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Town inhabitants of foreign origin were of less importance to
the national composition
of Slovene territory, yet their role was greater in the economic sphere, particularly in trade. In
early sixteenth-century Ljubljana, the most important merchants were of south German origin,
while later many Italians became important. The same held for Ptuj, which was an important
town for international trade. Jews began to appear in towns in relation with monetary matters
at a relatively early date. They arrived in the towns of Styria and Carinthia – in Maribor, Ptuj,
Villach, Friesach, Klagenfurt, Sankt Veit and Völkermarkt – in the second half of the
thirteenth century, while in Carniola they operated only in Ljubljana. The first Jews to arrive
in Ljubljana came from Cividale and Gorizia in around 1325. By the end of the fourteenth
century there were also Jews in Piran and Koper. Florentine bankers, found in Slovenj
Gradec, Ljubljana and Kamnik by the end of the thirteenth century, and in Piran around 1330–
1340, also dealt with monetary transactions. Before Jews established themselves, the leading
position in mercantile and monetary transactions in Ljubljana and across Carniola had been
held by the Porger family, who had probably moved there from Friuli.
CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE TERRITORIAL NOBILITY
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the transitional period from the Middle
Ages to the modern period, major political, ecclesiastical, social, economic and cultural
changes took place that affected both the population in Slovene territory and the population in
western Europe. One factor that typically determined the creation of the modern state was the
formation of a territorial nobility. These territorial or provincial nobles, as a legally organised,
though internally stratified, social group, began to function as a special body. From the early
fifteenth century, the territorial nobility would submit a transcript of the charter of privileges
they held to each new ruler for confirmation in writing. The ruler or prince (of the Land) who
respected the territorial customs and upheld the submitted charters of privileges, known as
Landhandfesten, at the same time promised “protection” to the individual
Land, while the
nobles (the people of the Land) vowed to offer their prince “counsel and aid” to the best of
their ability. The first Landhandfesten emerged in 1414 when Archduke Ernest the Iron
became the prince of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. The position of the nobility was
strengthened since the affirmed privileges restricted the prince’s power, primarily in military,
financial and judicial matters.
The military and political events that diminished the Habsburgs’ power as princes and
landowners in their hereditary lands forced the prince to begin convening territorial diets from
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around 1400. In addition to the nobility (lords, knights and squires), these diets also included
prelates and representatives of the princely towns. At the prince’s proposal, these
representative groups, the Estates (stanovi in Slovene, Stände in German, a term the groups
themselves used from the late fifteenth century), mainly addressed military issues and the
closely linked financial issues. The Estates, whose privileges exempt them from all direct
taxation, held the right to accept or reject any demand for extraordinary taxes. This gave them
powerful influence over all public matters in the Land. The relationship between the prince
and the Estates developed into a joint rule, with the prince attempting to obtain approval for
taxes by making concessions to the Estates, though was never formally recognised. This
dualism, which had become well established by the end of the fifteenth century, was a
relationship of mutual benefit and antagonism, a partnership of many contradictions.
The mutual pledge enshrined in the Handfesten committed the prince and the Estates
to guaranteeing the peace in the Land and protecting it from external enemies. The territorial
diets were therefore initially concerned with creating a new military organisation to protect
the individual Länder. There were many reasons to do so. Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola,
which were collectively known as Inner Austria (forming a special group of Habsburg lands)
from the early fifteenth century, were affected by numerous conflicts and military attacks. In
addition to dynastic disputes among the Habsburgs, which even escalated into armed conflict
in the first decades of the fifteenth century, their acquisitions in the western Slovene territory
also began to be threatened by the Republic of Venice, then at the peak of its economic
powers and territorial expansion. After the collapse of the Aquileian patriarchate as a state in
1420, it had acquired extensive territory in Friuli, Venetian Slovenia (Beneška Slovenija) and
the Tolmin area, as well as taking Muggia (Milje) in the Gulf of Trieste. Furthermore, some
major feudal lords – the bishop of Bamberg, the house of Ortenburg, the count of Gorizia in
Carinthia, the count of Wallsee in Styria – tried at this time to free themselves from princely
authority. The main rivalry, played out in battles and even sieges, was that between the counts
or princes of Cilli (Celje) and the Habsburgs, which lasted until a successorial pact reached
between these two powerful families in 1443.
The political tensions in the Inner Austria lands gained a completely new dimension
with the appearance of a previously unknown enemy, who not only countered the prince’s
power and indirectly increased that of the Estates, but also threatened all of Inner Austria. In
1408, the Turks broke into Slovene territory for the first time, plundering widely, burning
down the surroundings of Metlika, and killing or enslaving its inhabitants. The attack was