March of Styria

The March of Styria (Latin: Marchia Stirensis; German: Steiermark), originally known as Carantanian march (Karantanische Mark, marchia Carantana after the former Slavic principality of Carantania), was a southeastern frontier march of the Holy Roman Empire. It was broken off the larger March of Carinthia, itself a march of the Duchy of Bavaria, around 970 as a buffer zone against the Hungarian invasions.^[1] Under the overlordship of the Carinthian dukes from 976 onwards, the territory evolved to be called Styria, so named for the town of Steyr, then the residence of the Otakar margraves. It became an Imperial State in its own right, when the Otakars were elevated to Dukes of Styria in 1180.