Formation Following the German victory at the
Battle of Lechfeld in 955 the Hungarian threat was lifted for the time being, and in the subsequent years (970–980) the Holy Roman Empire was secured through the establishment of a wide belt of border marches against south-eastern threats. These included the
March of Austria (contemporarily '
in Latin or ' in
Old High German), the '
(the Carantanian march, later the March of Styria), the ''''
, the ' (which at that time extended far to the south over the
Sava river and encompassed the
Windic March), and the Marches of
Carniola and
Istria. The marches of
Verona and
Friuli had already been integrated into what would become the
northern half of the empire by 952. A
count ('
) named Rachwin was mentioned in 980, in whose ' (county) a man named Willihalm (father of the later
Margrave Wilhelm von der Sann) was granted the later lordship of Weitenstein (
Vitanje) by Kaiser
Otto II. In 985 due to the intervention of Duke
Henry of Carinthia,
Otto III gave count Rachwin 15 '''' (a unit of land equivalent to the Scottish and English
Oxgang) in Rosswein (
Razvanje, south of Maribor). This is probably the same count Rachwin who was named in 980. Until about 1005 the territory of Aribo, '''' (Margrave in the Jaun valley) was administered by a brother of bishop Albuin of
Brixen and member of the
Aribonids, and who held large amounts of lucrative property in
Bavaria, Salzburg, Carinthia and
Styria (namely around
Leoben and
Straßgang), as well as in the Drava and Sann (
Savinja) marches.
Church Organisation In the 12th century several parishes in the area around the
Patriarchate of Aquileia (south of the Drava, mostly in modern northern Italy) and the
Archdiocese of Salzburg (north of the Drava) – "mother parishes" with
vicariates and
proprietary churches of the nobles — were condensed into
Archdeaconates in accordance with
Charlemagne's planned 811 division of ecclesiastical territory: :North of the Drava up to
Kozjak Mountains, i.e., the area of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, the parishes were assigned to the "Archdeacon of the lower march". The Mahrenberg district alone belonged to the Archdeaconate of Lower Carinthia (and so to Salzburg). Here the boundaries are those of the old political borders between the march and the duchy. :South of the Drava, extending as far as the
Sava, was the Archdeaconate of Sanntal (i.e., the Sann valley), which also included Ratschach (
Radeče) and Schärfenberg (
Svibno) beyond the river. However, the parishes of the Windic March and the Aquileian Saldenhofen district were subordinated to the Archdeaconate of Carinthia. This also covered its eastern border with the political border between the march and the duchy of Carinthia. (Ebner)
Sponheimer In 1122 the
Spanheim Duke
Henry IV of
Carinthia transferred the comital title in the '''' ('March beyond the Drava forest') to his brother
Bernhard. At the same time, its '''' was expanded up to Unterdrauburg (
Dravograd). === Traungauer (
Otakars) === Count Bernhard was married to Kundigunde, daughter of the
Styrian Margrave
Ottokar II and, upon Bernhard's death in 1147 during the
Second Crusade in
Laodicia in
Asia Minor, all of his
allods and
ministeriales, as well as the Margravial feudal Amt, fell to
Ottokar III of Styria, Ottokar II's son and Kundigunde's brother. This included the lordships of Marburg, Lembach (
Limbuš) and
Radkersburg, and the ministriales of Marburgm Lembach Haidin and Dranneck or Treun, as well as the
Vogtei over the Salzburger lordship of Pettau. With that ended, the march's political dependence on Carinthia. (Ebner) In 1164 Ottokar III founded the
Kartause Seiz from his Spanheim inheritance. (Ebner)
Babenbergs At the turn of the 13th century, Hungary took the
Friedau district by way of the Salzburger Ministerialis Friedrich
von Pettau.
Hungary, Bohemia After the extinction of the
Babenberg dynasty in 1246, their inheritance, namely Austria and Styria, was naturally of great interest to many rulers. In 1254 the Styrian Drava territory, along with large parts of the rest of Styria, fell to Hungary in the
peace of Ofen. However, King
Ottokar II of Bohemia subsequently annexed the territory, along with the rest of Styria, following his victory in the
battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260. In the
battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, in which Ottokar was defeated by
Rudolf I of Germany, Ottokar was killed by a Mahrenberger. (
Seifried von Mahrenberg, a prominent Styrian noble, had been tortured and killed some years before Ottokar for an invalid claim.) (Reichel)
Habsburgs In 1336 the '''' was still mentioned. In 1362 the territory of Windischgraz (
Slovenj Gradec), which had been a possession of the Patriarchate of Aquileia since 1228 (and before that the
Counts of Andechs; see
Henry II, Margrave of Istria), fell to the
Habsburgs, but belonged neither to Styria nor Carinthia. In 1407 it was
de facto part of Styria, although it was not
de jure Styrian until 1482. (Ebner) == Citations ==