Drasco

Dominion of the Abodritic ruler Drasco after the surrender of northern Albingia by Charlemagne 804–810.

Drasco , slaw. Dražǐko , lat. Thrasco (* before 789, † 810 ), first petty king ( regulus ) was from 795 commander ( dux ) and 804 until his death in 810 Samtherrscher ( rex ) of the West Slavic tribal alliance of Abodrites and vassal the Franks under Charlemagne .

Historical background

In 780 Charlemagne entered into an alliance with the Abodrites at the then ear opening near Wolmirstedt . Its content has not been passed down, but from the behavior of the Abodrites in the following decades it can be deduced that they owed military service , tribute payments and homage to the Franconian royal court (court trip ). Furthermore, Charlemagne had the right to arbitration decisions in disputes among the Abodritic tribes and stipulated the appointment, or at least the confirmation of the Abodritic military leaders and rulers. In contrast, the Franks provided military support against Wilzen, Saxony, Smeldinger, Bethenzer and Linonen . The alliance thus had features of a feudal relationship , but without the Franks including the Abodrites in the empire or evangelizing them.

Due to their exposed geopolitical location, the Abodrites had every reason to conclude an agreement with a strong ally: in the north their settlement area bordered on that of the up-and-coming Danes , in the east on the Slavic tribal association of Wilzen , in the south on the Saxon Ostfalen and in the west on also Saxon northern Albingia , which formed alternating coalitions against the Abodrites. At the end of the 8th century, the Abodrites' tribal association was also composed of two spatially separated rulership agglomerations of a large number of small tribes, on the fringes of which individual tribes pursued particular interests.

Life

In 789, Drasco took part in the Frankish campaign against the Wilzen in the entourage of his father, the Abodritic King Witzan . Einhard reports in the Vita Karoli Magni that the campaign was triggered by constant attacks by the Wilzen against the Abodrites. Charlemagne himself led the contingent of Franks, Saxons, Abodrites and Sorbs, which was reinforced on the Havel with Frisians who had sailed up the Elbe on ships. The troops devastated the land of the Wilzen, who were unable to defend themselves successfully in view of the overwhelming odds. Finally, King Dragowit from Wilz submitted himself and made an oath of allegiance to Karl and held hostages.

Presumably in 795, Drasco Witzan followed in the role of general of the Abodrites. In that year, as part of the army succession against the Saxons, Witzan marched with his warriors to an agreed meeting point with Karl in Bardowieck , but got caught in a Saxon ambush while crossing the Elbe and was slain. Although Drasco received a designation as military leader ( dux ) in the contemporary sources only three years later, a multi-year vacancy of this key position is very unlikely.

In 798 the Abodrites won the decisive victory over the Saxons living in northern Albingia in the battle on the Sventana field near the town of Bornhöved under their army commander, now also referred to as dux in the sources . The right wing of the Abodritic Army was commanded by the Drasco subordinate to Frankish military advisers Eburis, possibly with Frankish auxiliaries. After the victory over the Saxons, Drasco was ordered to go to northern Thuringia, where Karl honored the victorious general for his services. The uniqueness of this honor is expressed in the official Franconian historiography when it says in the Lorsch annals for the year 798 that Drasco received it even though he was Heide ( fanatic ).

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Reconstructed Hollenstedt castle wall - at Holdunsteti , Drasco received the royal dignity over the Abodrites from Charlemagne in 804

In 804, Drasco received the royal dignity ( rex Abotritorum nomine Drosuc ) through the Abodritic tribal association in Charlemagne's summer camp near Hollenstedt . Whether the appointment only represents the recognition of a decision already made by the individual princes of the small tribes or an original award is controversial. In any case, the Metz annals describe that Charlemagne ended a dispute among the Abodritic princes over leadership with the appointment of Drascos. At the same time, Karl placed the Saxon districts in northern Albingia, i.e. Dithmarschen , Holstein and Stormarn , under Drasco's rule. With the allocation of the previously Saxon settlement area and a settlement of the Abodrites - albeit archaeologically only partially verifiable - Karl intended to protect the Franconian northern border from the Danes, but above all he wanted the Saxons to be able to retreat to the Danes in the event of a renewed uprising cut off.

Karl's plans failed as early as 808. In a lightning attack, the Danes under Göttrik landed on the abodritic Baltic coast in the Wismar area and destroyed several villages and castles as well as the Reric trading center within a few days. At the same time, the Abodrites were attacked by the hostile Wilzen as well as the Smelding and Linonen. The extent of the defeat was enormous: two thirds of the Abodritic tribes fell away from Drasco, recognized Göttrik's sovereignty and paid tribute to him. Godelaib , a duke with a Danish name who was allied with the Abodrites, was hanged as a traitor by Göttrik in Reric . The Danish merchants Rerics had to leave the trading center and were settled in Haithabu. Since Drasco feared being handed over to Göttrik by his own people, he sought his salvation in flight. He had to leave his son Ceadrag hostage to the Danish king Göttrik in 809, an admission of defeat and a sign of submission at the same time. The rushing Franks under Charles the Younger, on the other hand, came too late to intervene on the side of the Abodrites: The Danes had withdrawn with rich booty, but also with heavy losses, as quickly as they had struck.

