Meinhard II.

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Meinhard II., Count of Tyrol and Gorizia, Duke of Carinthia (historicizing engraving from the 18th century)

Meinhard (* around 1239 ; † around October 30, 1295 in Greifenburg ) from the Meinhardin family was (as Meinhard IV) Count of Görz (1258–1271) and (as Meinhard II.) Count of Tyrol (1258–1295) , Duke of Carinthia (1286–1295), and pledger of the Duchy of Carniola and the Windische Mark . The progenitor of the Tyrol-Görz line was one of the most important princes of the 13th century and is considered the founder of Tyrol as an independent country.

Live and act

Meinhard was the son of Count Meinhard III. von Gorizia and his wife Adelheid, daughter of Count Albert III. of Tyrol . This marriage was decisive for the acquisition of the County of Tyrol (to the extent at that time) by the Gorizia, since Count Albert III. had no male successor and Adelheid's sister Elisabeth died childless around 1256.

From 1253 Meinhard and his younger brother Albert (I) were held hostage by Salzburg Archbishop Philipp von Spanheim at Hohenwerfen Castle . The brothers were in this predicament in exchange for their imprisoned grandfather Albert III. came after he and her father lost an argument with the archbishop. In 1259 Meinhard was released and was able to inherit from his father, who had died the year before. In the meantime, the mother Adelheid von Tirol ran the business, which had its own seal. Count Albert I was only released in 1261. On March 4, 1271, the brothers divided up the widespread possessions and rights at Castle Tyrol : Meinhard took over the County of Tyrol, which at that time still extended into the Vinschgau and Engadin , his brother received the possessions in Friuli , Istria , Carinthia and the Puster Valley . 1276–1279 Meinhard took over the provincial administration in Carinthia .

Meinhard had married Elisabeth of Bavaria on October 6, 1259 , the ten years older widow of the Roman-German King Konrad IV. She was the mother of the last legitimate Staufer , Konradin . The latter was considered a promising pretender to the imperial throne. When Konradin moved to Italy in 1267 to take on the Hohenstaufen inheritance in southern Italy, Meinhard only supported his stepson with escort and money. Conradin was decisively defeated by Charles of Anjou on August 23, 1268 in the battle of Tagliacozzo on his Italian campaign and executed in Naples in October 1268.

Meinhard subsequently supported Rudolf I of Habsburg , with whom he had been close friends since the move to Italy, in the dispute with King Ottokar II of Bohemia and was raised to the rank of imperial prince in 1286 and enfeoffed with the Duchy of Carinthia . Before that, it had been decided to marry their two children to strengthen the alliance: Meinhard's daughter Elisabeth married Albrecht I , the German king from 1298 to 1308, and became the ancestral mother of all later Habsburgs. Through this marriage covenant, Tyrol later fell to Habsburg .

Meinhard acquired several other territories, partly through political and partly through warlike action. On May 17th, 1284 (Murnau), he bought all of the properties in the Inn valley from Count Gebhard V. von Hirschberg , son of Gebhard IV from his second marriage to Sophia von Bayern . These were from Gebhard IV's first childless marriage with Count Albert III's daughter Elisabeth . came from Tyrol to the Hirschberger. Later he defeated the Lords of Enn and also bought their goods from the Counts of Eschenlohe-Hertenberg and the Lords of Salurn . Meinhard was a power man who often ruthlessly asserted his interests. He submitted the princedoms of Trento and Bressanone to his jurisdiction, which is why he is considered to be the actual founder of the state of Tyrol (these territories only formally came to Tyrol in 1803). He introduced a modern administration based on paid civil servants (the familial , often non-noble people) instead of feudal lordship. He created judicial districts and a tight tax system. From 1286, the drafting of a separate German-language, albeit only fragmentary, Tyrolean land law is attested, which is to be seen as an indication of the completed territorialization of the Meinhardin domain.

Eagle egg Meinhards II.

The eagle egg minted by Meinhard in Merano ( Grosso aquilino also Aquilini grossi ) found widespread use in the northern Italian economic area with a number of imitations. The cruiser or Zwainziger (equivalent to twenty Berners in terms of value), which was manufactured in Merano from around 1271 and was later introduced by Emperor Friedrich III, became even more important. helped shape the development of coinage in Austria. The Tyrolean Rait books (accounting books), which have been kept since 1280, are among the most important documents in the country's history.

