Duchy of Carinthia

Duchy of Carinthia
Herzogtum Kärnten (de) Vojvodina Koroška (sl)
State of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806), Part of the Habsburg Monarchy (from 1526), constituent land of the Austrian Empire (1804–67), Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary (from 1867)
976–1918
Flag Coat of arms
Carinthia (yellow) within Inner Austria, c. 1790
Capital		Sankt Veit an der Glan (Šentvid ob Glini) until 1518, then Klagenfurt (Celovec)
Languages		Southern Bavarian, Slovene
Government		Duchy
Duke
•	976–978	Henry I (first)
•	1916–1918	Charles I (last)
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Created Duchy	976
•	To Habsburg dukes of Austria	1335
•	Incoporated into Inner Austria	1379
•	Joined Austrian Circle	1512
•	Upper Carinthia ceded to Illyrian Provinces	1809
•	Restored to Austrian Empire	1815
•	Disestablished	1918
•	Carinthian Plebiscite	1920
Preceded by Succeeded by March of Carinthia Republic of German-Austria Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes Kingdom of Italy
Today part of		Austria  Croatia  Italy  Slovenia

The Duchy of Carinthia (German: Herzogtum Kärnten; Slovene: Vojvodina Koroška) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchies.

Carinthia remained a State of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806, though from 1335 it was ruled within the Austrian dominions of the Habsburg dynasty. A constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy and of the Austrian Empire, it remained a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until 1918. By the Carinthian Plebiscite in October 1920, the main area of the duchy formed the Austrian state of Carinthia.

In the seventh century the area was part of the Slavic principality of Carantania, which fell under the suzerainty of Duke Odilo of Bavaria in about 743. The Bavarian stem duchy was incorporated into the Carolingian Empire when Charlemagne deposed Odilo's son Duke Tassilo III in 788. In the 843 partition by the Treaty of Verdun, Carinthia became part of East Francia under King Louis the German. From 889 to 976 it was the Carinthian March of the renewed Bavarian duchy, though in 927 the local Count Berthold of the Luitpolding dynasty was vested with ducal rights by the German king Henry the Fowler. After Berthold became Duke of Bavaria in 938, both territories were ruled by him. Upon his death in 948 the Luitpoldings, though heirs of the royal Ottonian dynasty, were not able to retain their possessions, as King Otto I bought the loyalty of his younger brother Henry I with the Bavarian lands.