The Babenberg March — Austria Given a Ruling House
Emperor Otto II granted the March of Austria to Leopold of Babenberg in 976, beginning a dynasty that ruled the territory for 270 years. The march was a frontier district on the Danube, established after Otto the Great destroyed the Magyars at Lechfeld in 955 and reopened the eastern approaches to settlement. Its purpose was defensive: to hold the river line against Hungary and to organise colonisation behind it. The grant to Leopold came at the expense of Henry the Quarrelsome, Duke of Bavaria, who had rebelled against the emperor. Austria was carved out of Bavaria as a punishment and given to a loyal count of uncertain origins, probably from Franconia. The name appears shortly afterwards. A document of 996 refers to the region as Ostarrîchi — eastern realm — which is the first attestation of the word that became Österreich, and the millennium of it was celebrated in 1996. The Babenbergs expanded east and south steadily, moved their residence from Melk to Klosterneuburg and finally to Vienna, and founded the abbeys that did much of the settlement work. The Privilegium Minus of 1156 raised the march to a duchy with unusual privileges, including inheritance in the female line and near-exemption from imperial obligations — the basis of Austrian claims to a distinct status within the empire. They acquired Styria in 1192. The line ended in 1246 when Frederick the Warlike was killed fighting the Hungarians without an heir. The Habsburgs took the duchy in 1278 and held it until 1918. Austria has treated 976 as the beginning of its statehood ever since.
- Year: 976 CE
- Category: Political
