Battle on the Marchfeld
Rudolf I and his Hungarian allies defeat Ottokar II at Marchfeld
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Rudolf's horse was killed beneath him, and a knight hauled the sixty-year-old king up and found him another mount.
26 August 1278, on the Marchfeld
Rudolf I's forces and their Hungarian allies fought Ottokar II's army on the Marchfeld between Dürnkrut and Jedenspeigen, in present-day Lower Austria, on 26 August 1278.
Hungarian and Cuman mounted archers harassed Ottokar's flanks while Bohemian heavy cavalry drove Rudolf's German wing backward. The reported duration is about five to six hours.
A hostile rider killed Rudolf's horse; Heinrich Walter von Ramswag helped the fallen king up and remounted him.
The concealed reserve
A concealed reserve under Ulrich von Kapellen struck Ottokar's exposed flank, turning the fighting into a general Bohemian rout. It has been estimated at only about 50 to 60 knights.
A cry of “They are fleeing” reportedly spread through the battlefield and converted local disorder into a general collapse.
Ottokar continued fighting with a small group but was overtaken and killed during or immediately after the rout.
What is firm and what is not
Sources disagree on whether Ottokar was slain while still fighting, killed during flight, or captured and then murdered by personal enemies. His stripped body was carried first to Marchegg and then to Vienna, where it was embalmed and publicly displayed.
The date and outcome are firm; the neat army totals commonly repeated are not. Medieval and modern estimates vary enormously, and the figure of about 9,000 allied troops cannot be treated as verified.
Within days Rudolf pursued the defeated coalition, released the Hungarian auxiliaries, announced his victory abroad and advanced into Moravia, where resistance rapidly collapsed.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited
How this was checked
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What the sources leave uncertain
- Medieval and modern army-size estimates vary enormously. The listed figure of approximately 9,000 allied troops cannot be treated as verified.
- Sources disagree on whether Ottokar was slain while still fighting, killed during flight, or captured and then murdered by personal enemies.
- The composition of the armies is reconstructed from partisan chronicles; exact ratios of heavy cavalry, light cavalry and infantry remain uncertain.
- Ladislaus IV was the alliance’s king and political leader, but a detailed narrative says the Hungarian palatine commanded the wing while Ladislaus stayed out of the fighting at Rudolf’s request.