Arnulf was the illegitimate son ofCarloman of Bavaria[4][5] and Liutswind.[a] After Arnulf's birth, Carloman married before 861, a daughter of Count Ernst, who died after 8 August 879. As it is mainlyWest-Frankish historiography[6] that speaks of Arnulf's illegitimacy, it is quite possible that the two women are actually the same person, Liutswind, and that Carloman married Arnulf's mother, thus legitimizing his son.
Arnulf spent his childhood inMosaburch or Mosapurc, which is widely believed to beMoosburg in Carinthia. Moosburg was a few miles away from one of the imperial residences, the CarolingianKaiserpfalz atKarnburg, which had been the residence of the Carantanian princes. Arnulf kept his seat here, and from later events it may be inferred that the Carantanians, from an early time, treated him as their own duke. Later, after he had been crowned King of East Francia, Arnulf turned his old territory of Carinthia into theMarch of Carinthia, a part of theDuchy of Bavaria.[7]
After Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke in 879,Louis the Younger inherited Bavaria,Charles the Fat was given theKingdom of Italy, and Arnulf was confirmed in Carinthia by an agreement with Carloman. However, Bavaria was already governed by Arnulf during the summer and autumn of 879 while his father arranged his succession.[8] He was also granted "Pannonia", in the words of theAnnales Fuldenses,[9] or "Carantanum", in the words ofRegino of Prüm.[10] The division of the realm was confirmed in 880 after Carloman's death.
WhenEngelschalk II of Pannonia in 882 rebelled against MargraveAribo and ignited theWilhelminer War, Arnulf supported him and accepted his and his brother's homage. This ruined Arnulf's relationship with his uncle, Emperor Charles the Fat, and put him at war withSvatopluk of Moravia. Pannonia was invaded, but Arnulf refused to give up the young Wilhelminers. Arnulf did not make peace with Svatopluk until late 885, by which time the Moravian ruler was loyal to the emperor. Some scholars see this war as destroying Arnulf's hopes of succeeding Charles the Fat.[11]
Carolingian Empire after the emergence of regional kingdoms in 887-890, with Arnulf's initial realm in light blue
Arnulf took the leading role in the deposition of Charles the Fat. In November 887, aDiet was meeting atTribur. Supported by nobles from eastern parts of the Empire, Arnulf seized the opportunity and deposed the ailing Emperor. In the same time, Arnulf was elected and proclaimed as king. Charles agreed to this involuntary retirement, but not without first chastising his nephew for his treachery and asking for a few royal villas inSwabia on which to live out his final months, which Arnulf granted him.[12][13]
Chiles died at the very beginning of 888, and since Arnulf was elected king only by the nobles ofEast Francia, several questions arose regarding the rule over other regions of theCarolingian Empire. During the spring of 888, Arnulf was staying atRegensburg, where he received nobles and envoys of eastern Franks, Alamanns, Bavarians, Thuringians, Saxons, and the neighboringSlavs,[12] but regions ofWest Francia,Burgundy, andItaly remained out of his scope, electing their own rulers.[14]
During 889, he held Diets atForchheim andFrankfurt, trying to secure acceptance among nobles for his sonsZwentibold andRatold, who were born to him outside of wedlock, and also receiving envoys from Normans and Slavs. In the same year, Arnulf organized an expedition against theObotrites, aPolabian Slavic tribe, but without success, and thus the conflict continued up to 895, when a peace agreement with the Obotrites was reached.[15]
Arnulf was more a fighter than a negotiator. In 890, he was successfully battlingSlavs in Pannonia.[17] In early/mid-891,Vikings invadedLotharingia[18] and crushed an East Frankish army atMaastricht.[19] Terms such as "Vikings", "Danes", "Northmen" and "Norwegians" have been used loosely and interchangeably to describe these invaders.[20] In September 891, Arnulfrepelled the Vikings[19] and essentially ended their attacks on that front.[citation needed] TheAnnales Fuldenses report that there were so many dead Northmen that their bodies blocked the run of the river. After this victory, Arnulf built a castle on an island in theDijle river.[21]
A charter of donation by king Arnulf of Carinthia, issued on 15 April 890 atRegensburg.
