William ( – 15 July 1406), known as William the Courteous (german: Wilhelm der Freundliche), a member of the

House of Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

and Wilhelm, was Duke of Austria from 1386. As head of the Leopoldian line, he ruled over the Inner Austrian duchies of Carinthia, Styria and Carniola as well as the

County of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised ...

and

Further Austria Further Austria, Outer Austria or Anterior Austria (german: Vorderösterreich, formerly ''die Vorlande'' (pl.)) was the collective name for the early (and later) possessions of the House of Habsburg in the former Swabian stem duchy of south-wes ...

from 1396 until his death.

Biography

Born in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, William was the oldest son of Duke Leopold III of Austria (1351–1386) and his consort

Viridis Visconti Viridis Visconti (1352–1414) was an Italian noblewoman, a daughter of the Lord of Milan, Bernabò Visconti, and his wife Beatrice Regina della Scala. By her marriage to Leopold III, Duke of Austria, Viridis was Duchess consort of Austria, Styria ...

(1352–1414), a daughter of Lord Bernabò of Milan. Leopold III had already acted as regent over the Tyrol and the Further Austrian possessions in Swabia; in 1379 he signed the

Treaty of Neuberg The Treaty of Neuberg, concluded between the Austrian duke Albert III and his brother Leopold III on 25 September 1379, determined the division of the Habsburg hereditary lands into an Albertinian and Leopoldian line. Background Albert and Le ...

with his elder brother Duke Albert III, whereupon he also received the Inner Austrian lands. At the age of 8, William was betrothed to the Anjou princess

Hedwig Hedwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Hedwig (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Grzegorz Hedwig (born 1988), Polish slalom canoeist * Johann Hedwig, (1730–1799), German botanist * Romanus Adol ...

(''Jadwiga''; 1373–1399), the youngest daughter of King Louis I of Hungary, who had also become King of Poland in 1370. This was one of the first attempts of the Habsburgs to extend their dominions by marrying heiresses, as Louis intended his elder daughter

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

and her fiancé Sigismund of Luxembourg to succeed in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, while Jadwiga was designated heir to the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from the Middle Ages into the 20th century. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the coronation of the first king Stephen ...

. When King Louis died in 1382, Mary succeeded in Hungary. However, the Polish nobles rejected Mary and Sigismund, and instead chose Jadwiga as

queen regnant A queen regnant (plural: queens regnant) is a female monarch, equivalent in rank and title to a king, who reigns '' suo jure'' (in her own right) over a realm known as a "kingdom"; as opposed to a queen consort, who is the wife of a reigni ...

. They also repudiated her betrothal to William and enforced the break-up of the engagement. Wilhelm H

The Polish lords did not want to accept Jadwiga's fourteen-year-old fiancé, William of Habsburg, as their sovereign. They thought that the inexperienced William and his Austrian kinsmen could not safeguard Poland's interests against its powerful neighbours, especially the Luxemburgs which controlled Bohemia and

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 sq ...

, and had a strong claim on Hungary. According to Halecki, the lords of Lesser Poland were the first to suggest that Jadwiga should marry the pagan duke Jogaila of Lithuania. Jogaila sent his envoysincluding his brother,

Skirgaila Skirgaila ( la, Schirgalo; be, Скіргайла; pl, Skirgiełło, also known as Ivan/Iwan; ca. 1353 or 1354 – 11 January 1397 in Kiev (Kyiv); baptized 1383/1384 as ''Casimir'') was a regent of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania for his broth ...

, and a German burgher from Riga, Hanul to Kraków to request Jadwiga's hand in January 1385. Jadwiga refused to answer, stating only that her mother would decide. Jogaila's two envoys left for Hungary and met Queen Elizabeth. She informed them that "she would allow whatever was advantageous to Poland and insisted that her daughter and the prelates and nobles of the Kingdom had to do what they considered would benefit Christianity and their kingdom", according to Jan Długosz's chronicle. The nobles from Kraków,

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Prov ...

and Greater Poland assembled in Kraków in June or July and the "majority of the more sensible" voted for the acceptance of Jogaila's marriage proposal. Dymitr z Goraja

In the meantime, William's father, Leopold III hurried to Buda in late July 1385, demanding the consummation of the marriage between William and Jadwiga before 16 August. Queen Elizabeth confirmed the previous agreements about the marriage, ordering Vladislaus II of Opole to make preparations for the ceremony. According to

canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

, Jadwiga's marriage sacrament could only be completed before her twelfth birthday if the competent prelate testified her precocious maturity.

