Duchy of Styria

Who rules

Name

Leopold VI of Babenberg

Title

Duke of Styria (since 1194) and of Austria (since 1198)

Since

Styria: on the death of his father Leopold V, who died at Graz on 31 December 1194 after a fall from his horse (the day is from general reference and is not checked against a charter here); Austria: 1198, after his elder brother Frederick I died on crusade on 16 April 1198

Born

15 October 1176 (German and English Wikipedia); 23 years old on 1 January 1200

Family

Babenberg. Younger son of Duke Leopold V of Austria and Styria (the captor of Richard the Lionheart) and Helena of Hungary, daughter of King Géza II, so he is a first cousin of King Emeric of Hungary and of Duke Andrew. His mother Helena died on 25 December 1199, a week before the game opens, and is buried at Heiligenkreuz (English Wikipedia): the duke is newly bereaved on 1 January 1200. His elder brother Frederick I died on 16 April 1198. Unmarried on 1 January 1200: a betrothal of 1193 to the Damsel of Cyprus came to nothing, and he marries Theodora Angelina only in 1203. No children. His brother Frederick I, who held Austria 1194-1198, died childless, so no Babenberg male stands behind him. His aunt Agnes (his father's sister, daughter of Henry Jasomirgott and widow of Stephen III of Hungary) married Duke Hermann of Carinthia, so the Carinthian dukes Ulrich II and Bernhard are his first cousins; his father was their guardian from 1181 to 1194.

Confidence

high

German and English Wikipedia (Leopold VI.; Georgenberger Handfeste; Geschichte der Steiermark; Speyerer Fürstenerklärung); English Wikipedia (Emeric, King of Hungary; Andrew II of Hungary).

Overlord

The German king. Styria is a duchy held directly of the Empire since 1180; Henry VI enfeoffed Leopold V and his son Frederick with it at Worms on 24 May 1192. Leopold VI backs Philip of Swabia.

What the realm holds

• Graz, the castle on the Schlossberg and the market below it, the Otakars' capital since about 1140 and the duke's chief Styrian residence.
• The upper Mur valley round Judenburg and the Aichfeld, from the Eppenstein inheritance of 1122, with the market and staple of Judenburg on the road to Venice.
• Voitsberg castle (founded 1164 by Ottokar IV's order on St. Lambrecht's land) and the road from Graz to Judenburg.
• The frontier castles and markets facing Hungary: Fürstenfeld (ducal castle about 1170, street market 1178), Hartberg (laid out 1125-1128 by Margrave Leopold), and the castle line behind the Lafnitz held by ministeriales (Riegersburg, Gleichenberg).
• Marburg (Maribor) and the Drava march, from the inheritance of Count Bernhard of Trixen (Marburg), which came to the Otakars in 1147.
• The Enns valley and the Ausseerland with its salt, the Palten and Liesing valleys, the Mürz valley and the iron of the Erzberg (control of the iron trade in 1200 is not pinned).
• The Traungau (Steyr, Enns, Wels) and the Pitten district with Wiener Neustadt north of the Alps: see the Austria researcher's records (realm styria).
• The advocacy of the margraves' and dukes' own foundations: the Cistercians of Rein (1129), the canons of Vorau (1163) and the Carthusians of Seitz (Žiče); the abbeys themselves are Church map records.
• The duke's sworn men and the free lords of the duchy, each with its own record where pinned: the Wildon (Herrand I, steward in 1191 and marshal in 1195; Wildon), the Stubenberg (Stubenberg), the Liechtenstein near Judenburg (Liechtenstein), the free lords of Peggau (Ulrich I and Leutold I; Peggau), the free lords of Sannegg in the Savinja valley (Gebhard II; Sannegg), and Salzburg's ministeriales of Pettau (Friedrich III; Pettau (Ptuj)). Others appear only in passing: Konrad of Kinnberg, who built Voitsberg for Ottokar IV in 1164; Gottfried of Dürnstein, a St. Lambrecht ministerialis and Voitsberg's first castellan in 1173; the Eppenstein of Lantfried, who married a Pettau daughter. The lords of Ehrenfels named in the assignment could not be pinned for 1200: the ruins of Ehrenfels and Kammerstein at Kammern in the Liesing valley belonged to 'nobles with far-reaching connections' (German Wikipedia, Kammern im Liesingtal), unnamed there.
• The Heunburg counts of Carinthia hold castles in the Savinja valley and Lower Styria (Tüffer, Rohitsch, Schallegg, Schönstein, Prassberg, Lemberg) whose dates are not pinned (Heunburg). Who held Cilli (Celje) itself on 1 January 1200 is not pinned.

