Duchy of Merania

The Duchy Meranien is a product of Hohenstaufen power politics of the 12th century. The duke over the fiefdom Meranien had thereby obtain different noble families.

Prehistory

In order to secure the business kingship of gender, it was a living wage necessary for the Staufer later called the power of Guelph within the German kingdom, Regnum Teutonicorum push back. The disempowerment of Guelph happened here also by decreasing age at the same time creating new fiefdom - divide and conquer principle as his own power conservation.

The first of the Hohenstaufen kings, Conrad III. (1137-1152), had the Guelph Henry the Proud 1139 already occupied by imperial ban and spell, which he lost his dukedom both of Bavaria and Saxony. As one by the Eight legal rights that have become the Guelph lost in addition other Reich, churches and monastic fiefdoms and bailiwicks, which also drew a diverse redeployment of aristocratic rule in the kingdom after himself - loyal followers were rewarded and went on, new men were strong and powerful.

After the death of King Conrad III. his nephew, Frederick of Swabia in 1152 was elevated to the rex. This Frederick I Barbarossa, sought a compromise with the intermarried with him Guelph. He gave them back their lost parts and fiefs imperial estates and thus power in Bavaria. However, only parts of the Duchy of Bavaria received previous Henry the Lion of his cousin Frederick in 1154 as a fief back. The previously Bavarian Eastern Marches were given as fiefs new flags and territorial Duchy Ostarrichi to the family of Babenberg ( 1156, privilegium minus).

Tirol was also removed from the Duke of Bavaria as a rich immediate county ( dominium comitis tyrolis ), the first Count of Tyrol in close relationship to the diocese of Freising were ( n Ms Prince ).

With this reorganization, in the southeast of the empire also faithful and meritorious partisans of the king were rewarded in the fight against the papacy and them at the same time allows the ascent to the high imperial nobility.

Dachau Meranien

The dismemberment of Bavaria was also the birth of the Duchy Meranien. In connection with the reduction of the Bavarian Ducatus was a Wittelsbach, Count Conrad II of Scheyern - Dachau, raised to 1153 by Frederick Barbarossa for the first Duke of Meranien. He was thus also no longer committed to the Guelph lion in Bavaria vassal service. An inner connection between that privilegium minus for Austria from 1156 and the Barbarossa privilege for Würzburg from 1168 seems this out already.

Simultaneously with the collection of Conrad II († 1159 ), the Duke of Meranien he was named as Dux for Dalmatia and Croatia. This Konrad Wittelsbach, from the county Scheyern - Dachau thus was the first of this dynasty, who rose from the count in the highest imperial nobility.

The Ducat Meranien but was now also no longer Bavaria and no longer part of this Ducats. The (residual) Duchy of Bavaria, which the Guelph Henry the Lion in 1156 (back) got was much smaller than that which " proud" father Henry had been deprived of his 1139.

The origin of the name Meranien but it is still an object of speculation. A terra Marani in Friuli designate E. Herrmann as a name, but usually there is a swimming spot on the Dalmatian Adriatic coast ( area " by the sea" ) favors. The question of whether the Duchy Meranien at its inception only a ideational Titularfürstentum or a fief flags represented, which was equipped with real and tangible rights, goods and fiefs, is evaluated by the Historic different.

Now already Konrad I ( after 1135 ) was a Count of Dachau Scheyern - a wealthy and influential regional prince in western Bavaria. After the Guelphs had lost all fiefs and advocacies on Lechrain by their proscription, undergo the Counts of Andechs and Unterdießen and the Scheyern - Wittelsbach and their " Dachau " line the most benefit from the decline of Guelph. So Count Konrad von Dachau is documented, inter alia, as bailiff of the kingdom rechtslechischen monastery of St. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg, and of St. Andrew in Freising. The influence and thus power zone of the Wittelsbach from Dachau had thus reached the Lech - Lech Rain as a whole and should gather the goods, fiefs and rights of Augsburg were, however, it has become the rivalry object between Unterdießen - Andechs and Scheyern - Dachau as well Scheyern - Wittelsbach. With his elevation to the Duke, and thus in the high nobility of the empire had reached a place advantage Conrad II of Dachau " Meranien ".

