Bernhard von Spanheim
Encyclopedia
Duchy of Carinthia
The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....
for 54 years from 1202 until his death.
Family
Bernhard was a scion of the noble House of SponheimHouse of Sponheim
The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a noble family of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages. They were Dukes of Carinthia from 1122 until 1269 and Counts of Sponheim until 1437...
descending from Rhenish Franconia
Rhenish Franconia
Rhenish Franconia or Western Franconia denotes the western half of the central German stem duchy of Franconia in the 10th and 11th century, with its residence at the city of Worms...
, which in 1122 had inherited the Imperial State
Imperial State
An Imperial State or Imperial Estate was an entity in the Holy Roman Empire with a vote in the Imperial Diet assemblies. Several territories of the Empire were not represented, while some officials were non-voting members; neither qualified as Imperial States.Rulers of Imperial States were...
of Carinthia. His father was Duke Herman II of Carinthia
Herman II, Duke of Carinthia
Herman II of Sponheim, Duke of Carinthia ruled the Duchy of Carinthia from 1161 to his death. -Family:A scion of the House of Sponheim, he was a son of Margrave Engelbert III of Istria and Matilda of Sulzbach...
, who had reigned from 1161 until 1181. He was at first succeeded by Bernhard's elder brother Duke Ulrich II, who reigned for two decades but died childless on 10 August 1202, whereafter Bernhard succeeded him. His mother was Agnes of Babenberg, the daughter of Duke Henry II of Austria
Henry II, Duke of Austria
Henry II , Count Palatine of the Rhine, 1140–1141, Margrave of Austria from 1141 to 1156 and, as Henry XI, also Duke of Bavaria from 1141 to 1156, Duke of Austria, 1156–1177, was a prince of the Babenberg dynasty....
, who previously had been married to late King Stephen III of Hungary
Stephen III of Hungary
Stephen III , King of Hungary King of Croatia and Dalmatia . He ascended the throne as a child and he had to stand up against his uncles who usurped the crown supported by the Byzantine Empire...
.
Bernhard's paternal grandparents were Margrave Engelbert III of Istria and Matilda of Sulzbach
Matilda of Sulzbach
Matilda of Sulzbach was the wife of Engelbert III of Istria. Different dates of death are given in the necrologies of Baumburg Abbey and two monasteries of Salzburg. -Family:...
. Matilda was a daughter of the Bavarian Nordgau
March of the Nordgau
The March of the Nordgau or the Bavarian Nordgau was a margraviate in the north of the duchy of Bavaria in the High Middle Ages. It covered the region roughly covered by the modern Upper Palatinate along the river Main. The chief cities of the Nordgau were the Frankish cities Nuremberg and...
Count Berengar II of Sulzbach
Sulzbach-Rosenberg
Sulzbach-Rosenberg is a municipality in the Amberg-Sulzbach district, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated approx. 14 km northwest of Amberg, and 50 km east of Nuremberg. The town consists of two parts: Sulzbach in the west, and Rosenberg in the east. Archeological evidence tells, that...
(d.3 December 1125) and Adelheid of Wolfratshausen
Adelheid of Wolfratshausen
Adelheid of Wolfratshausen was the second wife of Berengar II, Count of Sulzbach. Slightly different dates for her death are given in the necrologies of Tegernsee and the Salzburg Cathedral. -Family:...
. Her sisters included Gertrude and Bertha of Sulzbach
Bertha of Sulzbach
Bertha of Sulzbach was the first wife and Empress of Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus.-Family:...
, respectively the wives of King Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.-Life and reign:...
and Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos
Manuel I Komnenos was a Byzantine Emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history of Byzantium and the Mediterranean....
.
Reign
Bernhard had actually been regentRegent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
over the Carinthian duchy since his brother Duke Ulrich II had fallen seriously ill in 1199.
In the conflict between the rivaling House of Hohenstaufen and the Welfs around the German throne, he originally continued his brother's support for their relative Philip of Swabia
Philip of Swabia
Philip of Swabia was king of Germany and duke of Swabia, the rival of the emperor Otto IV.-Biography:Philip was the fifth and youngest son of Emperor Frederick I and Beatrice I, Countess of Burgundy, daughter of Renaud III, count of Burgundy, and brother of the emperor Henry VI...
, grandnephew of King Conrad III, who had been elected King of the Romans
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...
in 1198. He nevertheless turned to the Welf Otto IV
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Otto IV of Brunswick was one of two rival kings of the Holy Roman Empire from 1198 on, sole king from 1208 on, and emperor from 1209 on. The only king of the Welf dynasty, he incurred the wrath of Pope Innocent III and was excommunicated in 1215.-Early life:Otto was the third son of Henry the...
after Philipp's assassination in 1208. In 1213, Bernhard again switched sides to Philip's nephew King Frederick II
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick II , was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous...
