View source for Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria

{{Short description|Duke of Austria (1358–1365)}}
{{more citations needed|date=February 2013}}
{{infobox royalty
| name         = Rudolf IV
| image        = Rudolf IV.jpg
| caption      = The first half-frontal portrait of [[the Occident]]. It had been on display above Rudolf's grave in the [[Stephansdom]] of Vienna for several decades after his death, but can now be seen in the Museum of the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna]]. Apart from the (invented) archducal crown, the foreshortening of which the artist did not completely master, the portrait is completely realistic. Even the duke's incipient [[facial palsy]] is shown.
| succession   = [[Duke of Austria]]
| reign        = 1358–1365
| predecessor  = [[Albert II, Duke of Austria|Albert II]]
| successor    = [[Albert III, Duke of Austria|Albert III]] & [[Leopold III, Duke of Austria|Leopold III]]
| spouse       = [[Catherine of Luxembourg]]
| issue        =
| house        = [[House of Habsburg]]
| father       = [[Albert II, Duke of Austria]]
| mother       = [[Joanna of Pfirt]]
| birth_date   = 1 November 1339
| birth_place  = [[Vienna]]
| death_date   = {{death date and age|1365|7|27|1339|11|1|df=yes}}
| death_place  = [[Milan]]
| burial_place = [[Ducal Crypt, Vienna]]
}}
[[Image:Rudolph4 of Austria Epitaph.png|thumb|''The decipherment of the epitaph'' accompanying the cenotaph, or symbolic tomb, of Duke Rudolph IV in the ''Stephansdom'' in Vienna. The translation of the secret writing into English is "This is the sepulchre of Rudolph, by the Grace of God, Duke and Founder" and "Almighty God and great lord Jesus Christ, a shepherd." Rudolf was, in fact, never buried within the almost-solid stone structure, but in the [[Ducal Crypt, Vienna|Ducal Crypt of the Stephansdom]] in [[Vienna]]. The text is written using the [[Alphabetum Kaldeorum]], a code he probably invented.]]
[[File:Wien - Stephansdom, Herzogsgruft (2).JPG|thumb|upright|Coffin of Rudolf and his wife in the [[Ducal Crypt, Vienna]]]]
'''Rudolf IV''' (1 November 1339 – 27 July 1365), also called '''Rudolf the Founder''' ({{langx|de|der Stifter}}), was a scion of the [[House of Habsburg]] who ruled as [[duke of Austria]] (self-proclaimed [[archduke]]), [[Duke of Styria|Styria]] and [[Duke of Carinthia|Carinthia]] from 1358, as well as [[count of Tyrol]] from 1363 and as the first [[duke of Carniola]] from 1364 until his death. After the Habsburgs received nothing from the decree of the [[Golden Bull of 1356|Golden Bull]] in 1356, he gave order to draw up the "[[Privilegium Maius]]", a fake document to empower the Austrian rulers.
==Early life==
Born in [[Vienna]], Rudolf was the eldest son of Duke [[Albert II of Austria]] and [[Joanna of Pfirt]]. One of the third generation of Habsburg dukes in Austria, he was the first to be born within the duchy. Therefore, he considered Austria his home, a sentiment that no doubt communicated itself to his subjects and contributed to his popularity. Faced with the Habsburgs' loss of the Imperial crown upon the assassination of his grandfather King [[Albert I of Germany]] in 1308, Rudolf was one of the most energetic and active rulers of [[Duchy of Austria|Austria]] in the late [[Middle Ages]], and it was said of him that as a young man he already had the air of a king.
== Rule ==
[[File:Rudolph IV of Austria.jpg|left|thumb|Rudolph IV of Austria]]
In 1357 he was married to [[Catherine of Bohemia]], daughter of [[Emperor Charles IV]].<ref name="Jaschke102">{{cite book |chapter=From Famous Empresses to Unspectacular Queens |first=Karl-Ulrich |last=Jaschke |title=Queens and Queenship in Medieval Europe |editor-first=Anne J. |editor-last=Duggan |publisher=The Boydell Press |year=1997 |page=102 |isbn=9780851158815 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8uJVS6cBOrgC&pg=PA102 }}</ref> Eager to compete with his mighty father-in-law, who had made the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] and its capital [[Prague]] a radiant center of Imperial culture, Rudolf desired to raise the importance of his residence Vienna to a comparable or greater height.
For more than a century, the Habsburg dukes had chafed at the popes' failure to make Vienna the seat of its own [[diocese]], a status that they considered appropriate for the capital of a duchy. Instead the city parish was subordinate to the bishops of [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Passau|Passau]], who had excellent connections to the [[pope]], apparently dooming Vienna's prospects in this regard. Rudolf, however, resorted to something which could be considered imposture: He initiated the creation of a "metropolitan  cathedral [[chapter (religion)|chapter]]" at the church of [[St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna|St. Stephen]] (which, according to the name, should be assigned to a bishop), whose members wore red garments as [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]s do. The [[provost (religion)|provost]] of the chapter received the title of an "[[archchancellor]] of Austria".
Rudolf extended St. Stephen's Cathedral, with the construction of its [[Gothic architecture|gothic]] [[nave]] being started under Rudolf's rule. The construction efforts can be seen as an attempt to compete with [[St. Vitus Cathedral]] in Prague. Rudolf had himself and his wife depicted on a [[cenotaph]] at the cathedral's entrance.
