Introduction

Quarrels and tensions among members of “international” military-religious orders during the Middle Ages have often been understood and explained by modern historians as “national” or “proto-national” rivalries. But methodologically two reservations should be made. Firstly, not many documents expressly mention ethnic or linguistic problems. And secondly, nations were not a dominant concept in medieval politics¹. In the later Middle Ages, nations existed primarily “abroad”, among merchants and craftsmen from distant regions² and among students at universities far away from their homes³. Such nations were basically geographical; linguistic and ethnic homogeneity was not essential⁴. The councils of Pisa 1409, Constance 1414-1418, Siena 1423-1424 and - on a reduced scale - Basel 1431-1449 had nations such as Italia, Gallia, Germania, Anglia and Hispania, unsurprisingly as the councils included many university teachers⁵. At Constance in 1417, the 53 electors of Pope Martin V included 23 cardinals plus six delegates drawn from each of the five nationes⁶, and during the fifteenth century the cardinals were supposed to represent all nations of Christianity⁷.

From the early fourteenth century the Hospitallers had seven langues or tongues at their central convent on Rhodes; after 1462 they had eight⁸. Their c.20 priories in Europe were grouped according to these tongues. But neither tongues nor priories - or grand priories, as they were called in early modern times⁹ - were identical to nations or realms. Both Portugal and Castile on the one hand, and Bohemia and Austria on the other, illustrate this point. Until 1462, the two priories of Portugal and Castile-León were part of the Hispanic tongue; when it was split into two, Portugal and Castile-León together became one single new tongue, despite recurrent tensions and wars between the two realms. Bohemia, with its politically dependent regions of Moravia and Silesia, formed with Austria a single priory¹⁰. This remained so, despite recurrent tensions and wars between Austria and Bohemia, and despite the fact that many Hospitallers from Bohemia and Moravia spoke Czech, not German, as their native tongue. How far Romance languages on the Iberian Peninsula were mutually intelligible in the later Middle Ages, is a question beyond the scope of the present paper; German and Czech were definitely not. Nevertheless, Austria and Bohemia remained in one priory, as Castile and Portugal remained in one tongue.

The prior of Bohemia had a lieutenant for Austria who was called Meister or Statthalter and could have become a nucleus for Austrian independence from Bohemia. The priory had three further lieutenants, for Bohemia proper, for Moravia and for Silesia (Polonia)¹¹. Moravia and Silesia were ruled by the Bohemian king and his court, which was comprised of princes, nobles and knights from all these regions. Austria was politically separate from the lands of the Bohemian crown. But Austria was not united, because there were two branches of the ruling Habsburg family with their own followers and networks, one in Austria proper and another one in Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. In Austria proper the two major Hospitaller centres were the strong castle at Mailberg¹², c. 60 kilometres north of Vienna, and the commandery in the capital city of Vienna itself. In Styria the most important commandery was Fürstenfeld, c. 60 kilometres east of the capital town of Graz. Fürstenfeld had close connections with smaller houses such as Melling (c. 80 kilometres south-west of Fürstenfeld) and St. Peter in Carniola (c. 40 kilometres west of Triest). The Hospitaller lieutenant was styled as Meister or Statthalter ruling Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola - Carinthia being a duchy as Austria and Styria¹³, and Carniola being a march that the Habsburgs called a duchy from 1364 onwards, although the Empire did not recognise this until 1590. The Hospitaller lieutenant for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola would usually govern key-commanderies such as Mailberg, Vienna (or at least the fortified house at Laa in the suburbs of Vienna) and Fürstenfeld. If he lacked the backing of both Habsburg lines at the same time, his influence was limited and his chances to obtain greater independence from Bohemia were not promising.

The document of 1392

In 1392 Fr. Johann Schenk¹⁴ was Lieutenant for Austria and Commander of Fürstenfeld, while Fr. Otto Lembucher was Commander of Mailberg. Their quarrel was discussed by Fr. Marcold von Wrutitz¹⁵, Prior of Bohemia from 1391 to 1397, and his provincial chapter at Eiwanowitz in Moravia on 13 February 1392¹⁶. Because few parallel cases are known in form and contents, the text of this charter is edited below as an appendix. The document was issued by a notary public who authenticated it with his handwriting and his signetum. But the charter also still bears 19 seals of Hospitallers who were present during the chapter. Similar documents were usually issued by the prior himself who chaired the chapter, together with some or all of the preceptors and other Hospitallers who were present¹⁷. The 1392 document deals with a complaint of Fr. Johann Schenk and three named Hospitallers against Fr. Otto Lembucher and other, unnamed Hospitallers who had the backing of Duke Albert III of the Austrian line of the Habsburg family, whose territories included Mailberg. The notary public describes, more or less verbatim, the formal complaint (plancta) and the decision (esguardium) which was found and pronounced during the chapter.

