King William II of Holland (King of the Romans) was killed near Hoogwoud, removing the last generally recognized German ruler and opening a new phase of contested kingship that culminated in the Great Interregnum dynamics.
A coalition of leading princes backed Richard of Cornwall in an election that highlighted the growing leverage of the principal electors (notably Cologne, Mainz, and the Palatinate), with votes won through negotiated concessions and payments.
A dissident electoral bloc chose Alfonso X of Castile as a rival king, producing a double election that entrenched the political fragmentation of the realm and made effective central rule difficult.
Richard of Cornwall was crowned at Aachen, the traditional coronation site for Kings of the Romans, but his authority remained regionally limited and contested by Alfonso’s supporters.
After securing recognition mainly in the Rhineland through patronage and payments, Richard returned to England, underscoring how absentee kingship weakened royal capacity during the interregnum years.
Richard again traveled to Germany but found it increasingly impractical to convert his election into durable control, reflecting the entrenched autonomy of territorial princes and the stalemate with Alfonso’s faction.
Pope Urban IV’s bull Qui coelum (issued amid the rival claims of Richard and Alfonso) summarized their cases and treated the right of election as lying with the seven leading princes involved in 1257—an important step in articulating the electors’ constitutional role.
Richard undertook his fourth (and last) major stay in Germany, attempting to reassert authority along the Rhine during a period when royal power was largely negotiated through regional alliances and concessions.
After defeat at Tagliacozzo, Conradin—last major Hohenstaufen claimant—was executed in Naples, further closing off any realistic restoration of the old imperial dynasty and reinforcing the interregnum’s dynastic vacuum.
Richard married Beatrice of Falkenburg in Kaiserslautern, reflecting how interregnum-era kings used dynastic ties—especially within the Rhineland political sphere—to bolster fragile legitimacy.
Richard’s death removed one of the two rival kings. The unresolved contest and the need for a workable settlement increased pressure on the princes to agree on a new ruler acceptable to the leading electors.
The prince-electors chose Rudolf of Habsburg, bringing the Great Interregnum’s most acute phase to an end and marking a decisive moment in the rise of elector-led kingship in the late medieval empire.
Great Interregnum and the Rise of the Electors (1254–1273)
