bohemian right flank from the rear. Assailed from two directions at once, Ottokar's army disintegrated into a rout, and Ottokar himself was killed in the confusion and slaughter. The Cumans pursued and killed

1148-553: The outcome of the battle. King Ottokar II of Bohemia expanded his territories considerably from 1250 to 1273, but suffered a devastating defeat in November 1276, when the newly elected German king Rudolph I of Habsburg imposed the Imperial ban on Ottokar, declaring him an outlaw and took over Ottokar's holdings in Austria , Carinthia , Carniola , and Styria . Ottokar was reduced to his possessions in Bohemia and Moravia , but

1189-506: The record of the river. The German name of the Morava, March , was derived from the Slavic name. The banks of the Morava have been inhabited for a very long time. The village of Stillfried  [ de ] , on the Austrian part of the river, was already the location of a human settlement 30,000 years ago. Agriculture began to be practiced in the Morava valley approximately 7,000 years ago, and fortified settlements began to appear during

1230-541: The rise of nationalism in the 19th century, when it was viewed as the example of a traditional co-operation between the Habsburg dynasty (Austria) and the Kingdom of Hungary, from one side, and the traditional tension between the Habsburg dynasty and Bohemia, from the Czech side. The tragedy König Ottokars Glück und Ende written by Franz Grillparzer in 1823 is based on the rise and fall of king Ottokar II. The drama

1271-597: The river flows along a sparsely inhabited, forested border area, all the way to its outfall into the Danube, just below Devín Castle on the outskirts of the Slovak capital Bratislava . The total length of the Morava is 352 km (219 mi) , of which 269.4 km (167.4 mi) is in the Czech Republic (including the Czech-Slovak border), making it the third longest river in the Czech Republic . The Morava feeds

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1312-464: The river is 1.8‰ and at the confluence 4‰. The bedrock of the river basin is mostly crystalline bedrock and flysch . The Morava is unusual in that it is a European blackwater river . The longest tributary of the Morava is the Thaya , flowing in at the tripoint of the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia. The longest tributaries of the Morava are: The Morava River forms an important link between

1353-637: The river. Nevertheless, the central part of the river has retained much of its natural character and in later years conscious efforts have been made to protect the nature and ecosystem of the river basin. Battle of the Leitha River The Battle of the Leitha River was fought on 15 June 1246 near the banks of the Leitha river between the forces of the King Béla IV of Hungary and Duke Frederick II of Austria . The Hungarian army

1394-1044: The territory of Dolní Morava in the Králický Sněžník Mountains , on the slope of the Králický Sněžník mountain at an elevation of 1,371 m (4,498 ft), not far from the border with Poland. The lowlands formed by the river are the Upper Morava Valley and then the Lower Morava Valley in Moravia, the Morava Field or Marchfeld in Lower Austria , and the Záhorie Lowland in Slovakia. The latter three are actually continuous parts of one large basin, forming

1435-555: The throne. On the same occasion he reconciled with the Brandenburg margraves, ceding them the guardianship over the minor heir apparent. King Ladislaus IV exerted himself in the christianization of the Cuman warriors, before he was assassinated in 1290. Ottokar's son, the young king Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, turned out to be a capable ruler. In 1291 he acquired the Polish Seniorate Province at Kraków and

1476-656: The towns of Drosendorf and Laa an der Thaya near the Austrian border, while Rudolph decided to leave Vienna and to face the Bohemian army in open battle in the Morava basin north of the capital, where the Cuman cavalry of King Ladislaus could easily join his forces. Ottakar fielded 6,000 cavalry, of which 1,000 were heavily armed and armored and 5,000 lightly equipped riders. Ottokar's heavy cavalry rode armored horses. About one third of Ottakar’s knights were Poles from Silesia, Greater Poland and Lesser Poland. Rudolf had 300 heavy cavalry and 4,000 light cavalry, of which an indeterminate number were Hungarians. Rudolf's force included

1517-405: Was crowned King of Poland in 1300. He was even able to secure the Hungarian crown for his son Wenceslaus III , still a minor, who nevertheless was murdered in 1306, one year after his father's death, whereby the Přemyslid dynasty became extinct. No exact data on casualties is available, but Ottokar's losses were considerably higher than Rudolf's. The battle was depicted in art especially during

1558-548: Was determined to regain his dominions, power, and influence. In 1278 he invaded Austria, where parts of the local population, especially in Vienna , resented Habsburg rule. Rudolf allied himself with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary and mustered forces for a decisive confrontation. Ottokar abandoned his siege of Laa an der Thaya and advanced to meet the allies near Dürnkrut, north of Vienna. Both armies were composed purely of cavalry and were divided into three divisions that attacked

1599-549: Was finally defeated at the 1260 Battle of Kressenbrunn . In 1268 Ottokar signed a contract of inheritance with Ulrich III , the last Carinthian duke of the House of Sponheim , and thus acquired Carinthia including the March of Carniola and the Windic March one year later. At the height of his power he aimed at the Imperial crown, but the Princes-Electors ( Kurfürsten ), distrustful of his steep rise, elected

1640-404: Was originally inspired by the life of Napoleon , but Grillparzer, fearing Metternich 's censorship, chose to write the play about Ottokar, in whose story he found many parallels. It nevertheless was immediately forbidden and could not be performed until 1825. Grillparzer perpetuated the legend of Ottokar's wife, Margaret of Babenberg , unsuccessfully trying to reconcile the opponents on the eve of

1681-493: Was routed, but Duke Frederick was killed, ending Austrian claims to the western counties of Hungary. Its exact location is unknown; according to the description delivered by contemporary minnesinger Ulrich von Liechtenstein the battlefield may have been between the towns of Ebenfurth and Neufeld . After their defeat at the 955 Battle of Lechfeld , the Magyars had discontinued their attacks on Germany and settled in

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