In the spring of 1391 Fr. Otto Lembucher had confiscated valuables, extorted payments and in a few cases incarcerated fellow-Hospitallers or their servants. His drastic measures against four commanders must have aroused public scandal, which contemporary chronicles¹⁸ appear to ignore. They do mention, however, a heavy tax that Albert III had imposed on ecclesiastical institutions in 1390¹⁹. Albert’s purpose was to pay debts his late brother Leopold III, the founder of the Styrian line of the Habsburg family, had contracted for his wars against the Swiss over the allegiance of the town and territory of Lucerne. Against the Swiss Leopold had lost the battle and his life at Sempach in 1386. Thereafter, Albert assumed the regency for Leopold’s four underage sons. In this context, the rich town of Vienna twice obtained a ducal privilege to the effect that no Viennese should be exempt from taxes, except the courtiers of the duke²⁰. Neither of these two privileges said anything about tax exemption for Viennese clergy; it may have struck many as a good idea that the church should contribute. Albert III, however, lacked papal licence to tax ecclesiastical institutions, so Pope Boniface IX in Rome excommunicated him. Fearing that Albert might change sides and recognise Pope Clement VII in Avignon, whom Leopold III had recognised, Boniface soon withdrew his excommunication²¹. Yet in the spring of 1391, Fr. Otto Lembucher obviously had the backing of Albert III when he extorted payments from recalcitrant Hospitallers.

This becomes less surprising when we remember that Albert’s chancellor Berthold von Wehingen († 1410)²² was a brother of Lembucher’s predecessor at Mailberg, Fr. Hugo von Wehingen. The Wehingen were knights from Swabia. Hugo the Elder had sold the family castle to Albert III’s father Albert II in 1351, who had promised to look after his children in return. Thus Hugo the Younger became Commander of Hohenrain²³, c. 20 kilometres north of Lucerne, and later on Commander of Mailberg²⁴. On 22 March 1385, Albert III asked the Urbanist Hospitaller Master Fr. Riccardo Caracciolo to confirm Mailberg to Fr. Hugo for life²⁵. The Duke’s petition was granted at Cicciano, 35 km north-east of Naples, on 16 May 1385 by Fr. Riccardo and high-ranking Hospitaller brethren in his entourage²⁶. At Genoa on 11 January 1386, Fr. Riccardo retained Fr. Hugo under his special jurisdiction²⁷, an act that exempted Fr. Hugo personally together with his possessions from all other officers in the Hospital. In 1387 and 1389, Fr. Hugo was mentioned as Commander of Mailberg. Then he lost Mailberg to Fr. Otto Lembucher, contrary to his Magistral privilege of 1385. The reasons for this remain unclear. Certainly Fr. Hugo did not die, because from 1397 to 1405 he reappears, this time as Commander of Vienna and Laa²⁸.

The monies Fr. Otto Lembucher extorted from his opponents in 1391 were considerable, amounting to 1215 florins and 221 pounds, some 1615.3 florins at a ratio of 1 florin for 132.5 pennies²⁹. They may have been paid ultimately to Duke Albert III. Further context for Fr. Otto Lembucher’s actions might be the tense relations between Albert III and King Wenceslaus, the ruler of the Empire and of Bohemia, because the Prior Fr. Marcold von Wrutitz was a close counsellor of Wenceslaus³⁰. In the early 1390s, Albert allied himself with two relatives, rivals and possible successors of the childless Wenceslaus, his brother King Sigismund of Hungary and his cousin Margrave Jobst of Moravia. One alliance against Wenceslaus dated from January 1392³¹, an earlier one from June 1390³². In the autumn of 1391 Wenceslaus tried to reconcile Albert³³, but failed. In 1394 Wenceslaus was taken prisoner in Prague by Jobst. This led to open warfare in Bohemia and adjacent lands. In the end Wenceslaus had to be released from the strong castle of Wildberg in Austria where he had been confined, some 13 kilometres north of Linz³⁴. Yet the compromise did not last. Before Duke Albert died in 1395, he had begun working for the deposition of Wenceslaus both as king of the Romans and as king of Bohemia.

Clearly in February 1392, the situation for the Hospitaller Prior of Bohemia was difficult enough. At Eiwanowitz, Fr. Marcold carefully avoided incriminating Albert III. He went as far as to claim that as a Czech noble he had difficulty dealing in German and asked another Hospitaller to act as his prolocutor. Nothing was said about the lawfulness of Fr. Lembucher’s actions, as this might have provoked Duke Albert. It was stated only that the Commander of Mailberg had been legitimately summoned but had not come to Eiwanowitz. So he was declared disobedient and forfeited his office with its possessions. Conscientiously the chapter busied itself with a formal point and left the main issue open. In this way, they left the door open to further negotiations, especially since no successor was appointed for Fr. Otto Lembucher in Mailberg.

