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| | Germany, the Stem Duchies & Marches |
 | | The numbering of the names cannot be accounted for without listing all the Alberts, Rudolfs, Ottos, Fredericks, and Leopolds, some of whom figure in junior lines or who died young and who cannot be considered to have discharged serious responsibilities of rule (and the numbers all restart from I after the acquisition of Austria). |
 | | Rudolf IV of Hapsburg got himself elected Emperor, the first after the Great Interregnum (1254-1273) which followed the fall of the Hohenstaufen, and used his power to obtain the Duchy of Austria, killing Ottokar II, Duke of Austria and King of Bohemia, at the Battle of Dürnkrut in 1278. |
 | | What Rudolf did do effectively began to lay the foundations for the power of an Emperor Dante would have loved, the Hapsburg Charles V, who brought the power of Spain to bear on Europe and who humbled Popes (his army even sacked Rome in 1527). |
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