Similarly, by founding the [[University of Vienna]] in 1365,<ref>{{cite book |last=Kann |first=Robert A. |title=A History of the Habsburg Empire 1526–1918 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1977 |page=15 |isbn=9780520042063 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cG570mijBF4C&pg=PA15 }}</ref> Rudolf sought to match Charles IV's founding of the [[Charles University of Prague]] in 1348. Still known as ''Alma Mater Rudolphina'' today, the University of Vienna is the oldest continuously operating [[university]] in the [[German language|German-speaking world]]. However, a faculty of [[theology]], which was considered crucial for a university at that time, was not established until 1385, twenty years after Rudolf's death.
To improve the [[economy of Vienna]], Rudolf introduced many other measures, including the supervision by the [[mayor]] of sales of real property, instituted to prevent sales to the ''dead hand'', ''i.e.'', to prevent economically unproductive ownership by the Church. Rudolf also managed to establish a relatively stable [[currency]], the so-called ''Wiener Pfennig'' (Vienna Penny).
Rudolf is best known for another bluff, the [[forgery]] of the [[Privilegium Maius]], which ''[[de facto]]'' put him on par with the seven [[Prince-elector]]s of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], compensating for Austria's failure to receive an electoral vote in the [[Golden Bull of 1356]] issued by [[Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles IV]]. The title of [[Archduke]] (''Erzherzog''), invented by Rudolf, became an honorific title of all males of the [[House of Habsburg]] from the [[16th century]].
In 1363, Rudolf entered into a contract of inheritance with Countess [[Margaret, Countess of Tyrol|Margaret of Gorizia-Tyrol]] upon the death of her only son, [[Meinhard III of Gorizia-Tyrol|Meinhard III]]. The [[County of Tyrol]] came under Austrian rule after her death in 1369 since Margraret's brother-in-law Duke [[Stephen II, Duke of Bavaria|Stephen II of Bavaria]] had invaded the country. In 1364, Rudolf declared the [[Carinthia|Carinthian]] [[March of Carniola]] a [[Duchy of Carniola|duchy]] and the next year established the town of [[Novo Mesto]] in the [[Windic March]] (in what would later be known as [[Lower Carniola]], in present-day [[Slovenia]]), whose German name ''Rudolfswert'' was given in his honor. In the same time, he concluded another contract of inheritance with his father-in-law Emperor Charles IV, providing for mutual inheritance between the Habsburg and [[House of Luxembourg|Luxembourg]] dynasties.
== Death ==
In spite of the high-flying and sometimes megalomaniac  character of his plans, he managed to modernize his territories and his city, the prominence of which considerably increased. Rudolf died suddenly at [[Milan]] in 1365 aged 25.<ref name="Jaschke102" /> His and his wife's remains are buried at the [[Ducal Crypt]] underneath the ''Stephansdom'' in Vienna.<ref name="Jaschke102" />
His untimely death without issue halted further progress, however. His younger brothers [[Albert III, Duke of Austria|Albert III]] and [[Leopold III, Duke of Austria|Leopold III]], who were to rule jointly under the ''Rudolfinische Hausordnung'' (Rudolfinian House Rules), began to quarrel ceaselessly and ultimately agreed to divide the Habsburg territories between them according to the 1379 [[Treaty of Neuberg]]. It was Leopold's descendant [[Frederick V of Austria]], elected [[King of the Romans]] in 1440 and sole ruler over all Austrian lands from 1457, who reaped the fruit of Rudolf's efforts and laid the foundations of the [[Habsburg monarchy]].
==Male-line family tree==
{{Habsburg family tree}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{citation |surname1=[[Alfons Huber]] |title=Geschichte des Herzogs Rudolf IV. von Oesterreich |publisher=Wagner’sche Universitäts-Buchhandlung |year=1865 |language=de |url={{Google books|dZMAAAAAcAAJ|plainurl=y}}}}
* {{Cite ADB|29|544|547|Rudolf IV. (1339 bis 1365)|Alfons Huber|ADB:Rudolf IV. (1339 bis 1365)}}
* {{cite book|first=Wilhelm|last= Baum|title=Rudolf IV. der Stifter. Seine Welt und seine Zeit|publisher =Graz-Wien-Köln|year=1996}}
* {{NDB|22|179|180|Rudolf IV.|Heinz Dopsch|11860368X}}
* Wilhelm Baum (1996). ''Rudolf IV. der Stifter. Seine Welt und seine Zeit''. Styria, Graz, {{ISBN|3-222-12422-1}}
* {{Nömuseum|p|110}}
==External links==
{{Commons category|Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria}}
*[http://www.dommuseum.at Website of the Museum of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna]
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{{s-reg}}
{{s-bef | rows=2 | before=[[Albert II, Duke of Austria|Albert II]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Margrave of Carniola]] | years=1358–1364}}
{{s-non| reason=Elevated to duchy}}
|-
{{s-ttl | title=[[Duke of Austria]],<br>[[Duke of Styria|Styria]] and [[Duke of Carinthia|Carinthia]]| years=1358–1365}}
{{s-aft | rows=3 | after=[[Albert III, Duke of Austria|Albert III]]|after2=[[Leopold III, Duke of Austria|Leopold III]]}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Meinhard III]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Count of Tyrol]] | years=1363–1365}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Duke of Carniola]] | years=1364–1365}}
{{s-break}}
{{s-end}}
{{Rulers of Austria}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudolf Iv, Duke Of Austria}}
[[Category:1339 births|Rudolf 4 of Austria]]
[[Category:1365 deaths|Rudolf 4 of Austria]]
[[Category:14th-century dukes of Austria]]
[[Category:Dukes of Styria|Rudolf 4]]
[[Category:Dukes of Carinthia|Rudolf 4]]
[[Category:Counts of Tyrol|Rudolf 4]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna]]
[[Category:Nobility from Vienna]]