Tensions between Austria and Styria

Fr. Johann Schenk of Fürstenfeld, Fr. Oswald of St. Peter in Carniola and Fr. Nicolaus Hynko of Melling were not mentioned again after 1392, in contrast to Fr. Michael Sindram of Vienna, who was again attested in 1396³⁵. Their adversary, Fr. Otto Lembucher, however, continued as commander of Mailberg until at least 1406, and his successor was a relative, Fr. Berhard Lembucher, who is attested in 1412 and 1419; in 1407, Fr. Berhard had already been commander of Vienna³⁶. As these developments show, the complaints of 1392 were counterproductive for most Hospitaller plaintiffs who afterwards disappeared. The defendant, however, survived; he must have had influential friends in Austria. Later on, in 1406, Fr. Otto Lembucher was part of an association of grand proprietors in Habsburg lands. Their alliance consisted of 22 towns, 81 nobles and 28 prelates plus two princes of the Empire, Berthold von Wehingen, Archbishop-Elect of Salzburg, who was at the same time Bishop of Freising, and Georg von Hohenlohe, Bishop of Passau. The allied proprietors mediated between the Austrian and Styrian lines of the Habsburg dynasty, Albert III’s grandson Albert V on the one side and the two surviving sons of Leopold III, that is Leopold IV and Ernst I, on the other side. As Albert V was still a minor, Leopold IV assumed the regency for him in the Austrian lands and ceded his rights to his Styrian inheritance to his brother Ernst I³⁷.

A complete list of the Hospitaller lieutenants for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola remains a desideratum. We know in 1423 Fr. Stephan Khodase, Commander of Fürstenfeld³⁸, in 1468 Fr. Johann Kheser³⁹, a former Commander of Fürstenfeld⁴⁰, in 1473 Fr. Sebald Puchil⁴¹, and in 1494 Fr. Jakob Reinher, Commander of St. Peter in Carniola⁴². Fr. Johann Kheser was a priest brother, not a knight; in 1427 he had been Commander of Fürstenfeld, where in 1433 and 1438 he was succeeded by his relative Fr. Martin Kheser, while he himself was Commander of Vienna in 1430 and 1438⁴³. The family names Khodase, Puchil and Reinher also point towards non-noble and even non-knightly descent, as was the rule for priest-brothers. This must have limited the political influence such lieutenants could exert. At any rate the important commanderies of Mailberg, Vienna and Fürstenfeld were not in one hand during these years, and the Habsburg dominions in Austria proper and in Styria were kept separate. One consequence was that the crisis of the Bohemian priory during the Hussite wars from 1419 to 1434 could not be used to secure greater independence for the Austrian lieutenant.

Meanwhile the important castle of Mailberg helped to defend Austrian independence against Styria. Duke Albert V, who ruled Austria, married the daughter of Emperor Sigismund († 1437) and succeeded his father-in-law as King of the Romans, in Bohemia and in Hungary, but died young in 1439. At this time Albert’s son Ladislaus was not yet born. Nicknamed the Posthumous, Ladislaus inherited Bohemia and Hungary, but the eldest member of the Styrian line, Duke Frederick V, was elected to the Empire in the same year - at first as King, and then from 1452 as Emperor Frederick III, married to Eleanor of Portugal - and took over the regency for Ladislaus. As long as he could, Frederick kept Ladislaus as his ward at court in Graz or Wiener Neustadt, which many leading politicians and landowners in Bohemia, Hungary and Austria resented. Prominent among the Austrian opposition was the Commander of Mailberg, Fr. Wilhelm Dachsner (zu Taxen). On 14 October 1451, he permitted Ulrich von Eitzing to bring together 250 friends at Mailberg who formed a confederation that was formally signed in December 1451⁴⁴ and eventually forced Frederick III to release his ward in 1452. Ladislaus was escorted from Wiener Neustadt to Vienna where he established his court. With Ladislaus’ sudden death in 1457, the male line of the Austrian branch of the Habsburg family became extinct. Bohemia and Hungary elected non-Habsburg kings. Frederick III assumed control of Austria, but he had to quarrel there against claims of his younger brother Albert VI († 1463) and against Ulrich von Eitzing († 1460), the political leader of the Austrian estates. Ulrich, his brothers and their followers, among them the Commander of Mailberg, supported Albert VI and fought against unification with Styria. In 1458, Albert VI took over the western part of Austria proper; in 1462, he besieged his brother in Vienna, and in 1463 he also conquered the eastern part of Austria with Vienna⁴⁵. Stephan von Eitzing maintained good relations with the new Commander of Mailberg, Fr. Achaz Bohunko⁴⁶; this person had been Frederick’s candidate for Mailberg but supported him only when King George of Bohemia intervened on his behalf⁴⁷. When Albert VI died on 2 December 1463 the Emperor’s hold on Austria proper was no longer challenged by other members of the Habsburg family and he could turn his attention to Fr. Achaz Bohunko.

