Agnes of Merania (1215-1263)

Agnes of Andechs-Merania
Portrait in the Babenberg pedigree, Klosterneuburg Monastery
Born	c. 1215
Died	(1263-01-07)7 January 1263
Buried	Stična Abbey
Noble family	House of Andechs
Spouse(s)	Frederick II, Duke of Austria Ulrich III, Duke of Carinthia
Father	Otto I, Duke of Merania
Mother	Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy

Agnes of Merania (c. 1215 – 7 January 1263), a member of the House of Andechs was an Austrian royal consort. By her two marriages she was Duchess of Austria from 1230 until 1243 and Duchess of Carinthia from 1256 until her death.

Agnes was a daughter of Duke Otto I of Merania and Countess Beatrice II of Burgundy, a member of the Imperial House of Hohenstaufen. By her father, she was also a granddaughter of Agnes of Wettin and niece of Agnes Maria of Andechs-Merania, Queen consort of France; by her mother she was a great-grandchild of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

Her brother Otto II (d. 1248) succeeded their father as Duke of Merania and Count of Burgundy, while her sister Beatrix (d. 1271) married the Ascanian count Herman II of Weimar-Orlamünde. Her younger sister Adelaide (d. 1279) married Count Hugh III of Chalon and succeeded her brother Otto as Countess of Burgundy.

In 1229 she married Frederick of Babenberg, son and heir of Duke Leopold VI of Austria. Her husband, who was known as "the Quarrelsome", had just divorced his first wife Eudokia Laskarina ("Sophia"), a daughter of the Byzantine emperor Theodore I Laskaris, due to childlessness. He succeeded his father as Austrian duke in 1230. Based on the dowry of his wife including large Andechs estates in the March of Carniola and the Windic March, he also began to call himself a "Lord of Carniola" from 1232.