How it was acquired

The Otakars of Steyr held the Carantanian march from 1056 and made it theirs: the Eppenstein lands in Upper Styria in 1122, the Graz area seized by Ottokar III about 1139-1140, the Drava march of Bernhard of Trixen in 1147, the Formbach county of Pitten in 1158. Frederick Barbarossa made Ottokar IV a duke in 1180, ending Styria's ties to Bavaria. By the Georgenberg compact of 17 August 1186, on the Georgenberg at Enns, Ottokar IV left the duchy to Leopold V of Austria and his son Frederick; Ottokar died in 1192 and Henry VI enfeoffed the Babenbergs at Worms on 24 May 1192.

Leopold V's division at his death (31 December 1194) gave Styria to Leopold VI, contrary to the compact; Austria followed in 1198 on Frederick I's death.

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip of Swabia; the Staufen princes of the south-east (Ottokar I of Bohemia, Duke Louis of Bavaria, Berthold IV of Andechs, the Spanheim duke of Carinthia, all named with him in the Speyer protest of 1199); Duke Andrew of Hungary, whom he helped to beat King Emeric at Mački in December 1197 and who fled to the duke's lands in the summer of 1199. Rivals: King Emeric of Hungary (his cousin, angered by that alliance); the archbishop of Salzburg, metropolitan and great landholder inside Styria (Pettau, Leibnitz, Landsberg, Rann), though Archbishop Adalbert III is also a Staufen man; the Hungarian frontier lords across the Lafnitz and the Mur. The Spanheim dukes of Carinthia lost their chance at the Otakar inheritance when Leopold V, Ulrich II's guardian, took Styria; no open quarrel is recorded in 1199.

The realm that morning

On 1 January 1200 Leopold VI rules Styria in person, with Austria joined to it since 1198. The duchy is at peace inside; the Styrian ministeriales are loyal (Herrand of Wildon, steward in 1191 and marshal in 1195, is called the duke's favourite). The Hungarian frontier is quiet on the Lafnitz, but further south Salzburg's men of Pettau beat the Hungarians on the Pettau field at Easter 1199 and won Friedau (Ormož) and Polstrau (Središče), moving the border to a line from Polstrau to Luttenberg (Ljutomer): that edge is newly moved (German Wikipedia, Herren von Pettau; the lordship is the Salzburg researcher's Pettau (Ptuj), the raiding zone the belt Pettau frontier).

Leopold harbours Duke Andrew, who fled to Austria after his defeat near Lake Balaton in the summer of 1199; the papal legate Gregory is mediating between the brothers. Inside the duchy the archbishop of Salzburg holds Pettau, Leibnitz and Landsberg, the bishop of Freising holds Oberwölz, and the duchy's money is largely the archbishop's Friesach penny. Across the borders: east of the Lafnitz and the Raab the Hungarian county of Vas with its border guards and the castle of Güssing (Németújvár); across the Mur below Radkersburg the Prekmurje and, between the Mur and the Drava, the Muraköz under the Hungarian county of Zala; south of the Drava and across the Sotla the Zagorje and the county of Varaždin in Slavonia, which King Emeric's own men administer while Andrew is in exile (English Wikipedia).

South-west, beyond the Kamnik Alps and the Trojane pass, lies the Andechs march of Carniola (Northern Italy map); west, the duchy of Carinthia and Salzburg's Lungau; north, Austria and the Traungau.

