Carniola

Carniola, Croatian Kranj, historic region, in Slovenia. The history of this largely mountainous area is closely linked with that of Slovenia. The first known inhabitants, a Celtic tribe called the Carni, were displaced by the Romans, who made Carniola part of their province of Pannonia. Slovenes settled Carniola in the 6th cent. Charlemagne later incorporated it into his empire. The region became a march, or margraviate, under Bavarian suzerainty in the 10th cent. and in 1269 was acquired by Bohemia. It passed to the Austrian Hapsburgs in 1282 and was made (1364) a titular duchy. In 1849 its status was raised to a crown land. Ljubljana was its chief city. After World War I, Carniola was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia, but the Italian part passed to what was then Yugoslavia's constituent republic of Slovenia in 1947.

Region, western Slovenia. It is located northeast of the head of the Adriatic Sea and includes a mountainous area. Its chief town is Ljubljana. It was part of the Roman province of Pannonia in ancient times and was occupied by the Slovenes in the 6th century AD. In the 13th century it became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 1335 it became a possession of the Austrian Habsburgs, who held it as a duchy until 1849, when it was recognized as an Austrian crown land (1849–1918). After World War I it was divided between Italy and the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia); it was incorporated entirely into Yugoslavia by a 1947 treaty. When Yugoslavia was fragmented in the 1990s, Carniola was included in Slovenia.

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Carniola (Kranjska; Krain) is a traditional and historical region of Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola (Vojvodina Kranjska, Herzogtum Krain) until 1918. The region is subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola (with White Carniola), and Inner Carniola.

History

Overview

After the fall of the Roman Empire, Lombards settled in Carniola, followed by Slavs around the 6th century AD. As a part of the German Empire, the area was successively ruled by Bavarian, Frankish and local nobility, and eventually fell to the Austrian Habsburgs almost continuously from 1335 to 1918, but many Ottoman raids and rebellions by local residents against Habsburg rule occurred from the 15th to the 17th centuries. From about 900 AD until the 20th century, Carniola's ruling classes and urban areas spoke German while the peasantry often spoke Slovenian.

The capital of Carniola, originally situated at Kranj (Krainburg), was briefly moved to Kamnik (Stein) and finally to the current capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana (Laibach).

Antiquity and Middle Ages

Before the coming of the Romans (c. 200 BC), the Taurisci dwelt in the north of Carniola, the Pannonians in the south-east, the Iapodes or Carni, a Celtic tribe, in the south-west.

Carniola formed part of the Roman province of Pannonia; the northern part was joined to Noricum, the south-western and south-eastern parts and the city of Aemona to Venice and Istria. In the time of Augustus all the region from Aemona to the Kolpa river (Culpa) belonged to the province of Savia.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), Carniola was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy, and (493) under Theodoric it formed part of the Ostrogothic kingdom. Between the upper Sava and the Soča rivers lived the Carni, and towards the end of the sixth century Slavs settled the region called by Latin writers Carnia, or Carniola meaning 'little Carnia', i.e. part of greater Carnia. Later on the name was changed to Slavic Krajina, Kranjska or, in German, Chrainmark, Krain. The new inhabitants were subjected to the Avars, but threw off their yoke, and joined the great Slavic state of Samo.

March of Carniola

Carniola was governed by the Franks about the year 788. When Charlemagne established the margraviate of Friuli, he added to it a part of Carniola. After the division of Friuli, it became an independent margraviate, having its own Slavic margrave residing at Kranj, subject to the governor of Bavaria at first, and after 976 to the Dukes of Carinthia. Henry IV gave it to the Patriarch of Aquileia (1071).

In the Middle Ages the Church held much property in Carniola, thus in Upper and Lower Carniola the Bishop of Freising became in 974 a feudal lord of the city of Škofja Loka, the Bishop of Brixen held Bled and possessions in the valley of Bohinj, and the Bishop of Lavant got Mokronog. Among secular potentates the Dukes of Merano, Gorizia, Babenberg, and Zilli held possessions given to them in fief by the patriarchs of Aquileia. The dukes governed the province nearly half a century. Finally Carniola was given in fief with the consent of the patriarch to Frederick II of Austria, who obtained the title of duke in 1245. Frederick was succeeded by Ulrich III, Duke of Carinthia, who married Agnes of Andech a relative of the patriarch and endowed the churches and monasteries, established the government mint at the city of Kostanjevica, and finally (1268) willed to Ottokar II, King of Bohemia, all his possessions and the government of Carinthia and Carniola.