Demetrius Demetrius is the Latinized form of the Ancient Greek male given name ''Dēmḗtrios'' (), meaning “Demetris” - "devoted to goddess Demeter". Alternate forms include Demetrios, Dimitrios, Dimitris, Dmytro, Dimitri, Dimitrie, Dimitar, Dumi ...

, Archbishop of Esztergom, issued the necessary document. William went to Kraków in the first half of August, but his entry to Wawel Castle was barred. Długosz states that Jadwiga and William would only be able to meet in the nearby

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

convent. Contemporary or nearly contemporaneous records of the completion of the marriage between William and Jadwiga are contradictory and unclear. The official accounts of the municipal authorities of Kraków record that on 23 August 1385 an amnesty was granted to the prisoners in the city jail on the occasion of the celebration of the Queen's marriage. On the other hand, a contemporary Austrian chronicle, the ''Continuatio Claustroneubuzgis'' states that the Poles had tried to murder William before he consummated the marriage. In the next century, Długosz states that William was "removed in a shameful and offensive manner and driven from the castle" after he entered "the Queen's bedchamber"; but the same chronicler also mentions that Jadwiga was well aware that "many people knew she had for a fortnight shared her bed with Duke William and that there had been physical consummation". On the night when William entered the queen's bedchamber, a group of Polish noblemen broke into the castle, forcing William to flee, according to Długosz. After this humiliation, Długosz continues, Jadwiga decided to leave Wawel and join William, but the gate of the castle was locked. She called for "an axe and riedto break it open", but

Dymitr of Goraj Dymitr of Goraj, Lublin Voivodeship, Goraj ( pl, Dymitr z Goraja, links=no) (c.1340–1400) of Korczak coat of arms, Clan Korczak was a Grand Crown Marshal from 1390 and Podskarbi, Court Treasurer in the years 1364–1370 and 1377–1391 ...

convinced her to return to the castle. Oscar Halecki says that Długosz's narrative "cannot be dismissed as a romantic legend";

Robert I. Frost Robert I. Frost (born 1958) is a British historian and academic.Battle of Sempach. William and his brother Leopold IV succeeded him as Duke of

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, ruling jointly with their uncle Albert III. A fierce inheritance dispute arose when Duke Albert III died in 1395 and was succeeded by his only son Albert IV, William's first cousin. An agreement was reached in the following year, based on the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, whereupon William left the rule over Austria proper to Albert IV and, as eldest members of the Habsburg Leopoldian line, went on to rule over the three Inner Austrian duchies and the County of Tyrol taking his residence in Graz. In 1401, William married another presumptive heiress, Princess Joanna of Naples, Hedwig's cousin and also of Angevin descent. The marriage did not produce any offspring and William did not live to see his wife succeed her brother

Ladislaus of Naples Ladislaus the Magnanimous ( it, Ladislao, hu, László; 15 February 1377 – 6 August 1414) was King of Naples from 1386 until his death and an unsuccessful claimant to the kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia. Ladislaus was a skilled political and m ...

as Queen Joanna II in 1414. In 1404, his cousin Albert IV died, leaving the lands of the elder

Albertinian line {{Unreferenced, date=December 2009 The Albertinian line was a line of the Habsburg dynasty, begun by Duke Albert III of Austria, who, after death of his elder brother Rudolf IV, divided the Habsburg hereditary lands with his brother Leopold III b ...

to his seven-year-old son Duke

Albert V Albert V may refer to: *Albert V, Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg (ca. mid-1330s–1370) *Albert V, Duke of Mecklenburg (1397–1423) *Albert II of Germany (1397–1439), Albert V as Duke of Austria *Albert V, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau (died c. 1469) *Albert ...

. William acted as an Austrian

regent A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

and again tried to take the Albertinian territories from his minor nephew, but did not succeed before his death. William died in 1406 without heirs in Vienna. He is buried in the Ducal Crypt in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. Upon his death, another division of the Habsburg hereditary lands took place, whereafter William's brother Leopold IV took over the regency in Austria proper, the third-born Ernest the Iron inherited the Inner Austrian duchies, and Frederick IV, the youngest, Tyrol and Further Austria.

Ancestors

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:William, Duke of Austria 1370s births 1406 deaths 14th-century dukes of Austria 15th-century dukes of Austria Dukes of Styria Dukes of Carinthia Counts of Tyrol Dukes of Carniola Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna