Leopold, of the Babenberg family, becomes margrave of Austria and founds a dynasty which lasts for three centuries

Count Radbot builds himself a 'hawk's castle' or Habichstburg, near Zurich, from which the Habsburg dynasty takes its name

Vienna is adopted by the Babenberg rulers as the capital city of Austria

Richard I, returning from the Holy Land in disguise, is recognized in an inn near Vienna and is imprisoned until England pays a massive ransom

The period without a German king, known as the Great Interregnum, ends with the election of a Habsburg prince, Rudolf I

At Dürnkrut Rudolf I defeats and kills Otakar II, his rival for Austria - thus bringing the Austrian territories into the Habsburg domain

The Swiss forest districts of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden sign an Everlasting League (in the Rütli meadow) to resist Habsburg domination

The Swiss, defeating the Habsburgs at Morgarten, make lethal use of their halberds - designed to jab, grapple and slash

William Tell, a figure of legend, epitomizes the struggle of the Swiss farmers against their feudal overlords, the Habsburgs

Charles IV establishes a permanent group of seven electors - four hereditary German rulers and the archbishops of Mainz, Cologne and Trier

The office of Holy Roman emperor becomes a hereditary title within the Habsburg dynasty

Maximilian, heir to Austria, weds Mary, heiress to Burgundy, in the first of the great marriage alliances which form the Habsburg empire

Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, captures Vienna and makes the city his capital

The Fuggers make their first loan to a Habsburg archduke, beginning a profitable link with the dynasty

On the death of Matthias Corvinus, in 1490, the Habsburgs recover Vienna from the Hungarians

Philip, heir to Austria, marries Joanna, a daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, in the second of the great Habsburg marital alliances

The Swiss (or Swabian) War ends with the treaty of Basel, bringing effective recognition of Swiss independence from the Habsburg empire

The death of Ferdinand II results in Spain becoming part of the Habsburg empire, under the rule of Charles V (as Charles I of Spain)

Charles V borrows 852,000 florins, mainly from the Fuggers, to bribe the seven imperial electors

Hungary is divided, by agreement between the Turkish sultan Suleiman I and the Habsburg ruler Ferdinand I

Charles V abdicates, handing the Netherlands and Spain to his son Philip and the title of Holy Roman emperor to his brother Ferdinand

The division by Charles V of his territories means that there are now two Habsburg empires, Austrian and Spanish

Bohemian nobles throw the Habsburg regents out of a window in the castle in Prague, thus triggering the Thirty Years' War

Feudal labour laws demanding corvée (compulsory unpaid labour) are imposed by the Habsburgs on the Czech peasants of Bohemia

The emperor, Leopold I, and his court abandon Vienna on the approach of a Turkish army