BABENBERG

babenberg, the name of a franconian family which held the duchy of austria before the rise of the house of habsburg. its earliest known ancestor was one poppo, who early in the 9th century was count in grapfeld. one of his sons, henry, called margrave and duke in franconia, fell fighting against the normans in 886; another, poppo, was margrave in thuringia from 880 to 892, when he was deposed by the german king arnulf. the family had been favoured by the emperor charles the fat, but arnulf reversed this policy in favour of the rival family of the conradines. the leaders of the babenbergs were the three sons of duke henry, who called themselves after their castle of babenberg on the upper main, round which their possessions centred. the rivalry between the two families was intensified by their efforts to extend their authority in the region of the middle main, and this quarrel, known as the "babenberg feud," came to a head at the beginning of the 10th century during the [v.03 p.0092] troubled reign of the german king, louis the child. two of the babenberg brothers were killed, and the survivor adalbert was summoned before the imperial court by the regent hatto i., archbishop of mainz, a partisan of the conradines. he refused to appear, held his own for a time in his castle at theres against the king's forces, but surrendered in 906, and in spite of a promise of safe-conduct was beheaded. from this time the babenbergs lost their influence in franconia; but in 976 leopold, a member of the family who was a count in the donnegau, is described as margrave of the east mark, a district not more than 60 m. in breadth on the eastern frontier of bavaria which grew into the duchy of austria. leopold, who probably received the mark as a reward for his fidelity to the emperor otto ii. during the bavarian rising in 976, extended its area at the expense of the hungarians, and was succeeded in 994 by his son henry i. henry, who continued his father's policy, was followed in 1018 by his brother adalbert and in 1055 by his nephew ernest, whose marked loyalty to the emperors henry iii. and henry iv. was rewarded by many tokens of favour. the succeeding margrave, leopold ii., quarrelled with henry iv., who was unable to oust him from the mark or to prevent the succession of his son leopold iii. in 1096. leopold supported henry, son of henry iv., in his rising against his father, but was soon drawn over to the emperor's side, and in 1106 married his daughter agnes, widow of frederick