Counts of Görz

House of Gorizia Meinhardiner
Country	Kingdom of Bohemia Duchy of Carinthia County of Görz County of Tyrol
Parent house	Sieghardinger
Titles	King of Bohemia and Margrave of Moravia King of Poland Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Carniola Count of Görz and Tyrol etc.
Founder	Count Meginhard in the Bavarian Puster Valley
Final ruler	Leonhard of Görz
Founding year	11th century
Dissolution	1500

The Counts of Görz/Gorizia (German: Grafen von Görz; Italian: Conti di Gorizia; Slovene: Goriški grofje ) or Meinhardiner were a comital dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire, originally officials in the Patriarchate of Aquileia, who from 1127 ruled the County of Görz (Gorizia).

In 1253 they inherited the County of Tyrol, which passed to the cadet branch of Görz-Tyrol in 1271, also Dukes of Carinthia from 1286 onwards. Henry of Görz-Tyrol by marriage even assumed the title of a King of Bohemia and a King of Poland in 1306 and again from 1307 to 1310. However, as he left no male heirs, the Görz-Tyrol branch became extinct upon the death of his daughter Margaret in 1369. The line of the Counts of Görz died out in 1500, whereupon all Meinhardiner estates were finally incorporated by the Austrian House of Habsburg.

History

The dynasty probably hailed from the Rhenish Franconian Siegharding dynasty, which originally descended from the Kraichgau region and in the 10th century ruled in the Chiemgau of the German stem duchy of Bavaria. One Siegharding Meginhard (or Meinhard, d. 1090) is documented as a count in the Bavarian gau of Pustertal. The progenitor of the Meinhardiner, Count Meinhard I of Gorizia, and his brother Engelbert, Count palatine of Bavaria, may be his sons. The dynasty first appeared around Lienz and in the 11th century gained the office of a vogt at the town of Gorizia (Görz) in the Patriarchate of Aquileia.

Gorizia-Tyrol

Coat of arms of the Counts of Görz, Ingeram Codex of Archduke Albert VI of Austria, 1459

Tyrol already in the early and later Middle Ages was an important mountain pass area with the lowest crossings over the Central Eastern Alps, vital for the Holy Roman Emperors to reach the Kingdom of Italy. The centres of the Imperial power were initially two Prince-bishoprics established by Emperor Conrad II in 1027, Brixen (Bressanone) and Trient (Trento). The bishops were the sovereigns of many semi-free compulsory henchmen (ministeriales) and local noblemen which styled until today the scenery with their numerous castles mostly south of the Brenner Pass. One of that noble families were the Counts of Tyrol, named after the Castle Tyrol near the town of Meran. They speedily ascended as bailiffs, who exercised the judicial power for the Trient and Brixen prince-bishops and finally took over the secular power in southern Bavaria after the deposition of the Welf duke Henry the Lion in 1180. One result of their becoming rulers of the area, was that the area is now called "Tyrol", after their ancestral castle.

Between 1253 and 1258 the Counts of Görz assumed the power in the Tyrolean lands, after the counts at Castle Tyrol had failed to produce a male heir. In 1237 Count Meinhard III had married Adelheid, daughter of Count Albert IV of Tyrol, who died in 1253 leaving no male heirs, and could in this way claim Tyrol as his inheritance. His son and successor Count Meinhard IV not only expanded the county, but also molded it into a more homogeneous country. He also created an administration, which, by the standards of his time, can only be called exemplary. Nevertheless, the three areas of country were to far apart to be ruled by a single count, and therefore it was decided to divide the county in 1267/71, when Meinhard IV ceded the County of Gorizia to his younger brother Albert I. Albert's descendants, the Görz line of the Meinhardiner dynasty, maintained their residence in Görz, until the line died out in 1500. The descendants of Meinhard IV, who was Count of Tyrol as Meinhard II, ruled Tyrol until 1363.

In 1286 Meinhard IV had also received the rule over the Duchy of Carinthia and the adjacent March of Carniola by the Habsburg king Rudolph I of Germany in turn for his support against King Ottokar II of Bohemia. Meinhard's son Henry in 1306 married Anne, the eldest daughter of King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, and after the sudden death of his brother-in-law King Wenceslaus III in the same year even ascended the Bohemian throne. He however had to deal with claims raised by the Habsburg scion Rudolph III, son of King Albert I of Germany, and in the long run both could not prevail against Count John of Luxembourg, who became Bohemian king in 1310.

