Carantania - History

History

See also: Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps

In the 4th century Chur became the seat of the first Christian bishopric north to the Alps. Despite a legend assigning its foundation to an alleged Briton king, St. Lucius, the first known bishop is one Asinio in 451 AD.

In the 6th century, the Alpine Slavs, who are reckoned to be ancestors of present-day Slovenes, settled the eastern areas of the Friulia region. They settled in the easternmost mountainous areas of Friuli, known as the Friulian Slavia, as well as the Kras Plateau and the area north and south from Gorizia.

After the fall of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in 553, the Germanic tribe of the Lombards invaded Italy via the Tyrol and founded the Lombard Kingdom of Italy, which no longer included all of Tyrol, only its southern part. The northern part of Tyrol came under the influence of the Bavarii, while the west probably was part of Alamannia.

In 568, the Langobards receded into Northern Italy. Subsequently, in the last decades of the 6th century, Slavs settled in the depopulated territory with the help of their Avar overlords. In 588 they reached the area of the Upper Sava River and in 591 they arrived in the Upper Drava region, where they soon fought with the Bavarians under Duke Tassilo I. In 592 the Bavarians won, but three years later, in 595 the Slavic-Avar army gained victory and thus consolidated the boundary between the Frankish and the Avar territories. By that time, today's East Tyrol and Carinthia came to be referred to in historical sources as Provincia Sclaborum (the Country of Slavs).

In the 6th century, the Alpine Slavs, who are reckoned to be ancestors of present-day Slovenes, settled the eastern areas of the Friulia region. They settled in the easternmost mountainous areas of Friuli, known as the Friulian Slavia, as well as the Kras Plateau and the area north and south from Gorizia. In the 6th century Chur was also conquered by the Franks.

Slavic settlement in the Eastern Alps region is proven by the collapse of local dioceses in the late 6th century, a change in population and material culture, and most importantly, in the establishment of a Slavic language group in the area. The territory settled by Slavs, however, was also inhabited by the remains of the indigenous Romanized population, which preserved Christianity.

Slavs in both the Eastern Alps and the Pannonian region were originally subject to Avar rulers (kagans). After Avar rule weakened around 610, a relatively independent March of the Slavs (marca Vinedorum), governed by a duke, emerged in southern Carinthia in the early 7th century. Historical sources mention Valuk as the duke of Slavs (Wallux dux Winedorum).

In 623 Slavs of the Eastern Alps probably joined Samo's Tribal Union, a Slavic tribal alliance governed by the Frankish merchant Samo. The year 626 brought an end to Avar dominance over Slavs, as Avars were defeated at Constantinople. In 658 Samo died and his Tribal Union disintegrated. A smaller part of the original March of the Slavs, centred north of modern Klagenfurt, preserved independence and came to be known as Carantania. The name Carantania itself begins to appear in historical sources soon after 660. The first clear indication of a specific ethnic identity and political organisation may be recognised in the geographical term Carantanum which Paul the Deacon used in reference to the year 664, and in connection to which he also mentioned a specific Slavic people (gens Sclavorum) living there.

In 745, Carantania lost its independence and became part of the semifeudal Frankish Empire (which was ruled by the emperor Charlemagne from 771 to 814), due to the pressing danger posed by Avar tribes from the east. Avars regained eastern parts of Carantania between 745 and 795.

In 828, Carantania became a margraviate of the Frankish empire. The local princes were deposed for following the anti-Frankish rebellion of Ljudevit Posavski and replaced by a Germanic (primarily Bavarian) ascendancy. In 843 it passed into the hands of Louis the German (804-876). In 887 Arnulf of Carinthia (850-899), a bastard grandson of Louis the German, assumed his title of King of the East Franks and became the first Duke of Carinthia.

The city of Chur suffered several invasions, by the Magyars in 925-926, when the cathedral was destroyed.