Pribina (Balaton Principality)

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Statue of Pribina in Nitra .

Pribina (* unknown; † between February 20, 860 and March 21, 861 ) was a Slavic prince in the early Middle Ages who had an estate in the city of Nitra and had a church built on it, which was consecrated by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Adalram .

Pribina was exiled by the Moravian prince Mojmir I around 832/33 , whereupon he fled to the Franks first. After further stays with Bulgarians and Croats, Pribina finally returned to the Frankish Empire and became the first prince of Lower Pannonia from 839/40 to 860/61 .

In Slovakia he is considered the first known ruler of the Slovaks . The most important written source on Prince Pribina is the Conversio Bagoariorum et Carantanorum .

Origin and family

Little is known about the origins and family situation of Pribina. Leading Czech and British historians assume that Pribina was a Moravian feudal prince who may have belonged to the Mojmirid dynasty . Slovak historians, on the other hand, hold on to the view that Pribina was a sovereign ruler of its own independent principality until 833.

Pribina's wife may have belonged to the Bavarian counts of the Wilhelminers , with whom he had his son Kocel . Kocel probably had a younger brother named Unzat (Unsat), who is mentioned several times together with Kocel.

Prince of Nitra

The Moravian Empire under Mojmir I.

Pribina probably had good relations with neighboring Bavaria, and therefore the assumption is justified that at the time of Pribina there were Bavarian merchants in Nitra. He had a Christian church built here as early as 828/830, which was consecrated by the Archbishop of Salzburg, Adalram . This Emmeram church could not yet be located and possibly served the Bavarian Christians. It is the first known church on Slavic territory north of the Danube. Whether Pribina itself was originally a pagan is controversial. In 833 Pribina was banished from Nitra by the Moravian prince Mojmir I.

Years of escape

Pribina fled with his followers to the prefect of the Bavarian east country Ratpot , who introduced him to King Ludwig the German in the first half of the year 833 . On the king's orders, Pribina was then baptized in the Martinskirche near Traismauer (or according to some researchers: newly baptized). However, due to disputes with Ratpot, he soon fled the East. First he went to the Greater Bulgarian Empire (probably to Sirmium ) - whose ruler was Khan Malamir at the time - and later to his relative, Prince Ratimir of Posavia . In 838, however, Ratbot conquered the principality of Ratimir on the orders of King Ludwig. It is not entirely clear whether this attack was related to Pribina's appearance at Ratimir. In any case, Pribina then fled to Salacho , the prince of Carniola . At that time Salacho's territory was probably already part of Carantania , which was under the administration of Ratpot. Salacho reconciled Pribina with Ratpot.

Prince of the Balaton Principality

In 839 or 840 King Ludwig the German gave Pribina the administration of the Slavic Balaton principality in Lower Pannonia , where he founded the new capital Blatnohrad (German: Mosapurc (Moosburg), today Zalavár ). On June 10, 846, the king gave him an area of ​​“iuxta fluvium Valchau”, the location of which cannot be determined today, to the extent of 100 manses. In 846 or 847 he received the lifelong and hereditary property of the principality around 848. In the principality, Pribina developed large-scale colonization and was an avid Christianizer . He converted Blatnohrad into a huge fortress, built 15 churches and was a loyal vassal of the Franconian kings until the end. He protected eastern Franconia from attacks by Great Moravia, Bulgaria and the south-western Slavs. Pribina received rich gifts from the East Franconian king and gave gifts to the Niederaltaich monastery himself . as well as the Patriarchate of Aquileia .

Banknote 20 Slovak crowns with a portrait of Pribina

Pribina was drawn into the military conflict between Prince Karlmann and his father King Ludwig the Germans. Both were Pribina's masters. Karlmann as prefect of the Bavarian Ostland, Ludwig as the East Frankish king, to whom the prefect of the Ostland was subordinate. Pribina took the king's side. Karlman was allied with the Great Moravian Prince Rastislav and is said to have sacrificed “his” subjects Pribina to Rastislav in order to secure his support. This is controversial, however, because the exact background and events that ultimately led to Pribina's death are uncertain except for the following: Pribina was "slain by the Moravians" in 861. Pribina fell during the battles between Karlmann and Rastislav of Moravia. It is possible that Pribina was murdered. Pribina's successor was his son Kocel , who continued his father's work.

