The March of Carinthia was a frontier district

Marches

A march or mark refers to a border region similar to a frontier, such as the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. During the Frankish Carolingian Dynasty, the word spread throughout Europe....

 (march) of the Carolingian Empire

Carolingian Empire

Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term which has been used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty in the Early Middle Ages. This dynasty is seen as the founders of France and Germany, and its beginning date is based on the crowning of Charlemagne, or Charles the...

 created in 889. Before it was a march, it had been a principality or duchy ruled by native-born Slavic (or semi-Slavic) princes at first independently and then under Bavaria

Duchy of Bavaria

The Duchy of Bavaria was the only one of the stem duchies from the earliest days of East Francia and the Kingdom of Germany to preserve both its name and most of its territorial extent....

n and subsequently Frankish suzerainty. The realm was divided into counties which, after the succession of the Carinthian duke to the East Frankish throne, were united in the hands of a single authority as a march of defence against the Slavs of Pannonian Croatia

Pannonian Croatia

Pannonian Croatia was a medieval duchy from the 7th to the 10th century located in the Pannonian Plain approximately between the rivers Drava and Sava in today's Croatia, but at times also considerably to the south of the Sava. Its capital was Sisak...

. When the march of Carinthia was raised into a Duchy

Duchy of Carinthia

The Duchy of Carinthia was a duchy located in southern Austria and parts of northern Slovenia. It was separated from the Duchy of Bavaria in 976, then the first newly created Imperial State beside the original German stem duchies....

 in 976, a new Carinthian march (that is, a march defending the Carinthian duchy) was created. It became the later March of Styria

March of Styria

The March of Styria was originally broken off the Duchy of Carinthia before 970 as a buffer zone against the Magyars. Originally it was known as the Carantanian march , after the former Slavic principality of Carantania, a predecessor of the Carinthian duchy...

.

Background

In 745, Carantania, an independent Slavic principality, with the growth of the Avar

Eurasian Avars

The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...

 threat, submitted to Odilo of Bavaria

Odilo of Bavaria

Odilo was an Alamannic nobleman, a son of Gotfrid of the house of the Agilolfings.He ruled Thurgau until 736, when with the death of Hugbert of Bavaria the older line of the Agilofing became extinct and he inherited the rulership of Bavaria, which he held until his death in 748.Odilo presided...

, himself a vassal of the Franks

Franks

The Franks were a confederation of Germanic tribes first attested in the third century AD as living north and east of the Lower Rhine River. From the third to fifth centuries some Franks raided Roman territory while other Franks joined the Roman troops in Gaul. Only the Salian Franks formed a...

. With this, the Bavarian frontier was extended and Odilo's son, Tassilo III, began the Christianisation of the Slavic tribes beyond the Enns

Enns River

The Enns is a southern tributary of the Danube River, joining northward at Enns, Austria. The Enns River spans , in a flat-J-shape. It flows from its source near the towns of Gasthofalm and Flachau, generally eastward through Radstadt, Schladming, and Liezen, then turns north near Hieflau, to flow...

. In 788, Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 fully integrated the territory of Carinthia (Carantania) into the Frankish Empire

Frankish Empire

Francia or Frankia, later also called the Frankish Empire , Frankish Kingdom , Frankish Realm or occasionally Frankland, was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to the 10th century...

 by making it a part of the extended Duchy of Friuli

Duchy of Friuli

The Duchy of Friuli was one of the great territorial Lombard duchies, the first to be established. It was an important buffer between the Lombard kingdom of Italy and the Slavs...

, along with the March of Istria

March of Istria

The Margravate of Istria was originally a Carolingian frontier march covering the Istrian peninsula and surrounding territory conquered by Charlemagne's son Pepin of Italy in 789...

. Under him, missionary work increased, especially through the Archdiocese of Salzburg.