Recognising the superiority of Arnulf's position in 888, the newly elected kingOdo of West Francia formally accepted the suzerainty of Arnulf.[22] In the same time, a group of nobles and bishops from theUpper Burgundy met atSaint-Maurice and elected local dukeRudolph as king of those Burgundian regions, without Arnulf's consent, thus initiating a long rivalry.[23][24]
In May 889, the queen-dowagerErmengard ofProvence arrived to the court of Arnulf atForchheim, making a submission on behalf of her young sonLouis. In August 890, at the regionalDiet ofValence, local nobles and bishops fromLower Burgundy andProvence elected Louis as king in those regions, with Arnulf's consent.[25][26][27]
In 893, Arnulf switched his support from Odo toCharles the Simple after being persuaded byFulk, Archbishop of Reims, that it was in his best interests.[28] Arnulf then took advantage of the following fighting between Odo and Charles in 894, harrying some territories of West Francia.[29] At one point, Charles the Simple was forced to flee to Arnulf and ask for his protection.[30] His intervention soon forcedPope Formosus to get involved, as he was worried that a divided and war-weary West Francia would be easy prey for the Vikings.[29]
In 895, Arnulf summoned both Charles and Odo to his residence atWorms. Charles's advisers convinced him not to go, and he sent a representative in his place. Odo, on the other hand, personally attended, together with a large retinue, bearing many gifts for Arnulf.[31] Angered by the non-appearance of Charles, he welcomed Odo at the Diet of Worms in May 895 and again supported Odo's claim to the throne of West Francia.[31]
In the same assembly he crowned his illegitimate son Zwentibold as the king ofLotharingia, and also Burgundy, but the Burgundian possessions were out their reach, since those lands were ruled by local kings, Rudolph and Louis.[31][32]
As early as 880, Arnulf had designs onGreat Moravia and had the Frankish bishopWiching ofNitra interfere with the missionary activities of theEastern Orthodox priestMethodius, with the aim of preventing any potential for creating a unified Moravian state.[33] Arnulf had formal relations with the ruler of the Moravian Kingdom,Svatopluk, using them to learn the latter's military and political secrets. Later, these tactics were used to occupy the territory of the Greater Moravian state.[34]
Arnulf failed to conquer the whole of Great Moravia in wars of 892, 893, and 899. Yet, he did achieve some successes. In 893 or 894 Great Moravia probably lost a part of its territory—present-day westernHungary—to him. As a reward, Wiching became Arnulf's chancellor in 892.[35] In 895, theDuchy of Bohemia broke away from Great Moravia and became Arnulf's vassal state. An accord was reached between him and Duke of BohemiaBorivoj I. Bohemia was thus freed from the dangers of Frankish invasion.[36]
In 897, Arnulf received envoys fromSorbs, and also fromBohemians, who were asking again for the royal assistance in their conflicts with the neighboring Moravians.[37]
In his attempts to conquer Moravia, in 899 Arnulf reached out toMagyars who had settled in theCarpathian Basin, and with their help he imposed a measure of control over Moravia.[38]
In 893, the newPope Formosus, not trusting the newly crowned co-emperors Guy and his sonLambert, sent an embassy toOmuntesberch, where Arnulf was meeting with Svatopluk,[40] to request that Arnulf come and liberate Italy,[41] where he would be crowned emperor in Rome. Arnulf met thePrimores of the Kingdom of Italy, dismissed them with gifts and promised to assist the pope.[42] Arnulf then sent Zwentibold with a Bavarian army to join Berengar. They defeated Guy but were bought off and left in autumn.
When Pope Formosus again asked Arnulf to invade, the duke personally led an army across theAlps, early in 894. In January 894,Bergamo fell, and Count Ambrose, Guy's representative in the city, was hanged from a tree by the city's gates.[43] Conquering all of the territory north of thePo River, Arnulf forced the surrender ofMilan and then drove Guy out ofPavia, where he was crownedKing of Italy.[44] Arnulf went no further before Guy died suddenly in late autumn, and a fever incapacitated his troops.[42] His march northward through the Alps was interrupted byRudolph I of Burgundy, and it was only with great difficulty that Arnulf crossed the mountain range.[43] In retaliation, Arnulf ordered Zwentibold to ravage Rudolph's kingdom.[43][45] In the meantime, Lambert and his motherAgeltrude travelled to Rome to receive papal confirmation of his imperial succession, but when Pope Formosus, still desiring to crown Arnulf, refused, he was imprisoned inCastel Sant'Angelo.
