Meinhard I, Count of Gorizia-Tyrol

April 16, 2014 — ancestors, Meinhard I, Tirol

My 21st great-grandfather was born in Venice and is buried at Tirol Castle in Austria.  Geography was much different in 1194, when the Holy Romans were still ruling in Europe.  Today’s national boundaries have changed in recent times, and in the case of Ukraine, are changing now.  Venice was once very powerful as a political as well as economic entity. Meinhard inherited power from his father as well as from his wife’s father.  During his political struggles he was forced to leave two of his sons in jail in Salzburg for 6 years.  I imagine jail time in Salzburg in 1252 must have been brutal. He survived to become an ancestor of the Habsburgs….and me.

Meinhard I Gorizia Tirol (1194 – 1258)
is my 21st great grandfather
Meinhard II Carinthia Duke of Gorz-Tyrol Tirol (1238 – 1295)
son of Meinhard I Gorizia Tirol
Consort Elisabeth the Romans Carinthia (1263 – 1313)
daughter of Meinhard II Carinthia Duke of Gorz-Tyrol Tirol
Albrecht Albert II ‘The Wise’ Duke of Austria Habsburg (1298 – 1358)
son of Consort Elisabeth the Romans Carinthia
Leopold III “Duke of Austria” Habsburg (1351 – 1386)
son of Albrecht Albert II ‘The Wise’ Duke of Austria Habsburg
Ernst I “Ironside” Archduke of Austria Habsburg (1377 – 1424)
son of Leopold III “Duke of Austria” Habsburg
Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg (1420 – 1493)
daughter of Ernst I “Ironside” Archduke of Austria Habsburg
Christof I VanBaden (1453 – 1527)
son of Katharina Archduchess Austria Von Habsburg
Beatrix Zahringen (1492 – 1535)
daughter of Christof I VanBaden
Sabine Grafin VonSimmern (1528 – 1578)
daughter of Beatrix Zahringen
Marie L Egmond (1564 – 1584)
daughter of Sabine Grafin VonSimmern
Richard Sears (1590 – 1676)
son of Marie L Egmond
Silas Sears (1638 – 1697)
son of Richard Sears
Silas Sears (1661 – 1732)
son of Silas Sears
Sarah Sears (1697 – 1785)
daughter of Silas Sears
Sarah Hamblin (1721 – 1814)
daughter of Sarah Sears
Mercy Hazen (1747 – 1819)
daughter of Sarah Hamblin
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Mercy Hazen
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Meinhard I, Count of Gorizia-Tyrol
Spouse Adelaide of Tyrol
Noble family Meinhardiner
Father Engelbert III, Count of Gorizia
Mother Mathilda of Andechs
Born c. 1200/1205
Died January or February 1258

Meinhard I (c. 1200/1205 – January/February 1258) was Count of Gorizia from the House of Meinhardin was from 1231 and Count of Tyrol from 1253 until his death. He was the son of Count Engelbert III, Count of GoriziaEngelbert III]] of Gorizia (d. 1220) and Mathilda of Andechs, half-sister of Duke Berthold IV of Merania. He came in control over all his family’s Gorizian possessions upon the death of his uncle Meinhard the Old, and of Tyrol as a fief from his father-in-law Count Albert IV of Tyrol.
Meinhard strongly supported Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen in his conflict with Pope Innocent IV and in return was appointed Imperial governor of the Duchy of Styria and the March of Carniola after the last Babenberg Duke Frederick II the Warlike had died without heirs in 1246. From 1250 onwards also governor in the Duchy of Austria, Meinhard facing the fall of the Hohenstaufen dynasty did not prevail: his rule in Carniola was challenged by the Carinthian House of Sponheim and in Austria and Styria he was expelled by Bohemian prince Ottokar II Přemysl in 1251.

Meinhard, backed by Albert IV of Tyrol, then tried to gain control over the Duchy of Carinthia but failed in an unsuccessful campaign against Duke Bernhard von Spanheim and his son Philipp, the elected Archbishop of Salzburg. On September 8, 1252, he was finally defeated and arrested at Greifenburg. According to the rules of the Treaty of Lieserhofen, concluded on December 27, 1252 he had to give his sons Meinhard II and Albert to Phillip as hostages. Both were imprisoned at Burg Hohenwerfen in Salzburg and not released until 1258. Meinhard and Albert IV also had to pay a compensation and to renounce certain possessions including Mittersill, Virgen, Matrei and Oberdrauburg.

After the death of Albert IV of Tyrol in 1253, Meinhard and his brother-in-law, Gebhard of Hirschberg, split Tyrol, of which Meinhard took the southern part with Meran. His son Meinhard II re-acquired the Hirschberg lands from Gebhard’s heirs in 1284 and two years later also received Carinthia from German king Rudolph of Habsburg.
Meinhard I died in 1258 and is buried at Tirol Castle.

Marriage and children
About 1237, Meinhhard married Adelaide, daughter of Albert IV of Tyrol. They had four known children:
Adelheid († 1291), married Count Frederick I of Ortenburg
Meinhard II (1238–1295), Count of Gorizia and Tyrol, Duke of Carinthia
Albert I († 1304), Count of Gorizia
Bertha († 1267), married Conrad, Count of Wullenstetten