Görz

The Görz dynasty, known as the Meinhardiner after Count Meinhard I, took its name from Gorizia Castle, where they served the Aquileia patriarchate as advocates and were first called counts of Gorizia in 1117. Probably descended from the Bavarian Siegharding family, they rose under the Hohenstaufen and held Tyrol from 1253.

In 1271 the lands were divided: the senior Gorizia-Tyrol line kept Tyrol, the Albertine line Gorizia and offices in Carinthia. Both fought with Rudolf of Habsburg against Ottokar II of Bohemia at Marchfeld in 1278, and in 1286 the senior line received Carinthia and Carniola. Henry of Gorizia-Tyrol wore the Bohemian crown in 1306 and from 1307 to 1310 by marrying the Přemyslid heiress Anne.

The Tyrol branch died out with his daughter Margaret in 1369, its lands passing to the Habsburgs. The Albertine line lost most of its wider lands after 1335 and withdrew to Gorizia; when its last count, Leonhard, died heirless in 1500, Maximilian I of Habsburg inherited the rest.