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from the first half of the eleventh century,
and on the other on the power, status and reputation
that relatives of the old Savinjan margravial dynasty retained in the area down through three
generations. It seems appropriate that Starchand II, a descendant of Hemma’s close relative
Asquinus, who together with his brothers held most of the remaining estates that Hemma had
not granted to the Gurk monastery, was the Carniolan margrave’s deputy in about 1100. He
held the title of “margrave of Savinja” (marchio de Soune), but in a documented list of
witnesses, which gives a clear picture of an individual’s relative social standing, he is not
ranked as highly as would be expected for a true margrave. Similarly, the deputy of the Istrian
margrave (again the Aquileian patriarch) from the final third of the thirteenth century
continued to use the title marchio, though his status was only that of the patriarch’s official. In
1311, the Savinja basin was still being described as a special landgraviate (lantgrafschaft in
dem Sewental) within Carniola, and the margrave’s deputy could therefore also be called a
landgrave. This dualism, whereby Carniola had two rulers – one, the patriarch, margrave only
in name, and the other, the so-called ‘landgrave’, to whom the patriarch granted the
margravate as a fief, is also attested by the fate of the Istrian margrave Henry IV of Andechs.
Suspicions that he had collaborated in the murder of king Philip of Swabia led to the imperial
princes reaching a judgment in the Imperial Diet in Frankfurt to deprive him of his two
marches – Istria and Carniola. When the Aquileian patriarch showed on the basis of “authentic
charters of privilege” that Istria belonged “to the church of Aquileia from an ancient grant
from King Henry,” Emperor Otto IV granted it to Aquileia, while there was no mention of
Carniola at all. Henry of Andechs lost more than Otto later redistributed as grants, since
Carniola did not revert to the crown but to the figure who had granted it to the Andechs in
fief: the patriarch of Aquileia.
Similarly, in 1261 the patriarch of Aquileia granted “full jurisdiction of the March of
Carniola” (tota iurisdictio marchie Carniole) to Ulrich of Spanheim as a fief – that is full
margravial authority – together with Kranj, as the margravial seat. This position meant that
the Andechs’ style never included the title of margrave of Carniola, while they probably
received landgrave status within Carniola after the middle of the twelfth century. By then,
their possessions already included all of today’s eastern upper Carniola (Gorenjska) from
Kokra river to Motnik and Trojane, centred on the castle of Kamnik, after which Berthold I of
Andechs was already referred to as the “count of Kamnik” (comes de Stain) in 1145. At the
same time the count Poppo II of Haimburg was probably a landgrave in Carniola, as he
possessed Kranj and by 1141 he also held the title of “count of Kranj” (comes de Creine). At
the same time, Poppo’s nephew, Günter of Hohenwart, held the title of margrave of Savinja
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region and of Celje (
marchio de Soune, marchio de Cylie), which not only indicates how the
counts of Haimburg came to possess Celje, but also suggests that the margrave probably had
two deputies in the first half of the twelfth century – one representing him in the old March of
Carniola, and one in the old March of Savinja – which were probably united under the
powerful Andechs.
Yet the power of the Andechs, who were accompanied from Bavaria by some of their
ministerials (e.g. the important Gal family, who made Carniola their new homeland), was still
too weak in Carniola in the final decades of the twelfth century – regardless of the fact that
they held the margravate of Istria – for them to start exercising and developing any form of
princely authority over the Land. Carniola, in which the church and nobility both held key
positions because of their extensive land complexes and various rights (from advocacy to
immunity), was territorially fragmented and divided between five large ecclesiastical
landowners (Salzburg, Freising, Brixen and Gurk, in addition to Aquileia) and a large number
of higher noble families. The most prominent among these, aside from the Andechs, were the
ducal Spanheims, the Styrian margraves Otakars or Traungauers, the counts of Ortenburg,
Haimburg, Bogen and Weichselburg (Višnja gora), and the free lords of Puchs, Auersperg
(Turjak) and Sanegg (Žovnek). Only three of these (the Ortenburgs, Auerspergs, and Saneggs)
survived the thirteenth century, but as long as there was such intense competition, any attempt
to attain princely authority over the land met major problems and opposition. No major
advance towards establishing Carniola as a Land had been made by the end of the twelfth
century, and it even seemed that the march had disintegrated and imperial power faded. The
initiative was taken by private forces, when a powerful offensive was launched in the south of
Carniola at the expense of Croatia or Hungary, which moved the Carniolan – and hence the
imperial – border southwards from the Gorjanci hills and the Krka river to the Kolpa, and
occupied Žumberk. This was achieved by the Puchs or the Weichselburgs and the Spanheims.
The former probably took control of White Carniola (the present-day Slovene region of Bela
Krajina, known as Weißkrain or Weiße Mark in German) in the middle of the twelfth century.
The Weichselburg offensive must have started from Mehovo castle to the north of the
Gorjanci hills, since White Carniola –
together with its market town of Črnomelj – had been
part of the Mehovo lordship for over a century. The Spanheims extended the border to
Bregana from their military stronghold of Kostanjevica in lower Carniola. Since the public,
margravial authority was not at stake in this undertaking, in 1261 the tota iurisdictio marchie
Carniole granted to Ulrich of Spanheim by the patriarch of Aquileia still ended at the old
border i.e. the Krka river near Kostanjevica.