Duchy of Carinthia - Carantania and Medieval Dynasties

Carantania and Medieval Dynasties

In the 7th century the area was part of the Slavic principality of Carantania, which about 743 fell under the suzerainty of Duke Odilo of Bavaria. The Bavarian stem duchy was finally incorporated into the Carolingian Empire, when Charlemagne deposed Odilo's son Duke Tassilo III in 788. In the course of the 843 partition by the Treaty of Verdun, Carinthia became part of East Francia under King Louis the German. From 889 to 976 it was the Carinthian March of the renewed Bavarian duchy, though in 927 the local Count Berthold of the Luitpolding dynasty was already vested with ducal rights by the German king Henry the Fowler. After Berthold became Duke of Bavaria in 938, both territories were ruled by him. Upon his death in 948 the Luitpoldings, though dedicated linesmen of the royal Ottonian dynasty, were not able to retain their possessions, as King Otto I enfeoffed his younger brother Henry I with the Bavarian lands.

Duke Henry's son Henry II "the Quarreller" however from 974 on revolted against his cousin Emperor Otto II, whereafter 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 took the occasion to create a sixth duchy beside the original stem duchies, the new Duchy of Carinthia. He reverted to the Luitpoldings, when he split Carinthia off the Bavarian lands and invested the former Duke Berthold's son Henry III the Younger as duke in 976. The duchy then comprised a vast territory including the marches of Styria (marchia Carantana), Carniola and Istria as well as the March of Verona in the former Kingdom of Italy. Nevertheless Henry III was the first and also the last Luitpolding duke: as he chose to join the unsuccessful War of the Three Henries against 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 III once again managed to regain the ducal title in 985, Carinthia upon his death in 989 fell back to the Imperial Ottonian dynasty of Bavaria.

Carinthia however remained a separate entity, and in 1012 Count Adalbero I of Eppenstein, Margrave of Styria since about 1000, was vested with the duchy by Emperor Henry II, while the Istrian march was separated and given to Count Poppo of Weimar. Adalbero was removed from office in 1035 after he had fallen out of favour with the Salian Emperor Conrad II. In 1039 Carinthia was inherited by Emperor Henry III himself, who finally split off the Carniolian march the next year and also granted it to Margrave Poppo of Istria. In 1077, the duchy was given to Luitpold, again a member of the Eppensteiner family, which, however, became extinct with the death of Luitpold's son 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 House of Sponheim, who as Henry IV ruled from 1122 to his early death the following year. The most outstanding of the Spanheim dukes was Bernhard, the first Carinthian duke who was actually described and honoured in documents as "prince of the land". The last Spanheim duke was Ulrich III; he at first signed an inheritance treaty with his brother Archbishop Philip of Salzburg, who however could not prevail against the Bohemian king Ottokar II Přemysl. In spite of being supported by the German king Rudolph of Habsburg, who defeated Ottokar II at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld, Philip never gained actual power. The duchy was seized by Rudolph; Philip died in 1279.