The (
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
for "
March on the
Savinja"; other designations and variations of the name include , (or ), () and , as well as simply – Savinja valley) was a border march of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars.
From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...
, in the territory of present-day
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...
. It was established in the second half of the 10th century to protect the Empire against its enemies to the east, especially from
Hungarian raids.
Territory
The territory included the
catchment
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...
of the Savinja river, extending to the
Sotla in the east. To the south, the March extended to the right bank of the river
Sava
The Sava (; , ; sr-cyr, Сава, hu, Száva) is a river in Central and Southeast Europe, a right-bank and the longest tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia and along its border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and finally t ...
and included the
Krka basin, and the area around
Višnja Gora.
From the 14th to the 16th century, the area on the right bank of the Sava was known as the
Windic March (or Slovene March), while the left bank became known as the
County of Cilli (Celje) from 1341 to 1456. In the
early modern period, the former was fully incorporated into the
Duchy of Carniola, and the latter into the
Duchy of Styria, completing a long process of dismembering of the former March that began in the 12th century.
History
By 895 there was already a "''Mark an der Sawe''", although whether it included the entire Savinja valley is unclear.
Old Souna
The first recorded mention of the Savinja county (german: Sann-Grafschaft, link=no) is on 24 October 980, when
Emperor Otto II granted count Willihalm the entirety of his royal possessions in "Rachwin's county" between the Dobritsch mountains north of Heilenstein/
Polzela
Polzela () is a settlement in Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Polzela. It lies on the left bank of the Savinja River extending into the Ložnica Hills ( sl, Ložniško gričevje) to the north. The area is part of the traditional ...
near
Cilli, Stenitz southeast of
Weitenstein near Lindeck and
Wresen southwest of Weitenstein for his faithful service.
The march was subordinate to the
Duchy of Bavaria
The Duchy of Bavaria (German: ''Herzogtum Bayern'') was a frontier region in the southeastern part of the Merovingian kingdom from the sixth through the eighth century. It was settled by Bavarian tribes and ruled by dukes (''duces'') under ...
until 1002, and then the
Duchy of Carinthia.
During the
second phase of colonisation the possessions of the
Archbishopric of Salzburg, which already included
Rann an der Save in
Carolingian times, were confirmed by Emperors Otto II and
Otto III.
Margrave Wilhelm
The next Margrave (or Count) was , the son of the afore mentioned count Willihalm and husband of
Hemma of Gurk. On 15 April 1016, following intervention by
Empress Kunigunde,
Archbishop Heribert of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, and Bishop of
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castl ...
, Emperor
Henry II granted him in "his county in the " thirty (a quantity of land of roughly ) in the
Drachenburger Land, as well as all of the royal property between the rivers Sava, Sann (Savinja), Sutla and Neiring (
Mirna).
That is, the later
Windisch-Landsberg,
Peilenstein,
Wisell and
Nassenfuß of the
Bishops of Gurk along with
Rohitsch,
Montpreis,
Hörberg and
Königsberg
Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was ...
.
In 1025 the Windic March on the Savinja was detached from the Duchy of Carinthia.
In Bamberg on 11 May 1025, following the intervention of
Queen Gisela and
Archbishop Aribo of
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...
King
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
Conrad II
Conrad II ( – 4 June 1039), also known as and , was the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 until his death in 1039. The first of a succession of four Salian emperors, who reigned for one century until 1125, Conrad ruled the kingdoms ...
granted Wilhelm 30 in his county (referred to in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
as ) between the rivers Kopreinitz (
Koprivnica), Köttnig/Kötting (
Hudinja) and Wogliena/Wogleina (
Voglajna), and between the rivers
Gurk and Sava (in
Carniola) as well as all of his royal property in the mountains, valleys and forests.
On 30 December 1028 in Augsburg, at the request of (now) Empress Gisela, their son
Henry and Patriarch
Poppo of
Aquileia, the now Emperor Conrad II bestowed upon count Wilhelm (or confirmed his possession of) 30 in ''villa Traskendorf'' (''Drachenburger Land'') and the possessions of his predecessor Henry II between the ''Sava'' and ''Savinja'', ''Sutla'' and ''Mirna'' in the county of ; additionally, he dedicated a further 30 in the same county between the Koprivnica, Hudinja and Voglajna and between the Gurk and Sava.
In 1036 Count Wilhelm II was killed by the deposed Carinthian Duke as a means of revenge. Thereafter the held the march along with neighbouring Carniola.
The donations of Countess Hemma
On 6 January 1043,
Countess Hemma, Wilhelm's widow, handed over the majority of their possessions in Carinthia and the marches (particularly
Reichenburg) to Archbishop in exchange for baptismal, funeral and tithe rights for Carinthian churches. The Savinja valley
Allod later came to the Prince-Bishopric of Gurk. On 15 August 1043 Hemma donated their wholly owned property in the Savinja valley, that is all the afore mentioned territories acquired in the years 980, 1016 and 1025, to the church, using her
Vogt
During the Middle Ages, an (sometimes given as modern English: advocate; German: ; French: ) was an office-holder who was legally delegated to perform some of the secular responsibilities of a major feudal lord, or for an institution such as ...
Pretzlaus as a proxy. Hemma expressly exempted the villages of "Terenperch", Köttnig/Kötting, "Steindorf" and Sirdosege from her gifts, along with Reichenburg which had already been exchanged with Balduin of Salzburg.
Thanks to their affinity to Hemma, the ' exercised great influence and power in this area as hereditary Vogts of Gruk. Indeed, by the 11th century they had already established the
Fortress of Obercilli.
