Mark an der Drau

Following the German victory at the Battle of Lechfeld in 955 the Hungarian threat was lifted for the time being, and in the subsequent years (970–980) the Holy Roman Empire was secured through the establishment of a wide belt of border marches against south-eastern threats. These included the March of Austria (contemporarily Marcha orientalis in Latin or Ostarrîchi in Old High German), the Mark an der Mur (the Carantanian march, later the March of Styria), the Mark an der Drau, the Mark an der Sann (which at that time extended far to the south over the Sava river and encompassed the Windic March), and the Marches of Carniola and Istria. The marches of Verona and Friuli had already been integrated into what would become the northern half of the empire by 952.

A count (Graf) named Rachwin was mentioned in 980, in whose Grafschaft (county) a man named Willihalm[2] (father of the later Margrave Wilhelm von der Sann) was granted the later lordship of Weitenstein (Vitanje) by Kaiser Otto II.

In 985 due to the intervention of Duke Henry of Carinthia, Otto III gave count Rachwin 15 Königshufen (a unit of land equivalent to the Scottish and English Oxgang) in Rosswein (Razvanje, south of Maribor).[3] This is probably the same count Rachwin who was named in 980.

Until about 1005 the territory of Aribo, Markgraf im Jaunetal (Margrave in the Jaun valley) was administered[4] by a brother of bishop Albuin of Brixen and member of the Aribonids, and who held large amounts of lucrative property in Bavaria, Salzburg, Carinthia and Styria (namely around Leoben and Straßgang), as well as in the Drava and Sann (Savinja) marches.[5]

In the 12th century several parishes in the area around the Patriarchate of Aquileia (south of the Drava, mostly in modern northern Italy) and the Archbishopric of Salzburg (north of the Drava) – "mother parishes" with vicariates and proprietary churches of the nobles – were condensed into Archdeaconates in accordance with Charlemagne's planned 811 division of ecclesiastical territory:

North of the Drava up to Kozjak Mountains, i.e. the area of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, the parishes were assigned to the "Archdeacon of the lower march". The Mahrenberg district alone belonged to the Archdeaconate of Lower Carinthia (and so to Salzburg). Here the boundaries are those of the old political borders between the march and the duchy.

South of the Drava, extending as far as the Sava, was the Archdeaconate of Sanntal (i.e. the Sann valley), which also included Ratschach (Radeče) and Schärfenberg (Svibno) beyond the river. However, the parishes of the Windic March and the Aquileian Saldenhofen district were subordinated to the Archdeaconate of Carinthia. This also covered its eastern border with the political border between the march and the duchy of Carinthia. (Ebner)

In 1122 the Spanheim Duke Henry IV of Carinthia transferred the comital title in the Mark hinter dem Drauwald ('March beyond the Drava forest') to his brother Bernhard. At the same time its Amtsbezirk was expanded up to Unterdrauburg (Dravograd).[5]

Count Bernhard was married to Kundigunde, daughter of the Styrian Margrave Ottokar II and, upon Bernhard's death in 1147 during the Second Crusade in Laodicia in Asia Minor, all of his allods and ministeriales, as well as the Margravial feudal Amt, fell to Ottokar III of Styria, Ottokar II's son and Kundigunde's brother. This included the lordships of Marburg, Lembach (Limbuš) and Radkersburg, and the ministriales of Marburgm Lembach Haidin and Dranneck or Treun, as well as the Vogtei over the Salzburger lordship of Pettau. With that ended the march's political dependence on Carinthia. (Ebner)

In 1164 Ottokar III founded the Kartause Seiz from his Spanheim inheritance. (Ebner)

At the turn of the 13th century Hungary took the Friedau district by way of the Salzburger Ministerialis Friedrich von Pettau.[5]

After the extinction of the Babenberg dynasty in 1246, their inheritance, namely Austria and Styria, was naturally of great interest to many rulers. In 1254 the Styrian Drava territory, along with large parts of the rest of Styria, fell to Hungary in the peace of Ofen. However, King Ottokar II of Bohemia subsequently annexed the territory, along with the rest of Styria, following his victory in the battle of Kressenbrunn in 1260. In the battle on the Marchfeld in 1278, in which Ottokar was defeated by Rudolf I of Germany, Ottokar was killed by a Mahrenberger. (Seifried von Mahrenberg, a prominent Styrian noble, had been tortured and killed some years before Ottokar for an invalid claim.) (Reichel)

In 1336 the march umb Marchpurg was still mentioned.[5]

In 1362 the territory of Windischgraz (Slovenj Gradec), which had been a possession of the Patriarchate of Aquileia since 1228 (and before that the Counts of Andechs; see Henry II, Margrave of Istria), fell to the Habsburgs, but belonged neither to Styria nor Carinthia. In 1407 it was de facto part of Styria, although it was not de jure Styrian until 1482. (Ebner)