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39-424: The name Unterwalden is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latin inter silvas , which together with in intramontanis was the name for monastery possessions in the area. In 1291, Rudolf I of Germany purchased the estates at Stans , Alpnach and Giswil . From 1304, the local bailiffs used their own seal. In 1309, Henry VII confirmed the imperial immediacy of the territory of Unterwalden as part of

78-567: A key paleways with double wards counterchanged ) as the coat of arms of the united canton. In Early Modern Switzerland , Unterwalden counted as a single state in "foreign relations" with the other member states of the Swiss Confederacy, but it consisted of two separate states internally, with separate governments, jurisdictions and separate flags. Martin Zeiller in 1642 reports Unterwalden as divided in two separate Talschaften

117-525: A number of robber castles . In 1291, he attempted to secure the election of his son Albert as German king. The electors refused, however, claiming inability to support two kings, but in reality, perhaps, wary of the increasing power of the House of Habsburg. Upon Rudolf's death they elected Count Adolf of Nassau . In 1286, Rudolf I instituted a new persecution of the Jews, declaring them servi camerae ("serfs of

156-581: A ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpfen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam. Rudolf died in Speyer on 15 July 1291 and was buried in Speyer Cathedral . Only one of his sons survived him: Albert I . Most of his daughters outlived him, apart from Catherine who had died in 1282 during childbirth and Hedwig who had died in 1285/6. Rudolf's reign

195-585: A result, Rudolf, by siding with the Pope, gained more power and influence. Rudolf paid frequent visits to the court of his godfather, the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II , and his loyalty to Frederick and his son, King Conrad IV of Germany , was richly rewarded by grants of land. In 1254, he engaged with other nobles of the Staufen party against Bertold II, Bishop of Basle . When night fell, he penetrated

234-508: A single vote in the Confederacy. The flag of Unterwalden in the 14th and 15th centuries was divided horizontally into equal parts red over white, identical with the flag of Solothurn. After the accession of Solothurn to the Confederacy in 1481, there were two cantons with identical flags, sometimes disambiguated by modifying the design of Solothurn's flag. By 1600, Nidwalden was known as Unterwalden proper or Subsylvania , while Obwalden

273-508: A triumphal entry into Vienna . Ottokar, however, raised questions about the execution of the treaty, and procured the support of several German princes, again including Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria. To meet this coalition, Rudolf formed an alliance with King Ladislaus IV of Hungary and gave additional privileges to the Viennese citizens. On 26 August 1278, the rival armies met at the Battle on

312-651: Is most memorable for his establishment of the House of Habsburg as a powerful dynasty in the southeastern part of the realm. In the other territories, the centuries-long decline of Imperial authority since the days of the Investiture Controversy continued, and the princes were largely left to their own devices. In the Divine Comedy , Dante finds Rudolf sitting outside the gates of purgatory with his contemporaries, characterizing him as "he who neglected that which he ought to have done". Rudolf

351-528: The Battle of Schosshalde , he strengthened his authority in Switzerland. He further expanded his Swiss possessions and granted some ecclesiastical posts to his family. In 1289 he marched against Count Philip's successor, Otto IV , compelling him to do homage. In 1281, Rudolf's first wife died. On 5 February 1284, he married Isabella , daughter of Duke Hugh IV of Burgundy , the Empire's western neighbor in

390-518: The Duchy of Carinthia , one of the conquered provinces taken from Ottokar. The Princes of the Empire did not allow Rudolf to give everything that was recovered to the royal domain to his own sons, and his allies needed their rewards too. Turning to the west, in 1281 he compelled Count Philip I of Savoy to cede some territory to him, then forced the citizens of Bern to pay the tribute that they had been refusing. After his son Rudolf II defeated Bern at

429-800: The Great Interregnum . In July 1245, the Pope Innocent IV had declared the then emperor, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor , deposed, opening a split between two factions, the Guelphs and Ghibellines . The previous king of the Romans, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall , died on April 2, 1272, in Berkhamsted following a stroke he had suffered in December 1271. The seven prince-electors called to Frankfurt were: To Frankfurt arrived

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468-460: The Hohenzollern burgrave Frederick III of Nuremberg . The support of Duke Albert II of Saxony and Elector Palatine Louis II had been purchased by betrothing them to two of Rudolf's daughters. As a result, within the electoral college, King Ottokar II of Bohemia (1230–1278), himself a candidate for the throne and related to the late Hohenstaufen king Philip of Swabia (being the son of

507-635: The Kingdom of France . Rudolf was not very successful in restoring internal peace. Orders were indeed issued for the establishment of territorial peaces in Bavaria , Franconia and Swabia, and at the Synod of Würzburg in March 1287 for the whole Empire. But the king lacked the power, resources, and determination to enforce them, although in December 1289 he led an expedition into Thuringia , where he destroyed

546-561: The imperial bailiwick of Waldstätte (but not as a political entity in its own right). The Federal Charter , internally dated 1291, is thought to originate at this time. In the text, Unterwalden figures as communitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris "community of the men between the mountains of the Lower Valley"; this is usually rendered as "the community of the Lower Valley of Unterwalden" in modern translations, and interpreted as Nidwalden or "Unterwalden proper". Unterwalden