Between 819 and 823, the native Slavic population supported Ljudevit Posavski

Ljudevit Posavski

Ljudevit Posavski was a Croatian Duke of Pannonian Croatia from 810 to 823. The capital of his realm was in Sisak. As the ruler of the Pannonian Slavs, he led an unsuccessful resistance to Frankish domination. He held close ties with the Carantanian and Carniolan tribes and with the Serbian tribe...

 in revolt against Frankish overlordship. In 827, the Bulgars

Bulgars

The Bulgars were a semi-nomadic who flourished in the Pontic Steppe and the Volga basin in the 7th century.The Bulgars emerge after the collapse of the Hunnic Empire in the 5th century....

 attacked Carinthia and, in 828, Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious

Louis the Pious , also called the Fair, and the Debonaire, was the King of Aquitaine from 781. He was also King of the Franks and co-Emperor with his father, Charlemagne, from 813...

 reorganised Friuli into four counties, the two northernmost of which — Carinthia and Lower Pannonia — were detached from the Italian kingdom and incorporated into Bavaria. Louis

Louis the German

Louis the German , also known as Louis II or Louis the Bavarian, was a grandson of Charlemagne and the third son of the succeeding Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious and his first wife, Ermengarde of Hesbaye.He received the appellation 'Germanicus' shortly after his death in recognition of the fact...

, King of Bavaria, reorganised Carinthia into Frankish counties soon after. The division of Carinthia may have occurred as early as before 819 or perhaps simultaneously with division of Friuli. Before this, the Carinthians were still ruled by native dukes. The new comital administration was mixed Bavarian-Slavic.

Carloman and Arnulf

The territory remained within the Bavarian kingdom of Louis. In 855, Radbod, Prefect

Prefect

Prefect is a magisterial title of varying definition....

 of the Ostmark

March of Austria

The March of Austria was created in 976 out of the territory that probably formed the earlier March of Pannonia. It is also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March. In contemporary Latin, it was the marchia Austriae, Austrie marchionibus, or the marcha Orientalis...

, was deposed for unfaithfulness and Rastislav

Rastislav

Rastislav or Rostislav was the second known ruler of Moravia . Although he started his reign as vassal to Louis the German, king of East Francia, he consolidated his rule to the extent that after 855 he was able to repel a series of Frankish attacks...

, Duke of Great Moravia

Great Moravia

Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...

, rebelled against East Frankish suzerainty. In place of Radbod, Louis appointed his eldest son Carloman

Carloman of Bavaria

Carloman was the eldest son of Louis the German, king of East Francia , and Hemma, daughter of the count Welf...

 (856). Carloman took control of the other eastern marches, Carinthia and Pannonia

March of Pannonia

The March of Pannonia was a frontier march of the Carolingian Empire erected in the mid-ninth century against the threat of Great Moravia and lasting only as long as the strength of that state....

, and in 858 campaigned heavily against Rastislav, forcing him to come to terms. In 861, Pabo, margrave of Carinthia, rebelled with his counts and Carloman replaced him with Gundachar

Gundachar, Margrave of Carinthia

Gundachar was the Count of Carinthia from around 858 and prefect from 863. He was a Bavarian.Around 858, the counts Rihher of Pannonia and Pabo of Carinthia conspired against their overlord, the prefect Carloman. Carloman replaced them with Udalrich and Gundachar respectively...

. In 863, Louis, fearing a filial rebellion, invaded Carinthia, Carloman's home base. Gundachar went over to the king with a large army he had been given to command the defence of the Schwarza

Schwarza (Leitha)

The Schwarza is a river in Lower Austria. It is a headstream of the River Leitha.- Course :It rises on the saddle of Rohrer Sattel, flows through the Höllental gorge and the Schwarza valley. Near Haderswörth in the parish of Lanzenkirchen the Schwarza combines with the Pitten and is then called the...

. Consequently, Carloman was captured and deprived of his prefecture, which was bestowed on Gundachar.

When Carloman reconciled with his father and was created King of Bavaria, he granted Carinthia to his son by a Carinthian concubine, Arnulf

Arnulf of Carinthia

Arnulf of Carinthia was the Carolingian King of East Francia from 887, the disputed King of Italy from 894 and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor from February 22, 896 until his death.-Birth and Illegitimacy:...

. Arnulf kept his seat at Moosburg

Moosburg

Moosburg an der Isar is a town in the Landkreis Freising of Bavaria, Germany.The oldest town between Regensburg and Italy, it lies on the river Isar at an altitude of 421 m . It has 17,275 inhabitants and covers an area of 44 km². It is easily reached by the A 92 autobahn and regional trains on...

