Duchy of Carniola - History

History

The former March of Carniola, i.e. Upper Carniola and the Windic March, had been separated from the Duchy of Carinthia in 1040 by King Henry III of Germany. It was nevertheless temporarily still held by the Carinthian rulers in personal union, like the Meinhardiner duke Henry I, who died in 1335 without a male heirs. His daughter Margaret only was able to keep the County of Tyrol, while the Wittelsbach emperor Louis IV the Bavarian passed Carinthia together with the Carniolian march to the Habsburg duke Albert II of Austria.

Albert's son Rudolf IV of Austria, "the Founder", in the course of his Privilegium Maius, awarded himself the title of a "Duke of Carniola" in 1364—though without consent by the Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolph also founded the town of Novo Mesto in Lower Carniola, then named Rudolphswerth. After his death, as a result of the quarrels between his younger brothers Albert III and Leopold, Carniola by the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg became part of Inner Austria ruled from Graz by Leopold, ancestor of the Habsburg Leopoldian line. In 1457, the Inner Austrian territories were re-united with the Archduchy of Austria under the rule of the Habsburg emperor Frederick III. When Frederick's descendant, Emperor Ferdinand I, died in 1564, Carniola was separated again as part of Inner Austria under the rule of Ferdinand's son Archduke Charles II. Charles' son, Emperor Ferdinand II, inherited all the dynasty's lands in 1619 and the duchy formed a constituent part of the Habsburg Monarchy ever since.

Napoleon subsequent to the 1809 Treaty of Schönbrunn formed the short-lived Illyrian Provinces from the annexed territories in Carniola, Carinthia, Croatia, Gorizia and Gradisca, and Trieste. The Final Act of the 1815 Congress of Vienna restored the Illyrian Provinces to the Austrian Empire. Carniola then formed the central part of the territory of the Austrian Kingdom 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 the Imperial 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, modified by legislation of 21 December 1867, granting power to the Carniolan Landtag estates' assembly to enact all laws not reserved to the Imperial Council in Vienna, 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 has the right to vote. The home legislature consisted of a single chamber of thirty-seven members, among whom the prince-bishop sits ex-officio. The emperor convened the legislature, and it was presided over by the Landeshauptmann governor. 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).

In 1918, the duchy ceased to exist and its territory became part of the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and subsequently part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (from 1929 called Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The western part of the duchy, with the towns of Postojna, Ilirska Bistrica, Idrija, Vipava and Šturje was annexed to Italy in 1920, but was subsequently also included into Yugoslavia in 1945.