Mojmir I of Moravia

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Mojmir I
House of Mojmir
FatherMojmar (?)

Mojmir I, Moimir I or Moymir I

House of Mojmir. In modern scholarship, the creation of the early medieval state known as Great Moravia is attributed either to his or to his successors' expansionist policy.[5][6] He was deposed in 846 by Louis the German, king of East Francia.[7]

Background

From the 570s the

Eastern Carpathians to the Eastern Alps in Central Europe.[8] The local Slavic tribes were obliged to pay tribute to their overlords, but they began to resist in the early 7th century.[8][9] First those who inhabited the region of today's Vienna (Austria) threw off the yoke of the Avars in 623–624.[9][10] They were led by a Frankish merchant named Samo whose reign would last for at least 35 years.[9][10] However, when he died some time between 658 and 669, his principality collapsed without trace.[9][11]

Another century and a half passed before the Avars were finally defeated between 792 and 796 by

Middle Danube.[13] Among these polities, the Moravian principality showed up for the first time in 822 when the Moravians, according to the Royal Frankish Annals, brought tribute to Charlemagne's son, Emperor Louis the Pious.[13][14]

Reign

Church at Mikulčice
Ruins of a church at Mikulčice (Czech Republic)

Mojmir I arose in Moravia in the 820s.[3] Whether he was the first ruler to unite the local Slavic tribes into a larger political unit or merely came into prominence as a result of the rapidly changing political situation, is uncertain.[3] All the same, he had "predecessors", at least according to a letter written around 900 by Bavarian bishops to the pope.[15]

The idea that Mojmir I was baptized between 818 and 824 is based on indirect evidence, namely on the dating of a

pagan sanctuary in Mikulčice continued in uninterrupted use until the middle of the 9th century.[18]

The frontiers of the Moravian state under Mojmir I are not precisely known.

Conversion of the Bavarians and the Carantanians, an historical work written in 870, relates that around 833 a local Slavic ruler, Pribina, was "driven across the Danube by Mojmir, duke of the Moravians".[17][21][22] Pribina was either the head of another Slavic principality or one of Mojmir I's rebellious subordinates.[17] Modern historians, although not unanimously, identify Pribina's lands "in Nitrava ultra Danubium" with modern Nitra (Slovakia).[4][5][23][24]

Last years

Principality of Moravia
under Mojmir I's reign

Mojmir I used the civil war within the Carolingian Empire as an opportunity to plot a rebellion and try to throw off the yoke of Frankish overlordship in the 840s.[4] Thus his emerging power became a serious threat to Louis II the German, ruler of the East Frankish kingdom.[4] The Franks invaded Moravia in mid-August 846.[23] They encountered little resistance and deprived Mojmir I of his throne.[25] He seems to have fled or been killed during the invasion.[25] His relative, Rastislav, was set up as the new client ruler of Moravia.[23]

[Louis the German] set off around the middle of August with an army against the Moravian Slavs who were planning to defect. There he arranged and settled matters as he wished, and set

Annals of Fulda (year 846)[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. CEU Press. p. 243.
  2. rex", rarely "regulus", "princeps" and unique "comes". In what way the Knez title is referable to modern titles such as Prince, Duke or King, is matter of scholarly debate. In the pre-state period the western Slavonic tribes regularly had more than one ruler, contrary to the situation in Moravia after Mojmir I. – In: Miroslav Lysý: Titul mojmírovských panovníkov, S. 24-33; František Graus: Dux-rex Moraviae, S. 181-190; Sommer et al: Great Moravia
    .
  3. ^ a b c Vlasto 1970, p. 20
  4. ^ a b c d Goldberg 2006, p. 138
  5. ^ a b c Barford 2001, p. 109
  6. ^ Kirschbaum 2007, p. 194
  7. ^ Kirschbaum 2007, pp. 180., 194.
  8. ^ a b Barford 2001, p. 57
  9. ^ a b c d Spiesz et al. 2006, p. 17.
  10. ^ a b Barford 2001, p. 79
  11. ^ Kirschbaum 2007, p. 248
  12. ^ Kirschbaum 2007, p. 3
  13. ^ a b Bowlus 1995, p. 6
  14. ^ Goldberg 2006, pp. 137., 354.
  15. ^ Vlasto 1970, pp. 20., 325.
  16. ^ Vlasto 1970, pp. 23–24
  17. ^ a b c Vlasto 1970, p. 24
  18. ^ a b Sommer et al. 2007, p. 221.
  19. ^ Vlasto 1970, p. 326
  20. ^ Goldberg 2006, pp. 135–136
  21. ^ Bowlus 1995, pp. 105–106
  22. ^ Goldberg 2006, pp. 16., 138.
  23. ^ a b c Spiesz et al. 2006, p. 20.
  24. ^ Bowlus 1995, p. 105
  25. ^ a b Goldberg 2006, p. 140
  26. ^ Reuter 1992, p. 25

Sources

Mojmir I of Moravia
House of Mojmír
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Unknown
Duke of the Moravians
c. 830–846
Succeeded by