Gorizia (House of Meinhardin) Count
Meinhard I, a descendant of the
Meinhardiner noble family with possessions around
Lienz in the
Duchy of Bavaria, is mentioned as a count as early as 1117. As a
vogt official of the
Patriarchs of Aquileia, he was enfeoffed with large estates in the former
March of Friuli, including the town of
Gorizia. The borders of the county changed frequently in the following four centuries, due to frequent wars with Aquileia and other counties, but also to the subdivision of the territory in two main nuclei: one around the Bavarian ancestral seat of
Lienz on the upper
Drava River up to
Innichen in the
Puster Valley, the other centered on Gorizia in
Friuli itself.
Gorizia-Tyrol (House of Meinhardin) Meinhard's descendant Count
Meinhard III of Gorizia, a follower of the
Hohenstaufen emperor
Frederick II, upon the extinction of the ducal
House of Babenberg was appointed administrator of
Styria in 1248. He campaigned the adjacent
Duchy of Carinthia but was defeated by the troops of Duke
Bernhard von Spanheim and his son Archbishop
Philip of Salzburg at
Greifenburg in 1252. Nevertheless, the county reached the apex of its power, when Meinhard III inherited
County of Tyrol (as Meinhard I) from his father-in-law Count
Albert IV one year later. After Count Meinhard III had died in 1258, his sons at first ruled jointly until in 1271 they divided their heritage: While the elder
Meinhard IV took the comital Tyrolean lands west of the
Puster Valley, his brother
Albert retained the Meinhardiner ancestral lands around Lienz and Gorizia. After his death, the County of Gorizia was again partitioned among his sons into the "inner county" at Gorizia, ruled by
Henry III, and the "outer county" around Lienz und
Albert II. When Count Henry III was assassinated in 1323, the Gorizia lands were shattered into four countries. The Counts of Gorizia temporarily controlled the Italian
March of Treviso (
Marca Trevigiana) and the remains of the
Istrian march around
Pazin (
Mitterburg), which Count
Albert III of Görz bequeathed to the
House of Habsburg in 1365. In 1365 Count
Meinhard VI of Görz was granted the
princely title by the
Luxembourg emperor
Charles IV, the county was thereon called
Gefürstete Grafschaft Görz. The
Meinhardiner nevertheless suffered a steep decline under their powerful neighbours, the
Austrian lands of the Habsburg dynasty and the
Republic of Venice.
Gorizia (House of Meinhardin) After the Habsburgs had acquired the Carinthian duchy with the
March of Carniola in 1335 and the County of Tyrol in 1363, the remaining Gorizia lands of Lienz were a thorn in their side, separating the dynasty's "hereditary lands". Venice had conquered the former Patriarchate territories in Friuli, which were incorporated into the
Domini di Terraferma by 1434. The
Council of Ten strived for the adjacent "inner county" lands around Gorizia up to the Venetian
Stato da Màr territories in
Istria. Due to the pressure, the Gorizia counts took their residence at
Bruck Castle in Lienz. In 1429 the county was reunited under the single rule of Count
Henry VI. His son, the last count
Leonhard, died in 1500 and despite claims raised by Venice, according to a contract of inheritance and the active support of the Gorizia governor
Virgil von Graben the county fell to the Habsburg emperor
Maximilian I.
Habsburg While the Lienz area was administered with the Tyrolean
crown land, the "inner county" of Gorizia remained an
Imperial State of the
Holy Roman Empire ruled by the
Inner Austrian Archdukes as part of the
Austrian Circle, governed by a
capitano. Its territory included the
Isonzo Valley down to
Aquileia, the area of
Cormons and
Duino, and the former Venetian fortress of
Gradisca, which was conquered by Imperial troops in 1511.
Monfalcone formed a
Venetian exclave in the county from 1420 to 1797. In 1647 Emperor
Ferdinand III separated the "Principality of Gradisca" from Gorizia for his courtier Johann Anton von
Eggenberg, until in 1747 both were again merged to form the Princely County of
Gorizia and Gradisca, a crown land of the
Habsburg monarchy. ==Counts==