House of Gorizia Meinhardiner |
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Country |
Austria Italy Slovenia Czech Republic Former countries
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Parent house | Sieghardinger |
Titles |
King of Bohemia and Margrave of Moravia King of Poland Duke of Carinthia and Margrave of Carniola Count of Görz and Tyrol etc. |
Founded | 11th century |
Founder | Count Meginhard in the Bavarian Puster Valley |
Final ruler | Leonhard of Gorizia |
Dissolution | 1500 |
The Counts of Gorizia (Italian: Conti di Gorizia; German: Grafen von Görz; Slovene: Goriški grofje), or Meinhardiner, were a comital dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire, originally officials in the Patriarchate of Aquileia, who ruled the County of Gorizia (Görz) from the early 12th century onwards.
From 1253, the dynasty also ruled the County of Tyrol, which in 1271 passed to the cadet branch of Gorizia-Tyrol. In 1286, the line also assumed the title of Duke of Carinthia and, in 1306 and again from 1307 to 1310, of King of Bohemia and titular King of Poland, due to Henry of Gorizia-Tyrol's marriage with the Přemyslid princess Anne. However, as Henry left no male heirs, the Gorizia-Tyrol branch became extinct upon the death of his daughter Margaret in 1369.
The dynasty maintained the rule in the comital lands around Gorizia and Lienz until 1500, when after the death of the last Count Leonhard of Gorizia the remaining estates were inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg.
The dynasty probably hailed from the Rhenish Franconian Siegharding dynasty, which originally descended from the Kraichgau region and in the 10th century ruled in the Chiemgau of the German stem duchy of Bavaria. One Siegharding Meginhard (or Meinhard, d. 1090) is documented as a count in the Bavarian gau of Pustertal. The progenitor of the Meinhardiner, Count Meinhard I of Gorizia, and his brother Engelbert, Count palatine of Bavaria, may be his sons. The dynasty first appeared around Lienz and in the 11th century gained the office of a vogt at the town of Gorizia (Görz) in the Patriarchate of Aquileia.