Margarete Maultasch, Gräfin von Tirol

Margarete Maultasch, b. 1318, d. Vienna, Oct. 3, 1369, Countess of Tyrol, daughter of Duke Heinrich VI of Carinthia, last member of the family of the Counts of Görz (Gorizia), also called "Meinhardiner". Inherited the Duchy of Tyrol in 1335, while Carinthia went to the Habsburgs. 1330 was married as a child to Johann Heinrich of Bohemia of Luxembourg; after he was driven out of the country in 1341, she married, without obtaining a divorce, Ludwig of Brandenburg of the Wittelsbach family in 1342 (therefore excommunicated until 1359). After the death of her husband and her son Meinhard III in 1363 she turned Tyrol over to Duke Rudolf IV of Austria and retired to Vienna. Her nickname "satchel-mouth" had neither to do with her looks nor with the castle of Maultasch near TerlanTerlano (South Tyrol), but was a coarse epithet meaning "whore". Her life has been the subject of many books. (L. Feuchtwanger, H. Schullern, J. A. Schuler).

Literature: F. Brzoska, M., Gräfin von Tirol Schlernschriften 56, 1982; W. Baum, M. M. Erbin zwischen den Mächten, 1994; NDB.