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Frederick the Handsome (German: Friedrich der Schöne) or the Fair, from the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria and Styria from 1308 as Frederick I as well as King of Germany (King of the Romans) from 1314 (anti-king until 1325) as Frederick III until his death.
He was born in Vienna, the second son of King Albert I of Germany by his wife Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, a scion of the Meinhardiner dynasty, and thereby a grandson of the first Habsburg king of Germany Rudolph I.
Still a minor, he and his elder brother Rudolph III had been vested with the duchies of Austria and Styria by their father in 1298. Upon Rudolph's early death in 1307 and the assassination of his father in 1308, he became the ruler of the Austrian and Styrian duchies on behalf of himself and his younger brothers. The royal title held by his father and grandfather however passed to Count Henry VII of Luxembourg, who was elected by six of seven votes, contrived by the mighty Archchancellor Peter von Aspelt, Elector and Prince-Archbishop of Mainz, a fierce opponent of late King Albert. Frederick had to abjure all claims to the German crown and in turn received the official affirmation of his fiefs by King Henry.
Originally, he was a friend of his cousin Louis IV of Wittelsbach, who also had been raised at the Austrian court in Vienna. However, armed conflict arose between them when tutelage over the young sons of Louis' cousin, late Duke Stephen I of Lower Bavaria was entrusted to Frederick by local nobles in 1313. Frederick took the occasion to enlarge his reach of power, invaded the Bavarian lands, but was beaten by Louis at the Battle of Gammelsdorf on 9 November 1313, and had to renounce the tutelage.
After Leopold's death in 1326, Frederick actually withdrew from the regency of Germany and returned to rule only in Austria and Styria. He died on 13 January 1330, at Gutenstein Castle in the Wienerwald range, and was buried at Mauerbach Charterhouse, which he had founded. |
