Battle on the Marchfeld decides central Europe

August 26, 1278

Rudolf of Habsburg, allied with Hungary, defeated and killed Ottokar II of Bohemia in a clash east of Vienna. The Bohemian king had briefly built a central European empire; his death handed the duchy of Austria to the Habsburgs, who would hold it for six centuries. The battle's outcome determined that the Habsburgs, not the Premyslids, would dominate central Europe for the rest of the medieval era.