Margaret of Austria (; – 29 October 1266), a member of the House of Babenberg, was German queen from 1225 until 1235, by her first marriage with King Henry (VII), and Queen of Bohemia from 1253 to 1260, by her second marriage with King Ottokar II. Biography Margaret was the eldest daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria (d. 1230) and his wife Theodora Angelina, a member of the Byzantine Imperial Angelus dynasty. Since 1198 Duke Leopold, according to the Georgenberg Pact, ruled over both the duchies of Austria and Styria. His court in Vienna became known as a centre of medieval Minnesang and he also played an important rule in the Empire's policies, acting as an arbitrator in the struggle between the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX. First marriage In the Imperial City of Nuremberg, on 29 November 1225, the 21-year-old Margaret was married to the 14-year-old Henry, eldest son of Emperor Frederick II and elected King of the Romans since 1222. Frederick's counsellor Archbishop Engelbert of Cologne had initially planned for a bride from the English royal Angevin dynasty, however, the attempt failed, as did Henry's former engagement with the Přemyslid princess Agnes, daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia. Margaret's coronation as Queen of the Romans took place on 23 March 1227 in Aachen Cathedral. King Henry and Queen Margaret had two short-lived sons, Henry (died ca. 1242/1245) and Frederick (died ca. 1251/1252). In 1228, Henry took over the rule in the German kingdom and tried to limit the powers of the princes, thereby disturbing the Imperial policies of his father who made him pay homage under the threat of excommunication. In 1235, Henry allied with the princely opposition and openly rebelled against the emperor, however, was defeated by his father's forces and dethroned. Frederick had him confined in several castles in Apulia, where he died on 12 February 1242 after a fall from his horse, probably in an attempted suicide. In the meanwhile, his wife Margaret (who possibly never saw her husband again) retired to the Dominican monastery in Trier and in 1244 moved to Würzburg, where she lived in seclusion in St Marcus Abbey. Claim to Austria and Styria In 1246 Margaret's brother Duke Frederick II of Austria, last scion of the Babenberg dynasty, died childless in the Battle of the Leitha River, leaving a succession crisis. The two principal claimants over