The
Duke of Swabia was the rulers of the
duchy of Swabia and became the last great house of German Emperors, the Hohenstaufen.
Swabia was one of the five
stem duchies of the medieval German kingdom, and its dukes were thus among the most powerful magnates of Germany. The most notable family to hold Swabia were the
Hohenstaufen, who held it, with a brief interruption, from 1079 until 1268. For much of this period, the Hohenstaufen were also
Holy Roman Emperors. With the death of
Conradin, the last Hohenstaufen duke, the duchy itself disintegrated, although King
Rudolf I attempted to revive it for his
Habsburg family in the late-13th century.