69
Danube from the centre of their power, Steyr castle (
Styraburg) in the Traun river basin. It
was due to this castle that the Otakars were also known as Styrian margraves (marchiones
Stirenses). Although this referred to their margravate authority south
of the Alps, in the march
along the Mura’s middle course, over time it overshadowed their Carantanian name. The
power the Otakars derived from their estates, castles and ministerial forces north of the Alps
was far more important than the power derived from their office in the march. Only
favourable circumstances connected to three successive, large inheritances, enabled this
dynasty of margraves to forge a powerful territorial seigneury in the march itself, on the basis
of which they were able to act as territorial princes. By far the most decisive and the richest
inheritance in the house’s fortunate run of bequests were the lands received in 1122 when the
Eppenstein line died out, the most valuable of which were the relatively unitary and
contiguous areas along the upper Mura, and south of there around Judenburg, Voitsberg and
along the Mürz river. This inheritance made Leopold the Strong (fortis, 1122–1129; though he
may equally have been known as felix), who had inherited his father’s titles the same year, the
most powerful lord in his margravate in terms of estates and military retinue. His new status
allowed him to begin applying pressure to the free nobles in the march, subordinating them as
his ministerials. His son and successor Otakar III (1129–1164) continued this policy with even
greater success. In 1147, Bernhard (of Maribor), a Spanheim, died in Asia Minor on the
Second Crusade. He was the founder of a monastery at Viktring, near Klagenfurt, which had a
large estate along the Slovene Drava basin. His bequest brought Otakar important ministerial
noble families on Slovene soil, and important seigneuries, including Radgona, Maribor and
Laško. To the south, their lordship expanded to the Drava-Savinja watershed, while their
Laško seigneury, which at the time was part of Carniola, reached as far as the Sava.
To the north, the Otakars inherited the county of Pitten, north of Semmering, from the
Formbachs in 1158, where, two years later, Otakar III founded the special hospital at Spital
am Semmering, which had the express task of improving the freight route there by turning it
into a proper road. As the first prince of the medieval German state, he acquired regalian
rights over mining that had previously only been held by the crown, and he also held the right
to mint coins. It is probably not coincidental that, in the year the Formbach inheritance was
acquired, Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa addressed Otakar III with the title princeps, prince.
Otakar also wrote of the “march under my sway” (marchia mee ditionis). All these changes
indicate that by 1160 the Traungauer had achieved the status of princes of the Land. This was
strengthened by their enfeoffment in 1156 of one of last free noble houses, the lords of
Stübing, who owned the castle and seigneury of Graz. It was in Graz that Otakar III founded a
70
new centre for the
Land with
a princely court, and judicial court for the nobles of Graz. The
Land law used to adjudicate in the Graz territorial court was only written down at the end of
the fourteenth century, yet its shaping in the form of customary law can be dated to the twelfth
century, as it already mentioned in the Georgenberg Pact of 1186 (
ius provincię). The original
document, preserved to this day in Graz, is one of the basic documents of the Styrian
constitution, and came about as part of the preparations to change the ducal dynasty.
Otakar III was succeeded by his son Otakar IV, who was raised to the status of duke of Styria
(dux Stirie) in 1180 and his territory to the Duchy of Styria (ducatus Stirie); the new duchy
took its name from the Otakar’s principal castle in Traungau. However, the Otakars were not
to be spared a typical medieval epilogue, and died out at the height of their power and fame (a
fate that would strike Slovene territory again with the death of Ulrich II of Cilli in 1456,
bringing an end of the counts of Cilli). The young duke of Styria was unable to have children
due to the leprosy, and as part of the protocol introduction to the Georgenberg Pact indicates,
he was well aware of his approaching death and the fact that he was the last of the Otakar line.
He therefore named the duke of Austria from the Babenberg dynasty as his successor, while at
the same time guaranteeing the rights of the ministerials he had raised to the highest ranks
during the establishment of the Land in the Georgenberg Pact. Within the Duchy of Styria,
acquired by the Babenbergs in 1192, and ruled until they died out in 1246, ministerials
became part of the Land as they were entitled to the same rights as the nobles of the Land.
Styria was the first and the quickest duchy to develop into a Land in the entire eastern Alpine
region. This primacy over neighbouring regions is evidenced by the fact that the Land charters
issued separately in 1338 for Carniola and Carinthia stated that the nobility of the two Länder
should act according to the laws of the Styrian nobility in cases not defined by the two pacts.
Styrian law therefore became an auxiliary source for the law of Carinthia and Carniola.