Meinhard III.

Count Meinhard III.

Meinhard (* 1344 in Landshut ; † January 13, 1363 at Castle Tyrol or in Meran ) was Duke of Upper Bavaria and as Meinhard III. also Count of Tyrol .

Life

childhood

Meinhard was the son of Margarete of Tyrol with Ludwig V of Bavaria (second marriage) and thus the last Meinhardiner from Tyrol on his mother's side . His birthday and year of birth are not certain.

He spent his childhood mostly in Tyrol, from 1354 to 1357 he was brought up in Vienna by his Habsburg relatives. At that time it was common for members of the high nobility to grow up on friendly farms.

In June 1359 he married Margarete, a daughter of the Austrian Duke Albrecht II , in Passau , in order to seal his parents' alliance with the Habsburgs. Through the mediation of the Habsburgs, his parents were released from excommunication on this occasion . At this point in time, Meinhard's siblings had probably all died because they were no longer mentioned.

Domination

After the death of his father Ludwig V in September 1361, Meinhard succeeded him in the government in Upper Bavaria and Tyrol, which was strongly influenced by his Wittelsbach relatives, in particular a noble party around his cousin Friedrich . Since parts of the Bavarian aristocracy did not accept the spread of power, they turned to Friedrich's father, who intervened on May 5, 1362. In order to evade the influence of his uncle Stephan II , Meinhard temporarily fled in the direction of Tyrol, on the way the Eichstatt prince-bishop Berthold von Zollern granted him shelter. Meinhard's relationship with his mother had already deteriorated at the beginning of the year, who was also visiting her long-standing opponent, Emperor Charles IV , and had met with the Wittelsbach dukes Stephan and Ruprecht . The emperor had also tried to influence the young duke.

After his return to Munich at Stephen's request only a short time later, Meinhard then traveled back to his mother's homeland in October 1362 at the request of the Tyrolean nobility in agreement with the Habsburgs and without the knowledge of his uncle. In June he had appointed Ulrich IV. Vogt von Matsch as governor of Tyrol , the administration was incumbent on the Brixen cathedral provost Johann von Liechtenwerth, who also kept Meinhard's seal. It is not certain whether Meinhard had Tyrolean castles besieged and destroyed when he put down a revolt of the nobility. In any case, some aristocrats lost their high position and their goods, while in 1362 markets and towns in Tyrol gained importance and were included in the estates .

Death and succession

In December 1362 Meinhard's health deteriorated and his documents were now increasingly being issued by representatives. Meinhard moved to the milder Merano at the beginning of January, while his brother-in-law Rudolf IV from Austria was already on his way to Tyrol. Meinhard died on January 13th in Merano or at Schloss Tirol near Merano. The unexpected death was attributed to poisoning by contemporaries and was sometimes further embellished as a result.

After his early death his mother inherited in Bozen in January 1363 against the claims of Meinhard VI. von Gorizia and the Wittelsbacher Tirol to Rudolf IV., the brother of their daughter-in-law. Contrary to the agreement in the Landsberg contract, Upper Bavaria fell to Meinhard's uncle Stephan II of Bavaria-Landshut . He also had Tyrol occupied in 1363, but finally gave it up to the Habsburgs in the Peace of Schärding in 1369 after a long war, the end of which Rudolf IV never lived to see.

literature

Helga Czerny: The death of the Bavarian dukes in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period 1347–1579. Preparations - dying - funeral ceremonies - burial - memoria (= series of publications on Bavarian national history . Volume 146 ). CH Beck, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-406-10742-7 , p. 87–93 (also dissertation, University of Munich 2004).
Julia Hörmann: Duke Meinhard III. and his siblings. Considerations on the descendants of Margrave Ludwig of Brandenburg and Margarethe “Maultasch” . In: Journal for Bavarian State History . tape 64 , 2001, p. 309-336 ( online ).
Alfons Huber : Meinhard III., Duke of Baiern and Count of Tyrol . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, p. 231 f.
Josef Riedmann: Meinhard III., Count of Tyrol, Duke of Upper Bavaria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 669 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Meinhard III. in the Austrian universal information system AEIOU

Individual evidence

^ Alfred Wendehorst : The diocese of Eichstätt. Volume 1: The series of bishops until 1535 (= Germania Sacra. New series. Volume 45). Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018971-1 , p. 170.

predecessor	Office	successor
Margarete ∞ Ludwig	Count of Tyrol 1361–1363	Margarete , then Rudolf IV.
Ludwig V.	Duke of Upper Bavaria 1361–1363	Stephan II

personal data
SURNAME	Meinhard III.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Meinhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Duke of Upper Bavaria and Count of Tyrol
DATE OF BIRTH	1344
PLACE OF BIRTH	Landshut
DATE OF DEATH	January 13, 1363
Place of death	Castle Tyrol or Meran

[1] Alfred Wendehorst : The diocese of Eichstätt. Volume 1: The series of bishops until 1535 (= Germania Sacra. New series. Volume 45). Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-11-018971-1 , p. 170.