Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia

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"Meinhard II" redirects here. It may also refer to Meinhard II, Count of Gorizia.
Meinhard II of Gorizia–Tyrol
Elisabeth of Carinthia
Otto III, Duke of Carinthia
Albert II
Louis
Henry of Bohemia
FatherMeinhard I of Gorizia-Tyrol
MotherAdelheid of Tyrol

Meinhard II (c. 1238 – 1 November 1295), a member of the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner), ruled the County of Gorizia (as Meinhard IV) and the County of Tyrol together with his younger brother Albert from 1258. In 1271 they divided their heritage and Meinhard became sole ruler of Tyrol. In 1286 he was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Carinthia and the adjacent March of Carniola.

Life

Meinhard II was the son of Count

Hohenstaufen king Conrad IV of Germany
, about ten years his senior.

Statues of Meinhard and Elisabeth in the Stams Abbey Church

The joint rule with Albert came to an end, when the inheritance rights to Gorizia and Tyrol were divided in 1271. Meinhard received the County of Tyrol, becoming the progenitor of the Gorizia-Tyrol line of the Meinhardiner dynasty. He and his wife Elisabeth founded

Groschen
.

Already in 1267 Count Meinhard had once again tried to strengthen the ties with the Hohenstaufen dynasty by accompanying his stepson

Elisabeth off to Rudolf's eldest son Albert
.

Meinhard backed Rudolf's campaign against Ottokar and in turn received Carinthia with the Carniolan march as a pledge in 1276. After Ottokar's defeat in the 1278

Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and finally vested him with the Duchy of Carinthia as a fief at the Imperial Diet of Augsburg in 1286. On September 1, Meinhard was enthroned at the Duke's Chair and thus became the first Carinthian duke of the Gorizia-Tyrol dynasty. In 1286–9 Meinhard issued a vernacular Tyrolean Landrecht, albeit only fragmentarily transmitted upon today.[2] As far as can be ascertained, he had no ancestry in earlier Carinthian ducal families, whereas he was a distant descendant of some early Meranian lords of Istria and Carniola. His investiture of the duchy included a provision that in extinction of his male line, the House of Habsburg would be its heir. This materialized in 1335 upon the death of his son Henry. The Habsburgs also acquired the County of Tyrol from Henry's daughter Margaret
in 1363.

Meinhard died in 1295 at Greifenburg in Carinthia. His younger son Henry succeeded him as Carinthian duke and in 1307 was even elected King of Bohemia; his eldest daughter Elisabeth by her marriage with Albert of Habsburg became German queen in 1298.

Marriage and children

Meinhard's wife from 1258 was

Otto II of Bavaria and widow of King Conrad IV of Germany. Thus he was the stepfather of Conradin of Hohenstaufen, Duke of Swabia and claimant of the Kingdom of Sicily
, who was executed in 1268.

Meinhard and Elisabeth had the following children:

  1. Elisabeth (1262–1312), married Albert of Habsburg,[1] Duke of Austria and Styria from 1282, King of Germany
    from 1298
  2. Otto III (c. 1265–1310),[1] Duke of Carinthia and Count of Tyrol, married Euphemia (c. 1278–1347), daughter of the Piast duke Henry V of Legnica
  3. Albert II, Count of Tyrol, died 1292, married Agnes of Hohenberg in 1281, daughter of Albert II of Hohenberg-Rotenburg (c. 1235–98), Count of Hohenberg and Haigerloch, who belonged to a cadet branch of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Their daughter, Margaret of Görz-Tyrol (died after 1348), married Frederick IV of Nuremberg, Burgrave of Nuremberg, (1287–1332).
  4. Louis, Duke of Carinthia and Count of Tyrol, died 1305[1]
  5. Henry (c. 1270–1335), Duke of Carinthia and Count of Tyrol,[1] married Anne Přemyslovna, daughter of the King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia; King of Bohemia in 1306 and 1307–10, father of Countess Margaret of Tyrol
  6. Agnes (died 1293), married the
    Emperor Frederick II
    ; her only son Frederick the Lame predeceased his father.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Štih 2010, p. 336.
  2. ISBN 978-88-14-20379-4
  3. ^ Patrouch 2010, p. 71.

Bibliography

  • Hermann Wiesflecker, Meinhard der Zweite. Tirol, Kärnten und ihre Nachbarländer am Ende des 13. Jhs. (Schlern-Schriften 124). Innsbruck: Wagner 1955, Reprint 1995.
  • Eines Fürsten Traum. Meinhard II.—Das Werden Tirols. Catalogue, Dorf Tirol—Innsbruck 1995.
  • Patrouch, Joseph F. (2010). Queen's Apprentice Archduchess Elizabeth, Empress María, the Habsburgs, and the Holy Roman Empire, 1554-1569. Brill.
  • Štih, Peter (2010). The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic: Select Papers on Slovene Historiography and Medieval History. Brill.
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Meinhard, Duke of Carinthia
Born: c. 1240 Died: 1 April 1304
Preceded by
Count of Gorizia
1258–1271
with Albert I
(1258–1271) 		Succeeded by
Count of Tyrol
1258–1295
with Albert I
 Succeeded by
Preceded by
Margrave of Carniola

1286–1295
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