König von Böhmen Ottokar II

Ottokar II, König von Böhmen, or Otakar (c.1230-78, nr. Dürnkrut, Marchfeld), was a son of King Wenceslas I and grandson of Ottokar I. Ottokar came to the throne in 1253 and was able during the Interregnum to acquire the duchies of Austria, Styria, Krain, and Carinthia. In his attempt to found a huge east European state he warred against the heathen Prussians and Lithuanians and founded Königsberg (which owes its name to him). His reign was marked by good administration and the economic growth of his territories, especially of Bohemia. In the end Ottokar overreached himself, seeking to become German King (see Deutscher König) and being passed over in 1273 in favour of Rudolf of Habsburg (see Rudolf I). In 1274 he ignored an order to restore the lands seized since 1254, and in 1276 he was defeated and forced to make humiliating submission to Rudolf. He is said to have knelt in his regalia to Rudolf who sat in a workmanlike leather jerkin. In 1278 Ottokar rose again and was defeated on the Marchfeld near Dürnkrut. He was waylaid and killed while fleeing from the battlefield.

Ottokar's conflict with Rudolf has been portrayed in Rudolf von Habsburg und Ottokar by A. von Kotzebue (1815) and, more notably, by F. Grillparzer in König Ottokars Glück und Ende (1825).