, who finally prevailed.
Bernhard gained control over the strategically important Loibl Pass
Loibl Pass
The Loibl Pass or Ljubelj Pass is a high mountain pass in the Karavanke chain of the Southern Limestone Alps, linking Austria with Slovenia...
leading to the adjacent March of Carniola
March of Carniola
The March of Carniola was a southeastern state of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, the predecessor of the Duchy of Carniola. It corresponded roughly to the central Carniolan region of present-day Slovenia...
in the south, where his son Ulrich III in 1248 became margrave upon his marriage with Agnes of Andechs, daughter of Duke Otto I of Merania
Otto I, Duke of Merania
Otto I was Duke of Andechs and Merania and was born, in 1180, to Berthold IV von Dießen, Duke of Andechs and Merania, and Agnes of Rochlitz. He was also Otto II, Count Palatine of Burgundy by his marriage to Beatrice II of Burgundy....
. He is also credited as founding the Kostanjevica
Kostanjevica na Krki
Kostanjevica na Krki, also Kostanjevica ob Krki , is a small town and a municipality in the historic Lower Carniola region of southern Slovenia. It is today part of the Lower Sava statistical region....
(Landstraß) Cistercian Abbey in Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola
Lower Carniola was a kreis of the historical Habsburg crown land of Carniola from 1849 till 1919 and is nowadays a traditional region of Slovenia. Its center is Novo Mesto, while other urban centers include Kočevje, Grosuplje, Krško, Trebnje, Mirna, Črnomelj, Semič, and Metlika.-See also:* Upper...
about 1234 as well as the later Carinthian capital Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt
-Name:Carinthia's eminent linguists Primus Lessiak and Eberhard Kranzmayer assumed that the city's name, which literally translates as "ford of lament" or "ford of complaints", had something to do with the superstitious thought that fateful fairies or demons tend to live around treacherous waters...
, that he had transferred to its present location in 1246. Bernhard is buried at St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal
St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal
St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal is a Benedictine monastery in the village of Sankt Paul im Lavanttal in the Austrian state of Carinthia.-History:...
.
Marriage and children
In 1213, Bernhard married Judith, a daughter of the PřemyslidPremyslid dynasty
The Přemyslids , were a Czech royal dynasty which reigned in Bohemia and Moravia , and partly also in Hungary, Silesia, Austria and Poland.-Legendary rulers:...
King Ottokar I of Bohemia
Ottokar I of Bohemia
-External links:...
and his second Queen consort, Constance
Constance of Hungary
Constance of Hungary was the second Queen consort of Ottokar I of Bohemia.-Family:Constance was a daughter of Béla III of Hungary and his first wife Agnes of Antioch. Her older siblings included Emeric, King of Hungary, Margaret of Hungary and Andrew II of Hungary...
, daughter of the Árpád
Árpád dynasty
The Árpáds or Arpads was the ruling dynasty of the federation of the Hungarian tribes and of the Kingdom of Hungary . The dynasty was named after Grand Prince Árpád who was the head of the tribal federation when the Magyars occupied the Carpathian Basin, circa 895...
King Béla III of Hungary
Béla III of Hungary
Béla III was King of Hungary and Croatia . He was educated in the court of the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I who was planning to ensure his succession in the Byzantine Empire till the birth of his own son...
. They had four known children:
- Ulrich III (c.1220-1269), Duke of Carinthia 1256-1269, Margrave of Carniola since 1248
- Bernhard of Carinthia.
- Margaret of Carinthia.
- Philip of Carinthia (d. 21/22 July 1279), Prince-Archbishop of SalzburgArchbishopric of SalzburgThe Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire, its territory roughly congruent with the present-day Austrian state of Salzburg....
from 1247 to 1256 and Patriarch of AquileiaPatriarchate of Aquileia (State)The Patriarchate of Aquileia was an Imperial State in the Friulian region of Northeastern Italy under the control of the Patriarchs of Aquileia.- Foundation :...
from 1269 to 1273.
When Duke Ulrich III had died without heirs, his brother Philip was claimant to the estates of Carinthia and Carniola and even reached his enfeoffment by King Rudolph I of Germany
Rudolph I of Germany
Rudolph I was King of the Romans from 1273 until his death. He played a vital role in raising the Habsburg dynasty to a leading position among the Imperial feudal dynasties...
in 1275. He nevertheless could not prevail against his first cousin King Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II of Bohemia
Ottokar II , called The Iron and Golden King, was the King of Bohemia from 1253 until 1278. He was the Duke of Austria , Styria , Carinthia and Carniola also....
, who in 1268 had signed an inheritance treaty with late Duke Ulrich.
See also
- House of SponheimHouse of SponheimThe House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a noble family of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages. They were Dukes of Carinthia from 1122 until 1269 and Counts of Sponheim until 1437...