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Archdukes
Through the forged document called privilegium maius (1358/59), issued by Duke Rudolph IV of Austria (1339–1365) it introduced the title of Archduke in order to place the Habsburgs on an equal status with the Prince-Electors of the Empire, since Emperor Charles IV had omitted to give them the Electoral dignity two years prior in his Golden Bull of 1356.
Emperor Charles IV, however, refused to recognize the title, as did his immediate successor and son, Count Sigismund of Luxembourg, future Holy Roman Emperor.
In 1357 Duke Rudolph IV of Austria was married to Catherine of Bohemia, also known as Catherine of Luxembourg, the second daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and Blanche de Valois of France the youngest daughter of Charles de Valois of France and his third wife Mahaut of Châtillon.
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, Duke Rudolph IV desired to raise the importance of his residence Vienna to a comparable or greater physical height.
The forged privilegium maius, trying to raise the importance of his residence in Vienna, along with his attempts to make Vienna the seat of its own diocese, a status that they considered appropriate for the capital of a duchy, are viewed as further attempts to raise the status of House of Habsburg and the Duchy of Austria.
Duke Rudolph IV, his brothers Albrecht III and Leopold III divided the Austrian domains between themselves, in accordance with the Treaty of Neuberg, signed in 1379.
Albrecht III retained Austria proper, while Leopold III took the remaining territories.
Duke Ernst II the Iron of Austria was the third son of Duke Leopold III of Austria (1351–1386) and his consort Viridis Visconti (d. 1414), a daughter of Bernabò Visconti, Lord of Milan.
Shortly after his birth, his father and his uncle Duke Albrecht III divided the Habsburg lands by the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg: while Duke Albrecht III and his Albertinian descendants would rule over the Duchy of Austria proper, the Leopoldian line received the Inner Austrian states of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola with the remaining March of Istria, as well as Tyrol and the Further Austrian possessions.
After Duke Leopold III’s death in the 1386 Battle of Sempach, young Ernst and his brothers Wilhelm, Leopold IV and Friedrich IV remained under the guardianship of their uncle Albrecht III.
In 1402, there was another split in the Leopoldian line, when Duke Ernst II the Iron took Inner Austria (i.e. the duchies of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola) and Duke Friedrich IV became the ruler of Tyrol and Further Austria. The partitions decisively weakened the Habsburg position, in favour of their rivals from the Luxembourg and Wittelsbach dynasties.
In 1407, however, conflicts between Leopold III and Ernst II resulted in a civil war that lasted until May 1409. When Leopold III died without male heirs in 1411, Ernst II finally became the uncontested head of the Leopoldian branch.
In 1414, Ernst became the last Duke to be enthroned according to Carantanian traditional rite at the Prince’s Stone in Carinthia, and from that time on called himself ‘archduke’. He was the first Habsburg to actually use this title, since it had been invented by his uncle Duke Rudolph IV.
That title Archduke was only officially recognized in 1453 by Emperor Friedrich III, himself a Habsburg. Friedrich III himself used just “Duke of Austria”, never Archduke, until his death in 1493.
The title was first granted to Emperor Friedrich III’s younger brother, Duke Albrecht VI of Austria (died 1463), who used it at least from 1458. In 1477, Friedrich III granted the title Archduke to his first cousin Sigismund of Austria, ruler of Further Austria.
Emperor Friedrich III’s son and heir, the future Emperor Maximilian I, apparently only started to use the title after the death of his wife Mary of Burgundy in 1482, as Archduke never appears in documents issued jointly by Maximilian and Mary as rulers in the Low Countries (where Maximilian is still titled “Duke of Austria”). The title appears first in documents issued under the joint rule of Maximilian and Philipp (his under-age son) in the Low Countries.
Archduke was initially borne by those dynasts who ruled an Habsburg territory, i.e., only by males and their consorts, appanages being commonly distributed to Cadets . These “junior” Archdukes did not thereby become independent hereditary rulers, since all territories remained vested in the Austrian crown.
Occasionally a territory might be combined with a separate gubernatorial mandate ruled by an archducal cadet.
From the 16th century onward, archduke and its female form, archduchess, came to be used by all the members of the House of Habsburg (e.g., Queen Marie Antoinette of France was born Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria).
Charles of Austria’s father Archduke Philipp of Austria was never a reigning Archduke of Austria since he predeceased his father, Emperor Maximilian I.
Therefore when Emperor Maximilian died on January 12, 1519, Charles inherited the Austrian Hereditary Lands as Archduke Charles I of Austria.