The Emperor’s Debts and St. George of Millstatt

At this junction, the fate of Mailberg and the Hospitaller lieutenancy in Austria, Styria, Carithia and Carniola was bedevilled by two new factors: commanders who had loaned monies to the ruler of Austria, and Frederick III’s plan to found his own military-religious order at Millstatt in Carinthia. Achaz Bohunko was the first but by no means the last commander at Mailberg who had made loans to Habsburg rulers. Still a layman, Bohunko served the Teutonic Order with mercenaries in Prussia when in 1454 war broke out there between the Highmaster on one side, the Prussian estates and Poland on the other side. The bankrupt Highmaster Fr. Ludwig von Ellrichshausen rewarded Achaz Bokunko with the Teutonic Order Commandery of Groß-Sonntag⁴⁸ in Styria. As founders of Groß-Sonntag, both Emperor Frederick III and Count Ulrich of Schaunberg protested in 1455 that the commandery had been given to someone who was not a member of the Teutonic Order⁴⁹. In 1457 Bohunko negotiated with the Emperor in Laibach⁵⁰ on behalf of the Teutonic Order. In 1458 he claimed 1,657 florins of Hungary from Groß-Sonntag, and the Teutonic Order Bailiff of Austria Fr. Johann von Pommersheim was licenced to pay this sum in three instalments⁵¹. In 1459 Bohunko gave Frederick III a loan of 2,000 florins of Hungary⁵². Later in that year, Bohunko supported Catholic Bohemian nobles - among them the Hospitaller Prior of Bohemia - and the Emperor against George of Podiebrad, the Utraquist or former Hussite who had been elected king of Bohemia in 1458⁵³.

The Bohemian prior accepted Bohunko as Commander of Mailberg on condition that he became a Hospitaller. Frederick III intervened on behalf of his creditor, as soon as the previous Commander, Fr. Wilhelm Dachsner, had died. As patron of Mailberg and Laa, and on behalf of all other dukes of Austria, Frederick III asked the prior to grant the two purportedly ever united houses to Bohunko. Afterwards the Prior Fr. Jodok von Rosenberg⁵⁴ appointed Bohunko to both Mailberg and Laa with estimated annual revenues of 25 marks of silver. On 10 January 1460, Pope Pius II agreed to this unusual appointment, but the papal charter was not issued until 1 April 1468 by Pope Paul II⁵⁵. The long delay between approving the supplication and issuing the charter was not normal practice at the Roman curia. This point would merit closer inspection; at present it is advisable not to speculate about possible reasons.

At the same two dates, 10 January 1460 and 1 April 1468, the Emperor secured a papal decision that Mailberg and Laa should cease to be dependent upon the prior of Bohemia. Here again there is the problem of a long delay between supplication and charter. At any rate, in future the Commander of Mailberg, Fr. Achaz Bohunko, and his successors were to be dependent solely upon the Master on Rhodes. The document claimed that Mailberg and Laa had always been united and that both had been founded by previous dukes of Austria, who held the right to nominate or present the lieutenant:

“… quod preceptoria domorum castri Meurperg et in Laach invicem canonice unitarum et in ducatu Austrie consistentium Hospitalis sancti Iohannis Ierosolimitani Patauiensis diocesis per milites ex dicto ducatu oriundos et ipsi imperatori eiusque progenitoribus Austrie ducibus, qui pro tempore extiterunt et in quorum dominio domus ipse site sunt, fideles et gratos ad presentationem seu nominationem imperatoris et progenitorum predictorum generali locumtenenti magistri eiusdem Hospitalis in illis partibus pro tempore deputato factam per ipsum locumtenentem pro tempore institutos gubernari consueverant …”.

The text carefully avoided any hint that Mailberg used to have a lieutenant of the Prior of Bohemia (now resident at Strakonitz, a fortified castle to which the priors had moved from Prague during the times of the Hussite wars⁵⁶), not of the Master of the Hospital (on Rhodes). Furthermore, it was questionable whether the duke really held a ius nominationis or presentationis and whether only the duke’s subjects could be appointed as lieutenants. By papal decision, Mailberg was now freed from any subjection to Strakonitz. Moreover, Mailberg’s commander was to be the superior of all Hospitallers in the dominions of the house of Austria:

“… ab omni superioritate et iurisdictione eiusdem preceptoris de Strakonitz tunc et pro tempore existentis auctoritate apostolica prorsus exemit et totaliter ac perpetuo liberavit nec non reliquias domos et preceptorias predictas in eiusdem ducatu, principatibus et dominiis hereditariis existentibus dicte preceptorie in Meurperg et in Laach ac eius pro tempore preceptori immediate subiecit illamque eis in caput constituit, iure tamen superioritatis et dominii, que magister dicti Hospitalis Rhodi super omnes preceptorias predictas habebat, in omnibus semper salvo⁵⁷.

