The family took its name from their ancestral seat at Sponheim Castle in the Hunsrück range, in present-day Burgsponheim near Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate. From the 11th century the family was divided in two closely related branches. One of these branches, probably the senior one, retained the Duchy of Carinthia and originated the County of Ortenburg in Bavaria. The other one remained in Rhenish Franconia, retaining the County of Sponheim.
The founder of the ducal branch was Count Siegfried I (1010–1065), a Ripuarian Frank by birth and retainer of the Salian emperor Conrad II. For this reason the family is sometimes termed the Siegfrieding. Siegfried followed Conrad in his 1035 campaign against Duke Adalbero of Carinthia, who for unknown reasons had fallen out of favour with the emperor. By his marriage to Richgard, daughter of one Count Engelbert of the Bavarian Sieghardinger noble family, he became heir to large territories in Carinthia and Tyrol. In 1045 Siegfried received the title of a margrave in the Hungarian March by Emperor Henry III. His sons Engelbert, Margrave in Istria from 1090, and Hartwig founded Saint Paul's Abbey, Lavanttal on their mother's estates in 1091.
When the ducal House of Eppenstein finally became extinct in 1122, Siegfried's grandson Henry inherited the title and became the first Sponheim Duke of Carinthia as well as Margrave in the Italian March of Verona. Upon his death only one year later, he was succeeded by his brother Engelbert, whose descendants ruled in Carinthia until the death of Duke Ulrich III in 1269. Engelbert's younger son Rapoto became the ancestor of the Bavarian Ortenburg dynasty. The Sponheim dukes tried to consolidate their possessions by being loyal liensmen of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen, they nevertheless had to struggle with reluctant local nobles like the Carinthian Ortenburger. The margravial title in Verona was lost to Herman III of Baden in 1151.
Under Bernhard of Sponheim, Carinthian duke from 1202 until 1256, the dynasty reached the height of its power. In 1213 he married Judith, a daughter of King Ottokar I of Bohemia, which affiliated the ducal line with the Czech royal Přemyslid dynasty. Bernhard's son Ulrich III by marriage with Agnes of Merania in 1248 also inherited the title of a margrave in the adjacent March of Carniola. However, as he outlived his children, he bequested his Carinthian and Carniolan lands to his Přemyslid cousin King Ottokar II of Bohemia according to a secret inheritance agreement of 1268. These estates were among the territories which Rudolph of Habsburg after his election as King of the Romans in 1273 seized due to their acquisition in suspicious circumstances.
The founder of the Rhenish branch was Count Stephan I of Sponheim (d. 1080), who may have been a 1st cousin, a son or a nephew of Siegfried. One of his successors Gottfried III (1183–1218) married Adelheid of Sayn, sister and heiress of the last Count of Sayn, Henry II. In 1437 this branch's ruling male line in Sponheim died out, and female line descendants, namely the Margraves of Baden and the Counts Palatine of Simmern-Zweibrücken-Birkenfeld, took on the title of Count to Sponheim, along with the Elector of the Palatinate, who had received a small part as dowry.[1]
The branch of the Counts of Ortenburg is still living today in Tambach (Bavaria). A lateral line of the Rhenish branch survives also with the Princes of Sayn-Wittgenstein.
Genealogy
Ducal line
Carinthian ducal coat of arms until 1246Carinthian coat of arms from 1246
Meginhard I (d. 1136/45), married to Mechtild, daughter of Count Adalbert II of Nellenburg
Godfrey I (d. after 1159), probably married to Matilda (Mechtild), daughter of Duke Simon I of Lorraine
Godfrey II, probably married to a daughter of Count Gerlach of Veldenz
Godfrey III (c. 1175–1218), married to Adelheid, sister of Count Henry III of Sayn, died in the Fifth Crusade
John I of Sponheim-Starkenburg (c. 1206-1266), Count of Sayn from 1263, probably married to a daughter of Count Frederick of Isenberg, see Sponheim-Starkenburg below
Meinhard I, a member of the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner), was Count of Gorizia from 1231 and Count of Tyrol from 1253 until his death.
The Imperial County of Ortenburg was a state of the Holy Roman Empire in present-day Lower Bavaria, Germany. It was located on the lands around Ortenburg Castle, about 10 km (6 mi) west of Passau. Though the Counts of Ortenburg—formerly Ortenberg—emerged in the 12th century as a cadet branch of the Rhenish House of Sponheim (Spanheim) who then ruled over the Duchy of Carinthia, an affiliation with the Carinthian Ortenburger comital family is unverifiable.
Saint Paul's Abbey in Lavanttal is a Benedictine monastery established in 1091 near the present-day market town of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia. The premises centered on the Romanesque monastery church were largely rebuilt in a Baroque style in the 17th century.
Henry IV was Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona from 1122 until his death. He was the first ruler of those territories from the Rhenish House of Sponheim.
The Counts of Vianden, ancestors of the House of Orange-Nassau, were associated with the castle of Vianden in Luxembourg.
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.
Bernhard von Spanheim, a member of the noble House of Sponheim, was Duke of Carinthia for 54 years from 1202 until his death. A patron of chivalry and minnesang, Bernhard's reign marked the emergence of the Carinthian duchy as an effective territorial principality.
Engelbert II, a member of the House of Sponheim, was Margrave of Istria and Carniola from about 1103/07 until 1124. In 1123, he succeeded his elder brother Henry as Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona which he held until his retirement in 1135.
Engelbert III, a member of the Rhenish Franconian House of Sponheim, was Margrave of Istria from 1124 until his death.
The House of Andechs was a feudal line of German princes in the 12th and 13th centuries. The counts of Dießen-Andechs obtained territories in northern Dalmatia on the Adriatic seacoast, where they became Margraves of Istria and ultimately dukes of a short-lived imperial state named Merania from 1180 to 1248. They were also self-styled lords of Carniola.
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.
The County of Sponheim was an independent territory in the Holy Roman Empire that lasted from the 11th century until the early 19th century. The name comes from the municipality of Sponheim, where the counts had their original residence.
Herman II of Spanheim, a scion of the Rhenish House of Sponheim, was Duke of Carinthia from 1161 until his death.
Siegfried I is considered the progenitor of the Carinthian ducal House of Sponheim (Spanheimer) and all of its lateral branches, including the Counts of Lebenau and the Counts of Ortenburg. He is documented as Count of Sponheim from 1044 and served as margrave of the Hungarian March in 1045/46 and as count in the Puster Valley and the Lavant Valley from 1048 until his death.
Henry V, of the House of Spanheim, was the margrave of Verona from 1144 until 1151 and the duke of Carinthia from 1144 to his death. According to the contemporary chronicler Otto of Freising, Henry was "a valiant man, experienced in the councils of war".
Ulrich I, of the House of Sponheim, was the Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Verona from 1135 until his death. He was the eldest son of Duke Engelbert and Uta, daughter of Burggrave Ulrich of Passau, his namesake. His father abdicated in 1135 and Ulrich was appointed his successor by the Emperor Lothair II at an imperial diet being held in Bamberg.
Gottfried III, Count of Sponheim was a German nobleman. He succeeded his father Gottfried II as Count of Sponheim.
Engelbert I was Margrave of Istria (1090–1096), Count of Sponheim, Kraichgau, and Pustertal and Vogt of the Archbishopric of Salzburg. As a supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy, he lost the county of Pustertal. In 1091, Engelbert founded the Benedictine monastery of St. Paul. He retired as a monk there in 1095 and died in 1096.
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