Given the superiority of the Danish king, parts of the Abodritic tribal association Drasco announced their allegiance and either recognized Göttrik as ruler or pursued their own particular interests again. The tribal association threatened to dissolve. Nevertheless, Drasco managed to set up a new army just a year later, consisting of the men of his tribe and Saxon auxiliary troops. With this, however, he did not move against the Danes, to whom he had just sworn the oath of allegiance, but invaded the territories of the Wilzen allied with them, devastated their territories with fire and sword and then returned victorious and with rich booty. Through these successes he was able to recruit more Saxons, conquered the largest Smeldinger castle near Friedrichsruhe, and through these successes forced the tribes that had fallen away from him to rejoin him.

Death and succession

In 810 Drasco was murdered in Reric by a vassal of the Danish king Göttrik. Due to the designation as a vassal and the place of death in the middle of one's own territory, there is much to suggest that the assassin is an Abodritic follower of Göttrik. In contrast to Moissac's chronicle, which is usually somewhat more detailed, the unofficial Annales regni Francorum record the death of Drasco for 809. In the paragraph before this announcement, however, they report that Emperor Karl held a church meeting in Aachen in November 809. In the next paragraph, which also deals with the fate of Drasco, however, reference is made to March 15, which is to be classified in the following year 810.

After Drasco's death, Charlemagne made his brother Sclaomir ruler of the Abodrites. But the alliance only survived Charles' death in 814 by a few more years. As early as 817, Sclaomir and the Danes besieged Esesfelth Castle without success . And in 819 the Abodrites created Liubice, an important military base from which the Franconian areas south of the Elbe were threatened. In response to this threat, the Franks erected the Delbende against the Abodrites in 822 .

literature

• Wolfgang Herrmann Fritze: Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and its development from a tribal state to a ruling state. In: H. Ludat (ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between the Elbe, Saale and Oder , Gießen 1960, pp. 141–219
• Bernhard Friedmann: Investigations 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 der European East 197), Berlin 1986

Remarks

1. ↑ Settlement area 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. ↑ Further spellings u. a. Thrasuco, Thrasucho, Thrasico, Drosuc, Drogo
3. ↑ Fragmentum chesnii 789 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online , Wolfgang H. Fritze describes him as Kleinfürst : Die Dating des Geographus Bavarus , in: Ludolf Kuchenbuch, Winfried Schich (Ed.): Early days between the Baltic Sea and Danube: Selected contributions on the historical development in Eastern Central Europe from the 6th to the 13th century , Berlin 1982, p. 119
4. ^ Chronicon Moissiacense 804 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online
5. ^ Chronicon Moissiacense 810 in the MGH
6. ↑ Literally translated, the Latin word rex means king. Nevertheless, the Abodritic rulers are usually referred to in the literature as velvet rulers or grand dukes.
7. ↑ Annales regni Francorum 780 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii online ; 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. Vol. 63 (1898), pp. 89–129 weblink ( Memento from September 7, 2004 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ 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, Volume 4), Rahden / Westf. 2008 ISBN 978-3-89646-464-4 , p. 96
9. ↑ Fragmentum chesnii 789 in the MGH : Dragitus et filius eius, et alii reges Witsan, et Drago On the interpretation of the source text comprehensively 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 of the eastern neighbors in the 9th and 10th centuries , Münster 2004, p. 38 ff.
10. ↑ Fragmentum chesnii 789 in the MGH
11. ↑ Wolfgang Herrmann Fritze: Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and their development from a tribal state to a ruling state , in: H. Ludat (Ed.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between Elbe, Saale and Oder , Gießen 1960, p. 154, below expressly abandoning his earlier view
12. ^ Annales Einhardi 795 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online
13. ↑ Annales Laureshamenses 798 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online
14. ^ Chronicon Moissiacense 804 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online
15. ↑ Wolfgang H. Fritze: Problems of the abodritic tribal and imperial constitution and their development from a tribal state to a ruling state , in: H. Ludat (Hrsg.): Settlement and constitution of the Slavs between Elbe, Saale and Oder , Gießen 1960, p. 155: Solemn investiture
16. ↑ Annales Mettenses priores 804 in the MGH
17. ↑ Volker Hellten: Between Cooperation and Confrontation: Denmark and the Franconian Empire in the 9th Century , Cologne 2011, p. 41ff. weblink
18. ^ Annales regni Francorum 808 in the MGH and further in the Regesta Imperii Online
19. ^ Annales regni Francorum 809 in the MGH
20. ^ Chronicon Moissiacense 810 in the MGH
21. ↑ Sandra Polzer: The Franks and the North. On the difficulty of interpreting early medieval sources on the history of Denmark , Vienna 2008, p. 66, footnote 210 weblink (PDF; 1.23 MB)
22. ^ Henning Hellmuth Andersen: Power politics around northern Albingia at the beginning of the 9th century. In: Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt Vol. 10 (1980), p. 83

predecessor	Office	successor
Witzan	Velvet ruler of the Abodrites 804–810	Sclaomir