585-612: The 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld . The territories remained under Habsburg rule for more than 600 years, forming the core of the Habsburg monarchy and the present-day country of Austria . Rudolf played a vital role in raising the comital House of Habsburg to the rank of Imperial princes . Rudolf was born on 1 May 1218 at Limburgh Castle near Sasbach am Kaiserstuhl in the Breisgau region of present-day southwestern Germany . He

624-465: The Marchfeld , where Ottokar was defeated and killed. The Margraviate of Moravia was subdued and its government entrusted to Rudolf's representatives, leaving Ottokar's widow Kunigunda of Slavonia in control of only the province surrounding Prague, while the young Wenceslaus II was again betrothed to Rudolf's youngest daughter Judith . Rudolf's attention next turned to the possessions in Austria and

663-518: The absent King Ottokar or anyone else better entitled to it. There were 4 candidates: the favourites Rudolf, Count of Habsburg and Ottakar II of Bohemia (an elector himself), and lesser candidates Siegfried I, Prince of Anhalt and Frederick I, Margrave of Meissen . Count Rudolf was elected without opposition after Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria 's promotion to elector instead Ottakar II. Rudolf's principal voters, Albert II of Saxony and Louis II of Palatinate, were assured by marrying his daughters to

702-547: The adjacent provinces, which were taken into the royal domain. He spent several years establishing his authority there but found some difficulty in establishing his family as successors to the rule of those provinces. At length, the hostility of the princes was overcome. In December 1282, at the Hoftag (imperial diet) in Augsburg , Rudolf invested his sons, Albert and Rudolf II , with the duchies of Austria and Styria and so laid

741-426: The day passed on, Count Rudolf bribed the sentinels of the city and gained entry, killing Hugh in the process. Then in 1244, to help control Lake Lucerne and restrict the neighboring forest communities of Uri , Schwyz and Unterwalden , Rudolf built near its shores Neuhabsburg Castle . In 1245 Rudolf married Gertrude, daughter of Count Burkhard III of Hohenberg . He received as her dowry the castles of Oettingen ,

780-568: The duchies of Austria , Styria and Carinthia together with the March of Carniola , which he had claimed through his first wife, a Babenberg heiress, and which he had seized while disputing them with another Babenberg heir, Margrave Hermann VI of Baden . Rudolf refused to accept Ottokar's succession to the Babenberg patrimony, declaring that the provinces reverted to the Imperial crown due to

819-456: The eldest surviving daughter), was almost alone in opposing Rudolf. Other candidates were Prince Siegfried I of Anhalt and Margrave Frederick I of Meissen (1257–1323), a young grandson of the excommunicated Emperor Frederick II, who did not yet even have a principality of his own as his father was still alive. By the admission of Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria instead of the King of Bohemia as

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858-646: The fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty afforded an opportunity for Count Rudolf to increase his possessions. His wife was a Hohenberg heiress; and on the death of his childless maternal uncle Count Hartmann IV of Kyburg in 1264, Rudolf seized Hartmann's valuable estates. Successful feuds with the Bishops of Strasbourg and Basel further augmented his wealth and reputation, including rights over various tracts of land that he purchased from abbots and others. These various sources of wealth and influence rendered Rudolf

897-575: The first King of Germany of the Habsburg dynasty from 1273 until his death. Rudolf's election marked the end of the Great Interregnum which had begun after the death of the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II in 1250. Originally a Swabian count, he was the first Habsburg to acquire the duchies of Austria and Styria in opposition to his mighty rival, the Přemyslid king Ottokar II of Bohemia , whom he defeated in

936-461: The foundation of the House of Habsburg. Additionally, he made the twelve-year-old Rudolf Duke of Swabia, a merely titular dignity, as the duchy had been without an actual ruler since Conradin 's execution. The 27-year-old Duke Albert, married since 1274 to a daughter of Count Meinhard II of Gorizia-Tyrol (1238–95), was capable enough to hold some sway in the new patrimony. In 1286, King Rudolf fully invested Albert's father-in-law Count Meinhard with

975-622: The inhabitants of which were derived from separate races, those of Obwalden from the " Romans ", those in Nidwalden from the " Cimbri " (viz. Germans ). Unterwalden was restored in the Act of Mediation (1803) with a single constitution, but with two separate capitals, Sarnen and Stans , and two separate cantonal assemblies with equal sovereignty. Unterwalden was a canton of the Restored Swiss Confederacy of 1815, and it

1014-641: The lack of male-line heirs. King Ottokar was placed under the imperial ban ; and in June 1276 war was declared against him. Having persuaded Ottokar's former ally Duke Henry XIII of Lower Bavaria to switch sides, Rudolf compelled the Bohemian king to cede the four provinces to the control of the royal administration in November 1276. Rudolf then re-invested Ottokar with the Kingdom of Bohemia , betrothed one of his daughters to Ottokar's son Wenceslaus II , and made