 (Mosapurc) and the Carinthians treated him as their native duke. After Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke in 879, Louis the Younger

Louis the Younger

Louis the Younger , sometimes Louis III, was the second eldest of the three sons of Louis the German and Emma. He succeeded his father as the King of Saxony on 28 August 876 and his elder brother Carloman as King of Bavaria from 880...

 inherited Bavaria and confirmed Arnulf in Carinthia by an agreement with Carloman. Bavaria, however, was ruled more or less by Arnulf. Arnulf had ruled Bavaria during the summer and autumn of 879 while his father arranged his succession and he himself was granted "Pannonia," in the words of the Annales Fuldenses

Annales Fuldenses

The Annales Fuldenses or Annals of Fulda are East Frankish chronicles that cover independently the period from the last years of Louis the Pious to shortly after the end of effective Carolingian rule in East Francia with the accession of the child-king, Louis III, in 900...

, or "Carantanum," in the words of Regino of Prüm

Regino of Prüm

Reginon or Regino of Prüm was a Benedictine abbot and medieval chronicler.-Biography:According to the statements of a later era, Regino was the son of noble parents and was born at the stronghold of Altrip on the Rhine near Speyer at an unknown date...

.

March

After he in turn became King of all East Francia, Arnulf created a march of Carinthia. Alongside it were the marches of Istria, Austria

March of Austria

The March of Austria was created in 976 out of the territory that probably formed the earlier March of Pannonia. It is also called the Margraviate of Austria or the Bavarian Eastern March. In contemporary Latin, it was the marchia Austriae, Austrie marchionibus, or the marcha Orientalis...

, and Carniola

March of Carniola

The March of Carniola was a southeastern state of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages, the predecessor of the Duchy of Carniola. It corresponded roughly to the central Carniolan region of present-day Slovenia...

. The southernmost marches, Carinthia and Carniola, were especially susceptible to Magyar raids. In 901, just two years after their first contact with western Europe, Carinthia was ravaged by the Magyars. In 952, Carinthia was placed under the Duchy of Bavaria

Duchy of Bavaria

The Duchy of Bavaria was the only one of the stem duchies from the earliest days of East Francia and the Kingdom of Germany to preserve both its name and most of its territorial extent....

, as were Carniola, Istria, and Friuli

March of Friuli

The March of Friuli was a Carolingian frontier march against the Slavs and Avars in the ninth and tenth centuries. It was a successor to the Lombard Duchy of Friuli....

.

The march's major cities were Friesach

Friesach

Friesach is a historic town in the Sankt Veit an der Glan district of Carinthia, Austria. First mentioned in a 860 deed, it is known as the oldest town in Carinthia.-Location:...

 and Villach

Villach

Villach is the second largest city in the Carinthia state in the southern Austria, at the Drava River and represents an important traffic junction for Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region. , the population is 58,480.-History:...

. In the tenth century, a so-called Carantanian march

March of Styria

The March of Styria was originally broken off the Duchy of Carinthia before 970 as a buffer zone against the Magyars. Originally it was known as the Carantanian march , after the former Slavic principality of Carantania, a predecessor of the Carinthian duchy...

(called the "march of Carinthia" because it was the march [ie frontier district] of the new Carinthian duchy) broke off of Carinthia. The Carantanian march was later to become the Duchy of Styria

Duchy of Styria

The history of Styria concerns the region roughly corresponding to the modern Austrian state of Styria and the Slovene region of Styria from its settlement by Germans and Slavs in the Dark Ages until the present...

. The only known Carinthian margrave from this period — though many counts are known — is Markward III, who was a preses de Carinthia.
In 976, the Emperor Otto II made his nephew Otto I

Otto I, Duke of Bavaria

Otto I, Duke of Swabia and Bavaria was the son of Liodolf of Swabia and his wife Ida, and thus a grandson of the Emperor Otto I and his Anglo-Saxon wife Eadgyth...

 Duke of Bavaria and separated the Carinthian march and the other marches from the duchy. He made Carinthia a duchy for the Liutpoldinger Henry

Henry III, Duke of Bavaria

Henry III , called the Younger, only surviving son of Duke Berthold of Bavaria, was the first Duke of Carinthia from 976 to 978, Duke of Bavaria from 983 to 985 and again Duke of Carinthia from 985 to 989.-Life:...

, who acted as a sort of "chief of the border police," controlling Istria, Friuli, and Carniola.

Sources

• Semple, Ellen Churchill. "The Barrier Boundary of the Mediterranean Basin and Its Northern Breaches as Factors in History." Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 5. (1915), pp 27–59.
• Reuter, Timothy (trans.) The Annals of Fulda. (Manchester Medieval series, Ninth-Century Histories, Volume II.) Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992.
• Reuter, Timothy. Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056. New York: Longman, 1991.
• MacLean, Simon. Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire. Cambridge University Press: 2003.