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Duchy of Carniola | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1364–1918 | |||||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||||
 The Duchy of Carniola in 1714 | |||||||||||
 The Duchy of Carniola in 1791 | |||||||||||
| Capital | Laibach (Ljubljana) | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Slovene | ||||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholic | ||||||||||
| Government | Principality | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Middle Ages | ||||||||||
• March of Carniola bequeathed toHouse of Habsburg | 1335 | ||||||||||
• Raised toDuchy | 1364 | ||||||||||
• Part ofInner Austria | 1379 | ||||||||||
• JoinedAustrian Circle | 1512 | ||||||||||
| 1809 | |||||||||||
| 1815 | |||||||||||
• Part of theState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs | 29 October 1918 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Florin | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | Slovenia | ||||||||||
TheDuchy of Carniola (Slovene:Vojvodina Kranjska,German:Herzogtum Krain,Hungarian:Krajna) was animperial estate of theHoly Roman Empire, established underHabsburg rule on the territory of the former East FrankishMarch of Carniola in 1364. A hereditary land of theHabsburg monarchy, it became a constituent land of theAustrian Empire in 1804 and part of theKingdom of Illyria until 1849. A separatecrown land from 1849, it was incorporated into theCisleithanian territories ofAustria-Hungary from 1867 until the state's dissolution in 1918. Its capital was Laibach, todayLjubljana.
The borders of the historicCarniola region had varied over the centuries. From the time of the duchy's establishment, it was located in the southeastern periphery of the Holy Roman Empire, where theGorjanci Mountains and theKolpa River formed the border with theKingdom of Croatia.
In the north, it bordered the ImperialDuchy of Carinthia, from thePredil Pass andFusine (Fužine) along the main ridge of theKarawanks range up toJezersko. In the northeast and east, it bordered on theDuchy of Styria, i.e., the present-dayŠtajerska or Lower Styrian lands beyond theSava River, which until 1456 were held by theCounts of Celje. In the west, the peaks of theJulian Alps high aboveLake Bohinj marked the border with the historicFriulian region, initially held by thePatriarchs of Aquileia, but gradually conquered by theRepublic of Venice and incorporated into theDomini di Terraferma by 1433. In the southwest, beyond theDinaric Alps, theCounts of Görz held the remaining Friulian territory, which in 1754 became the Austrian crown land ofGorizia and Gradisca (part of the present-daySlovenian Littoral). The remains of theMargraviate of Istria south of theKarst Plateau and theBrkini Hills were also administered from Carniola.
In its final extent, re-established in 1815,[1] the duchy had an area of 9,904 square kilometres (3,824 sq mi).[2] In 1914, before the beginning ofWorld War I, it had a population of a little under 530,000 inhabitants.[1]
According to the topographyThe Glory of the Duchy of Carniola written by the scholarJohann Weikhard von Valvasor (1641–1693), the territory was traditionally divided into three sub-regions:
Until 1860, these sub-regions coincided with the districts (Kreise) ofLjubljana,Novo Mesto andPostojna. They were later divided into smaller units, called political (or administrative) districts (German:Bezirkshauptmannshaft,Slovene:okrajno glavarstvo). Between 1861 and 1918, Carniola was divided into eleven districts consisting of 359 municipalities (German:Ortsgemeinde,Slovene:občina), with the provincial capital serving as the residence of the imperial governor (Landeshauptmann). The districts were:Kamnik,Kranj,Radovljica, the neighbourhood of Ljubljana,Logatec,Postojna,Litija,Krško,Novo Mesto,Črnomelj, andKočevje. The political districts were in turn divided into 31 judicial circuits (German:Gerichtsbezirk,Slovene:sodnijski okraj).
The formerMarch of Carniola, i.e., Upper Carniola and theWindic March, had been separated from theDuchy of Carinthia in 1040 by KingHenry III of Germany. It was nevertheless temporarily still held by the Carinthian rulers inpersonal union, like theMeinhardiner DukeHenry VI, who died in 1335 without a male heir. His daughterMargaret was able to keep theCounty of Tyrol, while the Wittelsbach EmperorLouis IV passed Carinthia and Carniolan march to the Habsburg DukeAlbert II of Austria, whose mother,Elisabeth of Carinthia is a sister of the late DukeHenry of Gorizia.
Albert's sonRudolf IV of Austria, "the Founder", in the course of hisPrivilegium Maius, awarded himself the title of a "Duke of Carniola" in 1364—though without consent by theHoly Roman Emperor. Rudolph also founded the town ofNovo Mesto in Lower Carniola, then namedRudolphswerth. After his death, as a result of the quarrels between his younger brothersAlbert III andLeopold, Carniola by the 1379Treaty of Neuberg became part ofInner Austria ruled fromGraz by Leopold, ancestor of the HabsburgLeopoldian line. In 1457, the Inner Austrian territories were re-united with theArchduchy of Austria under the rule of the Habsburg EmperorFrederick III. When Frederick's descendant, EmperorFerdinand I, died in 1564, Carniola was separated again as part of Inner Austria under the rule of Ferdinand's son ArchdukeCharles II. Charles' son, EmperorFerdinand II, inherited all the dynasty's lands in 1619 and the duchy formed a constituent part of theHabsburg monarchy ever since.