Then the Emperor argued that the master at Strakonitz, that is the prior of Bohemia, supported heresy. So on 22 July 1468 Paul II consented to the Emperor’s supplication that Mailberg should be immediately subject to the Roman church, but the pope added a clause that reserved the rights of Master and Convent on Rhodes⁵⁸. This was not what the Emperor wanted, and so far there is no trace that this papal charter was ever actually issued. In 1470 Fr. Achaz Bohunko acknowledged that Frederick III had given him Mailberg and Laa only until further notice⁵⁹. The clause meant that after being repaid his monies, Fr. Bohunko would resign Mailberg and Laa, and the Emperor could then transfer them to St. George at Millstatt. This never happened, neither with Fr. Bohunko nor with his successors. One reason could be that Frederick III and his heirs never had enough money; thus Mailberg remained a Hospitaller castle.

Another reason was certainly that St. George at Millstatt turned out to be a failure. It has been argued that founding a new military-religious order was anachronistic in the fifteenth century, but this argument may be an oversimplification⁶⁰. When Frederick travelled to Rome for a second time in the autumn of 1468, the foundation made progress. The new order’s centre was established in the extinct Benedictine monastery of St. George at Millstatt in Carinthia. Its first magister generalis became Hanns Siebenhirter († 1508)⁶¹, who had been Frederick’s Küchenmeister, responsible for the management and the monies of the imperial court. Any future master and other senior officers were to be appointed by Frederick III as the founder, and after him by any senior of the house of Austria. It has often been said that the ostensible purpose of the foundation was defence against Turkish raids from Bosnia through Croatia and Slavonia that threatened Carniola, Carinthia, Styria and Istria from the 1460s onwards. Yet no sources prove this⁶². The foundation charter issued by Pope Paul II on 1 January 1469 mentioned only the commemoration of Frederick III and his family⁶³.

Frederick III surely also had political and socio-economic motives. His relations with nobles and knights in his dominions were complex and ambiguous; Achaz Bohunko was no exception here. Such nobles and knights wanted to serve their lord, but expected to be paid. Whenever Frederick was unable to pay, conflicts arose. One such conflict broke out in 1469, the year when St. George at Millstatt was established. Andreas Baumkircher, from a knightly family in the county of Görz⁶⁴, had hired mercenaries and served both Ladislaus Posthumous and Frederick III in the 1450s and early 1460s. Because Frederick did not pay, he elected to help himself; in the Emperor’s eyes, he “rose in rebellion.” On 21 July 1469, Baumkircher won a resounding victory at Fürstenfeld, and protracted negotiations began after an armistice was declared. Finally, Baumkircher met the Emperor in Graz, but was treacherously taken prisoner and beheaded as a rebel on 23 April 1471⁶⁵. The idea that the church should pay for the needs of the monarch or prince was not new, as we have seen in 1391/92. A military-religious order such as St. George of Millstatt endowed and dominated by the monarch was an obvious means to facilitate the ruler’s access to ecclesiastical revenues.

Further motivations come to light when we look at Frederick’s endowments for St. George at Millstatt more closely. The papal foundation charter mentioned

“… monasterium Milstat ac domum seu preceptoriam Morperch sancti Benedicti et sancti Iohannis Ierosolimitani ordinum Salczeburgensis et Patauiensis diocesum nec non hospitale sancti Martini Wyennensis monasterium nuncupatum eiusdem Patauiensis diocesis nec non capellam beate Marie Novefundationis ac parrochialem ecclesiam sancte Marie in Montestraden Salczeburgensis diocesis, que de iure patronatus ipsius imperatoris existunt …”⁶⁶.

The two major endowments were unsafe or disputed possessions for the house of Austria. By donating them to a religious institution controlled by himself and his heirs, Frederick safeguarded Habsburg’s rights and claims. Moreover, he might even be said to have put them under ecclesiastical protection. Millstatt had been a Benedictine monastery under the lordship of the counts of Cilli⁶⁷. This family became extinct when Count Ulrich II was murdered at Belgrade in 1456, and Frederick III did not secure its possession until 1460. Mailberg was a similar case, for Frederick’s claim to appoint the commander iure patronatus remained dubious, to say the least.

