Celje is the fourth-largest city in Slovenia. It is a regional center of the traditional Slovenian region of Styria and the administrative seat of the City Municipality of Celje. The town of Celje is located below Upper Celje Castle at the confluence of the Savinja, Hudinja, Ložnica, and Voglajna rivers in the lower Savinja Valley, and at the crossing of the roads connecting Ljubljana, Maribor, Velenje, and the Central Sava Valley. It lies 238 m (781 ft) above mean sea level (MSL).
The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies.
The Counts of Celje or the Counts of Cilli were the most influential late medieval noble dynasty on the territory of present-day Slovenia. Risen as vassals of the Habsburg dukes of Styria in the early 14th century, they ruled the County of Cilli as immediate counts (Reichsgrafen) from 1341. They soon acquired a large number of feudal possessions also in today's Croatia and Bosnia. They rose to Princes of the Holy Roman Empire in 1436. The dynasty reached its peak with Ulrich II of Cilli, but with his death in 1456 they also died out, and after a war of succession, the Habsburgs inherited their domains.
Barbara of Cilli or Barbara of Celje, was the Holy Roman Empress and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia by marriage to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund. She was actively involved in politics and economy of her times, independently administering large feudal fiefdoms and taxes, and was instrumental in creating the famous royal Order of the Dragon. She served as the regent of Hungarian kingdom in the absence of her husband four times: in 1412, 1414, 1416, and 1418.
Hermann II, Count of Celje, was a Styrian prince and magnate, most notable as the faithful supporter and father-in-law of the Hungarian king and Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg. Hermann's loyalty to the King ensured him generous grants of land and privileges that led him to become the greatest landowner in Slavonia. He served as governor of Carniola, and twice as ban of the combined provinces of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia, and was recognized by a treaty in 1427 as heir presumptive to the Kingdom of Bosnia. The House of Celje's rise to power culminated in achieving the dignity of Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. At the peak of his power, he controlled two thirds of the land in Carniola, most of Lower Styria, and exercised power over all of medieval Croatia. Hermann was one of the most important representatives of the House of Celje, having brought the dynasty from regional importance to the foreground of Central European politics.
The Duchy of Carniola was an imperial estate of the Holy Roman Empire, established under Habsburg rule on the territory of the former East Frankish March of Carniola in 1364. A hereditary land of the Habsburg monarchy, it became a constituent land of the Austrian Empire in 1804 and part of the Kingdom of Illyria until 1849. A separate crown land from 1849, it was incorporated into the Cisleithanian territories of Austria-Hungary from 1867 until the state's dissolution in 1918. Its capital was German: Laibach, today Ljubljana.
Elizabeth of Luxembourg was queen consort of Hungary, queen consort of Germany and Bohemia.
The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised prince-bishoprics of Trent and Brixen, became a crown land of the Austrian Empire. From 1867, it was a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary.
The County of Gorizia, from 1365 Princely County of Gorizia, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. Originally mediate Vogts of the Patriarchs of Aquileia, the Counts of Gorizia (Meinhardiner) ruled over several fiefs in the area of Lienz and in the Friuli region of northeastern Italy with their residence at Gorizia (Görz).
Ulrich II, or Ulrich of Celje, was the last Princely Count of Celje. At the time of his death, he was captain general and de facto regent of Hungary, ban (governor) of Slavonia, Croatia and Dalmatia and feudal lord of vast areas in present-day Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Austria, and Slovakia. He was also a claimant to the Bosnian throne. He was killed by agents of the Hunyadi clan under unknown circumstances, which plunged Hungary into civil unrest that was resolved a year later by the sudden death of king Ladislas the Posthumous and the election of Matthias Corvinus, the son of John Hunyadi and Ulrich's son-in-law, as king. Ulrich's possessions in the Holy Roman Empire were inherited by Emperor Frederick III, while his possessions in Hungary were reverted to the crown.
The Windic March was a medieval frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Lower Carniola region in present-day Slovenia. In Slovenian historiography, it is known as the Slovene March.
The Counts of Ortenburg were a comital family in the mediaeval Duchy of Carinthia. Though they had roots in Bavarian nobility, an affiliation with the Imperial Counts of Ortenburg, a branch line of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, is not established.
Ortenburg Castle is a ruined mediaeval castle located in Baldramsdorf, in the Austrian state of Carinthia. It is located on the northern slope of Mt. Goldeck, part of the Gailtal Alps, above the Drava valley at a height of 740 m (2,430 ft).
Sommeregg is a medieval castle near Seeboden in the Austrian state of Carinthia, Austria. It is situated in the foothills of the Nock Mountains at an altitude of 749 m.
Henry VI (1376–1454), a member of the House of Gorizia, ruled as Count of Gorizia from 1385 until his death. He was also Count Palatine of Carinthia, governor of Belluno-Feltre and Landeshauptmann of Carniola. Through his first marriage with Elizabeth of Cilli, he was the brother-in-law of Sigismund of Luxembourg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary.
The Mark an der Sann was a border march of the Holy Roman Empire, in the territory of present-day Slovenia. It was established in the second half of the 10th century to protect the Empire against its enemies to the east, especially from Hungarian raids.
Hermann I, Count of Celje, was a Styrian nobleman, who was head of the House of Celje between 1359 and 1385. In the first decade, he ruled together with his older brother Ulrich. After Ulrich's death, Hermann took over the custody of his nephew William and ruled as the de facto head of the family. Under his rule, the House of Celje began expanding its influence from its power base in present-day Slovenia and southern Carinthia to Central Europe and the Balkans. By marriage to the Bosnian princess Catherine, whose exact parentage is disputed, Hermann became the brother-in-law either of the Hungarian and Polish king Louis the Great, or of the Bosnian king Tvrtko I. His son Hermann II further expanded the family's wealth and influence. By the time of his death, Hermann I was the largest landowner in the territory of present-day Slovenia, where his possessions significantly outnumbered those of his Habsburg liege lords.
Frederick I of Celje, also Frederick I of Cilli, was a Styrian free noble who became the first Count of Celje, founding a noble house that would dominate Slovenian and Croatian history in the first half of the 15th century.
Ulrich I, Count of Celje, was a Styrian nobleman and condottiere, who was head of the House of Celje between 1359 and 1368, together with his younger brother Hermann I. During his reign, the House of Celje became one of the most powerful noble houses in the territory of present-day Slovenia, and laid the basis for its expansion to neighboring Slavonia and Croatia in the next generation. Ulrich's skills as a military commander are usually credited for the House of Celje's acceptance into the circles of the Central European high nobility in the second half of the 14th century. His life was immortalized in the poem Von graff Ulrichen von Tzili by the 14th century Austrian poet Peter Suchenwirt.
William of Celje, also William of Cilli, Count of Celje, was a Styrian nobleman who was married to Anna of Poland, daughter of the Polish king Casimir the Great. He was the co-ruler of the House of Celje together with his uncle Hermann I until 1385 and then with his cousin Hermann II until his death. William's only daughter, Anna of Celje, married the Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło in order to strengthen his claim to the Polish throne.
