Background
He was a younger son of the Bavarian count Berthold IV of Andechs, who was elevated to a Duke of Merania by Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa in 1183. His mother was Agnes of Rochlitz, a member of the Saxon Wettin dynasty.
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Berchtold Bertoldo de Merania
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Berthold, chosen for an ecclesiastical career, became provost at the cathedral chapter of the Archdiocese of Bamberg in 1203. However, the appointment was not acknowledged by Pope Innocent III in 1212, until Berthold had applied himself to intense study in the Diocese of Vicenza. Nevertheless King Andrew also made him Ban of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, and even Voivode of Transylvania and the king"s deputy in 1212.
In 1213, while the king was on a campaign to Galicia–Volhynia, they dared a raid into a queen"s hunting camp and murdered Getrude and several of her liensmen, while Berthold narrowly escaped with his life with Leopold VI of Austria.
On 10 February 1218 Pope Honorius III appointed him Patriarch of Aquileia. In 1238 Berthold moved the capital of the ecclesiastical state from Cividale to Udine, where he gave orders to erect a cathedral.
He secured his position being a loyal supporter of the Hohenstaufen emperor Frederick II against the Italian cities of the Lombard League. However, in the fierce conflict between the emperor and Pope Gregory IX, his loyalty earned him a papal excommunication in 1239, which nevertheless was revoked two years later upon the intercession by King Andrew II of Hungary.
In his later years, Betroldo tried to arbitrate between Emperor and Pope, though ultimatively to no avail.
With Berthold"s death, his line of the counts of Andechs became extinct. He was also the last in a long line of German Patriarchs of Aquileia. His successor Gregorio di Montelongo had led a Guelph coalition against Emperor Frederick World War II
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Born
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Died
1251 (aged 71) -
Nationality
Germany -
Religion
Catholic Church