1053-595: The most powerful prince and noble in southwestern Germany (where the tribal Duchy of Swabia had disintegrated, enabling its vassals to become completely independent). In the autumn of 1273, the prince-electors met to choose a king after Richard of Cornwall had died in England in April 1272. Rudolf's election in Frankfurt on 1 October 1273, when he was 55 years old, was largely due to the efforts of his brother-in-law,

1092-620: The rising power of Rudolf and in an attempt to place the important " Devil's Bridge " ( Teufelsbrücke ) across the Schöllenenschlucht under his direct control, Emperor Frederick II granted Schwyz Reichsfreiheit in the Freibrief von Faenza . In 1242, Hugh of Tuffenstein provoked Count Rudolf through contumelious expressions. In turn, the Count of Habsburg had invaded his domains, yet failed to take his seat of power. As

1131-661: The seventh Elector, Rudolf gained all seven votes. Rudolf was crowned in Aachen Cathedral on 24 October 1273. To win the approbation of the Pope, Rudolf renounced all imperial rights in Rome , the papal territory, and Sicily , and promised to lead a new crusade by taking the crusader's vow in 1275. Pope Gregory X , despite the protests of Ottokar II of Bohemia, not only recognised Rudolf himself, but persuaded King Alfonso X of Castile (another grandson of Philip of Swabia ), who had been chosen German (anti-)king in 1257 as

1170-535: The suburbs of Basle and burnt down the local nunnery, an act for which Pope Innocent IV excommunicated him and all parties involved. As a penance, he took up the cross and joined Ottokar II, King of Bohemia in the Prussian Crusade of 1254 . Whilst there, he oversaw the founding of the city of Königsberg , which was named in memory of King Ottokar. The disorder in Germany during the interregnum after

1209-630: The successor to Count William II of Holland , to do the same. Thus, Rudolf surpassed the two heirs of the Hohenstaufen dynasty whom he had earlier served so loyally. In November 1274, the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg decided that all Crown estates seized since the death of the Emperor Frederick II must be restored, and that King Ottokar II must answer to the Diet for not recognising the new king. Ottokar refused to appear or to restore

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1248-686: The three archbishops, Elector Louis and However, strictly speaking, Ottokar's marriage with the heiress of the Arch-Pincerna dynasty had already ended in annulment, Ottokar was holding as usurper her duchies the Carantanian territories, duchy of Styria and Austria. King Ottokar II did not arrive. The six electors convened on 29 September and summoned the Bavarian Duke to exercise the Carantanian-Bavarian vote instead of

1287-646: The treasury"), which had the effect of negating their political freedoms. Along with many others, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg left Germany with family and followers, but was captured in Lombardy and imprisoned in a fortress in Alsace . Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks silver was raised for him (by the Rosh ), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. Fourteen years after his death

1326-657: The valley of Weile , and other places in Alsace, and he became an important vassal in Swabia, the former Alemannic German stem duchy . That same year, Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated by Pope Innocent IV at the Council of Lyon . Rudolf sided against the Emperor, while the forest communities sided with Frederick. This gave them a pretext to attack and damage Neuhabsburg. Rudolf successfully defended it and drove them off. As

1365-428: Was known as "Unterwalden ob dem Wald", strictly speaking an oxymoron, as it were Subsylvania super silva . From this time, there are also two separate coats of arms for the two half-cantons, the red-and-white flag for Unterwalden proper or Nidwalden, while Obwalden had a silver key in a red field. By the 1640s, these two designs were re-combined in a white-and-red key on a red-and-white field ( per fess gules and argent,

1404-399: Was listed as a canton in the constitution of 1848 , as Unterwalden (ob und nid dem Wald) . The name of Unterwalden has been omitted in the 1999 constitution, with Obwalden und Nidwalden named as two separate cantons. 46°52′N 8°19′E  /  46.87°N 8.31°E  / 46.87; 8.31 Rudolf I of Germany Rudolf I (1 May 1218 – 15 July 1291) was

1443-479: Was married twice. First, in 1251, to Gertrude of Hohenberg and second, in 1284, to Isabelle of Burgundy . All children were from the first marriage. Imperial election of 1273 The imperial election of 1273 was an imperial election held to select the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire . It took place in Frankfurt on October 1. The Holy Roman Empire was in the midst of a period known as

1482-532: Was one of the three participants in the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy , named in the Pact of Brunnen of 1315 with Uri and Schwyz . The division of Unterwalden into two separate territories, Obwalden and Nidwalden , in the early period is less than clear. Their status as two independent Talschaften appears to develop over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, while they retain

1521-494: Was the son of Count Albert IV of Habsburg and Hedwig, daughter of Count Ulrich of Kyburg . Around 1232, he was given as a squire to his uncle, Rudolf I, Count of Laufenburg , to train in knightly pursuits. At his father's death in 1239, Rudolf inherited from him large estates around the ancestral seat of Habsburg Castle in the Aargau region of present-day Switzerland as well as in Alsace . Thus, in 1240, in order to quell

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