Privilege law of the County in the Windic March and Metlika

Abstract

The paper presents the privileges of the County in the Windic March and Metlika, i.e. the extensive conglomerate of feudal estates, castles and rights in Lower Carniola and White Carniola, which the Counts of Gorizia had accumulated by the mid-14th century. After the Istrian line of the Counts of Gorizia became extinct (1374), the county passed into the hands of the Habsburgs as a small autonomous province and was gradually incorporated into Carniola proper. The specific position of the county and its nobility arose from the privilege of 1365, which is exhaustively presented here. The paper also provides an overview of subsequent confirmations of the privilege that were issued by provincial dukes during the ceremony of hereditary homage. While Archduke Karl II still confirmed the »Metlika« privileges separately from their Carniolan counterparts in 1567, Emperor Rudolf II issued a joint confirmation in 1593, combining the privileges for Carniola, the Windic March and Metlika, and the Habsburg Istria. The Duchy of Carniola and the annexed feudal estates were thus also merged into a single province on a symbolical level.