use
Margaret, expelled the Bavarians and took possession of the whole
country. Gertrude fled to Bela, King of Hungary, whose uncle Roman, a
Russian prince, she married, and ceded to him her pretensions on
Styria, on condition that he should assert her right to Austria. A war
ensued between Ottocar and the King of Hungary, in which Ottocar,
being defeated, was compelled to cede part of Styria to Stephen, son
of Bela, and a small district of that country was appropriated for the
maintenance of Gertrude. But the Hungarian governors being guilty of
the most enormous exactions the natives of Styria rose and transferred
their allegiance to Ottocar, who secured that duchy by defeating Bela
at Cressenbrum, and by the treaty of peace which followed that
victory. Ottocar had scarcely obtained possession of Styria before he
deprived Gertrude of her small pittance, and the unfortunate princess
took refuge from his tyranny in a convent of Misnia. Having thus
secured Austria and Styria, and ascended the throne of Bohemia,
Ottocar divorced Margaret, who was much older than himself; and to
acquire that right of succession of Frederick the Warlike which he had
lost by this separation from his wife he, in 1262, procured from
Richard of Cornwall the investiture of Austria, Styria, and Carniola,
as fiefs devolved to the empire. He either promised or gave
compensation to Agnes, daughter of Gertrude by Herman of Baden, and to
Henry, Margrave of Misnia, husband of Constantia.

Ottocar next purchased of Ulric, Duke of Carinthia and Carniola, who
had no issue, the right of succeeding to those duchies on his death.
In the deed of transfer, instituted December, 1268, Ulric describes
himself as without heirs; although his brother Philip, Archbishop of
Salzburg, was still living. On the death of Ulric, in 1269 or 1270,
Ottocar took possession of those duchies, defeated Philip, who
asserted his claims, and forced the natives to submit to his
authority.

By these accessions of territory, Ottocar became the most powerful
prince of Europe, for his dominions extended from the confines of
Bavaria to Raab in Hungary, and from the Adriatic to the shores of the
Baltic. On the contrary, the hereditary possessions of Rudolph were
comparatively inconsiderable, remote from the scene of contest, and
scattered at the foot of the Alps and in the mountains of Alsace and
Swabia; and though head of the empire, he was seated on a tottering
throne, and feebly suppor