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John Parricida

John Parricida (German: Johann Parricida) or John the Parricide, also called John of Swabia (Johann von Schwaben), (ca. 1290 – 13 December 1312/13) was the son of the Habsburg duke Rudolf II of Austria and Agnes, daughter of King Ottokar II of Bohemia. By killing his uncle, King Albert I of Germany, he foiled the first attempt of the Habsburg dynasty to install a hereditary monarchy in the Holy Roman Empire.

John Parricida

John of Swabia
ca. 1290

13 December 1312/13

Agnes of Bohemia

Fictional character[edit]

The character of John is rendered by Friedrich Schiller in his 1804 drama William Tell:[1] John on the run arrives at Tell's house begging for help and arguing that he had to take revenge on his enemy — like Tell on bailiff Albrecht Gessler. Tell rejects the comparison but directs him to Italy, advising him to seek papal absolution.


John's fate was further perpetuated in the poem Der Graf von Thal (1838) by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff and by the Austrian writer Johann Nepomuk Vogl, whose ballad Der Mönch zu Pisa was set to music by Carl Loewe (Op. 114) in 1846. Historical dramas were written by August Gottlieb Meißner (Johann von Schwaben, 1770) and Julius Grosse (Johann von Schwaben, 1870).

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the : Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "John of Swabia". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 450.

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