The first Duke of Meranien, Konrad II of Dachau, was by possession, advocacies and feud between Lech and Isar a quite potent territorial prince, whose new Ducat was equipped with real power and possessions, especially when one considers that his cousin Otto of Scheyern already was Count Palatine of the King of Bavaria. Thus, the House of Wittelsbach was now a total of (pre - ) rule of the Duke of Bavaria revoked.

After the death of the first Meraniers, 1159, is his son Konrad III. Heir and successor. It is noticeable that he is only known as Duke of Meranien, Croatia and Dalmatia are obviously lost touch with. In the book, the history of the last Duke of Dachau Meranien but barely noticed his days were spent mostly in Dachau, called himself only Duke of Dachau. He died leaving behind in 1182 without a male heir. His family acquired cousin Otto von Wittelsbach, who had become in 1180 the Duke of Bavaria now very shrunken. The county Dachau drew the new Bavarian Otto Dux also a.

The sister of the deceased Dachau Meraniers Conrad III, Hedwig, but was previously a wife to the third Berthold of Andechs become -. Had in turn obtained through his mother Sophie margrave of Istria in 1173 by King Redbeard the Istrian Margrave - dignity. Now Hedwig brought from Dachau Meranien the only heiress of the geblütsrechtlichen claim on the recent Duchy Meranien to the Andechs. A new era began Meraniens.

Istria - Meranien

Ulrich of Weimar- Orlamünde 1058-1070 was Margrave of Carniola, and at the same time reigning Margrave of Istria. To 1063 he snatched Croatia a narrow coastal strip of land in the far corner of the Quarnero - Gulf. The strip was between Rijeka / Fiume and Brseč (Croatia). Since this strip was by the sea, this country was henceforth Merano (not Tirol ) or Meranien ( by the sea ). Although the two brands fell in 1077, nominally to the Patriarch of Aquileia, but Ulrich's descendants remained the owner of the ancestral territories, as well as Istria and Meranien. Poppo II (of Weimar- Orlamünde ) of Istria was a descendant of Ulrich. Poppos daughter Sophie ( † 1132 ), married Count Berthold II of Andechs († 1151 ). She brought most of the heritage - is also Merano or Meranien - as dowry. This Berthold II laid the foundation for the possessions of his house in Carniola, Lower Styria ( today part of Styria in Slovenia) and Carinthia. His grandson, Berthold IV († 1204), Duke called himself of Dalmatia, Croatia and Meranien.

Berthold III. († 1188 ), son of Berthold II and Sophie of Istria (Weimar - Orlamünde ), was married to his first marriage with Hedwig, very likely a Wittelsbach.

Andechs- Meranien

After the final fall of the Guelph Henry the Lion in 1180 the balance of power were revised in Bavaria - were loyal followers rewarded. The Styrian Mark an der Mur was separated from Bavaria and awarded as a new Duchy of Styria to the local Traungau Marquis. The rest of Bavaria was awarded as the new Duke of former Count Palatine Otto of Wittelsbach. And Meranien received a new master. Count Berthold IV of Andechs, whose father had become in 1173 Margrave of Istria, was charged by Emperor Frederick I as the new Duke of Meranien.

This fourth Berthold of Andechs but now was a Meranier of a very different impact than it had been before nor his uncle Konrad Dachau. Berthold's family came originally from Unterdießen on the opposite shore of the Ammersee. But his grandfather, Count Berthold II was moved from there to Andechs, had high built a new castle on the hill above the lake shore and married the daughter of Sophia of Margrave Poppo II of Istria. At the time, this connection between Andechs and a suspected Meranien the Istrian shore of the Adriatic was born. The noble Sophia but had merely introduced the Counts of Andechs the geblütsrechtlichen claim to the Margrave Office of Istria, no meranisches Namensgut. To 1173 was their Counts - andechsischer son Berthold III. then the successor of the late Marquis of Istria, Engelbert III. of Spanheim ascended. As such, he took those already mentioned Hedwig of Wittelsbach / Dachau and Meranien, the daughter of the first Duke Konrad I of Meranien, marriage wife. From this marriage soon sprang a fourth Berthold - already by birth a Count of Andechs and Margrave of Istria, through his mother Hedwig also a presumptive of Meranien, with geblütsrechtlichem Claim This fledgling Duchy. This claim was, was in 1180, after the final overthrow of Guelph Bavarian lions, redeemed by Kaiser Barbarossa. Apparently, even the life of the " Dachau " Meraniers Conrad II, the Redbeard " Meranien " forgave including Croatia and Dalmatia to the fourth Berthold out of the house of Andechs.

