 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "County of Tyrol" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
(Princely) County of Tyrol | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1140–1919 | |||||||||||||||
 Flag | |||||||||||||||
 Map of the County of Tyrol (1799) | |||||||||||||||
| Status | State of theHoly Roman Empire(until 1806), Crown land of theHabsburg monarchy, of theAustrian Empire(from 1804) and ofCisleithanianAustria-Hungary(from 1867) | ||||||||||||||
| Capital | Meran, formally until 1848 Innsbruck, residence from 1420 | ||||||||||||||
| Common languages | |||||||||||||||
| Government | County | ||||||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||||||
• CreatedCounty | 1140 | ||||||||||||||
• Bequeathed to House of Habsburg | 1363 | ||||||||||||||
• JoinedAustrian Circle | 1512 | ||||||||||||||
| 1803 | |||||||||||||||
• Restored toAustria | 1814 | ||||||||||||||
• Partitioned by Treaty of St Germain | September 10, 1919 | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
Part ofa series on the |
|---|
| History ofAustria |
 |
World War II |
Post-war Austria |
 Austria portal |
The (Princely)County of Tyrol was anestate of theHoly Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by theHouse of Gorizia and from 1363 by theHouse of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with thesecularised prince-bishoprics ofTrent andBrixen, became acrown land of theAustrian Empire, then was part ofBavaria from 1805 to 1814 when it returned to Austrian rule. From 1867, it was aCisleithanian crown land ofAustria-Hungary.
Today the territory of the historic crown land is divided between theItalian autonomous region ofTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and theAustrian state ofTyrol. The two parts are today associated again in theTyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion.
At least since KingOtto I of Germany had conquered the formerLombard Kingdom ofItaly in 961 and had himself crownedHoly Roman emperor inRome, theprincipal passes of theEastern Alps had become an important transit area. The German monarchs regularly traveled across theBrenner orReschen Pass on their Italian expeditions aiming at papalcoronation or the consolidation of Imperial rule.
In 1004 KingHenry II of Germany separated the estates ofTrent from the North ItalianMarch of Verona and vested thebishops of Trent with comital rights. In 1027 Henry'sSalian successor, EmperorConrad II, granted the Trent bishops further estates aroundBozen and in theVinschgau region; at the same time, he vested thebishop of Brixen with thesuzerainty in theEtschtal andInntal, part of the Germanstem duchy ofBavaria under the rule of Conrad's sonHenry III. Especially the Brixen bishops remained loyal supporters of the Salian rulers in theInvestiture Controversy and in 1091 also received thePuster Valley from the hands of EmperorHenry IV.
Documented from about 1140 onwards, the comital dynasty residing inTyrol Castle nearMeran held the office ofVogts (bailiffs) in the Trent diocese. They extended their territory over much of the region and came to surpass the power of the bishops, who were nominally theirfeudal lords. After the deposition of theWelf DukeHenry X of Bavaria in 1138, the counts of Tyrol strengthened their independence. WhenHenry the Lion was again enfeoffed with the Bavarian duchy by EmperorFrederick Barbarossa at the 1154Imperial Diet inGoslar, his possessions no longer comprised the Tyrolean lands. The counts maintained that independence under the rising BavarianWittelsbach dynasty. In 1210, CountAlbert IV of Tyrol also took over theVogt office in the Bishopric of Brixen, prevailing against the rivallingcounts of Andechs.
In 1253 CountMeinhard of Gorizia(Görz) inherited the Tyrolean lands by his marriage to Adelheid, daughter of the last Count Albert IV of Tyrol. When their sons divided their estate in 1271, the elderMeinhard II took Tyrol, for which he was recognized as animmediate lordship. He supported the German kingRudolph of Habsburg against his rival KingOttokar II of Bohemia. In reward, he received theDuchy of Carinthia with theCarniolan march in 1286.
In 1307 Meinhard's sonHenry was electedKing of Bohemia, After his death, he had one surviving daughter,Margaret Maultasch, who could gain the rule only over Tyrol. In 1342 she marriedLouis V of Wittelsbach, thenMargrave of Brandenburg. The red eagle in Tyrol's coat of arms may derive from theBrandenburg eagle at the time when she and her husband ruled Tyrol and Brandenburg inpersonal union, though the Tyrolean eagle had already appeared in the 13th century.
Louis V died in 1361, followed by Margaret's sonMeinhard III two years later. Lacking any descendants to succeed her, she bequeathed the county toRudolph IV of Habsburg, Duke ofAustria in 1363. He was recognized by the House of Wittelsbach in 1369. From that time onward, Tyrol was ruled by various lines of the AustrianHouse of Habsburg, who held the title ofcount.
After theHabsburg hereditary lands had been divided by the 1379Treaty of Neuberg, Tyrol was ruled by the descendants of DukeLeopold III of Austria. After a second division within theLeopoldinian line in 1406, DukeFrederick IV of the Empty Pockets ruled them. In 1420 he madeInnsbruck the Tyrolean capital. In 1490 his son and heirSigismund renounced Tyrol andFurther Austria in favour of his cousin German KingMaximilian I of Habsburg. By then Maximilian I had re-united all Habsburg lands under his rule. In 1500 he also acquired the remaining Gorizia (Görz) territories aroundLienz and thePuster Valley.
