Matilda of Habsburg

Matilda of Habsburg
Duchess consort of Bavaria
Tenure	1273–1294
Born	1253
Died	23 December 1304 Munich, Bavaria
Spouse	Louis II, Duke of Bavaria
Issue	Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria Agnes, Margravine of Brandenburg Matilda, Duchess of Braunschweig-Lüneburg
House	House of Habsburg
Father	Rudolph I of Germany
Mother	Gertrude of Hohenburg

Matilda of Habsburg or Melchilde (1253 in Rheinfelden^[1] – 23 December 1304 in Munich, Bavaria) was the eldest daughter of Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenburg. She was regent of Bavaria in the minority of her son.

Marriage

On the 24 October 1273, Matilda married Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, in Aachen, she was his third and final wife. There was a large age difference, Louis was twenty three years older than Matilda.

Matilda and Louis had the following children:

1. Agnes (d. 1345), married to:
   1. 1290 in Donauwörth Landgrave Henry the Younger of Hesse;
   2. 1298/1303 Henry I "Lackland", Margrave of Brandenburg.
2. Rudolf I (4 October 1274, Basle – 12 August 1319)
3. Mechthild (1275 – 28 March 1319, Lüneburg), married 1288 to Duke Otto II of Brunswick-Lüneburg
4. Louis IV (1 April 1282, Munich – 11 October 1347 in Puch, near Fürstenfeldbruck).

Widowhood and regency

On her husband's death in 1294, Matilda acted as regent for her young son Rudolf. A decision was made for Matilda to take part of the duchy and her son to take the other part. Matilda took a large part of Upper Bavaria while her son took the cities such as: Ingolstadt, Neuberg, Langenfeld and Rietberg. Within a couple of years her son came of age and ruled the kingdom by himself.

Though Matilda had her younger son, Louis partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolf I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of Matilda and her brother King Albert I, he quarreled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria. A civil war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.

Matilda and Rudolf continued to be at odds and in 1302 Matilda was arrested by Rudolf and brought to Munich, where she signed an agreement promising never to interfere in the government again, but as soon as she was outside the borders of Bavaria, Matilda declared the agreement null and void, and got the support of her brother, Albert, Louis the Bavarian and others.^[2]

Matilda's son, Louis defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Handsome. Originally, he was a friend of Frederick, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the tutelage over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria (Henry XIV, Otto IV and Henry XV) was entrusted to Frederick. On November 9, 1313, Frederick was beaten by Louis in the Battle of Gamelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage.^[3]

Matilda died on 23 December 1304 at Munich, Bavaria.

Ancestry

References