
Leopold the Illustrious of Austria
NEXT: Henry I the Strong fav.me/d74ysct
UPDATED VERSION: now with historically accurate shoes!
So finally I start with my Babenberg Dynasty Collection.
These are the first drawings I ever did entirely digital on gimp – yay
I based my drawings on:
1. Actual contemporary depictions (very rare)
2. Depictions from the late Middle Ages
3. Clothing References from the Internet
4. My Imagination
But if any of you medieval nerds spots a very serious mistake please tell me.
A little historical background: The Babenberg Dynasty ruled Austria during its first 280 years of existence and pretty much created Austria. We don’t know their real name. “Babenberg” refers to a remark made by medieval historian Otto of Freising that their ancestors came from Bamberg.
Without further ado:
This is Leopold I the Illustrious, Margrave of Austria. He is not very well known. In fact even his own family forgot about him – yes Historian Otto of Freising (Son of margrave Leopold III) does not mention him at all. He first shows up in History when he takes over the Mark which would later be known as “Ostarrichi” on 21th July 976. I depicted him carrying a bow since a bow played an important role at two points in his life – first legend tells us that on a hunt the emperor Otto II was attacked by a bear when his bow broke. Leopold reacted quickly and shot the animal just in time, thus saving the emperor. Thankfully Otto handed over the broken bow to Leopold saying that he may exchange it for a new piece of land as soon as one will be available. In 976 the former Margrave of the “Marcha orientalis” died and Leopold took over.
And the second time a bow played an important role in Leopold’s life was when his life ended. At a tournament in Bavaria someone attempted to murder his cousin Henry – but the assassin missed and shot Leopold instead.
Old Paper Texture in the Background fav.me/d2n8aw8

There are a few different versions…
I actually wrote my own interpretation from the perspective of one of my characters, but it stays pretty true to the original storyline of the legend!
fav.me/d5am0wo
I hope you like it.

Yes, Mark is simply the German word for "March".
It depends on which Roman Empire you mean:
Under Roman rule the territory of modern day Austria was split up in three provinces - Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia. Noricum held most of it and is THE Austrian roman Province. However these structures got completely destroyed in the course of the 6th century.
The origin of Austria lies in the marches of the Holy Roman Empire.
When in 955 emperor Otto defeated the Hungarians at Lechfeld he needed to secure the new border by creating a number of small marches - one of these was the marcha orientalis (eastern march) which later would be known in German as "Ostarrichi" and in Latin as "Austria".