When EmperorFerdinand I died in 1564, he bequeathed the rule over Tyrol and Further Austria to his second son ArchdukeFerdinand II. Both territories thereafter fell to the younger sons of the Habsburg Emperors: ArchdukeMatthias in 1608 andMaximilian III in 1612. After the death of ArchdukeSigismund Francis in 1665, all Habsburg lands were again under the united rule of the EmperorLeopold I.
From the time ofMaria Theresa (1740−1780) onward, Tyrol was governed by the central government of theHabsburg monarchy atVienna in all matters of major importance. In 1803 the lands of the Bishoprics ofTrent andBrixen weresecularised and incorporated into the county.
Following defeat byNapoleon in 1805,Austria was forced to cede Tyrol to theKingdom of Bavaria in thePeace of Pressburg. Tyrol as a part of Bavaria became a member of theConfederation of the Rhine in 1806.
The1808 Bavarian constitution [de] abolished traditional administrative divisions and replaced them withKreise [de]; Tyrol's territory was split up into:
In 1809 theTyroleans rose up against Bavarian authority and succeeded three times in defeating Bavarian and French troops trying to retake the country. Austria lost theWar of the Fifth Coalition againstFrance, and got harsh terms in theTreaty of Schönbrunn in 1809. Glorified as Tyrol's national hero,Andreas Hofer, the leader of the uprising, was executed in 1810 inMantua. His forces had lost a fourth and final battle against the French and Bavarian forces.
In 1810 Bavaria was forced by France to cede southern Tyrol (theEtschkreis plusBozen) to theKingdom of Italy, most of which became theDepartment of Alto Adige, and the eastern part of theEisackkreis (roughly modernEast Tyrol) to the French Empire'sIllyrian Provinces. The remainder of theEisackkreis was transferred to theInnkreis (along withWerdenfels and the newly-acquired Zillertal), while parts of theInnkreis were transferred to otherKreise: the eastern part aroundSt. Johann andKitzbühel to theSalzachkreis; theLechtal in the north-west to theIllerkreis [de]. Tyrol remained divided between Bavaria and Napoleonic Italy for another four years.
In 1814, by decisions of theCongress of Vienna, Tyrol was reunified and returned to Austria, becoming a crown land (Kronland [de]) of the Austrian Empire. The formerly Salzburgian Zillertal, Brixental and Matrei were also permanently integrated into Tyrol. AdministrativelyVorarlberg was attached to the reconstituted Tyrol (formally as "the princely county of Tyrol with Vorarlberg" –die gefürstete Grafschaft Tirol mit Vorarlberg) asKreis Bregenz until it became a crown land in its own right in the 1861February Patent.[2]
Tyrol-proper (i.e. excluding Vorarlberg) was until 1849 divided into sixKreise:Oberinnthal (orImst),Unterinnthal (Schwaz),Pusterthal (Bruneck), Etsch (Bozen),Trient andRovereto. In 1849 this was reduced to three:Innsbruck,Brixen and Trient,[3] which broadly corresponded with the modern North Tyrol, South + East Tyrol and Trentino respectively. TheseKreise were briefly divided into modern-stylepolitical districts but were recentralised and divided into smaller "office districts [de]" from 1853.
Following theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 Tyrol was aCisleithanian (Austrian) crown land withinAustria-Hungary. TheKreise and office districts were abolished and political districts re-introduced in 1868.
AfterWorld War I, the victors settled border changes. TheTreaty of Saint-Germain of 1919 ruled according to the 1915London Pact, that the southern part of the Austrian crown land of Tyrol had to be ceded to theKingdom of Italy, including the territory of the formerTrent bishopric, roughly corresponding to the modern-dayTrentino, as well as the south of the medieval Tyrol county, the present-day province ofSouth Tyrol. Italy thus took control of the strategically important Alpinewater divide at theBrenner Pass and over the south of Tyrol proper with its large German-speaking majority.[4] Since 1949 both parts form the autonomous ItalianTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region. The northern part of Tyrol retained by theFirst Austrian Republic today forms the AustrianState of Tyrol with itsEast Tyrol exclave.
In 1945 followingWorld War II, Austrian attempts and South Tyrolean petitions to reunite South Tyrol with Austria were unsuccessful; Italy retained control. From 1972 onwards, the Italian Republic hasgranted further autonomy to theTrentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol region.
Male line extinct.
County bequeathed to Albert's son-in-law:
Male line extinct, CountessMargaret, daughter of Henry II, married to:
divorced, secondly to:
Line extinct.
County bequeathed to
Line extinct, Habsburg lands re-unified under
Habsburg regents of Tyrol and Further Austria:
Line extinct, Habsburg lands re-unified under
Media related toCounty of Tyrol at Wikimedia Commons Habsburg lands |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Habsburg’svassals | ||
| Prince-Bishoprics | ||
 Teutonic bailiwicks | ||
Circles est. 1500:Bavarian,Swabian,Upper Rhenish,Lower Rhenish–Westphalian,Franconian,(Lower) Saxon Circles est. 1512:Austrian,Burgundian,Upper Saxon,Electoral Rhenish · Unencircled territories | ||
46°54′58″N11°12′22″E / 46.91611°N 11.20611°E /46.91611; 11.20611