Spanheimer etc
Under Conrad II (1024–39) count
Siegfried von Spanheim from Rheinfranken Richgard of
Lavant married a
Sieghardinger with a great deal of wealth in the march and in Carinthia. Count Siegfried was granted tree-covered
crown land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it ...
mostly consisting of forest by the King, particularly in Drau and Savinja areas, but also extending to the
karst.
After 1036 the Savinja March was again separated from the Windic March.
It has also been established that the
Aribonids The Aribonids were a noble family of probably Bavarian origin who rose to preeminence in the Carolingian March of Pannonia and the later Margraviate of Austria (''marcha orientalis'') in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. The dynasty is name ...
in the Drau and Savinja valleys were wealthy at this time.
Alongside these large landowners in the Savinja valley were also the freemen of Kager, the and , as well as the
lords of Sanneck and the freemen of
Hochenegg. They and their overlords seem to have led the great colonisation in this region.
In perhaps 1105, but certainly before 1122, the Askuiner Margrave Starkhand died, who with his brother Ulrich in 1103 appear to have born witness to the document in which Duke
Henry of Eppenstein of Carinthia remunerated
St. Lambrecht's Abbey; his successor was Günther, a son of the Pilgrim von Hohenwart-Pozzuolo, the last Margrave of Soune (''marchio de Cylie'').
After his death in 1137 or 1144 the title of Margave was no longer held. Thereafter there were many
extraterritorial areas in the march: in the south east lay the possessions of Salzburg and Gurk; in the west those of
Aquileia and the Bishopric of
Oberburg; in the south the Spanheim Lordship of
Tüffer.
The Spanheims, having sided with the Pope in 1105-06 during the
Investiture Controversy
The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of mona ...
, took as part of their possessions that which the Gurkish hereditary Vogts, the Askuin counts, Starkhand and Werigand had lost.
In 1131 Archbishop
Conrad I of Salzburg came to the Savinja area to secure peace with the Hungarians and to build the episcopal border fortresses of
Pettau
Ptuj (; german: Pettau, ; la, Poetovium/Poetovio) is a town in northeastern Slovenia that is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman ...
and
Reichenburg against the Hungarians, as Countess Hemma's progeny had failed to provide an effective defence of the eastern border.
Subsequent history
Otakars
In 1147 Count died and
Tüffer (and
Sachsenfeld along with
Sachsenwart) reverted to Margrave
Ottokar III of Styria. The resulting lordship stretched along the Savinja from Cilli to the Sava and next to the Sava over
Trifail, and further down along the Sava until finally reaching
Lichtenwald
Lichtenwald is a town in the district of Esslingen in Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's w ...
. It covered approximately , and moderately enclosed the Salzburg episcopal territory of Lichtenwald-Rann, which perhaps arose from Countess Hemma's territory of Reichenburg. Thereafter it belonged to the large lordship of Tüffer and to Sachsenfeld, Sachsenwart and Hochenegg, the castles of
Klausenstein and Freudenegg as well as the ''
Amt
Amt is a type of administrative division governing a group of municipalities, today only in Germany, but formerly also common in other countries of Northern Europe. Its size and functions differ by country and the term is roughly equivalent to ...
'' of
Ratschach in Carniola.
There was a Styrian Amt attested from 1182 and from 1227 the court of Tüffer stretched across the Sava, to which
Schärfenberg evidently also belonged from 1287. H. Pirchegger believed that the later territory of the
Otakars extended as far as the ''Archidiakonat Sanntal''. The lordship of Tüffer was part of the (duchy), and from Tüffer the Duke of Styria also succeeded in the acquisition of the {{lang, de, Vogtei over the nearby Gurkish Lordships.
Bohemia
After seizing Carniola, the Windic March,
Windischgraz
Slovenj Gradec (; german: Windischgrätz'', ''after about 1900 ''Windischgraz'') is a town in northern Slovenia. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Slovenj Gradec. It is part of the historical Styria region, and since 2005 it has belon ...
and the Savinja valley in 1269, King
Ottokar II of
Bohemia united the territories into a march.
Habsburg
In 1282 Carniola and the Windic March were loaned to the son of King
Rudolf I (these lands were in fact subordinate to
Meinhard II of Görz-Tirol)
Around 1300 the Counts of Heunburg (extinct by 1322) acquired the lordship of Cilli, the centre of the march. Only from about 1300 was there a strong lordly enforcement in the Savinja valley by way of the
free lords of Sanneck.
Savinja valley to Styria
On 14 July 1311 Duke
Henry of Carinthia
Henry of Gorizia (german: Heinrich, cs, Jindřich; – 2 April 1335), a member of the House of Gorizia, was Duke of Carinthia and Landgrave of Carniola (as Henry VI) and Count of Tyrol from 1295 until his death, as well as King of Bohemia, Mar ...
of the
Meinhardiner
The Counts of Gorizia (german: Grafen von Görz; it, Conti di Gorizia; sl, Goriški grofje), also known as the Meinhardiner, were a comital, princely and ducal dynasty in the Holy Roman Empire. Named after Gorizia Castle in Gorizia (now in I ...
dynasty, having been worn down by the
Habsburgs, ceded the Savinja valley on either side of the Sava to Styria.
Counts of Cilli
In 1323 Cilli passed to the Counts of
Pfannberg, then in 1335 to the Sanneckers, who became known as the
Counts of Cilli in 1341. Following their extinction in 1456, Cilli and its associated lordships passed to the Habsburgs in 1460.
See also
*
County of Cilli
References
Medieval Slovenia
History of Styria
Marches of the Holy Roman Empire