Tenure 1273–1294 House House of Habsburg Name Matilda Habsburg | Mother Gertrude of Hohenburg Father Rudolph I of Germany | |
 | ||
Issue Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria
Agnes, Margravine of Brandenburg
Matilda, Duchess of Braunschweig-Luneburg Died December 23, 1304, Munich, Germany Spouse Louis II, Duke of Bavaria (m. 1273) Children Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolf I, Duke of Bavaria, Agnes of Bavaria, Margravine of Brandenburg-Stendal Parents Gertrude of Hohenburg, Rudolf I of Germany Similar People Rudolf I of Germany, Louis IV - Holy Roman E, Albert I of Germany | ||
Matilda of Habsburg or Melchilde (1253 in Rheinfelden – 23 December 1304 in Munich, Bavaria) was the eldest daughter of Rudolph I of Germany and Gertrude of Hohenburg. She was regent of Bavaria in the minority of her son.
Contents
Marriage
On 24 October 1273, Matilda married Louis II, Duke of Bavaria, in Aachen, she was his third and final wife. There was a large age difference, Louis was twenty three years older than Matilda.
Matilda and Louis had the following children:
- Agnes (d. 1345), married to:
- 1290 in Donauwörth Landgrave Henry the Younger of Hesse;
- 1298/1303 Henry I "Lackland", Margrave of Brandenburg.
- Rudolf I (4 October 1274, Basle – 12 August 1319).
- Mechthild (1275 – 28 March 1319, Lüneburg), married 1288 to Duke Otto II of Brunswick-Lüneburg.
- Louis IV (1 April 1282, Munich – 11 October 1347 in Puch, near Fürstenfeldbruck).
Widowhood and regency
On her husband's death in 1294, Matilda acted as regent for her young son Rudolf. A decision was made for Matilda to take part of the duchy and her son to take the other part. Matilda took a large part of Upper Bavaria while her son took the cities such as: Ingolstadt, Neuberg, Langenfeld and Rietberg. Within a couple of years her son came of age and ruled the kingdom by himself.
Though Matilda had her younger son, Louis partly educated in Vienna and became co-regent of his brother Rudolf I in Upper Bavaria in 1301 with the support of Matilda and her brother King Albert I, he quarreled with the Habsburgs from 1307 over possessions in Lower Bavaria. A civil war against his brother Rudolf due to new disputes on the partition of their lands was ended in 1313, when peace was made at Munich.
Matilda and Rudolf continued to be at odds and in 1302 Matilda was arrested by Rudolf and brought to Munich, where she signed an agreement promising never to interfere in the government again, but as soon as she was outside the borders of Bavaria, Matilda declared the agreement null and void, and got the support of her brother, Albert, Louis the Bavarian and others.
Matilda's son, Louis, defeated his Habsburg cousin Frederick the Handsome. Originally, he was a friend of Frederick, with whom he had been raised. However, armed conflict arose when the tutelage over the young Dukes of Lower Bavaria (Henry XIV, Otto IV and Henry XV) was entrusted to Frederick. On 9 November 1313, Frederick was beaten by Louis in the Battle of Gamelsdorf and had to renounce the tutelage.
Matilda died on 23 December 1304 at Munich, Bavaria.