Meinhard and his wife founded the Cistercian monastery in Stams in Tyrol in 1272 , where he was buried in 1295. His already on 9/10. Mrs. Elisabeth, who died in October 1273, was transferred to the collegiate church after the inauguration of the collegiate church in November 1284. Another marriage of Meinhard is not known.

  • Donor grave in front of the high altar of the collegiate church in Stams

  • Grave slab of the founders Mainhard II and Elisabeth

  • Statues of Meinhard II and Elisabeth in the Austrian grave in the collegiate church in Stams

progeny

Furthermore Meinhard II had numerous illegitimate descendants:

  • Friedrich, Provost of Brixen († March 13, 1333), with Anna Reichenberg married
  • Heinrich, Count of Eschenloch († 1349)
  • Albrecht von Camian and Forst, Burgrave of Tyrol († 1335/36), married to Floridiana (Siguna) von Schlandersberg
  • and another ten illegitimate children with hitherto unknown women

literature

  • A prince's dream - the becoming of Tyrol. Exhibition catalog of the Tyrolean state exhibition at Tyrol Castle and in Stams Abbey, Dorf Tirol-Innsbruck 1995.
  • Wilhelm Baum : The Counts of Görz in the European politics of the Middle Ages. Kitab-Verlag, Klagenfurt 2000. ISBN 3-902005-04-1
  • Christoph Haidacher: The older Tyrolean account books. Analysis and edition. 3 vols. Innsbruck: Tiroler Landesarchiv 1993–2008.
  • Alfons Huber :  Meinhard II. In: General German Biography (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 229-231.
  • Hermann Wiesflecker : Meinhard the Second. Tyrol, Carinthia and their neighboring countries of the 13th century (Schlern-Schriften 124). Wagner, Innsbruck 1995. ISBN 3-7030-0287-5
  • Hermann Wiesflecker: The regests of the Counts of Gorizia and Tyrol, Count Palatine in Carinthia. Volume I, Innsbruck 1949 and Volume II, Innsbruck 1952.
  • Philipp Jedelhauser: The descent of Bishop Bruno von Brixen, Count of Kirchberg (ILLER) with an excursus on Countess Mathilde von Andechs, wife of Count Engelbert III. von Görz and family table of the Counts of Görz. In: Adler, Zeitschrift für Genealogie und Heraldik, Volume 28, Vienna April / September 2016, pp. 277–341, on Meinhard II. Von Tirol pp. 288f. (According to sources annotated family table of the Counts of Görz p. 322).
  • N. Bauer u. a., Friedrich von Schröter (Hrsg.): Dictionary of coinage. Berlin 1970, pp. 33 and 324.

Web links

Commons : Meinhard II.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Köfler: Partition contract between the brothers Count Meinhard II. And Count Albert II., March 4, 1271. Facsimile with accompanying text, partial publication by the Tirol-Edition of the Archiv Verlag, Vienna undated [2000];
    Partition agreement between the brothers Meinhard IV and Albert II von Görz , Meinrad Pizzinini in KULT.DOKU: Hidden Treasures from Austrian National Exhibitions , uni-klu.ac.at/kultdoku.
  2. ↑ Hannes Obermair : Il nello sviluppo della notariato città e del suburbio di Bolzano nei secoli XII-XVI. In: Il notariato nell'arco alpino. Produzione e conservazione delle carte notarili tra medioevo e età moderna (Studi storici sul notariato italiano, vol. XVI). Milano: Giuffrè, 2014. ISBN 978-88-14-20379-4 . P. 293–322, reference p. 307 (with illustration of the only surviving article on land law on p. 320).
predecessor Office successor
Rudolf I. Duke of Carinthia
1286–1295 		Otto (III.) , Heinrich (VI.) , Ludwig
Meinhard I. Count of Tyrol
1258–1295 		Otto (I.) , Heinrich (II.) , Ludwig
Meinhard (III.) Count of Gorizia
1258–1271 		Albert I.
personal data
SURNAME Meinhard II.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meinhard IV of Gorizia and Tyrol
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Tyrolean prince and founder of Tyrol as an independent country
DATE OF BIRTH around 1239
DATE OF DEATH on October 30, 1295
Place of death Greifenburg