In September 895, a new papal embassy arrived inRegensburg beseeching Arnulf's aid. In October, Arnulf undertook his second campaign into Italy.[42] He crossed the Alps quickly and again took Pavia, but then he continued slowly, garnering support among the nobility ofTuscany.Maginulf, Count of Milan, andWalfred of Friuli joined him. Eventually evenAdalbert II of Tuscany abandoned Lambert. Finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude,[42] Arnulf had to take the city by force on 21 February 896, freeing the pope.[46] Arnulf was then greeted at thePonte Milvio by theRoman Senate who escorted him into theLeonine City, where he was received by Pope Formosus on the steps of theSanti Apostoli.[46]
On 22 February 896, Formosus led the king into the church of St. Peter, anointed and crowned him as emperor, and saluted him asAugustus.[47][48] Arnulf then proceeded to theBasilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where he received the homage of the Roman people,[46] who swore "never to hand over the city to Lambert or his mother Ageltrude".[49] Arnulf then proceeded to exile to Bavaria two leading senators, Constantine and Stephen, who had helped Ageltrude to seize Rome.[50]
Leaving one of his vassals, Farold, to hold Rome, two weeks later Arnulf marched onSpoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to join Lambert.[49] However at this point, Arnulf had a stroke, forcing him to call off the campaign and return to Bavaria.[51] Rumours of the time made Arnulf's condition to be a result of poisoning at the hand of Ageltrude.[49]
Arnulf retained power in Italy only as long as he was personally there.[52] On his way north, he stopped at Pavia where he crowned his illegitimate sonRatold as sub-king of Italy, after which he left Ratold in Milan in an attempt to preserve his hold on Italy.[53][54] That same year Pope Formosus died, leaving Lambert once again in power, and both he and Berengar proceeded to kill any officials who had been appointed by Arnulf, forcing Ratold to flee from Milan to Bavaria.[55] For the rest of his life Arnulf exercised very little control in Italy, and his agents in Rome did not prevent the accession ofPope Stephen VI in 896.[56] The pope initially gave his support to Arnulf but eventually became a supporter of Lambert.[57]
In addition to after effects of the stroke, Arnulf contractedmorbus pediculosis (infestation of pubic lice on his eyelid), which prevented him from effectively dealing with the problems besetting his reign. Italy was lost,[53] raiders from Moravia and Magyars were continually harassing his lands, and Lotharingia was in revolt against Zwentibold.[58] He was also plagued by escalating violence and power struggles among the lower Frankish nobility.[59]
On 8 December 899 Arnulf died atRatisbon, in present-dayBavaria.[2] He is entombed inSt. Emmeram's Basilica at Regensburg, which is now known as Schloss Thurn und Taxis, the palace of the princes ofThurn und Taxis. He was succeeded as the king of East Francia by his only legitimate son fromOta,Louis the Child.[60] After Louis' death in 911 at age 17 or 18, the East Frankish branch of theCarolingian dynasty ceased to exist. Arnulf had had the nobility recognize the rights of his illegitimate sons, Zwentibold and Ratold, as his successors. Zwentibold continued to rule Lotharingia until his murder in 900.
^"Karl III.",Neue Deutsche Biographie. "[Karl's] last document from Frankfurt is dated to 17 November 887, and Arnulf's first document is dated to 27 November 887."
^abThe Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, Vol. III, Part II (page 623), printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street, London, 1844
^Arnulf's opponents in 890 have sometimes been described as "Normans", although the term has become more strongly associated with the Scandinavians that were allies of West Francia from 911 and settled in theDuchy of Normandy.
^Mann IV, pg. 84 – Silver coins from the pontificate of Stephen VI show the transition from Arnulf ("Arnolfvs Imp. Roma") to Lambert ("Lamverto Imp. Roma")
Legend: → ≡ "father of", · ≡ "brother of" Begga, the daughter of Pepin I, married Ansegisel, the son of Arnulf of Metz, and was the mother of Pepin II.
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