In 1479 the bishopric of Wiener Neustadt, one of Frederick III’s favourite residences, founded in 1469 by Pope Paul II at the request of the Emperor, was also incorporated into the Order of St. George by Pope Sixtus IV. In future the bishop of Wiener Neustadt, appointed by Frederick III and after him by the senior of the house of Austria, was to be the highest-ranking officer of the Order. The plan behind this may have been to advance St. George of Millstatt to a higher rank and to increase the heretofore insufficient revenues of the new bishopric. But Siebenhirter, magister generalis of St. George, protested and in 1480 Sixtus IV declared that the master should have the first rank, and the bishop the second⁶⁸. For the time being, however, none of this could be realised, because the incumbent Bishop of Wiener Neustadt, Peter Engelbrecht, whom the Emperor had appointed in 1469, refused to resign and lived until 1491. In that year, the bishopric was united with a collegiate church at Wiener Neustadt. While St. George at Millstatt did not have enough revenues to support the bishopric, it did not renounce its claims until 1534⁶⁹.

At Mailberg, the Commander Fr. Achaz Bohunko was in a better situation than the bishop in Wiener Neustadt, because he held financial claims against the Emperor. Additionally, and similarly to the Bishop of Wiener Neustadt, he could not be forced to resign. Meanwhile political circumstances, especially growing tensions and finally open warfare between Frederick III and King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary from 1477 to 1490, caused the situation to deteriorate. Following a treaty of 1463⁷⁰, Frederick claimed that after Matthias’ death he or his son Maximilian should accede to the throne of Hungary. When Matthias began to plan otherwise, Frederick allied himself with Matthias’s enemy, King Vladislav of Bohemia, in 1477. Thereafter, in 1478, Matthias and Vladislav made peace with each other and partitioned the lands of the Bohemian crown; Bohemia proper stayed with Vladislav, while Moravia and Silesia went to Matthias. In consequence, Matthias was free to intensify his war against Frederick.

Mailberg was an important place for both parties, and Pope Sixtus IV tried not to estrange himself from either Frederick or Matthias, as he wanted both to fight against the Turks. Finding a successor for the aging Fr. Achaz Bohunko at Mailberg became a delicate problem in this context. In 1481 Bohunko appointed an imperial chamberlain Konrad Auer, who was not a Hospitaller, to administrate the commandery⁷¹. Auer was a creditor of the Emperor, as Bohunko had been in 1460. When paid, Auer was supposed to resign and Mailberg was to be effectively incorporated into St. George at Millstatt. On 1 October 1481, Frederick III instructed an envoy to negotiate this with Sixtus IV⁷².

Soon afterwards, Fr. Achaz Bohunko died. Subject to King Vladislav of Bohemia, an ally of Frederick’s enemy Matthias, the Prior of Bohemia Fr. Johann von Schwanberg⁷³ (r. 1472-1516) now appointed Fr. Georg Florstett as Bohunko’s successor in Mailberg; Georg was to pay 100 florins of Hungary as annual responsions to the Order. Sixtus IV appointed three conservatores - the abbot of the Scots in Vienna, the provost of Klosterneuburg (in Austria, north of Vienna) and the provost of Maria Saal (in Carinthia) - for Georg on 11 December 1481 and issued a confirmation of the appointment on 31 January 1482⁷⁴.

In 1483 Sixtus IV made two decisions, one for Frederick and for Matthias. Because in 1469 Pope Paul II had incorporated Mailberg into the Order of St. George, Sixtus ordered Konrad Auer to return Mailberg to the Emperor⁷⁵. A few months later, Sixtus ordered Auer to return Mailberg to Fr. Johann von Schwanberg, Prior of Bohemia and Austria, as he was styled here, and to Fr. Georg Florstett; Cardinal Juan d’Aragonia, papal legate in Hungary, was to look into the case, Auer having appealed against a summons to court by Abbot Christoph of the Scots in Vienna⁷⁶. In 1484 Innocent VIII decided in favour of Fr. Georg Florstett and renewed the subjugation of Mailberg to the priory of Bohemia⁷⁷. From now on there were two rival commanders for Mailberg, one backed by the Habsburg court and one backed by the prior of Bohemia and the two allied, later united kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary.

Back to Normality?

This state of affairs lasted well into the sixteenth century. At first King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary conquered more and more of Austria, Styria and eastern Carinthia. Frederick III had to leave his favourite residences at Graz, Wiener Neustadt and Vienna⁷⁸. Many Hospitallers resented the imperial appointment of a non-Hospitaller. Even Auer’s procurator at Mailberg, Fr. Kaspar Haugwitz, together with certain unnamed commanders, wanted to elect a new master. Auer, still not a Hospitaller, obtained an imperial mandate that no such election was permitted. He insisted that he was the lawful successor of Fr. Achaz Bohunko as Master of Mailberg and as Lieutenant of the Bohemian prior for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. But he promised not to alienate Mailberg from the Hospital. As soon as Frederick III ordered it, he would follow the papal mandate⁷⁹; this meant that as soon as he had got back his monies he would resign Mailberg and the commandery would be effectively incorporated into St. George at Millstatt. Mailberg, however, remained under the de facto control of Matthias until 1490. In 1486 Florstett acted as Master of Mailberg, Commander of Vienna and Brünn, and a certain Johann Landsberg was his procurator⁸⁰.