Duchy of Carniola

Ottokar was defeated by Rudolph I of Germany, and at the meeting at Augsburg in 1282, he gave in fief to his sons Albrecht and Rudolf the province of Carniola, but it was leased to Meinhard, count of Gorizia-Tirol. Duke Henry of Carinthia claimed Carniola; and the Dukes of Austria asserted their claim as successors to the Bohemian kingdom. When Henry died 1335 Jan, King of Bohemia, renounced his claims, and Albrecht, Duke of Austria, received Carniola; it was proclaimed a duchy by Rudolf IV, in 1364. Emperor Frederick III united Upper, Lower, and Central Carniola as Metlika and Pivka into one duchy. The union of the dismembered parts was completed by 1607.

French Intermezzo

The French revolutionary troops occupied Carniola in 1797, and from 1805 to 1806. Under the Treaty of Vienna, Carniola became part of the Illyrian provinces of France (1809–1814), with Ljubljana as its capital, and Carniola formed a part of the new territory from 1809 to 1813. The defeat of Napoleon restored Carniola to Austrian Emperor Francis I, with larger boundaries, but at the extinction of the Illyrian Kingdom Carniola was confined to the limits outlined at the Congress of Vienna, 1815. From 1816 to 1849 Carniola was part of the Austrian Kingdom of Illyria with capital in Ljubljana.

Austrian restoration

The Austrian Empire reorganized the territory in 1849 as a duchy and a Cisleithanian crownland in Austria-Hungary known as the Duchy of Carniola. It was bounded on the north by Carinthia, on the north-east by Styria, on the south-east and south by Croatia, and on the west by Trieste, Goritza, and Istria; with area of 3,857 square miles (9,990 km²) and population of 510,000. The capital, Ljubljana, was the see of a prince-bishop, population, 40,000; it was known to the Romans as Aemona, and was destroyed by Obri in the sixth century. Carniola was divided into Upper Carniola (Slovenian name: Gorenjska), Lower Carniola (Slovenian: Dolenjska), and Inner Carniola (Slovenian: Notranjska). Politically the province was divided into eleven districts consisting of 359 municipalities; the provincial capital was the residence of the imperial governor. The districts were: Kamnik, Kranj, Radovljica, the neighbourhood of Ljubljana, Logatec, Postojna, Litija, Krsko, Novo Mesto, Crnomelj, and Gotschee or Kocevje. There were 31 judicial circuits. The duchy 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 home parliament to enact all laws not reserved to the imperial diet, 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 is presided over by the 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).

Modern era

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 (later known as the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The western part of the duchy, with the towns of Postojna, Ilirska Bistrica, Idrija and Šturje was annexed to Italy in 1920, but was subsequently also included into Yugoslavia in 1945. Since 1991, the region is part of an independent Slovenia.

Ecclesiastical history

In early Christian times the duchy was under the jurisdiction of the metropolitans of Aquileia (who became Patriarchs), Syrmium, and Salona. In consequence of the immigration of the pagan Slovenes, this arrangement was not a lasting one. After they had embraced Christianity in the seventh and eighth centuries Charlemagne conferred the major part of Carniola on the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and the remainder on the Diocese of Trieste. In 1100 that patriarchate was divided into five archdeaconries, of which Krain was one.

The diocese of Ljubljana or Laibach was established by Emperor Frederick III on 6 December 1461. It was directly subject to the pope. This was confirmed by a Bull of Pope Pius II, 10 September 1462. The new diocese consisted of part of Upper Carniola, two parishes in Lower Carniola, and a portion of Lower Styria and Carinthia; the remaining portion of Carniola was attached to Aquileia, later on to Gorizia and Trieste. At the redistribution of dioceses (1787 to 1791) not all the parishes in Carniola were included in the Diocese of Ljubljana, but this was accomplished in 1833, by taking two deaneries from the Diocese of Trieste, one from Gorizia, and one parish from the Diocese of Lavant, so as to include all the territory within the political boundaries of the crownland.

Sources and references

• 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
• Catholic Encyclopaedia
• Donaumonarchie - in German (not yet worked in)
• Map - Carniola in 1849
• Map - Carniola in 1918

See also

• History of Slovenia
• Duchy of Carniola
• March of Carniola
• Inner Austria
• Battle of Sisak
• Janez Vajkard Valvasor
• The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola
• Flag of Slovenia