Counts of Gorizia

Who rules

Name

Meinhard II the Elder and Engelbert III, brothers, ruling together

Title

Counts of Gorizia; advocates of the church of Aquileia (Meinhard), of Millstatt abbey and of the church of Parenzo (Engelbert)

Since

the death of their father Count Engelbert II (about January 1189 in the Meinhardiner genealogy; some lists give 1191)

Born

both born between 1163/64 and 1171 (not pinned more closely)

Family

Meinhardiner, counts of Gorizia, originally counts in the Lurngau round Lienz. Mother: Adelheid of Dachau-Valley, of a side line of the Wittelsbach. Meinhard II is documented married to Adelheid, daughter of Count Henry I of Tyrol and sister of Count Albert III, only in 1206 and 1211, so whether he is married on 1 January 1200 is not pinned; no children of his are recorded. Engelbert III's son Meinhard (later Meinhard III) was born in 1192/94 and is a boy of about six or seven; Engelbert's wife is not pinned here.

Confidence

high

German Wikipedia (Meinhardiner; Meinhard II); Sever 2025 for the January 1202 peace; German Wikipedia (Grafschaft Mitterburg) for Pazin.

Overlord

The patriarch of Aquileia for the castle of Gorizia and the Friulian fiefs; the bishop of Parenzo for the Istrian advocacy; the Empire for their counties.

What the realm holds

• The castle of Gorizia (an oppidum in a late twelfth-century chronicle) with the settlement (borgo) below it, as a fief of the church of Aquileia; the borgo receives market rights only in 1210.
• The advocacy of the church of Aquileia (Meinhard): the church's high justice, the leading of its host, and the fiefs and dues attached.
• Fiefs of the church in Friuli: Treccani names Latisana, Castelnuovo, Belgrado and several villages near Codroipo, without dates (they may be later than 1200), and says the counts' own possessions stayed limited to a small area round Gorizia and Salcano (Solkan) until about the middle of the thirteenth century.
• The county of Pazin (Mitterburg) in central Istria, held with the advocacy of the church of Parenzo: Pazin castle and the villages round it.
• Lienz and the Lienz basin in the upper Drava valley, their oldest base: the market settlement (burgum) they laid out in the late twelfth century and the castle at Patriasdorf; lands in the eastern Pustertal (the ground west of Lienz is on the tre sheet).
• The advocacy of Millstatt abbey in Carinthia (Engelbert), off this sheet.

How it was acquired

The Meinhardiner were counts in the Lurngau round Lienz. They took Gorizia as a fief of the patriarchs after 1077 and the name of Gorizia by about 1120, and held the Aquileian advocacy from about 1100-1122. The Treaty of Ramuscello (1150) with the patriarch limited their rights; it is revised in 1202. Pazin passed to them from the counts of Schwarzenburg (1175 in German Wikipedia), and Engelbert III extended their hold in Istria through the advocacy of Parenzo about 1191-1194.

Otto III's diploma of 1001 had split Salcano, the villa of Gorizia and the land between the Isonzo, the Vipava and the sea between the patriarch and Count Werihen of Friuli; about 1100 the Eppenstein advocates subinfeudated Gorizia to the family, and early in the twelfth century the counts (called counts of the Pustertal) took up residence there (Treccani). Treccani's Istria article says their domain reached the Triestine Karst and inland Istria towards the early 1200s.

Allies and rivals

Rival: the patriarch of Aquileia, over the advocacy, the church's lands, the castle of Gorizia and its ministeriales. Allies: Treviso (their league against the patriarch is attested by 1201-02); Ezzelino II da Romano, who backed them against the patriarch on several occasions (Dizionario Biografico, undated); the Staufen party of Philip of Swabia, with the counts of Tyrol (Meinhard is later found married to a daughter of Count Henry I of Tyrol). Neighbours: the Andechs margrave of Istria round Pazin, the Istrian towns and Venice, the Spanheim dukes of Carinthia, and the bishops of Brixen and Salzburg round Lienz.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 the brothers hold Gorizia, the Lienz basin and the county of Pazin. Their dispute with Pellegrino II over the advocacy and the church's lands is live; whether it is already open war that winter is not pinned. The war ends with the peace of January 1202 at San Quirino near Cormons, in which they take the castle of Gorizia as a fief of the church without its ministeriales.

Wealth

Rents and tolls of the Lienz basin and the roads from the Drava to the Pustertal; the advocate's dues and fiefs from the church of Aquileia; the villages and castles of the Istrian county; the Gorizia borgo (market only from 1210). A mint at Lienz is attested from about 1200 (not pinned to before 1 January).

Military

Ministeriales, most of them of Carinthian origin (Sever); castles at Gorizia, Pazin and Lienz; as advocate the count by custom leads the church of Aquileia's host. No numbers in the sources.

Threats

• The patriarch, who wants the advocacy curbed and the church's lands back.
• Being caught between Treviso's ambitions and the patriarch's.
• The Andechs margrave and the bishops of Parenzo, Pola and Trieste in Istria.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200-1201 (not pinned)The counts make a league with Treviso against the patriarch.Depends on: The advocacy dispute staying unresolved. Stopped by: An early settlement with the patriarch.

Later, on the likely course

1. January 1202Peace at San Quirino near Cormons with Pellegrino II: Gorizia castle as a fief of the church with its rights and servants but without its ministeriales.Depends on: The war running its course. Stopped by: A decisive victory for either side.
2. 1210The Gorizia borgo receives market rights.Depends on: The counts' peace with the patriarch holding. Stopped by: Renewed war.

Places of note

• Gorizia castle: The counts' castle, a fief of the church of Aquileia.
• Pazin castle (Mitterburg): Centre of the counts' Istrian county.
• Lienz burgum and castle: The counts' oldest base, in the upper Drava valley.
• San Quirino near Cormons: Where the peace with the patriarch is made in January 1202.

Where the sources disagree

• Pazin's passing to Gorizia is dated 1175 by German Wikipedia (Grafschaft Mitterburg) and attributed to Engelbert III about 1191-1194 by the Meinhardiner genealogy; both agree the counts hold it by 1200.
• Engelbert II's death: about January 1189 in the Meinhardiner genealogy; other lists say 1191.

Evidence: The counts, their advocacy and the 1202 peace are documented; their Friulian fiefs and the extent of the Gorizia and Pazin districts in 1200 are not pinned.

On the map: Three detached blocks. The counts' Friulian fiefs (Latisana, Castelnuovo, Belgrado, villages near Codroipo, undated) are not drawn, and the Karst and Vipava ground they pressed into is left with the patriarch.