Meinhard II was the son of Count
Meinhard III of Gorizia and his wife Adelheid (died 1275–79), daughter and heiress of Count
Albert IV of Tyrol. His father had acquired the County of Tyrol (as Meinhard I) upon the death of his father-in-law in 1253 and already had attempted to gain control over neighbouring Carinthian lands against the forces of Duke
Bernhard von Spanheim. However, he was defeated near
Greifenburg and had to leave his minor sons Meinhard II and Albert held in hostage by Duke Bernhard's son, Archbishop-elect
Philip of Salzburg. After their father's death in 1258, Meinhard II and his brother emerged from the
Salzburg custody at
Hohenwerfen Castle to secure their Gorizia-Tyrol heritage. In 1259 Meinhard married
Elisabeth of Wittelsbach, the widow of the
Hohenstaufen king
Conrad IV of Germany, about ten years his senior. The joint rule with Albert came to an end, when the inheritance rights to Gorizia and Tyrol were divided in 1271. Meinhard received the County of Tyrol, becoming the progenitor of the Gorizia-Tyrol line of the
Meinhardiner dynasty. He and his wife Elisabeth founded
Stams Abbey as a proprietary monastery in 1273. The count struggled to acquire the lordship over the
prince-bishoprics of
Trento and
Brixen, extended his Tyrolean lands down the
Adige River to
Salorno, and also acquired several territories in the
Inn valley including the important
salt mines around
Hall. He turned out to be a capable ruler, and therefore is known as the creator of Tyrol as an autonomous
Imperial State. Meinhard also had roads built and coins minted, especially the
silver coin
Zwainziger (
twenty). The type was copied elsewhere in Europe and became widely known as
Groschen. Already in 1267 Count Meinhard had once again tried to strengthen the ties with the Hohenstaufen dynasty by accompanying his stepson,
Conradin of Swabia, on his campaign to
Italy. However, after Conradin's defeat at the
Battle of Tagliacozzo and his execution in 1268, he had to seek new allies. He became a close associate of Count
Rudolf of Habsburg, who was elected
King of the Romans in 1273, and stuck in a fierce conflict with the mighty king
Ottokar II of Bohemia around several "alienated" Imperial territories, which Ottokar had acquired during the preceding
interregnum. In 1276 Meinhard married his daughter
Elisabeth off to Rudolf's eldest son,
Albert. Meinhard backed Rudolf's campaign against Ottokar and in turn received Carinthia with the Carniolan march as a pledge in 1276. After Ottokar's defeat in the 1278
Battle on the Marchfeld, King Rudolf formally elevated Meinhard to a
Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and finally vested him with the Duchy of Carinthia as a fief at the
Imperial Diet of
Augsburg in 1286. On September 1, Meinhard was enthroned at the
Duke's Chair and thus becoming the first Carinthian duke of the Gorizia-Tyrol dynasty. In 1286–9 Meinhard issued a vernacular
Tyrolean Landrecht, albeit only fragmentarily transmitted upon today. As far as it can be ascertained, he had no ancestry in earlier Carinthian ducal families, whereas he was a distant descendant of some early
Meranian lords of
Istria and Carniola. His investiture of the duchy included a provision that in extinction of his male line, the
House of Habsburg would be its heir. This materialized in 1335 upon the death of his son
Henry. The Habsburgs also acquired the County of Tyrol from Henry's daughter
Margaret in 1363. Meinhard died in 1295 at Greifenburg in Carinthia. His younger son Henry succeeded him as Carinthian duke and in 1307 was even elected
King of Bohemia; his eldest daughter Elisabeth by her marriage with Albert of Habsburg became
German queen in 1298. ==Marriage and children==