Notes
In 1246, the Austrian-Styrian Duke Frederick II, the last male member of the Babenberg House, who had reigned over the Duchy of Styria for more than half a century and over the Duchy of Austria even 270 years, died in a fight. Twenty-three years after Frederick's death also Ulrich III of Spanheim, the last Duke of Carinthia, died, who apart from the Carinthian ducal title had also held a large part of Carniola in his hands. The end of the two dynasties immediately triggered a fight for their heritage in the wider area of the Eastern Alps, which with longer and shorter interruptions lasted until 1311 (or even 1335). There were many competitors. In most cases, they disappeared from the political scene one after another without any realistic chances to sufficiently strengthen their positions in Austria and Styria and to take over power there. The most successful of all were the Hungarian King Bela IV and the Bohemian King Ottokar II Přemysl, who due to their authoritarian reign managed to completely turn the Styrian nobility away from them; moreover, the Styrian nobility turned against them in both cases. Finally, in the large part of the region the Habsburgs strengthened their position. Their success was based on the political moves made by Rudolph I and his son Albert I. Rudolph and Albert were due to the circumstances in their time (1273-1308) forced to act more lenient than their predecessors, as they lacked a huge military force to back them up, for which reason they were forced to ask the Styrians for it. At the time of the extinction of the Styrian Babenberg ducal dynasty the Counts of Pfannberg and the Lords of Stubenberg, Ort, Wildon, Stadeck and Liechenstein were considered among the most important families of today's Styria. In the middle of the 13th century the members of these families had a maximum of political and military power in Styria, and performed several state and court services. In the area of today's Slovenian Styria the family of the nobles of Ptuj was the only one to be able to compete with the above mentioned families. During the second half of the 13th century in the area of today's Slovenian Styria the ministerial families of Gurk and Salzburg were trying to break free from the power of their (Arch) bishop and join the state association of the Duke of Styria or the Duke of Carinthia. In particular, the originally Salzburg ministeriales of Ptuj, and the Gurk ministeriales from the families of Kunšperk and Ranšperk-Lemberg were active in this direction. Among the latter Nicholas of Lemberg and Henry I of Helfenberg were particularly prominent. Although the latter two had a lot of success mainly in the sixties, their efforts were not productive in the long run. Only the ministeriales of Ptuj managed to completely break free from the power of the Archbishops of Salzburg, which was to be contributed to the endeavours of several generations. The families the Kunšperk and Ranšperk-Lemberg simply lacked the power for such persistence. Because of the complete success of the Lords of Ptuj, the reader may feel that the (Arch) bishops of Salzburg and Gurk of the second half of the 13th century were almost completely without power, and were not able to control their ministeriales, which was not the case. The Lords of Ptuj were actually the only ones who (due to their own military power) managed to "get" out of control of the Archbishops of Salzburg and to get closely associated with the Dukes of Styria, which all the other Salzburg and Gurk ministerial families were not able to achieve. While the Lords of Ptuj had to try hard to get included in the Styrian state association for many decades, the Lords of Žovnek managed it quickly and without any convulsive opposition of any lord, as they were originally free.