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The Windic March (German : Windische Mark; also known as Wendish March) was a medieval frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire, roughly corresponding to the Lower Carniola (Slovene : Dolenjska) region in present-day Slovenia. In Slovenian historiography, it is known as the Slovene March (Slovene : Slovenska marka or Slovenska krajina).
The name Windic is derived from Wends (German : Wenden), the name for Western Slavs settling in the Germania Slavica contact zone. The medieval German term Windisch referred to the Slovene language, but also to Slavic languages in general. It has the same etymology as Wendische, the historic German term for the Sorbian-speaking population in Lusatia. In the 6th and 7th century the term was used by Bavarian settlers to refer to the Slavic population in the East Alpine principality of Carantania. The medieval geographic term windisches Land referred also to the region of Slavonia. [1] [ self-published source ] In this usage, March is defined as a frontier or border area between two countries or territories.
The Chronicle of Fredegar mentions "Sclavos coinomento Winedorum" in 623. [2] Samo's tribal union included the Windic March (Marca Vinedorum) of Duke Valuk (Wallucus Dux), located in the Eastern Alps, [3] in 631. [4]
The territory of the Windic march was contained within the larger March of Carniola in Carolingian times, but under King Otto I of Germany from about 960 on it was separated from Upper Carniola (Gorenjska) and integrated into the March of Savinja (or Soune). In 976 it was attached to the newly founded Duchy of Carinthia.
After Margrave William of Soune had been killed by the deposed Carinthian duke Adalbero in 1036, the Windic march was separated from Carinthia and reattached to the newly established March of Carniola, which was thereafter sometimes called "Carniola and the Windic March". In 1077 King Henry IV of Germany put Carniola and the Windic March under the direction of the Patriarch of Aquileia. From 1127 to 1131 the margravial territory was further expanded in several campaigns by the Counts of Weichselburg (or Weichselberg, modern Višnja Gora) against Croatia in the union with Hungary. Backed by the Archbishop of Salzburg, they conquered the territory around Metlika up to the Kolpa River in the southeast, the later White Carniola (Bela krajina) region.
Until 1209 the Counts of Weichselburg held extended possessions in the Windic March. Through a marriage to the last heiress Sophia of Weichselburg, the Counts of Andechs, then at the peak of their power as Margraves of Istria and Dukes of Merania came to dominate the territory. It was part of the dowry of Agnes of Merania, daughter of Duke Otto I of Andechs-Merania, upon her marriage with the Frederick II of Babenberg, son of Duke Leopold VI of Austria, in 1229. Frederick II thereafter called himself a dominus Carniole (Lord of Carniola) and succeeded his father as Duke of Austria and Styria in the following year.
In 1248 the title was picked up by Duke Ulrich III of Carinthia, who had married Agnes of Merania after Frederick's death in 1246. When Duke Ulrich died in 1269, King Ottokar II of Bohemia occupied and unified Carniola, the Windic March, the valley of the Savinja, and the Slovenj Gradec as "the march" of his vast kingdom extending from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic. After 1282, despite King Rudolf I's grant to his sons, Carniola and the Windic march were united under the control of the Meinhardiner duke Meinhard of Carinthia. During this period, the entity became known as the County in the March and Möttlig (Metlika). After 1374, the Windic March fell to the House of Habsburg. The Habsburgs however soon pawned it to the Counts of Cilli who remained the de facto rulers of the territory until their extinction in 1456. The Habsburgs retook the Windic March together with all other Cilli possessions in the Holy Roman Empire. They immediately reunited it with Carniola, and the Windic March thus ceased to be a separate political entity.
The head of the House of Habsburg continued carrying the title of "Lord on the Windic March" in the grand title of the Emperor of Austria.
Carniola is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region still tend to identify with its traditional parts Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and to a lesser degree with Inner Carniola. In 1991, 47% of the population of Slovenia lived within the borders of the former Duchy of Carniola.
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.
