Witzan

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Presumed settlement areas of the Abodrites , Bethenzers , Smeldinger , Linonen and the northern Albingian Saxons at the time of Witzan 780–795.

Witzan , Slav. Visan († 795 near Bardowick ) was a Slavic prince who ruled over the West Slavic tribal association of the Abodrites as a velvet ruler at the end of the 8th century in what is now Mecklenburg and in the neighboring East Holstein . He was a vassal of the Frankish King Charlemagne .

Witzan is first mentioned in 789. The Annales regni Francorum and the Annales Mettenses refer to him as the leader (" princeps ") of the Abodrites. There are no other details about its origin. His successors Drasco and Sclaomir are probably his son and brother.

With the progressive integration of Saxony into the Franconian Empire, the Abodrites increasingly came into the political field of vision of the Franks. Trade relations with the Slavs northeast of the Elbe have been documented since the middle of the 8th century . Presumably in the year 780 Charlemagne founded a military alliance with Witzan against the Saxons. This could have been closed at the mouth of the ear near Wolmirstedt . The content of the alliance is unknown, but the Frankish annalists perceived Witzan as a vassal of Charlemagne. In 789 Witzan accompanied the Franconian ruler on his campaign against the Wilzen . During the campaign he and his Abodritic contingent were given the task of covering the Elbe crossing of the Frankish-Saxon army from the other, Wilzian side of the Elbe. Then they fought on the side of the Franks in the Prignitz and on the Elde against the Linonen , Smeldinger and Bethenzer who belonged to the Wilzian tribal association , whose petty kings were captured and taken as hostages to the Peene room . There they had to submit to the Franconian ruler after taking the main castle at Vorwerk (Demmin) and take the oath of allegiance to him. This pursued the goal of pacifying the area on the other side of the Elbe, which was defined as the imperial border. In contrast, Einhard only reports in the Vita Karoli Magni that the campaign was triggered by continuous attacks by the Wilzen against the Abodrites.

As a direct result of the Wilz move, Witzan is said to have been subordinated by Charlemagne to the tribal areas of the inferior Smeldinger, Bethenzer and Linonen, so that his rule lay like a barrier from the Baltic coast to the mouth of the Havel between Saxony and Wilzen. The Franconian sources also consistently refer to the princeps Witzan in 795 as the rex of the Abodrites, i.e. their king. It is therefore assumed that Charlemagne installed Witzan as sole ruler over the tribal association after the successful Wilzen campaign. However, the title of a rex for Witzan can already be found in the fragmentum chesnii report on the Wilzen campaign.

Witzan fell in battle with the Saxons in 795 while crossing the Elbe as leader of the Abodritic army on the way to Bardowick. According to the sources, it was Nordalbingier who killed the Frankish allies, whereupon Karl undertook a retaliatory campaign. Due to the location and the participation of the northern Albingians, the Elbe crossing through the ford at the later Ertheneburg could have taken place just under 10 kilometers north of Bardowieck. In contrast, the Hliuni named in the Annales Laurissenses maiores is ruled out as a place of death due to its distance from the Elbe.

Witzan's son Drasco followed him in 795 as military leader, in 804 as velvet ruler.

swell

literature

  • Wolfgang H. Fritze : Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: Herbert Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. W. Schmitz, Gießen 1960, pp. 141-219, online (PDF 6.9 MB) .
  • Bernhard Friedmann: Studies on the history of the abodritic principality up to the end of the 10th century. (= East European Studies of the State of Hesse. Series 1: Giessen Treatises on Agricultural and Economic Research in Eastern Europe . Vol. 197). Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0 . ( Review by Timothy Reuter )

Remarks

  1. ^ Settlement areas of the Linonen, Smeldinger and Bethenzer after Fred Ruchhöft: From the Slavic tribal area to the German bailiwick. The development of the territories in Ostholstein, Lauenburg, Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania in the Middle Ages. (= Archeology and history in the Baltic Sea region. Vol. 4). Leidorf, Rahden (Westphalia) 2008, ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 , p. 85
  2. ^ Annales regni Francorum 789: Abodriti, quorum princeps fuit Witzan.
  3. ↑ Annales Mettenses 789: nec non Abodriti, quorum princeps Wazan
  4. ↑ Bernhard Friedmann: Studies on the history of the Abodritic principality up to the end of the 10th century. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0 , pp. 39-48 considers, due to linguistic considerations, a descent from the Hevellian - Bohemian dynasty to be possible.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze : Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: Herbert Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder. W. Schmitz, Gießen 1960, pp. 141-219, here p. 179.
  6. ↑ For example in the Vita Lebuini antiqua (MGH SS 30, 2) p. 794.
  7. ↑ Bernhard Friedmann: Studies on the history of the Abodritic Principality up to the end of the 10th century (Eastern European Studies of the State of Hesse. Series 1: Giessener Abhandlungen zur Agrar- und Wirtschaftsforschung des European East 197). Berlin 1986, p. 25; Gerard Labuda: Civitas Dragaviti. On the Frankish-Slavic relations at the end of the 8th century. In: K.-D. Grothusen u. Klaus Zernack (Ed.): Europa Slavica-Europa Orientalis. Festschrift for Herbert Ludat on his 70th birthday. Berlin 1980, pp. 87-98, here pp. 87f .; comprehensive on this already Richard Wagner: The alliance of Charlemagne with the Abodrites. In: Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology: Yearbooks of the Association for Mecklenburg History and Archeology. 63: 89-129 (1898).
  8. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 780: ibique omnia disponens tam Saxoniam quam et Sclavos (And there he [Karl] regulated everything both in Saxony and among the Slavs)
  9. ↑ Annales Laureshamenses 795: vassum domini .
  10. ↑ Christian Hanewinkel: The political significance of the Elbe Slavs with regard to the changes in rule in the East Franconian Empire and in Saxony from 887 to 936 - political sketches for the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries. Dissertation, Münster 2004, p. 54.
  11. ↑ Einhard, Vita Karoli, Chapter 12: Causa belli erat, quod Abodritos, qui cum Francis olim foederati erant, adsidua incursione lacessabant
  12. ↑ Annales Einhardi 795: Witzinum regem Abodritorum ; Annales Laurehamenses 795: Wizzin regem Abotridarum
  13. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze: The dating of the Geographus Bavarus . In: Ludolf Kuchenbuch, Winfried Schich (Hrsg.): Early days between the Baltic Sea and the Danube: Selected contributions to the historical development in Eastern Central Europe from the 6th to the 13th century . Berlin 1982, p. 118; Friedmann: Investigations into the history of the abodritic principality up to the end of the 10th century. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-428-05886-0 , pp. 39-48.
  14. ↑ Fragmentum chesnii 789: Dragitus et filius eius, et alii reges Witsan, et Drago
  15. ↑ Annales Einhardi 795; Annales Laureshameses 795.
  16. ^ For example, Wilhelm Carl Conrad v. Hammerstein-Loxten The Bardengau. A historical investigation into its conditions and the property of the Billunger , Hanover 1869 page 365 with the additional reference to a deserted Witzandorpe located there
  17. ↑ et usque ad fluvium Albim pervenit, ad locum qui dicitur Hliuni, in quo tunc Witzin Abodritorum rex a Saxonibus occisus es
predecessor Office successor
Velvet ruler of the Abodrites
789–795 		Drasco
personal data
SURNAME Witzan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Visan (Slavic)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Army leader and king of the West Slavic tribal association of the Abodrites and vassal of the Franks
DATE OF BIRTH before 789
DATE OF DEATH 795
Place of death at Bardowieck