Ottokar II seized Austria in 1251 by marrying the Babenberg heiress Margaret, then absorbed Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola over the following decade — briefly making him the most powerful ruler in the German-speaking world and a serious candidate for the imperial throne. This Wien pfennig belongs to that period of aggressive Přemyslid expansion into formerly Babenberg territory, issued from a mint Ottokar controlled for only twenty-five years before Rudolf of Habsburg wrested Austria from him at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, where Ottokar was killed.
Ottokar II seized Austria in 1251 by marrying the Babenberg heiress Margaret, then absorbed Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola over the following decade — briefly making him the most powerful ruler in the German-speaking world and a serious candidate for the imperial throne. This Wien pfennig belongs to that period of aggressive Přemyslid expansion into formerly Babenberg territory, issued from a mint Ottokar controlled for only twenty-five years before Rudolf of Habsburg wrested Austria from him at the Battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, where Ottokar was killed.