TheMarch of Pannonia orEastern March (Latin:marcha orientalis) was afrontier march of theCarolingian Empire, named after the former Roman province ofPannonia and carved out of the preceding and largerAvar March.
It was referred to in some documents asterminum regni Baioariorum in Oriente or "the end of the kingdom of the Bavarians in the east", and from this is sometimes called theBavarian Eastern March of the wider Bavarian eastern marches, a term used for any such territory, though today most commonly used to refer to the laterMargraviate of Austria, established in 976 as a sort of late successor state.
It was erected in the mid-ninth century in the lands of the formerAvar Khaganate against the threat ofGreat Moravia and lasted only as long as the strength of that state. The East Frankish rulers appointed margraves (prefects) to govern the march.
Charlemagne, temporarily allied with KhanKrum ofBulgaria, from 791 onwards had launched several military campaigns against theAvars and had established theAvar March (Avaria) on the southeastern frontier of his realm, ruled by his brother-in-law PrefectGerold of Bavaria. When the Avar Khaganate finally collapsed in 804, Emperor Charlemagne re-arrangedAvaria and split it into the following parts:
In 817, EmperorLouis the Pious granted Bavaria withAvaria to his minor sonLouis the German, therefore expanding the Bavarian eastern march, from its first eastern marches theTraungau andCarantania, over the Avarian March, thereafter sharing the name Pannonian March.
By resolution of an 828Imperial Diet, Baldric of Friuli was deposed and the March of Pannonia was set apart as a frontier march against Moravia within the Frankishregnum of Bavaria. The Bavarian prefects had to face the rising threat by the Moravian rulerMojmir I, who pursued separatist policies in the Eastern March. This march, already calledmarcha orientalis, corresponded at its core to a frontier along theDanube, from the Traungau and the former Slavic principality ofCarantania toSzombathely and theRába River including theVienna basin. By the 843Treaty of Verdun, the Pannonian March together with Bavaria became part of Louis' kingdom ofEast Francia. Meanwhile, the Moravian threat continued; in 854 Prefect Radbod was even accused of having forged an alliance with Mojmir's successor PrinceRastislav and deposed.
Two years later, King Louis ceded the march directly to his sonCarloman of Bavaria, who had the fortifications ofHerzogenburg andWilhelmsburg erected along theTraisen River by theWilhelminer margravesWilliam andEngelschalk I. Likewise, the castle ofTulln on the Danube is documented in 859. In 871 William and Engelschalk died in battle against the Moravians, whereafter Carloman vested their rivalAribo of Austria with Upper Pannonia. When his father Louis died in 876, Carloman succeeded him as East Frankish king and gave Lower Pannonia to his sonArnulf of Carinthia. From 882, the rule was enfeebled by theWilhelminer War of MargraveEngelschalk II against theAribonids, whereafter PrinceSvatopluk I of Moravia took the occasion to invade the Pannonian lands. In 893 Arnulf, East Frankish king since 887, installed MargraveLuitpold.
By the 890s, the Pannonian March seems to have disappeared, along with the threat from Great Moravia, during theHungarian invasions of Europe. Upon the defeat of Margrave Luitpold at the 907Battle of Pressburg, all East Frankish lands beyond the Enns river were lost.
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