In 1157 Leopold V Duke of Austria was born to Duke Henry II of Austria [aged 50].
On 4th March 1172 King Stephen III of Hungary [aged 24] died. He fell ill during a meeting with [his sister] wife's [aged 21] father Duke Henry II of Austria [aged 65].
In 1174 Leopold V Duke of Austria [aged 17] and Duchess Helena of Austria [aged 19] were married. His sister Agnes of Austria [aged 23] had married her brother King Stephen III of Hungary.
Around 1175 [his son] Duke Frederick I of Austria was born to Leopold V Duke of Austria [aged 18] and [his wife] Duchess Helena of Austria [aged 20].
On 13th January 1177 [his father] Duke Henry II of Austria [aged 70] died.
Around 25th December 1192 King Richard "Lionheart" I of England [aged 35] was captured near Vienna [Map] by Leopold V Duke of Austria [aged 35] who blamed Richard for the death of his cousin Conrad of Montferrat. Further, Richard had offended Leopold by casting down his standard from the walls of Acre. Leopold imprisoned Richard at Dürnstein Castle [Map]. Leopold was excommunicated by Pope Celestine III for having imprisoned a crusader. He, Richard, had travelled from Aquileia [Map] which suggests he was taking an easterly route around the Alps rather than travelling westerly through Lombardy, or across the Alps, both of which would have been shorter.
In 1193 Eleanor "Fair Maid of Britanny" 4th Countess of Richmond [aged 9] was engaged to Duke Frederick I of Austria [aged 18], son of Leopold V Duke of Austria [aged 36]. Leopold had imprisoned King Richard [aged 35] when he was returning from the crusade. Leopold demanded the marriage of King Richard's niece Eleanor to his son Frederick, as part of the ransom for Richard's release. Leopold V Duke of Austria died the following year so the marriage didn't take place. Eleanor "Fair Maid of Britanny" 4th Countess of Richmond was travelling to Austria, accompanied by Baldwin Béthune Count Aumale [aged 35], when Leopold died. She returned with her grandmother Eleanor of Aquitaine Queen Consort Franks and England [aged 71].
Annals of Six Kings of England by Nicholas Trivet. Duke Leopold of Austria [aged 37], while celebrating Christmas at Graz, fell from his horse on St Stephen's Day and was so dangerously injured by a crushing of the foot that, in order to escape imminent death, he had it amputated on the advice of physicians, thus experiencing divine vengeance for the unjust capture of King Richard1.
Dux Austriæ Limpoldus, cum Natalitium apud Gratiam ageret, in die S. Stephani equo lapsus, subita pedis attritione sauciatur tam periculose, quod necessitate urgente, ut mortem imminentem evaderet, abscindi eum fecit de consilio medicorum; divinam in se ultionem expertus, pro regis Ricardi captione injusta.
Note 1. Roger of Wendover: 'But notwithstanding all these things the duke's anger was not averted, but rather was increased, and at length he himself was struck by a dreadful divine visitation; for on St. Stephen's day as he was taking recreation on horseback with his attendants, the horse on which he rode kicked violently and inflicted an incurable wound with its foot on the leg of the rider, for immediately the leg and foot together turned black and rose to a swelling, which no physician's poulticing could reduce, and the duke was most unbearably tortured by the infernal fire, as it is called, in addition to the swelling. At length being unable to endure this torture he ordered his foot to be amputated, he himself at the same time taking an axe, every one else refusing with horror; but he did not by this escape the agonies of pain, for by and by his thigh with the rest of his body was eaten away by the same fire. At length, however, he acknowledged the wicked crime which he had committed out of malice against the king and his followers, and on the persuasion of the bishops who came to him, he gave up the hostages, and the remainder of the money due for the ransom of the king, and gave his word that he would also return what he had received, and promised henceforward to be obedient to the judgment of the church. The bishops on this seeing him in such a state of misery and suffering absolved him from the ban of excommunication, and admitted him to the communion of the faithful, after which he expired in dreadful agony [on 31st December 1194]. For a long while his body remained unburied, until it swarmed with horrible worms, because his son refused to fulfil his father's command, but at length being forced to do so by his friends he released the hostages, and allowed them to return to their own country.'
Flowers of History by Roger of Wendover 1195. Of the wretched death of the duke of Austria [aged 37].
All this was denounced against the duke by the bishop of Verona, but he persisted in contemning the apostolic mandate, at a time too when his country was struck by an unheard-of sterility as well as by famine and disease; the river Danube, too, at this time overflowed unusually in some part of the country, and by that unexpected event ten thousand persons were drowned. But notwithstanding all these things the duke's anger was not averted, but rather was increased, and at length he himself was struck by a dreadful divine visitation; for on St. Stephen's day as he was taking recreation on horseback with his attendants, the horse on which he rode kicked violently and inflicted an incurable wound with its foot on the leg of the rider, for immediately the leg and foot together turned black and rose to a swelling, which no physician's poulticing could reduce, and the duke was most unbearably tortured by the infernal fire, as it is called, in addition to the swelling. At length being unable to endure this torture he ordered his foot to be amputated, he himself at the same time taking an axe, every one else refusing with horror; but he did not by this escape the agonies of pain, for by and by his thigh with the rest of his body was eaten away by the same fire. At length, however, he acknowledged the wicked crime which he had committed out of malice against the king and his followers, and on the persuasion of the bishops who came to him, he gave up the hostages, and the remainder of the money due for the ransom of the king, and gave his word that he would also return what he had received, and promised henceforward to be obedient to the judgment of the church. The bishops on this seeing him in such a state of misery and suffering absolved him from the ban of excommunication, and admitted him to the communion of the faithful, after which he expired in dreadful agony [on 31st December 1194]. For a long while his body remained unburied, until it swarmed with horrible worms, because his son refused to fulfil his father's command, but at length being forced to do so by his friends he released the hostages, and allowed them to return to their own country.
On 31st December 1194 Leopold V Duke of Austria [aged 37] died.
Chronicle of Walter of Guisborough
A canon regular of the Augustinian Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire, formerly known as The Chronicle of Walter of Hemingburgh, describes the period from 1066 to 1346. Before 1274 the Chronicle is based on other works. Thereafter, the Chronicle is original, and a remarkable source for the events of the time. This book provides a translation of the Chronicle from that date. The Latin source for our translation is the 1849 work edited by Hans Claude Hamilton. Hamilton, in his preface, says: 'In the present work we behold perhaps one of the finest samples of our early chronicles, both as regards the value of the events recorded, and the correctness with which they are detailed; Nor will the pleasing style of composition be lightly passed over by those capable of seeing reflected from it the tokens of a vigorous and cultivated mind, and a favourable specimen of the learning and taste of the age in which it was framed.'
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On 25th December 1199 [his former wife] Duchess Helena of Austria [aged 44] died.