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The Georgenberg Pact (also called the Georgenberg Compact, German : Georgenberger Handfeste) was a treaty signed between Duke Leopold V of Austria and Duke Ottokar IV of Styria on 17 August 1186 at Enns Castle on the Georgenberg mountain.
The treaty consisted of two parts. The first part was an agreement under which the childless and deathly ill Ottokar IV, the first and last Styrian duke from the Otakar dynasty who had contracted leprosy while on the Third Crusade, was to pass his duchy to the Austrian duke Leopold V and to his son Frederick from the Franconian Babenberg dynasty, under the stipulation that Austria and Styria would henceforth remain united forever. The second part consists of a delineation of rights of the Styrian estates and citizens. It has been incorrectly called by English-speaking historians a "Styrian Magna Carta", for it sought to maintain the rights of the Styrian ministeriales in anticipation of the Babenberg acquisition. [1]
The territory of Styria at the time went far beyond the modern Austrian state of Styria, and included lands not only in modern Slovenia (Lower Styria), but also in Upper Austria, more precisely the Traungau region around the cities of Wels and Steyr, as well as the present-day districts of Wiener Neustadt and Neunkirchen in Lower Austria.
The case of succession came to pass upon Ottokar's death in 1192, Styria has since then remained connected to Austria. The treaty was acknowledged by Emperor Frederick II in 1237. [2] It was continued under the rule of the Habsburg dynasty after the line of Babenberg dukes became extinct in 1246; despite several interludes when the Styrian lands were ruled by Inner Austrian cadet branches. The Georgenberg Pact thus was the first step towards the creation of a complex of "hereditary lands" of the Habsburg Monarchy.
The Pact formed an integral part of the Austrian constitution until the Revolutions of 1848. The original document is kept at the Styrian State Archive in Graz.
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Babenberg was a noble dynasty of Austrian margraves and dukes. Originally from Bamberg in the Duchy of Franconia, the Babenbergs ruled the Imperial Margraviate of Austria from its creation in 976 AD until its elevation to a duchy in 1156, and from then until the extinction of the line in 1246, whereafter they were succeeded by the House of Habsburg.
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Ottokar IV, a member of the Otakar dynasty, was Margrave of Styria from 1164 and Duke from 1180, when Styria, previously a margraviate subordinated to the stem duchy of Bavaria, was raised to the status of an independent duchy.
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The Marchof Carniola was a southeastern state of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, the predecessor of the Duchy of Carniola. It corresponded roughly to the central Carniolan region of present-day Slovenia. At the time of its creation, the march served as a frontier defense against the Kingdoms of Hungary and Croatia.
The March of Styria, originally known as Carantanian march, was a southeastern frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. It was broken off the larger March of Carinthia, itself a march of the Duchy of Bavaria, around 970 as a buffer zone against the Hungarian invasions. Under the overlordship of the Carinthian dukes from 976 onwards, the territory evolved to be called Styria, so named for the town of Steyr, then the residence of the Otakar margraves. It became an Imperial State in its own right, when the Otakars were elevated to Dukes of Styria in 1180.
The Duchy of Styria was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918.
Freed, John B. Noble Bondsmen: Ministerial Marriages in the Archdiocese of Salzburg, 1100–1343. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995)