The previous king of the Romans, Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, died on April 2, 1272, in Berkhamsted following a stroke he had suffered in December 1271.
The seven prince-electors called to Frankfurt were: To Frankfurt arrived the three archbishops, Elector Louis and However, strictly speaking, Ottokar's marriage with the heiress of the Arch-Pincerna dynasty had already ended in annulment, Ottokar was holding as usurper her duchies the Carantanian territories, duchy of Styria and Austria.
The six electors convened on 29 September and summoned the Bavarian Duke to exercise the Carantanian-Bavarian vote instead of the absent King Ottokar or anyone else better entitled to it.
[2] Count Rudolf was elected without opposition after Henry XIII, Duke of Bavaria's promotion to elector instead Ottakar II.
The house would occupy the seat continuously from 1438 to 1740 and produce emperors and kings of Bohemia, England, Germany, Hungary, Croatia, Mexico, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, as well as rulers of several Dutch and Italian principalities.