In the late 15th century, as part of the Habsburg westward expansion, the Duchy of Carniola acquired many new territories:Idrija (previously part of Friuli),Duino and the surrounding parts of theKarst Plateau,Kastav,Opatija, and the interior areas ofIstria, centered aroundPazin. It also had nominal control over the port ofRijeka, which however de facto remained an autonomous city; in 1717 it was officially placed under direct imperial rule and in 1776 it was transferred to Hungary. In the 19th century, these areas (with the exception of Idrija) were incorporated in theAustrian Littoral, and Carniola thus became a landlocked region once again.
With theTreaty of Schönbrunn in 1809,Napoleon formed the short-livedIllyrian Provinces from the annexed territories in Carniola, Carinthia, Croatia,Gorizia and Gradisca, andTrieste. The Final Act of the 1815Congress of Vienna restored the Illyrian Provinces to theAustrian Empire. Carniola then formed the central part of the territory of the AustrianKingdom of Illyria, whose capital was also Ljubljana, including the Carniolan and Carinthian duchies as well as the Austrian Littoral with Gorizia and Gradisca, the Margraviate of Istria and theImperial Free City of Trieste.
After the disestablishment of the Illyrian Kingdom in 1849, the Duchy of Carniola was constituted by rescript of 20 December 1860, and by imperial patent of 26 February 1861 (February Patent), modified by legislation of 21 December 1867, granting power to the CarniolanLandtag (or Carniolan Diet - estates' assembly) to enact all laws not reserved to theImperial Council inVienna, at which it was represented by eleven delegates, of whom two elected by the landowners, three by the cities, towns, commercial and industrial boards, five by the village communes, and one by a fifth curia by secret ballot, every duly registered male twenty-four years of age had the right to vote. The home legislature consisted of a single chamber of thirty-seven members, among whom the prince-bishop sat ex-officio. The emperor convened the legislature, and it was presided over by thek. k.Landeshauptmann (president of the Carniolan Diet –Landtag and its executive board –Landesausschuss). The landed interests elected ten members, the cities and towns eight, the commercial and industrial boards two, the village communes sixteen. The business of the chamber was restricted to legislating on agriculture, public and charitable institutions, administration of communes, church and school affairs, the transportation and housing of soldiers in war and during manoeuvres, and other local matters. The land budget of 1901 amounted to 3,573,280 crowns ($714,656).
The AustrianImperial-Royal government was represented by theImperial-Royal president (k. k. Landespräsident or governor), appointed by the emperor, and theImperial-Royal Government (k. k. Landesregierung) in Ljubljana. In the majority of other Austrian crown lands these were known as Imperial-Royal Lieutenant (k. k. Statthalter) and Imperial-Royal Lieutenancy (k. k. Statthalterei).
In 1918, the duchy ceased to exist and its territory became part of the newly formedState of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and subsequently part of theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929 called Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The western part of the duchy, with the towns ofPostojna,Ilirska Bistrica,Idrija,Vipava, andŠturje, was annexed toItaly in 1920, but was subsequently also included into Yugoslavia in 1945 except for the town ofFusine in Valromana (Weissenfels, before 1919), which remained in Italy.
The vast majority of the population wereSlovene-speaking. AGerman-speaking minority existed among the local nobles and those craftsmen, who had settled here as citizens of the major towns. Germanlanguage islands were found in Lower CarniolanGottschee County, where the rural population spokeGottscheerish (Granish), aSouthern Bavarian dialect, as well as around the Upper Carniolan villages ofZgornja Sorica (Oberzarz),Spodnja Sorica (Unterzarz) andNemški Rovt (Deutschgereuth) in theBohinj Basin.
In 1846, the population of Carniola included:[3]
In 1910, the population of Carniola included:[3]
The coat of arms of Carniola dates back to the 13th century, when it most probably evolved as a combination of the coats of arms of the Bavariancounts of Andechs in theDuchy of Merania (eagle) and the RhenishHouse of Sponheim in Carinthia (red-white checkerboard). The eagle is also featured in the seal of KingOttokar II of Bohemia in his capacity as ruler of the Carniolan march in 1269. In 1463 EmperorFrederick III, having prevailed against the claims raised by his brotherAlbert VI of Austria, added the Imperial crown to the eagle and replaced the white in the shield and the checkered crescent with gold. In 1836 EmperorFerdinand I of Austria restored the original white color to the shield and recognized the white-blue-red combination as the official Carniolan color scheme.
Under the Habsburg rule the white, blue and red from the Carniolan coat of arms (the shield, the eagle and the crescent) were confirmed as the official flag colors of the crownland in 1848. Since the Duchy of Carniola was the main Slovene-populated region of the Austrian Empire, the color scheme was subsequently accepted as the generic Slovene national tricolor by the inhabitants of otherSlovene Lands.
As for the coat of arms, it was abandoned after 1918 with the passing of the Duchy of Carniola. The blue eagle of Carniola was, however, briefly resurrected from 1943 to 1945 as the symbol of the Slovenian auxiliary Axis forces, theSlovene Home Guard. It was also used in the YugoslavKarađorđević dynasty coat-of-arms in the interwar period (and was replaced in the state coat-of-arms of theKingdom of Yugoslavia by the three stars of the medievalcounts of Celje).
The insignia of the Duchy of Carniola have had an important and lasting impact on Slovene national symbols. Thus, the white-blue-red combination of the flag of the Duchy of Carniola is in use today as the official color scheme of the flag of theRepublic of Slovenia. The Slovenian coat of arms is also a heraldic composite, incorporating the stars of the counts of Celje, the Carniolan colors and the silhouette of the Slovene national symbol, MountTriglav.
Heir of all Habsburg lines in 1619. SeeList of rulers of Austria for details.
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