Nakon

Nakon , even Nacco or Naqun († 965/967) was a elbslawischer Prince , who until 965/967 in today's Mecklenburg and eastern Holstein as Samtherrscher over the tribal association of Abodrites prevailed.

Around 965, the Jewish traveler Ibrahim ibn Jacub placed Nakon, who resided on the Mecklenburg , in a row with the princes of the Bulgarians , Bohemia and Poland , the most important Slavic rulers of the time.

Nakon is considered to be the top ancestor of the princely family of the Nakonids named after him .

Life

origin

Nakon's origin is unknown. Possibly he was the son of an unknown Abodrite prince, whose baptism is recorded in 931. He had a son Mistivoy , who succeeded him in the velvet rule over the tribal union. Stoignew , military leader of the anti-Saxon coalition of Slavic tribes that was defeated in the Battle of the Raxa , is said to have been Nakon's brother.

Domination

The year Nakon came to power cannot be determined. He was first mentioned in 954 in the Saxon history of Widukind von Corveys, written around 967 . Widukind describes Nakon as a subregulus (literally: "Unterlinkönig"), without this Saxon foreign name attesting more to Nakon's ruling position than to its existence itself. Ibrahim Ibn Jakub reports on Nakon almost simultaneously with Widukind. He calls him the "King of the West". According to Ibrahim's observations, Nakon commanded a heavily armed, mounted company and resided in a castle, most likely the Mecklenburg. Nakon also had the power and the means to build another castle. The strength of Nakon's followers is unknown, but it is believed to have been relatively large. This is supported by the equation of Nakon made by Ibrahim with the princes of the Bulgarians, Bohemians and Poles, the most important Slavic rulers of that time. Gerard Labuda determined for the comparable conditions in Poland under Mieszko I. that the expenses for equipment and maintenance of a single rider must have corresponded to the work of 10 farmers. From this it is deduced that under Nakon there must have already been an efficient tax system among the Abodrites, from whose income Nakon financed his followers. Two grain crops a year and a remarkable wealth of horses also suggest that agriculture is productive.

Nakon's rule extended in the west to the Danes and Saxons around 965. So she closed Wagrien and the settlement area of at this time without their own royal house nor the Wagriern counting polabians with one over whose part chieftains he held the supremacy. Political tensions have been passed down between Nakon and the Vagrian prince, which are interpreted differently. While, according to a more recent opinion, this is an expression of strivings for autonomy in a disintegrating large tribe, according to conventional opinion it is the rebellion of a subjugated royal house. In the east, Nakon commanded the Abodrites, which gave the tribal association its name. This settled around Wismar and on both sides of the Schwerin lake . Whether the sub-tribes of the Kessiner along the Warnow and the Zirzipanen on the Upper Peene were also under his rule cannot be inferred from the sources, but is mostly suspected.

Nakon must have died between 965 and 967, because in 967 Widukind already names Mistiwoj as an Abodrite prince.

Saxon relations

Nakon's relations to the neighboring Saxons are difficult to explain from the written sources. Because despite an alleged anti-Saxon sentiment, Nakon's fights with the Saxon Prince Hermann Billung are not documented. Hermann pursued his fugitive nephews Wichmann II. And Ekbert vom Ambergau to Slavic territory, where in early March 955 he unsuccessfully overran an otherwise unknown castle called Suithleiscranne. The fortress was evidently defended by Wichmann II and his followers. Even when Wichmann II invaded Saxon territory after Easter and now, as the leader of a predominantly Slavic following, conquered the Saxon castle Cocarescemier, whose inhabitants were subsequently massacred and enslaved, Nakon was not involved. Instead, Widukind von Corvey only reports of Herrmann Billung's striking reluctance to penetrate the Abodritic tribal area. Ernst Schubert suspects that there could have been a friendship alliance between Nakon and the late Wichmann I.

The battle on the Raxa, which took place later in 955, between a Saxon-Bohemian-Slavonic contingent under Otto I and Margrave Gero and an anti-Saxon coalition of Abodrites and Wilzen , Tolensans and Zirzipans under Stoignew, took place without Nakon. The outcome of the battle - a devastating defeat of the Slavic tribes - had no political consequences for Nakon: 10 years later Ibrahim ibn Jacub described him as "King of the West" and counted him among the most powerful Slavic princes.

swell

• Paul Hirsch , Hans-Eberhard Lohmann (ed.): Widukindi monachi Corbeiensis rerum gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres. Hanover 1935 ( MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi, volume 60). Digitized
• The chronicle of Bishop Thietmar von Merseburg and her Korveier revision. Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi chronicon. Edited by Robert Holtzmann . Berlin 1935. (Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores. 6, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Nova Series; 9) Digitized
• Adam of Bremen : Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum . In: Werner Trillmich , Rudolf Buchner (Hrsg.): Sources of the 9th and 11th centuries on the history of the Hamburg Church and the Empire. = Fontes saeculorum noni et undecimi historiam ecclesiae Hammaburgensis necnon imperii illustrantes (= selected sources on German history in the Middle Ages. Freiherr-vom-Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Vol. 11). 7th edition, expanded compared to the 6th by a supplement by Volker Scior. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2000, ISBN 3-534-00602-X , pp. 137-499.

Remarks

1. ↑ Annales Augienses 931: Henricus rex reges Abodritorum et Nordmannorum effecit christianos. likewise the Annales Hildesheimenses 931.
2. ^ So the addendum to Thietmar II, 12; the brother's name is not found in Widukind.
3. ↑ Widukind III, 50.
4. ^ Roman Zaroff: Study into Socio-political History of the Obodrites. in: Collegium Medievale vol. 16, Oslo 2003, p. 20.
5. ↑ Gerard Labuda: Ustroj Spoteczn. in: L.Leciejewicz (ed.) Slownik Kultury Dawnych Slowian. Warsaw 1990, pp. 543–545, here p. 543 quoted from: Roman Zaroff: Study into Socio-political History of the Obodrites. in: Collegium Medievale vol. 16, Oslo 2003, p. 20.
6. ↑ Widukind III, 68.
7. ↑ On the location of Wolfgang Brüske Castle: Studies on the history of the Lutizenbund. German-Wendish relations of the 10th – 12th centuries Century (= Central German Research. Vol. 3). 2nd edition increased by one epilogue. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1983, ISBN 3-412-07583-3 , p. 220 f.
8. ^ On the location of Wolfgang Brüske Castle: Investigations into the history of the Lutizenbund. German-Wendish relations of the 10th – 12th centuries Century (= Central German Research. Vol. 3). 2nd edition increased by one epilogue. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1983, ISBN 3-412-07583-3 , p. 198 f.
9. ↑ Ernst Schubert: The Billunger. In: Hans Patze (founder): History of Lower Saxony. Volume 2, Part 1: Ernst Schubert (Ed.): Politics, Constitution, Economy from the 9th to the end of the 15th century (= publications of the Historical Commission for Lower Saxony, Bremen and the former states of Hanover, Oldenburg, Braunschweig and Schaumburg-Lippe . 36). Hahn, Hanover 1997, ISBN 3-7752-5900-7 , pp. 155–164, here pp. 160 f.