Eric (alsoHeirichus orEhericus;[1] died 799) was theDuke of Friuli (dux Foroiulensis) from 789 to his death. He was the eldest son ofGerold of Anglachgau and by the marriage of his sisterHildegard the brother-in-law ofCharlemagne.
An elegy composed byPaulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia on the occasion of the death of his friend Eric, reveals that Eric had been born at "urbs dives Argentea", a Latin name of FrankishStrasbourg.[2] The elegy and another work of Paulinus called theLiber Exhortationis, a work which draws from theBible and certainFathers of the Church to offer instruction on how to live a morally upright Christian life while carrying out secular duties, indicates that Eric was a piousCatholic. Eric was appointed to the CarolingianDuchy of Friuli in 789, about two years after the death of the previous duke,Marcarius.
Eric governed the Duchy of Friuli fromCividale, the former Lombard capital and also residence of thePatriarch of Aquileia. Much of Eric's tenure as duke of Friuli was occupied by the task of subduing the nearbyAvars. In this he was accompanied byPepin of Italy and his own father, the margrave of Avaria. In 791, he and Pepin marched aLombard army into theDrava valley and ravagedPannonia, while Charlemagne marched along theDanube into Avar territory. Charlemagne left the campaigning to deal with aSaxon revolt in 792, while Pepin and Eric continued to assault the Avars' ring-shaped strongholds. The great Ring of the Avars, their capital fortress, was taken twice, and the booty was sent to Charlemagne inAachen and redistributed to all his followers and even to foreign rulers, including KingOffa of Mercia.
TheAnnales Laurissenses relate that in 795/6 Eric sent raiders into Pannonia underVojnomir,duke of the Pannonian Croats. Meanwhile, he himself and Pepin, allied with the Western Avartudun, led an attack which both forced the submission of the chief Avarkhagan and led to the capture of theHunorum Hringum, or Ring of the Avars, their chief camp. The khagan was taken toAachen, where he accepted baptism with the name Theodorus. However, according to theAnnales Fuldenses, Theodorus was assassinated by his own men when he returned to them.
In 799, Eric's father died on the eve of battle with what some presumed to be the Avars. Later during the same year, Eric was on campaign inLiburnia, leading the Franks againstSlavs. Some authors assume he was killed in theBattle of Trsat, even though Trsat was neither located at the coast nor having a city status at the time. According to the Frankish scholar and courtierEinhard, Eric was killed by the treachery of the Tharsatica inhabitants, but Einhard does not give any details. This is quite typical of the times that chronicles would justify lost battles by 'treason' rather than to admit defeat. The site of Eric's battle,Tarheste orTarsatica in Latin, has been traditionally identified withTrsat, a hill fort whose ruins today overlook the city ofRijeka. However, it is more likely that theTharsatica of Einhard's account was thecivitas (Latin for "city") Tergeste on the Adriatic coast beneath theDinaric Alps, which today would beTrieste inhabited by Slavs at the time. A year after Eric's death in 799, the Franks attacked Tharsatica again and the site of modern Trsat was actually founded by Tharsatica's surviving inhabitants a year after the siege.
| Preceded by | Duke of Friuli 789–799 | Succeeded by |
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