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124 Styria 21 STYRIA 68. STYRIA, which I find was once called Valeria, is neighbor to Pannonia in the east; its northern side faces Austria, and to the west and south it borders on the Carnians and Carinthians. This, too, is a mountainous country, though its eastern tract contains large plains. The famous Drava and Mur rivers irrigate its land; the Mur discharges its waters into the Drava, the Drava into the Danube. The people of the cities are mostly Germans. The Slavs, who cultivate the countryside this side of the Drava, recognize the sovereignty of the House of Austria. Styria contains an old town called Cilli, which some think was once named Sullaceum and built by Lucius Sulla; I am not able to vouch for this. Many remains of antiquity can be seen there, and marble tombstones record the names of Roman rulers. Count Frederick presided there in our time. A man excessively prone to lust, he was once infatuated with a mistress called Veronica and with his own hand murdered266 his lawful wife, a descendant of the counts of Croatia.267 However, his father, Herman—such is the justice of the powerful!—drowned his mistress in a stream.268 Frederick stole wives from their husbands at random, abducted bevies of girls to the palace, treated his subjects like slaves, robbed churches of their property, and procured forgers , poisoners, soothsayers, and necromancers from all parts. In the year of Jubilee [1450], when he was ninety, he went to Rome to imprisoned Henry twice: in 1443 and in 1453. According to Wakounig, he died while still imprisoned by his wife in 1454; see “Una duplice dipendenza,” 351, 355. 266. Correcting van Heck’s intermisset to interemisset. 267. Frederick of Cilli (d. 1454), ban of Slavonia and parts of Croatia was the father of Ulrich Cilli. His wife, Elizabeth (d. 1422), came from the powerful Frankopan family. 268. Frederick’s father was Herman II of Cilli (d. 1435), the ban of Slavonia and father-in-law of Emperor Sigismund. The unfortunate Veronica survived her rival by seven years only to be accused of witchcraft by Herman and drowned in 1429. Herman ’s action against Veronica was intended to stave off a full-scale feud between the Cilli and Frankopan families. See Fine, LMB, 495–96. Styria 125 obtain indulgences but showed no improvement upon his return. When he was asked what good Rome had done him, since he had relapsed into his old habits, he said, “My shoemaker, too, after seeing Rome returned to sewing gaiters.” 69. Upon his death, he was succeeded by his son Ulrich, who was like him in other respects and superior only in intellect and eloquence. When he was killed (as I reported previously),269 there were twenty-four pretenders to the inheritance. Thus the man who had provoked widespread wars while alive continued in death to foment discord. However, the nobles decreed that control of the land should be entrusted to Emperor Frederick on condition that he adjudicated the claims of the pretenders in accordance with the country’s custom. The widow of Ulrich decided to defend her possessions by force of arms. Frederick, after capturing several forts with a powerful force, was finally received in Cilli270 when John Vitovec, a Bohemian native, surrendered the citadels of the region .271 Although he had been the count’s military commander, he accepted money from the emperor and defected from his widow. But soon, overcome with regret, he dared to commit a serious and unforgivable crime, as if to redeem one wicked deed with another, and attempted to ambush the emperor at bedtime, while he was staying peacefully in Cilli with a few of his men. Having bribed a large number of the inhabitants to surrender part of the town when he arrived, he was let inside at the appointed hour with eight hundred horsemen and began to wreak havoc. Frederick was protected by divine mercy, which on that night had prompted him to sleep— contrary to his custom—in the upper citadel, a place well fortified by its natural position and human industry. The dignitaries who 269. Ulrich was killed on Nov. 9, 1456. See para. 10. 270. Punctuating with a comma after obtinuisset (Vat. Lat. 3888) instead of Cilia, as in van Heck. 271. Military commander Vitovec was employed by Ulrich’s widow, Catherine, in an effort to maintain control over the region. He became governor of the region of Cilli; see Fine, LMB, 553...

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