Engelbert III (died 6 October 1173), a member of the Rhenish Franconian

House of Sponheim The House of Sponheim or Spanheim was a medieval Germans, German noble family, which originated in Rhenish Franconia. They were Imperial immediacy, immediate Counts of County of Sponheim, Sponheim until 1437 and Dukes of Duchy of Carinthia, Carint ...

, was Margrave of Istria from 1124 until his death.

Life

Engelbert was the second son of Margrave Engelbert II and his first wife Uta of

Passau Passau (; ) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the ("City of Three Rivers"), as the river Danube is joined by the Inn (river), Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's population is about 50,000, of whom ...

. When his father succeeded his elder brother Henry as

Duke of Carinthia The Duchy of Carinthia (; ; ) was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, and was the first newly created Imperial State after the original German stem duchy, stem duc ...

, Engelbert III received the margravial title in Istria. However, he mainly ruled in the Sponheim estates around Kraiburg in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, bequested by his mother. In 1135 Emperor

Lothair III Lothair III, sometimes numbered Lothair II and also known as Lothair of Supplinburg ( June 1075 – 4 December 1137), was Holy Roman Emperor from 1133 until his death. He was appointed Duke of Saxony in 1106 and elected King of Germany in 1125 b ...

dispatched him to a synod at Pisa in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, in order to back

Pope Innocent II Pope Innocent II (; died 24 September 1143), born Gregorio Papareschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. His election as Pope was controversial, and the first eight years o ...

against

Antipope Anacletus II Anacletus II (died January 25, 1138), born Pietro Pierleoni, was an antipope who ruled in opposition to Pope Innocent II from 1130 until his death in 1138. After the death of Pope Honorius II, the college of Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinals ...

. In turn, Engelbert was vested with the Imperial March of Tuscany, but was succeeded by the Welf duke Henry X of Bavaria already in 1137. Engelbert attended the 1156 Imperial Diet in

Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...

, where he witnessed the granting of the '' Privilegium Minus'' by Emperor

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aachen on 9 March 115 ...

, elevating the

March of Austria The Margraviate of Austria (; ) was a medieval frontier march March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring oc ...

to a

duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important differe ...

. In 1140 Engelbert had married Matilda, youngest daughter of the Bavarian count Berengar II of Sulzbach. He was thus a brother-in-law of

Gertrude of Sulzbach Gertrude of Sulzbach (; – 14 April 1146) was German queen from 1138 until her death as the second wife of the Hohenstaufen king Conrad III. Life She was the daughter of the Bavarian count Berengar II of Sulzbach (c.1080–1125) and Adelh ...

, consort of King

Conrad III of Germany Conrad III (; ; 1093 or 1094 – 15 February 1152) of the Hohenstaufen dynasty was from 1116 to 1120 Duke of Franconia, from 1127 to 1135 anti-king of his predecessor Lothair III, and from 1138 until his death in 1152 King of the Romans in t ...

, and

Bertha of Sulzbach Bertha of Sulzbach (1110s – 1160), also known as Irene, was a Byzantine empress by marriage to Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos. Life She was born in Sulzbach, a daughter of Berengar II, Count of Sulzbach (c. 1080 – 3 December 1125) and ...

, as ''Irene'' wife of the Byzantine Emperor

Manuel I Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos (; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized as Comnenus, also called Porphyrogenitus (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine emperor of the 12th century who reigned over a crucial turning point in the history o ...

. Matilda died late in 1165, the marriage remained childless. The margravial title in Istria passed to the Bavarian Counts of Andechs. His son Pellegrino was

Patriarch of Aquileia This is a list of bishops and patriarchs of Aquileia in northeastern Italy. For the ecclesiastical history of the diocese, see Patriarchate of Aquileia. From 553 until 698 the archbishops renounced Papal authority as part of the Schism of the T ...

in northern Italy from 1195 to 1204.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

{{Margraves of Istria 1173 deaths 12th-century nobility from the Holy Roman Empire Margraves of Istria Margraves of Carniola Margraves of Tuscany House of Sponheim Austrian people of German descent Year of birth unknown