Contrary to what one might expect, the extraordinary situation at Mailberg outlived Hungarian rule in Austria by decades. Matthias died in Vienna on 6 April 1490, without leaving a legitimate heir. On 15 July 1490, the Hungarians elected King Vladislav of Bohemia to be their next ruler. The Emperor himself had been a candidate. But he had to be content with the reconquest of those parts of Austria, Styria and Carinthia that Matthias had occupied. Frederick’s son Maximilian led the operations. On 7 November 1491, Frederick and Vladislav concluded a peace treaty⁸¹. After the reconquest, Maximilian installed a procurator (Pfleger) at Mailberg, in 1494 Friedrich von Weissing⁸², in 1495 Niclas Pflug⁸³. The commandery as such he pawned away to the heirs of Ulrich I von Grafenegg († 1487), another entrepreneur in mercenaries, not unlike Achaz Bohunko, who had held claims against Frederick III († 1493). The prior of Bohemia accepted that. In 1494 the Supreme Chancellor of Bohemia, Johann von Schellenberg, agreed that Mailberg should go to the Hospitaller Fr. Andreas von Grafenegg, one of Ulrich I’s sons⁸⁴. In 1496 Maximilian’s governors in Vienna ordered Andreas Schortt, who may have been Maximilian’s procurator at Mailberg, to hand over the castle with all documents and appurtenances to Johann von Grafenegg⁸⁵; Johann represented his carnal brother Fr. Andreas. In 1503 Fr. Andreas died in battle, at a hitherto unknown place. Meeting Maximilian at Linz, Wok von Rosenberg⁸⁶ and Fr. Johann von Schwanberg obtained a promise that Maximilian would not take away Mailberg from the Hospitallers; in return they agreed on behalf of the priory of Bohemia that Maximilian should choose the next commander at Mailberg, either Fr. Johann von Schwanberg or another Hospitaller⁸⁷.

But again Maximilian pawned away Mailberg, this time for 7,000 florins of the Rhine to Johann Maraxi von Naschkau⁸⁸. The brothers Hans and Ulrich II von Grafenegg were asked to return Mailberg to Maximilian who in turn would pay them annually 350 florins of the Rhine in Vienna⁸⁹. This arrangement was thwarted by Ulrich II von Grafenegg, who became a Hospitaller and thereby enlisted the help of the Prior of Bohemia, who was to receive 3,000 of his 7,000 florins. Johann Maraxi was promised other revenues, and Mailberg was handed over to Ulrich II⁹⁰. The Grafenegg brothers, first Andreas and then Ulrich II, became Hospitallers more or less only to safeguard their financial claims. In this way they resembled Achaz Bohunko, whereas Konrad Auer had refused to become a Hospitaller at all. Fr. Ulrich II von Grafenegg kept Mailberg until his death in 1505 or 1506. From 1509 until at least 1512⁹¹ the next Master of Mailberg was Peter Maraxi, a cousin of Johann Maraxi⁹². The Hospitallers on Rhodes held Peter Maraxi to be an illegal intruder; in 1512 the Master Fr. Emery d’Amboise and the Convent on Rhodes gave Mailberg for ten years to Fr. Christoph Waldner, Preceptor of Torlesen in the Priory of Bohemia⁹³, who apparently served on Rhodes.

A comprehensive and final compromise between Habsburg and the Jagiellonian rulers was reached in 1515 between Emperor Maximilian († 1519) and the two Jagiellonian kings Vladislav of Hungary († 1516) and Bohemia and Sigismund of Poland († 1548), who was also Grand Duke of Lithuania. The Emperor promised to mediate between the Teutonic Order in Prussia and Poland and to withdraw his support for Grand Duke Vasili III of Moscow. In return Vladislav’s son and heir Louis II married the Emperor’s granddaughter Mary, whereas Mary’s brother Ferdinand married Vladislav’s daughter Anne⁹⁴. Negotiations about Mailberg followed. In 1517 Maximilian returned Mailberg to the Bohemian priory, but Maximilian’s confessor, Dr Philipp Flachberger, became the prior’s lieutenant for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola. The Commander of Mailberg remained the prior’s candidate, Fr. Hinko Popel von Lobkowitz, son of the Supreme Chancellor of Bohemia, who died in 1520. He was succeeded by Fr. Christoph Waldner, the Rhodian candidate of 1512, who served on Rhodes and fell during the siege of 1522. Already in 1521 Mailberg was promised to Fr. Reinprecht von Ebersdorf, a knight from Austria⁹⁵.

