The
Duchy of Styria ( ; ; ) was a duchy located in
modern-day southern Austria
and northern
Slovenia
. It
was a part of the
Holy Roman
Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a
crownland of
Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in
1918. It was created by
Frederick
Barbarossa in 1180 when he raised
Ottokar IV of the
March of Styria to the rank of Duke after
the fall of
Henry the Lion earlier
that year. Ottokar was the first and last duke of the ancient
Otakar dynasty.
With the death of Ottokar in 1192, the region fell to the
Babenberg family,
rulers of Austria, as stipulated in the
Georgenberg Pact. After their
extinction, it passed quickly through the hands of the
Kingdom of Hungary (1254–60),
Ottokar II of Bohemia (1260–76), and
the
Habsburgs, who provided it with dukes
of their own lineage for the years 1379–1439 and 1564–1619.
At the time of the
Ottoman invasions
in the 16th and 17th centuries, the land suffered severely and was
depopulated. The Turks made incursions into Styria nearly twenty
times; churches, monasteries, cities, and villages were destroyed
and plundered, while the population was either killed or carried
away into slavery.
On the
collapse of Austria-Hungary in the aftermath of World War I, the rump
state of German
Austria
claimed all of Cisleithania. With the Treaty of St Germain,
Austria-Hungary was partition
broadly along ethnic lines, with most of Styria (Upper Styria
, retaining the ducal capital of Graz
) remaining
with the First Austrian
Republic, and the southern third (Lower
Styria, with its capital in Maribor
) passing to
the State of Slovenes, Croats and
Serbs
, eventually becoming a part of modern Slovenia.
Dukes of Styria
Various dynasties
Otakars
House of
Babenberg
Přemyslids
Árpád
dynasty
House of Habsburg
Leopoldian line
See
List of rulers of
Austria.
See also
External links
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