As faithful followers of the emperor, the former Counts of Andechs Unterdießen and now remained as dukes of Andechs- Meranien firmly rooted in the image of history. As a powerful and makes conscious realm of princes of the highest nobility, they had soon goods and fief in Burgundy, Upper Franconia, Lower Bavaria, Istria and Slovenia, as well as their regular county Andechs with the surrounding Duchy Meranien. A continuous land bridge from their own possessions stretched from Lechrain and Mering via Innsbruck (castle Ambras ) to Meran and the Adige to Meransen in Val Pusteria. The Duchy Meranien had become a real territorial state, which between Augsburg and Bolzano to own one and Feudalfürstentum own country kingdom was the western part of the old duchy of Bavaria can be.

In the arms of the Duke Meranier but can be clearly seen, for the basis of their rise high imperial nobility. That fourth Berthold, who was promoted to the first Duke of Andechs Meranien, had that Imperial eagle in the coat of arms which adorned the imperial banner of Barbarossa in the symbolic handover of a princely fief (so-called flags fief ). The striding lion of Guelph, had taken over the assets and rights on Lechrain and elsewhere Meranier after the fall of Henry the Lion, as a second step emblem now with these Meraniern. The Adler von Rothbart and Welf Löwe equally formed the foundation meranischer Duke of Andechs violence - as it shows their coat of arms.

The most noble daughters of the royal house but were coveted Marriage objects of European nobility of that era.

End of the Duchy

1208 was stabbed King Philip of Swabia Otto VIII of Wittelsbach in the residence of andechs - meranischen bishop Egbert in Bamberg. He and his brother Henry, Margrave of Istria came under the suspicion of being privy to the attack. Philip had been the last surviving son of the then already had become a political myth Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. After the assassination of Hohenstaufen was the Welf rival king and son of the lion, Otto of Brunswick, as the fourth king of that name in the German Reich. Although the historical facts clearly prove that no Andechs- Meranier was involved in this regicide who lost two relatives of the young duke's clan related to allegations of complicity and blame their possessions and titles. The possessions of the Margrave of Istria fell to the Duke of Bavaria, Ludwig Kelheim from the house of Wittelsbach. He had good time with King Philip's rival and erstwhile rival king, the Welf Otto IV arranged, and has now been beneficiaries of the Bamberger regicide. The Duke Otto I of Meranien, also Count Palatine of Burgundy and brother of the Marquis Henry, remained unmolested by these allegations. He was in the following decades a respected followers of the emperor, who played a leading role in the negotiations between the Emperor and the Pope, against the Kelheimer up the fight to the Andechs heritage and could also finish in 1228 partially successful. His son Otto II fought from 1234 also to the rest of the goods that were the Wittelsbach Duke remained in 1228, and when the Wittelsbach be arranged with the Emperor, he moved to the papal side. This step led in 1247 to the fact that he was outlawed by the emperor. He eventually died without rights and outlawed in 1248. Went out with him the kingdom noble family of Meranier. The Imperial Principality Meranien no longer existed. The goods of Meranier were either inherited by the daughters or sons of the last Duke, or they were now a part of the Duchy of Bavaria Wittelsbach now. The secular monastery bailiwicks of Andechs- Meranier in the country also fell while at Wittelsbach and could be the Duchy of Bavaria's rule.

The title of Duke of Meranien was not subsequently awarded. Overall, only nine decades there had existed, from 1153 to 1248. Helping, it is not surprising that of Meranien not much more than his myth and his coat of arms remained.

Only in the medieval legends of Hug and Wolf Dietrich also a Berchtung of Merano looks even heroically. And in the legend to the memory of Meranien wove then inseparable from that of the Counts of Andechs and Unterdießen - became part of the veneration of the Blessed Rasso of Earl Rath, the holy Hedwig of Silesia and of St. Elizabeth of Thuringia. And it is probably due to these saints, that the memory of Meranien remained ever get.

Dukes of Meranien

• Conrad II ( Scheyern - Dachau) for 1153-1159
• Conrad III. ( Scheyern - Dachau) probably 1159-1182
• Berthold IV of Andechs 1180 / 82-1204
• Otto VII of Andechs 1204-1234
• Otto VIII of Andechs 1234-1248

Noble families

The following noble families were invested with the Duchy Meranien over time:

• Wittelsbach
• Andechs