Duchy of Austria

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Duchy of Austria Herzogtum Österreich (German)
1156–1453
Banner of arms Ducal Shield
Map of the Austrian duchy in the 13th century: Austria proper shown in solid red, the Duchy of Styria, an Austrian possession since 1192, in hatched red. The pale highlighted area roughly corresponds with the anachronistic Austrian Circle (est. 1512), and is merely for context. The rest of the Holy Roman Empire is shown in pale orange.
Status	Duchy, within the Holy Roman Empire
Capital	Vienna
Common languages	Austro-Bavarian, German, Medieval Latin
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Demonym(s)	Austrian
Government	Feudal Germanic duchy
Duke of Austria
• 1141–1177	Henry II (first duke, from 1156)
• 1230–1246	Frederick II (last Babenberg duke)
• 1251–1276	Ottokar (Přemyslid dynasty)
• 1282–1291	Albert I (first Habsburg duke)
• 1440–1457	Ladislaus I (last duke, archduke from 1453)
Historical era	Middle Ages
• Privilegium Minus	17 September 1156
• Georgenberg Pact	17 August 1186
• Battle on the Marchfeld	26 August 1278
• Privilegium Maius	1358/59
• Treaty of Neuberg	25 September 1379
• Archduchy recognized	6 January 1453
ISO 3166 code	AT
Preceded by Succeeded by Margraviate of Austria Duchy of Styria under Babenbergs Archduchy of Austria

The Duchy of Austria (German: Herzogtum Österreich) was a medieval principality of the Holy Roman Empire, established in 1156 by the Privilegium Minus, when the Margraviate of Austria (Ostarrîchi) was detached from Bavaria and elevated to a duchy in its own right.^[1] After the ruling dukes of the House of Babenberg became extinct in male line, there was as much as three decades of rivalry on inheritance and rulership, until the German king Rudolf I took over the dominion as the first monarch of the Habsburg dynasty in 1276. Thereafter, Austria became the patrimony and ancestral homeland of the dynasty and the nucleus of the Habsburg monarchy. In 1453, the archducal title of the Austrian rulers, invented by Duke Rudolf IV in the forged Privilegium Maius of 1359, was officially acknowledged by the Habsburg emperor Frederick III.