Carantania, also known as Carentania, was a Slavic principality that emerged in the second half of the 7th century, in the territory of present-day southern Austria and north-eastern Slovenia. It was the predecessor of the March of Carinthia, created within the Carolingian Empire in 889.
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.
The Slovene coat of arms is an emblem that consists of a red bordered blue shield on which there is a stylised white Mount Triglav, under which there are two wavy lines representing the sea and the rivers of the country. Above Mount Triglav, there are three golden six-pointed stars representing the Counts of Celje. It was designed in 1991 by Marko Pogačnik and adopted on 24 June 1991.
White Carniola is a traditional region in southeastern Slovenia on the border with Croatia. Due to its smallness, it is often considered a subunit of the broader Lower Carniola region, although with distinctive cultural, linguistic, and historical features.
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.
The Counts of Gorizia, also known as the Meinhardiner, House of Meinhardin, were a comital, princely and ducal dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire. Named after Gorizia Castle in Gorizia, they were originally "advocates" (Vogts) in the Patriarchate of Aquileia who ruled the County of Gorizia (Görz) from the early 12th century until the year 1500. Staunch supporters of the Emperors against the papacy, they reached the height of their power in the aftermath of the battle of Marchfeld between the 1280s and 1310s, when they controlled most of contemporary Slovenia, western and south-western Austria and part of northeast Italy mostly as (princely) Counts of Gorizia and Tyrol, Landgraves of Savinja and Dukes of Carinthia and Carniola. After 1335, they began a steady decline until their territories shrunk back to the original County of Gorizia by the mid 1370s. Their remaining lands were inherited by the Habsburg ruler Maximilian I.
Berthold IV, a member of the House of Andechs, was Margrave of Istria and Carniola. By about 1180/82 he assumed the title of Duke of Merania, referring to the Adriatic seacoast of Kvarner which his ancestors had conquered in the 1060s and annexed to Istria and Carniola.
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.
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.
Otto I, a member of the House of Andechs, was Duke of Merania from 1204 until his death. He was also Count of Burgundy from 1208 to 1231, by his marriage to Countess Beatrice II, and Margrave of Istria and Carniola from 1228 until his death.
The March of Istria was originally a Carolingian frontier march covering the Istrian peninsula and surrounding territory conquered by Charlemagne's son Pepin of Italy in 789. After 1364, it was the Istrian province of the Habsburg monarchy, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary.
Jožko Šavli was a Slovene author, self-declared historian and high school teacher in economic sciences from Italy.
Agnes of Merania was a member of the House of Andechs and an Austrian royal consort. By her two marriages, she was Duchess of Austria from 1230 until 1243 and Duchess of Carinthia from 1256 until her death.
Henry II, Margrave of Istria, born c.1175 and died 18 July 1228 in Slovenj Gradec (Windischgraz), was a noble from the House of Andechs who ruled the March of Istria and Carniola from 1204 to 1228. He inherited the County of Stein, and expanded his domains to the Windic March through marriage. He died childless, and his vast possessions were eventually inherited by his niece Agnes of Merania.
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.
The Duchy of Merania was a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire from 1152 until 1248. The dukes of Merania were recognised as princes of the Empire enjoying imperial immediacy at a time when these concepts were just coming into use to distinguish the highest ranks of imperial nobility.
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 of Sanneck, Lord of Žovnek, was a free noble in the March of Savinja in what was then the Holy Roman Empire and is now in Slovenia. During the struggle between Henry, Duke of Carinthia and the Habsburg rulers of Austria and Styria, he sided with the latter. By accepting the Habsburgs as his liege lords, he was instrumental in transferring the lordship over the Savinja region from the Meinhardiner-dominated Carniola to Habsburg Styria. His second marriage with the noblewoman Catherine of Heunburg would enable their son to claim the Heunburg inheritance in Carinthia and in the Savinja Valley, including the strategically important Celje Castle. This union of the Sanneck (Žovnek) and Heunburg (Vovbre) noble houses would give birth to the House of Celje.
[Sclaui coinomento] Winidi (623), marca Winedorum (631), Walluc dux Winedorum (631), exercitum Winitorum (631)
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