Windic March

This article is about the medieval region in present-day southern Slovenia. For the region in present-day north-east Slovenia and west Hungary, see Wendic March

The Windic march or marca Vindica ([Slovenska krajina, Slovenska marka] Error: {{Lang-xx}}: text has italic markup (help); German: Windische Mark) was a province of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages, corresponding more or less to modern Lower Carniola in Slovenia. In Medieval German language, the term "Windisch" was a common name for some Slavic peoples (cf. Wends), including the Slovenes.

The territory of the Windic march was contained within the March of Carniola in Carolingian times, but from about 960 on it was separated from Carniola and integrated into the March of Savinja (or Soune). In 976 it was attached to the newly founded Duchy of Carinthia.

In 1036 the Windic march was separated from Carinthia and reattached to Carniola, which was thereafter sometimes called "Carniola and the Windic march". In 1077 Carniola and the Windic march were put under the direction of the Patriarchate of Aquileia.

Until 1209 the Counts of Weichselburg (or Weichselberg, modern Višnja Gora) had extended possessions in the Windic march. Through a marriage to the heiress Sophia of Weichselburg, the Counts of Andechs came to dominate the territory. Through his marriage to Agnes of Andechs, Frederick II of Austria became dominus Carniole (Lord of Carniola) and the title was picked up by Ulrich III of Carinthia after the duke's death in 1246. When Ulrich died in 1269, Ottokar II of Bohemia occupied and unified Carniola, the Windic march, the valley of the Savinja, and the Slovenj Gradec as "the march" of his vast kingdom extending from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic. After 1282, despite Rudolf I's grant to his sons, Carniola and the Windic march were united thereafter under the control of the Meinhardings of Carinthia. After 1374 and the death of a side branc of the Meinhardings of Görz, the Windic march fell to the Habsburgs, but it was not a separate political division by then.

The Windic March is not to be confused with the Wendic March (Hungarian: Vendvidék, Slovene: Slovenska krajina) in the Vas County of the Kingdom of Hungary, which was the traditional name for the contemporary Slovenian province of Prekmurje.

See also