Decline

As Henry himself left no male heirs upon his death in 1335, the Austrian House of Habsburg inherited Carinthia and Carniola from the Görz-Tyrol branch. The Habsburgs held these lands until 1918. Henry's only surviving daughter Margaret "Maultasch" and her husband John Henry of Luxembourg were able to retain the County of Tyrol. In 1363 she ceded the county to the Habsburg duke Rudolph IV of Austria after her only son with her second husband Duke Louis V of Bavaria, Count Meinhard III of Görz-Tyrol had died in the same year.

The Counts of Görz were moreover the Bailiffs of Aquileja. They are famous in numismatics as publishers of the first German golden coin, the "Zwainziger". The renowned diplomat and minnesinger Oswald von Wolkenstein was a subject of the Counts of Görz. The Görz branch of the dynasty became extinct in the year 1500, when the last male family member Count Leonhard of Görz died withoud issue. One apparent or illegitimate branch of the Meinhardiner was the Graben von Stein family. After Leonhards of Görz's death they became his successor as stadtholders of Lienz in East Tyrol.

Counts of Görz

Görz coat of arms, Hugo Gerhard Ströhl, 1890

• Marquard (fl. 1060/1074), Vogt of Aquileia
  • Meginhard (died about 1090), from the House of Siegharding, Count in the Puster Valley
  • Henry I (died after 1102), Vogt of Aquileia from 1082          
  • Ulrich (died 1122), brother
    • Meinhard I (died 1139/1142), descent uncertain, mentioned as Count of Gorizia in 1117, jointly with his brother
    • Engelbert I (died c. 1122), also Count palatine of Bavaria and Vogt of Millstatt Abbey in Carinthia
      • Engelbert II (1142–1191), son of Meinhard I, jointly with his brother
      • Henry II (1142–1150)
        • Engelbert III (1191–1220), son of Engelbert II, jointly with his brother
        • Meinhard II the Elder (1191–1231)
          • Meinhard III (1231–1258), son of Engelbert III, inherited Tyrol in 1253

Görz-Tyrol

• Meinhard IV (1258–1271), elder son of Meinhard III, Count of Tyrol after partition in 1271, also Duke of Carinthia from 1286 until 1295
• Heinrich IV, son of Meinhard IV, Count of Tyrol and Duke of Carinthia from 1295, King of Bohemia 1306 and 1307–1310
• Margarete, Countess of Tyrol (1335–1363), daughter of Heinrich IV

Line extinct, Tyrol fell to House of Habsburg

Görz

• Albert I (1258–1304), younger son of Meinhard III, ruled jointly with his brother Meinhard IV until 1271
• Albrecht II (1304–1325), son of Albrecht I, jointly with his brother
  • Heinrich III (1304–1323) until 1307 partition, succeeded by
• Johann Heinrich IV (1323–1338), son of Henry III
• Meinhard VI (1338-1385), son of Albert II, Princely Count from 1365, and his brothers
  • Albrecht III (1338–1374)
  • Heinrich V (1338–1362)
• Heinrich (1385–1454), son of Meinhard VI, jointly with his brother
  • Johann Meinhard VII VII (1385–1429)
• Leonhard (1454–1500), son of Heinrich VI, jointly with his brothers
  • Johann II (1454–1462)
  • Ludwig (1454–after 1456)

Possessions to House of Habsburg, Görz part of Inner Austria from 1564 to 1619, Lienz unified with Tyrol

Other family members

• Elisabeth von Kärnten (1262-1313) (1262–1313), daughter of Meinhard IV, Queen-consort of the Romans in 1298 by marriage with King Albert I of Germany
• Elisabeth of Carinthia (1298 – after 1347), her niece, granddaughter of Meinhard IV by his son Otto, in 1337 queen-consort of Sicily as wife of King Peter II of Sicily
• Meinhard V (d. after 1318), son of Henry III

References

• Görz