When King Louis II of Hungary and Bohemia fell against the Ottomans at Mohacs on 29 August 1526, without leaving a child from his marriage, Archduke Ferdinand († 1564) and his wife Anne secured succession to the thrones of Hungary and Bohemia. Although southern and eastern parts of Hungary were lost to the Turks and to Hungarian aristocrats such as John Zápolya, Mailberg was now surrounded by Habsburg dominions from all sides. From 1526 to 1531, its commander was Fr. Joseph Kölderer, a relative of Jörg Kölderer († 1540), who had served at Maximilian’s court in Innsbruck as a painter and an architect since the late 1490s. It seems that Fr. Joseph Kölderer was the last contentious commander at Mailberg. It is not unlikely that his appointment had financial aspects similar to the previous appointments for Bohunko, Auer, Grafenegg and Maraxi. The finances of the Habsburg rulers are essential for understanding what was going on at Mailberg. Unfortunately, the state of research on this topic is not yet advanced enough to arrive at definitive conclusions⁹⁶. At any rate, from 1533 to his death in 1555 Joseph’s successor was Fr. Reinprecht von Ebersdorf, who also administered the commanderies of Vienna and Laa, Striegau and Breslau, the latter two in Silesia. Contrary to his predecessors at Mailberg, he was from a very renowned knightly family that held the hereditary office of chamberlain (Erbkämmerer) in the duchy of Austria. Fr. Reinprecht was a military leader. In 1529 he helped to defend Vienna when the Turks besieged it, and in 1532 he distinguished himself against the Turks near Wiener Neustadt. Fr. Reinprecht died on 10 January 1554⁹⁷.

From 1526 onwards, Mailberg’s subjugation to the Bohemian priory was welcomed at the Habsburg court as a means of furthering the integration of their dominions that now stretched from Silesia to the Adriatic. There were no longer political, social or economic reasons to contemplate separating Mailberg in particular or the Austrian Hospitallers in general from the priory of Bohemia. It was primarily honorific when, in 1555, the Grand Prior of Bohemia Fr. Zbinko Berka von Dauba und Leipa⁹⁸ granted to Fr. Ludwig von Bollweiler, priest-brother of knightly descent and ambassador of the Grand Master Fr. Claude de la Sengle to Emperor Ferdinand I († 1564) in Vienna, the traditional title of Lieutenant for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola; following tradition, however, Fr. Ludwig also became Commander of Mailberg, Vienna, Fürstenfeld and Melling⁹⁹. This emphasises that great weight of history in the Hospital of St. John.

Conclusions

The medieval Hospitaller priory of Bohemia was riven by ethnic divisions and mutually unintelligible languages. The prior’s Lieutenant for Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola could have been a nucleus for independence from Bohemia. But it would be inadequate and misleading to explain its history as being conditioned by national rivalries. Political and socio-economic forces were more influential. In 1392 the provincial chapter under the Prior Fr. Marcold von Wrutitz had good political reasons not to quarrel with Duke Albert III of Austria. Rivalry between the two Habsburg lines in Austria proper and in Styria made it almost impossible to grant to the lieutenant the two important commanderies of Mailberg and of Fürstenfeld at the same time, a fact that weakened the lieutenant’s position considerably. So the Hussite wars from 1419 to 1434 were not exploited as an opportunity for separation. From c.1460 onwards, when Austria and Styria were again united, Mailberg came into the possession of knights who had been mercenary leaders and other creditors of Emperor Frederick III and his son Maximilian. With papal help, Frederick III obtained both the separation of Mailberg from Bohemia in 1468, and in 1469 its incorporation into his own, newly founded military-religious Order of St. George at Millstatt in Carinthia. But the Habsburg rulers were apparently unable to repay their creditors. This thwarted both the separation and the incorporation. For political reasons, Maximilian sometimes promised to accept appointments to Mailberg made by the Bohemian prior who had the backing of the realms of Bohemia and Hungary. In the later Middle Ages commanders of Mailberg came from up to four partially overlapping networks, from knightly families in Austria, from the Habsburg courts (Bohunko, Auer, Grafenegg, Maraxi, Kölderer), from the Bohemian priory (Popel von Lobkowitz) and from Rhodes (Waldner). The Hospitaller prosopography merits further studies, not only in Austria and Bohemia¹⁰⁰. In 1526 Ferdinand I of Austria took over both realms. To separate Austria from the rest of the priory seemed no longer necessary; on the contrary, it might have been counter-productive, as the large priory helped to hold together the Habsburg dominions from Silesia in the north to Carniola in the south. Only in 1938, twenty years after the demise of the Habsburg monarchy, did Austria become a grand priory of its own, separate from the grand priory of Bohemia¹⁰¹.