Duchy of Carinthia

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Duchy of Carinthia
Herzogtum Kärnten (German)
Vojvodina Koroška (Slovene)
976–1918
Flag of Carinthia
Flag
of Carinthia
Coat of arms
State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806),
Part of the Habsburg monarchy (from 1526),
constituent land of the Austrian Empire (1804–67),
Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary (from 1867)
CapitalSankt Veit an der Glan (Šentvid ob Glini) until 1518, then Klagenfurt (Celovec)
Common languagesSouthern Bavarian, Carinthian Slovene
GovernmentDuchy
Duke 
• 976–978
Henry I (first)
• 1916–1918
Charles I (last)
Historical era
Carinthian Plebiscite
1920
Preceded by
Succeeded by
March of Carinthia
Republic of German-Austria
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Kingdom of Italy
Today part of

The Duchy of Carinthia (

Imperial State after the original German stem duchies
.

Carinthia remained a State of the

Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920, the main area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia
.

History

In the seventh century the area was part of the Slavic principality of

Otto I bought the loyalty of his younger brother Henry I
with the Bavarian lands.

Establishment

Carinthia with the Bavarian Duchy

Duke Henry's son Henry II "the Quarreller" from 974 onwards, revolted against his cousin Emperor Otto II, whereupon he was deposed as Duke of Bavaria in favour of Otto's nephew Duke Otto I of Swabia. At the same time Emperor Otto II created a sixth duchy in addition to the original stem duchies, the new Duchy of Carinthia. He reverted the possession of the territories to the Luitpoldings, when he split Carinthia from the Bavarian lands and installed the former Duke Berthold's son Henry the Younger as duke in 976.

Over the centuries, the name 'Carinthia' (Kärnten) gradually replaced former 'Carantania'. The realm of the Carinthian dukes initially comprised a vast territory including the marches of

Emperor Otto II, he lost Carinthia two years later and was succeeded by the Emperor's nephew Otto I, a scion of the Salian dynasty
. Though Henry once again managed to regain the ducal title in 985, Carinthia upon his death in 989 fell back to the Imperial Ottonian dynasty in Bavaria.

Eppensteins and Sponheims

The Duchy of Carinthia within the Holy Roman Empire at its maximum expansion

Carinthia, however, remained a separate entity, and in 1012 Count

Henry III of Carinthia in 1122. Upon his death the duchy was further reduced in area: a large part of the Eppenstein lands in what is today Upper Styria passed to Margrave Ottokar II of Styria
.

The remainder of Carinthia passed from Duke Henry III to his godchild Henry from the

Salzburg, who, however, could not prevail against the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl. In spite of being supported by the Habsburg king Rudolf I of Germany, who defeated Ottokar II at the Battle on the Marchfeld
in 1278, Philip never gained actual power. The duchy was seized by Rudolph and Philip died a year later in 1279.

Habsburgs

Rudolf, after being elected

Henry, the last male of this line, Emperor Louis the Bavarian gave Carinthia and the southern part of the Tyrol as an imperial fief to the Habsburg family on 2 May in Linz. The Habsburgs would continue to rule Carinthia until 1918. As with the other component parts of the Habsburg monarchy, Carinthia remained a semi-autonomous state with its own constitutional structure for a long time. The Habsburgs divided up their territories within the family twice, according to the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg and again in 1564. Each time, the Duchy of Carinthia became part of Inner Austria and was ruled jointly with the adjacent duchies of Styria and Carniola
.

Early 18th century map of Carinthia showing fiefs owned by Salzburg (in pink) and Bamberg (in yellow)

Empress

Habsburg Kingdom of Illyria
until its dissolution in 1849.

In 1867, the duchy became a crown land of Cisleithania, the western part of Austria-Hungary (see History of Austria).

The Cisleithanian crown land of Carinthia within Austria-Hungary

Over the centuries, the

Archduchy
", i.e. a sovereign Slovene principality, shows that the Carinthian people were aware of their ancient and pre-German roots.

World War I and Carinthian Plebiscite

During World War I, Carinthia experienced a relatively high number of war deaths: thirty-seven for every 1,000 inhabitants. This was higher than in most other German-speaking areas of Austria-Hungary (except German South Moravia).[2]

Following the end of the war and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, the 1919

Carinthian Plebiscite
was held on 10 October 1920 to determine the fate of Carinthia. The outcome in favour of Austria did not change the borders as decided upon in the Treaty of Saint-Germain.

Klagenfurt Landhaus
Prince's Stone (Knežji kamen)
Duke's Chair (Vojvodski prestol)

The Austrian part of the former duchy today forms the

Slovenian Carinthia) now forms part of the larger Carinthia Statistical Region in Slovenia
.

Area and population

Area:

  • Total: 10,327 km2 (3,987 sq mi)

Population (1910 Census):

  • Total: 396,228

Linguistic composition

According to the last Austrian Imperial census of 1910, the Duchy of Carinthia was composed of the following linguistic communities:

Total: 396,228

  • German: 304,315 (76.80%)
  • Slovene: 82,212 (20.75%)
  • Italian: 82 (0.02%)
  • Other languages or foreigners: 9,619 (2.43%)

The Austrian censuses did not count

mother tongue
, but the "language of daily interaction" (Umgangssprache).

Religious composition

Total: 396,228

  • Roman Catholics
    : 371,361 (93.72%)
  • Protestants: 24,299 (6.13%)
  • Jewish: 341 (0.09%)
  • Other religions or unknown: 227 (0.06%)

Dukes of Carinthia

Various dynasties

Luitpoldings

Salian dynasty

Luitpoldings

  • Henry I (985–989), again,
    Duke of Bavaria
    983–985

Ottonian dynasty

  • Duke of Bavaria
    985–995
  • Duke of Bavaria
    995–1005

Salian dynasty

  • Otto I (1002–1004), again
  • Conrad I (1004–1011)

House of Eppenstein

Salian dynasty

Elder House of Welf

Ezzonids

House of Zähringen

House of Eppenstein

House of Sponheim

The Carinthian ducal coat of arms until 1246
The Carinthian coat of arms from 1246

Various dynasties

Přemyslid dynasty

  • King of Bohemia
    1253–1278

House of Habsburg

Gorizia-Tyrol

House of Habsburg

  • Otto IV (1335–1339), jointly with his brother
    • Albert II
      (1335–1358)
  • Frederick Ι
    (1358–1362), jointly with his brother
    • Rudolph II
      (1358–1365)
  • Albert III
    (1365–1379)

Leopoldian line

    • Leopold
      (1379–1386)
    • William
      (1386–1406)
  • Ernest
    (1406–1424)
  • Frederick ΙΙ (1424–1493)

Habsburg territories reunified in 1458

Inner Austrian Habsburgs

  • Charles II
    (1564–1590)
  • Ferdinand II (1590–1637), also Holy Roman Emperor 1619–1637

Carinthia was unified with the rest of the Habsburg territories again in 1619. See List of rulers of Austria

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b Mediaeval Genealogy Archived December 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Rothenburg, G. The Army of Francis Joseph. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1976. p 218.
  3. ^ a b ”Kärnten.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Ultimate Reference Suite. Chicago 2010.

External links

Val Canale/Canal Valley - region of Carinthia now part of Italy