Aquileia, Patriarchate of (state)
Years: 1237 - 1455
The Patriarchate of Aquileia (Italian: Patria del Friuli, Friulian: Patrie dal Friûl) is an ecclesiastical State of the Holy Roman Empire.
It is established in the Friulian region of Northeastern Italy and enfeoffed to the Patriarchs of Aquileia.
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Patriarch Raimondo della Torre in 1291, by the Peace of Treviso, had gained the city as part of the secular realm of the Patriarchate of Aquileia, only to lose it to Venice in 1331, which will hold it until its downfall in 1797.
Emperor Louis had assured his position in the ongoing struggle between the rival Habsburg, Wittelsbach and Luxembourg dynasties by defeating his Habsburg rival Frederick the Fair at the 1322 Battle of Mühldorf—a fact that had prompted his former Luxembourg ally King John of Bohemia to explore possibilities to increase his own power base.
He had approached Duke Henry of Carinthia, whom he had driven from the Prague throne in 1310, and in 1327 arranged the engagement of his younger son John Henry, brother of the future Emperor Charles IV, with Henry's heiress Margaret.
Margaret is the only surviving daughter of Duke Henry, also Count of Tyrol and former King of Bohemia, with his second wife Adelaide, a daughter of the Welf duke Henry I of Brunswick.
As her father's three marriages had produced no male heirs, he had reached an agreement with Louis IV in 1330 that had enabled Margaret to succeed him in his Carinthian and Tyrolean estates.
John Henry had been sent to Tyrol and in 1330, upon approval by Emperor Louis, he and Margaret had celebrated their wedding in Innsbruck at the age of eight and twelve.
According to contemporary sources, the children disliked each other from the beginning.
By the marriage, King John had secured access to the Alpine mountain passes to Italy, which in turn had driven the emperor to break the arrangements with Margaret's father.
When Henry of Carinthia died in 1335, Louis had given Carinthia to the Habsburg duke Albert II of Austria, who had raised inheritance claims as the eldest son of King Albert I of Germany and Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol, Margaret's paternal aunt.
Nevertheless, when the Tyrolean lands were claimed by the Wittelsbach dynasty, she cleverly played on her affiliation with the rival Luxembourgs.
They had sent John Henry's capable brother Charles in her support, who, backed by local nobles, at least enforced Margaret's succession as Countess of Tyrol.
The situation had again worsened, when young John Henry turned out to be a haughty, incompetent co-ruler and philanderer disrespected by the Tyrolean aristocracy.
His brother Charles had temporarily acted as a regent; however, his mediation efforts had been rejected and in 1336/37 he left Tyrol to join his father on a Prussian Crusade.
When on the evening of November 1, 1341, John Henry came home from hunting, Margaret had refused her husband admittance to their Tirol Castle residence.
Furious, John Henry had moved around the country, but found no shelter in any noble residence.
He had finally been forced to leave the Tyrolean lands and had been received as a refugee by the Aquileia patriarch Bertram of St. Genesius.
Margaret again plays the dynasties off against each other and escapes the revenge of the deprived Luxembourgs by turning to the House of Wittelsbach: in the presence of Emperor Louis IV, she marries his eldest son, Margrave Louis I of Brandenburg, on February 10, 1342, in Meran.
The fact that she has entered the marriage without being granted a divorce from John Henry, thus contravening canon law, causes a veritable scandal on the European stage and earns the couple excommunication by the new Pope Clement VI.
Margrave Louis succeeds in gaining the support of the Tyrolean nobles and takes it upon himself to declare Margaret's marriage to John Henry null and void.
The scholars William of Ockham and Marsilius of Padua defend this "first civil marriage" of the Middle Ages, claiming that John Henry had never consummated his matrimony.
Nicolaus of Luxemburg was born in Prague, the illegitimate son of King John of Bohemia (John the Blind).
On August 2, 1342, Pope Clement VI had proclaimed him provost of the Diocese of Prague, following John's wish.
In the same year, Nicolaus was named canon of Vyšehrad.
In a document from 1348, Nicolaus calls himself dean of the church of Olmütz and royal chancellor.
Clement VI appoints Nicolaus bishop of Naumburg on January 7, 1349, as one of the opponents to Johann of Miltitz.
Nicolaus cannot stand his ground; possibly he was only nominated but never took the office.
On October 31, 1350, Nicolaus becomes the new patriarch of Aquileia.
In May 1351, Nicolaus arrives at Udine.
During his term of office, he plans to found a commercial center called "Carola" together with his half-brother, the future emperor Charles IV.
This project is not to be realized.
The very year of his establishment, he has to face an attack by Henry III, Count of Gorizia, who destroys Cassacco, and by Albert II of Austria, who occupies Carnia, Venzone, Udine, Gemona and besieges Cividale.
However, the patriarchate is able to escape by giving Venzone and some other castles to the Austrians.
At the end of 1351 and beginning of 1352, some noblemen are executed by order of the new patriarch.
The men are said to have participated in the murder of the patriarch’s predecessor, Bertram of St. Genesius, two years before.
In 1353, Charles IV consents to the erection of a studium generale at Cividale.
In October 1354, he visits the Patriarchate of Aquileia on his way to Rome.
During his stay, Nicolaus presents him a much sought-after relic, two pages of St. Marc’s gospel.
Nicolaus accompanies his half-brother on his way through Italy.
Like his predecessor, Nicolaus takes part in an alliance against the Republic of Venice with the counts of Gorizia, Francesco I da Carrara, lord of Padua, his half brother Charles IV, Louis I of Hungary and the dukes of Austria.
The league's troops occupy Grado and Muggia (1356), while Louis strips Venice of most of Dalmatia.
The siege of Treviso (July–September 1356) is a failure, but Venice suffers a severe defeat at Nervesa (January 13, 1358), being forced to cede Dalmatia and Croatia to Hungary.
Nicolaus dies at Belluno in 1358.
The cause is unknown—it is assumed, by sickness.
He is buried in Udine underneath the main altar of the church.
Louis sends reinforcements to Casimir III to fight against the Lithuanians, and Hungarian troops support Albert II, Duke of Austria, against Zürich.
The Venetian delegates offer Louis between six and seven thousand golden ducats as a compensation for Dalmatia, but Louis refuses to give up his plan to reconquer the province.
He signs an alliance with Albert II of Austria and Nicolaus of Luxemburg, Patriarch of Aquileia, against Venice.
The situation in Dalmatia had been settled in 1408 by a truce with King Sigismund of Hungary.
At its expiry, Venice immediately invades the Patriarchate of Aquileia, and subjects Traù, …
…Split, …
…Durazzo and other Dalmatian cities.
The difficulties of Hungary allow the Republic to consolidate its Adriatic dominions.
The Venetians, since the transfer of the patriarchal residence to Udine, have never lived in peace with the Patriarchate of Aquileia, of whose imperial favor and tendencies they are jealous.
Venice, under the Doge Michele Steno and his successor Tommaso Mocenigo, had begun to enlarge its dogado by occupying the Aquileia hinterlands from about 1400.
At the same time, the Patriarchate suffers internal conflict between the citizens of Cividale and ...
…Udine.
This dispute becomes, in 1411, a war that is to mark the end of the Patriarchate, Cividale having received support from most of the Friulian communes, the Carraresi of Padua, King Sigismund of Germany, also King of Hungary, while Udine is backed by the Venetians.
An imperial army captures Udine in December of this year.