Wealth

Salt from the Aussee pans (the Styrian ruler's and Rein abbey's shares; the place is first named in 1246 and the saltworks are attested before 1300: the 1200 position is thin), iron from the Erzberg sent down the Enns to Steyr and over the passes to Leoben and Judenburg, the Venice road through Judenburg (whose market and staple go back to 1074 under the Eppensteiners), the wine of Lower Styria and the Pettau field, tolls on the Mur, Drava and the Semmering and Pyhrn roads, and the dues of a large ducal domain. Coin: the archbishop of Salzburg's Friesach penny dominates trade in Styria and Carinthia; where the duke struck his own Styrian pennies in 1200 is not pinned here.

Military

The duke's host is raised from his ministeriales and their knights; the great families hold the castles (Wildon, Riegersburg, Gleichenberg, Stubenberg, Liechtenstein) and the duke keeps his own at Graz, Voitsberg, Fürstenfeld, Hartberg and Marburg. Record: in December 1197 Leopold, then duke of Styria only, led his troops with Duke Andrew to rout King Emeric's army at Mački in Slavonia. The Hungarian frontier is guarded by a belt of castles behind the Lafnitz built in the twelfth century.

No troop numbers are recorded.

Threats

• Hungary: King Emeric resents Leopold's support for Andrew (Mački, December 1197; Andrew's refuge in Austria since summer 1199). A reprisal across the Lafnitz or the Mur is possible until the brothers make peace.
• The succession: Leopold is unmarried and childless, the last Babenberg male. The Georgenberg compact gives the Styrian ministeriales a voice and a charter of their own if the line fails.
• The papacy: Innocent III leans to Otto IV and has not yet said so; a Staufen prince may face church censures later.
• Salzburg's lordships in the duchy (Pettau, Leibnitz, Landsberg) are a second power in Lower Styria; the death of Archbishop Adalbert III (8 April 1200) opens a contested election in which the duke has an interest.

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. 8 April 1200Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg dies; Eberhard of Regensberg, bishop of Brixen, follows him later in 1200. Salzburg's Styrian lordships (Pettau, Leibnitz) pass to the new archbishop.Depends on: A natural death (campaign notes, Part 10). Stopped by: Only a change in Adalbert's circumstances.
2. 23 April 1200Bishop Ekkehard of Gurk dies; the see of Gurk, Salzburg's proprietary bishopric, falls vacant.Depends on: A natural death (campaign notes, Part 10). Stopped by: Only a change in his circumstances.
3. 1200 (summer by English Wikipedia's account of the treaty)Through the legate Gregory, Emeric and Andrew are reconciled and Andrew returns to Croatia and Dalmatia. The Hungarian danger to Styria falls away.Depends on: Both brothers accepting the legate's terms; Leopold not using Andrew against Emeric. Stopped by: Leopold or a player backing Andrew in a new war; Emeric attacking Austria or Styria first.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1203 (later)Leopold marries Theodora Angelina.Depends on: Byzantine and Staufen diplomacy. Stopped by: Another marriage made in play.

Places of note

• Graz, the duke's Styrian seat: Castle on the Schlossberg (a fortress from 1125) and the market laid out about 1160 on today's Hauptplatz.
• The Georgenberg at Enns: Where the compact of 17 August 1186 was sealed (written by the Austria researcher).

Where the sources disagree

• The brief's realm table puts the Traungau and Pitten under styria; the Austria researcher writes them.
• German Wikipedia's Bad Aussee article says Aussee belonged to the emperor's chamber lands until the fifteenth century and came to Styria later after a salt quarrel; that reads against the usual view that the Otakar and Babenberg dukes held the Aussee salt. Treat the ownership of the Aussee salt on 1 January 1200 as not pinned.
• The assignment names the Ehrenfels among the Styrian ministerial families: no source reached here names a lord of Ehrenfels for 1200, so no record is written.

Evidence: The dynastic facts (the Georgenberg compact, the 1192 enfeoffment, the 1194 division, Leopold's birth, the Speyer protest) are well documented. The duke's Styrian court, officers and coinage around 1200 are thinly covered in the sources used here, and the ownership of particular castles must often be inferred from later evidence.

On the map: The three outlines follow the later Styrian borders inside the sheet, adjusted to 1200 (the Ausseerland included, Windischgraz left to Carinthia, the Pettau field left to Salzburg). Lordship was rights over castles and people, not a closed territory: the church lords inside the outlines are drawn by their own records.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online