Interesting facts

In the morning of 26 August 1278, two cavalry divisions awaited their orders, just three kilometres apart, near the town of Dürnkrut. The army coming from the north was poised on ‘Chruter field’ near Jedenspeigen, led by the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl. At the head of the division coming from the south was Rudolf von Habsburg, with 9000 horsemen, including armoured cavalry and mounted archers. In Marchegg they were fortified by a division from the allied Hungarian king Ladislaus IV. A peace treaty between Ottokar and Rudolf had lasted two years, but then they became bitter enemies. The strugglefor supremacy over the Holy Roman Empire and Austria was to be achieved in a final decisive battle. The respective leaders personally accompanied their armies to the battlefield. It was allegedly Rudolf’s tradition to win battles on Fridays. And this pattern was indeed confirmed. A side offensive by his troops put the Bohemian warriors on the defensive. Many of them drowned in the Morava while trying to flee. Ottokar also fled and was reportedly killed by his enemies. This could hardly be considered a fitting end to the life of a knight. Now the ascendancy of the Habsburgs as a powerful European dynasty had begun.