Albert I of Gorizia

Albert I (c. 1240 – 1 April 1304) from the House of Gorizia (Meinhardiner) was the younger son of Meinhard I (d. 1258), Count of Gorizia, who had inherited the County of Tyrol in 1253.

Biography

The son of Count Meinhard I of Gorizia-Tyrol and Adelaide, daughter of Count Albert IV of Tyrol, young Albert and his elder brother Meinhard II from 1253 were held hostage by the Archbishops of Salzburg at Hohenwerfen Castle, after their father had been defeated by the Carinthian duke Bernhard von Spanheim. Finally released in 1262, the brothers went on to rule their Gorizia and Tyrolean heritage. In 1267 Albert participated in an expedition against the advancing forces of Venice in the March of Istria alongside the Aquileia patriarch Gregorio di Montelongo, but later had him kidnapped sparking a long-time conflict.

In 1271 Albert finally split his father's heirloom of Gorizia-Tyrol with his elder brother Meinhard II; he received the County of Gorizia, i.e. the family's estates in Friuli, Istria and Carniola, as well as the Tyrolean Puster Valley up to Lienz. In the war for Capodistria (1274-1279), he again sided for Patriarch Raimondo della Torre against Venice, receiving the fortress of Cormons in exchange. When in 1275 the conflict of King Ottokar II of Bohemia against King Rudolf I of Germany broke out, Albert invaded Ottokar's lands in Carniola and the Windic March, while his brother Meinhard occupied Carinthia; later they both invaded the Duchy of Styria (1276). The conflict ended with confiscation of Ottokar's possessions by Rudolf, although the war later resumed, ending with the death of Ottokar in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld. In reward of their support, Meinhard II was enfeoffed with the Duchy of Carinthia in 1286.

In 1283 Albert and Patriarch Raimondo were again allied against Venice, this time in the war for Trieste; however, in 1289, after an unsuccessful attack against the Romagna fort in April 1289, he signed a separate peace with the Venetians.

Marriage and issue

Albert married Euphemia, daughter of the Piast duke Konrad I of Głogów and after her death in 1275 Countess Euphemia of Ortenburg. He had two sons: Henry III, born 1263, who succeeded him as Count of Gorizia from 1304 to 1323; and Albert II, Count of Gorizia from 1323 to 1325.

Albert died in 1304, his lands going mostly to Henry III, while Albert II received only the lands in the Puster Valley.