The figure of Pribina was widely exploited as a symbol of German-Slavic cooperation by the regime of the 1st Slovak Republic (1939–1945).

literature

  • J. Hahn: Pribina . In: Biographical Lexicon on the History of Southeast Europe . Volume 3. Munich 1979, p. 482 f.
  • Lubomír E. Havlík: Kronika o Velké Moravě [Chronicle of Great Moravia]. JOTA, o. O. 2013, ISBN 978-80-85617-06-1 .
  • Ján Steinhübel: Nitrianske kniežatstvo. Počiatky stredovekého Slovenska [The Principality of Nitra. The Beginnings of Medieval Slovakia]. Rak, Bratislava 2004, ISBN 80-224-0812-3 .
  • Ján Steinhübel: The Duchy of Nitra. In: Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown (Eds.): Slovakia in History. Cambridge University Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6 , pp. 15-29.
  • Dušan Třeštík: Počátky Přemyslovců. Vstup Čechů do dějin (530–935) [The beginnings of the Přemyslids. The Entry of the Czechs into History (530–935)]. Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, o. O. 2008, ISBN 978-80-7106-138-0 .
  • Dušan Třeštík: Vznik Velké Moravy. Moravané, Čechové a střední Evropa v letech 791–871 [The emergence of Great Moravia. Moravians, Czechs and Central Europe in the years 791–871]. Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, o. O. 2010, ISBN 978-80-7422-049-4 .
  • Dušan Třeštík: Historian on Political Traditions of Great Moravia. In: JPRS Report: East Europe - Issues 35-42 , 1991, pp. 7-10. ( online )
  • Alexis P. Vlasto: The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom. An Introduction of the Mediaval History of the Slavs. Cambridge University Press 1970.
  • Herwig Wolfram : Privina, Prince in Pannonia (830/40 / † around 860) . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 7, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-7608-8907-7 , Sp. 232.

Web links

Commons : Pribina  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ Latin in contemporary sources: Priwina, Briuuinus, Briwinus .
  2. ↑ a b c Milko Kos: Pribina , on the website “Slovenski Biografski Leksikon”, Slovenian
  3. ↑ Havlík: Kronika , p. 103; Třeštík: Vznik , p. 131; Třeštík: Počiatky , p. 271; Vlasto: The Entry Slavs , p. 24.
  4. ↑ Steinhübel: The Duchy of Nitra , p. 16.
  5. ↑ Kocel ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website eeo.uni-klu.ac.at  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the University of Klagenfurt @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eeo.uni-klu.ac.at@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / eeo.uni-klu.ac.at  
  6. ↑ a b c Herwig Wolfram: Salzburg, Bavaria, Austria. The Conversio Bagoarium et Carantanorum and the sources of their time. , Verlag Oldenbourg, Vienna, Munich, Oldenbourg 1996, p. 191ff
  7. ^ A b Mathias Bernath, Felix v. Schroeder (Hrsg.): Biographical Lexicon for the History of Southeast Europe. Volume III L-P . R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-486-48991-7 , p. 482 f.
  8. ↑ Peter Stih, Vasko Simoniti, Peter Vodopivec: A Slovene History , Institut za novejso zgodovino, Ljubljana, 2008, English
  9. ↑ Ferdinand Sisic: History of the Croats. First part (up to 1102) , Matica Hrcatska publishing house, Zagreb 1917
  10. ↑ RI I n. 1387 on the Regesta Imperii website
  11. ↑ RI I n. 1442 on the Regesta Imperii website
  12. ↑ Ernst Dümmler: History of the East Franconian Empire . Volume 1. Duncker & Humblot, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-7749-3663-8 , p. 400 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Pribina
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slavic tribal prince
DATE OF BIRTH before 825
DATE OF DEATH between February 20, 860 and March 21, 861