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course, to gain the land bestowed
so generously by the crown, which was more or less already
divided in the core of the state, made the periphery of the empire very attractive to numerous
members of the high nobility, who moved into these lands from the interior and linked their
fate to them, and later often played an important role in their historic development. The noble
house of Weimar-Orlamünde, which in the third quarter of the eleventh century ruled as
margraves over Istria and Carniola, came from Saxony. Their original estate extended along
the left bank of the Sava river in upper Carniola. The core of this house’s lands in the interior
of Istria was formed by 20 royal mansi (germ. Königshube), granted by Henry IV in 1064.
The houses of Eppenstein and Spanheim were both of Frankish origin, and both were
hereditary dukes of Carinthia, the former between 1077 and 1122, the latter from 1122 to
1269. The core of the Eppenstein lands originally lay along the upper Mura, around
Judenburg, where the Eppenstein castle from which they took their name stood, and in the
Carantanian March where they were margraves. It was from there, in 1012, that Adalbero
manoeuvred himself into the Carinthian ducal throne. In addition to other estates (particularly
in Carinthia), the Spanheims also held land in the territory of modern-day Slovenia in the
Radgona and Maribor area in the March of Drava. At the same time, they held the large Laško
seigneury in the former March of Savinja and the then Great Carniola, as well as Kostanjevica
on the Krka river of lower Carniola, and, most significantly, a large portion of the Ljubljana
Basin, including Ljubljana itself.
Most of the noble families on Slovene territory originated in Bavaria. Apart from the
counts of Vohburg and of Bogen, whose estates on Slovene territory are only attested for short
periods in the eleventh and first half of the twelfth century, mention must be made of the
counts of Andechs. They came to Carniola at the beginning of the twelfth century, inheriting
the Weimar-Orlamünd lands in the east of upper Carniola, creating their Carniolan base in
Kamnik. In the second half of the twelfth century, they were landgraves in Carniola and
margraves in Istria where they assumed the title ‘Duke of Merania’ (Dux Meraniae) in
northeastern Istria, known as Merania. Also of Bavarian origin were the Otakar or
Traungauers, margraves of Carinthanian March from the middle of the eleventh century,
which developed into the Duchy of Styria under their rule (until 1192). The counts who
settled on th
e Soča at the start of the twelfth century and named themselves after Gorizia also
had their forebears in Bavaria. They came to prominence as the dynasties mentioned above
had already fallen.
However, these higher noble houses were all outdone by the exceptional wealth of a
family of nobles whose estates at the start of the eleventh century stretched from Friuli in the
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west to the Sotla on the modern-day Croatian
border to the east, and from the Danube in the
north to the Sava and Krka river in lower Carniola to the south. Their centre of power was
around Friesach in Carinthia, along the upper Mura on the modern-day boundary between
Carinthia and Styria, and particularly in the March of Savinja, where their enormous allodial
estates stretched to the borders of the march itself, including a contiguous belt from the Drava
in the north via Slovenj Gradec, Celje, Rogatec, and Laško to the Sotla and the Sava, and
further south to Kostanjevica and Višnja Gora. This enormous territory, which originated in
gifts made by eastern Frankish rulers and Charlemagne’s successors, was united at the start of
the eleventh century in one family called the “line of Hemma”, with the marriage of Hemma
and Wilhelm II, although by the middle of the same century it had fallen apart. Hemma was
likely related to the Bavarian ducal dynasty, the Luitpoldings, on her mother’s side, and her
ancestors included Waltuni, who perhaps acquired Rajhenburg and Krško Polje in 895,
Svatopluk and Mojmir. The Slavic names of the latter two testify to the Slavic origin of some
of Hemma’s ancestors and indicate that the Slavic nobility, which rapidly assimilated in terms
of language and lifestyle, joined existing German noble families to create a new ruling social
class. Hemma’s husband, Wilhelm II, a count of Friesach and margrave of the March of
Savinja, was related to the Bavarian Wilhelminian line, which in the second half of the ninth
century had played an important role as counts in Traungau and along the Danube in struggles
against the Moravians. In all likelihood, Pribina’s wife, the mother of Kocel, also belonged to
this noble line. The genealogy of Hemma’s family is an apt example of the very international
nature of noble families of the time. It was no different in later centuries as the familial ties of
the nobility were not restricted to the medieval German state, but stretched even further afield.
Yet, just as this means it would be incorrect to assign a national affiliation to such nobles, it
would also be incorrect to proclaim Hemma as a Slovene saint.
In March 1036, Wilhelm II was killed by his greatest rival in the southeast of the state,
Adalbero of Eppenstein, the duke of Carinthia, who had been removed from his position one
year before. The widowed Hemma now held in her hands the territory of unheralded size
mentioned above, making her one of the richest women of the day. As her two sons, Wilhelm
and Hartwik, also died young – according to legend, murdered by rebellious miners – in 1043,
Hemma founded a convent at Gurk in Carinthia and richly endowed it with land. Her
possessions on the upper Enns, which she left to the archdiocese of Salzburg, were used three
decades later by Archbishop Gebhard to found the monastery in Admont. The same
archbishop had already dissolved the convent in Gurk and, in 1072, founded the first diocese
in Carinthia. The founding of the diocese made Gurk – after Salzburg, Aquileia, Freising and