 The extinction led to the Great Interregnum, a period of several decades during which the status of the country's rulers was disputed.While in the following years several candidates were elected King of the Romans, none of them were able to control the Empire.It was the ambitious Přemyslid ruler Ottokar II of Bohemia, son of King Wenceslaus I, who took the occasion to take over the rule in the "princeless" lands of late Duke Frederick II the Warlike.