History Wiki
Register
Advertisement
History Wiki

Frederick IV of the Empty Pocket (1382 - 1446) was the Count of the Tyrol from 1406 until 1446.

Frederick was the third son of the Habsburg Duke Leopold III. After his brother William died and his other brother Leopold was made the guardian of Archduke Albert V, Frederick was made the Count of the Tyrol and sole regent of Further Austria. The early years of his reign were marked by constant internal and external struggles. He had to overcome the resistance of the local nobility in 1406/7 who gave him the title "the Empty Pocket", repel a Bavarian invasion in 1410, and to deal with independence movements in Appenzell, which joined Switzerland as a protectorate in 1411.

At the Council of Constance in 1415 Frederick sided with the Antipope John XXIII, which led to the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg placing him under the Imperial Ban. Through the support of the local populace he continued to hold Tyrol, but the Aargau, the traditional lands of the early Habsburgs, was lost to the Swiss. In 1420 Frederick moved the court and capital of Tyrol from Meran-Merano in the south to Innsbruck. By 1425 his rule over the Tyrol had stabilised due largely to the opening of new silver mines which brought increased prosperity to the region. Frederick was succeeded by his son with Anne of Brunswick, Sigismund.



Preceded by:

Frederick IV of the Empty Pocket

Succeeded by:

William the Courteous Count of Tyrol
1406 - 1446
Sigismund
Advertisement