Rudolf IV of Austria

Rudolf IV, called the Founder, ruled Austria for only seven years and reshaped it by forgery. He succeeded his father Albert II in 1358, at eighteen, into a situation he found intolerable: the Golden Bull of 1356 had fixed the seven prince-electors of the Empire and the Habsburgs were not among them. His answer was the Privilegium Maius, a set of documents produced in his chancery purporting to be ancient imperial grants, which raised the duke of Austria to an archduke with rights close to an elector's. His father-in-law the Emperor Charles IV had them examined by Petrarch, who declared them false, and refused to confirm them. Rudolf used the title anyway. His successors kept using it, and in 1453 an emperor who was himself a Habsburg confirmed the forgeries; Archduke remained an Austrian title until 1918. The rest of his short reign was as consequential. He founded the University of Vienna in 1365, the oldest in the German-speaking world still operating. He began the rebuilding of St Stephen's Cathedral and its south tower, and is buried there. He acquired Tyrol in 1363, which linked the Habsburg lands to their Swiss origins and to Italy. He also reformed Vienna's taxes and guilds. He died at Milan in 1365, aged twenty-five. He also invented an elaborate ceremonial for his own court, including a crown of his own design, to make the archducal claim look established rather than new. His marriage to Charles IV's daughter Catherine produced no children, and he was succeeded by his brothers Albert III and Leopold III, who divided the Habsburg lands between them within a decade and undid much of what he had gathered. The Privilegium Maius is now the most famous forgery in Austrian history, and it worked.

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