Treaty of Neuberg

Habsburg lands (orange), 15th century

In the Treaty of Neuberg, concluded between the Austrian dukes Albert III and Leopold III in 1379, the Habsburg hereditary lands were divided.

Background

Albert and Leopold were the younger brothers of Duke Rudolf IV, who in 1358 had assumed the rule not only over the Austrian duchy, but also over the Duchy of Styria, in personal union with Austria since 1192, and over the Duchy of Carinthia with the adjacent March of Carniola. Rudolf, an energetic monarch struggling with the rivalling Wittelsbach and Luxembourg dynasties, elevated himself to an Austrian archduke by the Privilegium Maius, acquired the County of Tyrol from the last Meinhardiner countess Margraret and added a Duke of Carniola to his titles. Upon his early death in 1365, his brothers inherited a significant cluster of Imperial States stretching from the Habsburg residence Vienna to the dynasty's original Further Austrian possessions in the west, the nucleus of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Rudolf had decreed the joint rule of his heirs by house law, however, his brothers fell out with each other soon after his death. On 9 September 1379 a partition treaty was signed in Neuberg Abbey in Styria:

• Albert and his descendants (Albertinian line, extinct in 1457) retained the Archduchy of Austria proper, i.e. later Upper and Lower Austria;
• Leopold and his descendants (Leopoldian line) became the exclusive ruler of Styria (including the town of Wiener Neustadt), Carinthia, Carniola (enlarged by the Windic and Istrian marches since 1374), Tyrol and Further Austria, as well as acquisitions in Friuli (Austrian Littoral).

Regardless of their territories, all Habsburg rulers would retain the Austrian (arch-)ducal title.

Aftermath

Under Leopold's sons, the Leopoldian possessions were further subdivided into Inner Austria (i.e. Styria, Carinthia, Carniola, and Littoral) and 'Upper Austria' (not to be confused with the present-day Austrian federal state), comprising Tyrol and the Further Austrian lands, from 1406 ruled by Leopold's youngest son Duke Frederick IV.

The split between the Albertinian and Leopoldinian lines of the Habsburg family and the Austrian lands enfeebled the dynasty's position. The Albertinian archduke Albert V of Austria was elected King of the Romans in 1438, nevertheless he died one year later and the line finally became extinct by the death of his son Ladislaus the Posthumous in 1457. The territories were inherited by the Leopoldian archduke Frederick V of Inner Austria, Albert's successor as King of the Romans and from 1452 also Holy Roman Emperor. Finally in 1490, all Habsburg territories were reunified, when Archduke Sigismund handed over the rulership of Tyrol and Further Austria ('Upper Austria') to his Emperor Frederick's son Maximilian I of Austria.

See also

• List of treaties