Ratpot (prefect)

Count Ratpot (Ratbod, Radbod, Rathbod, Ratboto) was a Frankish nobleman, from 832/833 to 854 prefect of the Bavarian east country and due to this function also royal messenger . Along with the Margraves Ernst and Werner (heads of the county between Enns and Wienerwald), he was one of the key personalities whom the young King Ludwig the German had brought to the Bavarian Marche and presented to the Bavarian Count in order to strengthen his personal starting position there.

Family relationships

He was probably a descendant of the Ratpot from Roxheim and would thus belong to a line of kin with the Geroldon family . A Frisian descent is also conceivable . Most likely, the name of the Rapoton family goes back to Ratpot. However, this guiding name can hardly have been conveyed in a direct line. A relationship to this family has not yet been proven.

Ratpot, if he had any children at all, would at least not have left any male offspring. Some relatives can be inferred from documents. Count Fridarat was probably a brother of Ratpot. His family had good relationships with aristocratic families in "Altbaiern", which is why they acquired numerous properties there. However, there are no records of any possessions in Old Bavaria for Ratpot. The nun Peretkund , Fridarat's daughter, was wealthy around Pitten , Baden near Vienna , Rudlfing , Sittenbach , Imminperc and in Rohrbach (Ilm) in Upper Bavaria . Count Kundhari , a cousin of Peretkund, also claimed this inheritance. However, this was refuted by witnesses who stated that Ratpot had left the property to Fridarat and his daughter Peretcund. Peretkund had also received fiefs from Freising to Allershausen , Oberkienberg , Langenpettenbach and Weil . The Peretkund brothers had fiefdoms in the upper Danube region. Her younger brother Egino owned property in Wüten near Innsbruck and fiefs in Plattling and Laichling. Brother Managolt had his estates near Oberweilbach and Oberbachern . The place Mangolding should have got its name from Count Managolt. It is not known where the counties of Ratpot's relatives are located.

Domain

At the Roman fort Comagena in what is now Tulln , Ratpot had his dominion.

When Ratpot became prefect of the Marcha Orientalis, this rulership comprised the Traungau (land around the Danube from the mouth of the Enn to the mouth of the Drau), the Danube county, the counties of Carantania , Carniola and Steinamanger as well as the principalities of Sisak , Great Moravia and Pannonia . In Traungau, Karantanien, the Mark Krain and in the county of Steinamanger he commanded assigned counts and several Slavic followers. In addition to the overall management of the Marcha Orientalis, he was also the head of the administration of the Danube County (bounded by Enns, Danube and Raab). The seat of the Prefect of the Bavarian Ostland was Lorch since the beginning of the 9th century . Under Ratpot, Tulln , where he held half of the royal land (“Fiscus”), became a suburb and economic center.

His own property, Rappoltenkirchen, is still named after him today. As a family property, he took over a villication around Pitten and expanded it. The villication also included existing settlements between Seebenstein and Gloggnitz and probably Wartmannstetten and Pottschach . Ratpot's real estate can also be found in western Hungary. One of his Slavic followers founded the Hof von Köttlach . The church center of his county was Traismauer, where the Archdiocese of Salzburg had one of its most important bases in Traungau. Pribina was later baptized in Martinskirche near Traismauer, which also testifies to Ratpot's role in the course of Christianization .

politics

Of all the prefects of the Marcha Orientalis, he had the longest term. King Ludwig the German, with whom Ratpot had good contacts, installed him as prefect and made him one of the highest officials and rulers of Bavaria. As prefect of the eastern part of the country, he was responsible for the protection of almost the entire south-eastern border of the Franconian Empire (from 843 of eastern Franconia ).

During his term of office the inner-dynastic battles of the Carolingians 830–842 fall . In the 830s and 840s Ratpot significantly influenced the Ostpolitik of Ludwig the German. In 833 the Slavic tribal prince Pribina fled to Ratpot after Pribina was driven out of Mojmir I's own principality, Neutra . In the same year Ratpot presented Pribina to King Ludwig in Regensburg . Soon afterwards, however, there were disputes between Ratpot and Pribina, so that Pribina fled further east to finally find accommodation with Prince Ratimir in Slavonia. Thereupon Ratpot proceeded militarily (successfully) against Ratimir on the orders of King Ludwig in 838 and expelled Ratimir from his domain. As a result, Pribina also sought political connection to Eastern France again. Later Ratpod and Pribina were reconciled through the mediation of Salacho , the prince of Carniola , who in turn was subordinate to the Prefect Ratpot. On advice from King Ludwig in 848, King Ludwig handed over the Balaton Principality , which Pribina had received as a fiefdom around 839, now in Pribina's hereditary property.

The Great Moravian Empire tried to free himself to the Franks and it soon became counteract one of the major tasks Ratpots this autonomy soon after its inception from the clientele relationship. And yet the Moravians were soon able to expand their influence into the Weinviertel as far as the Stockerau area.

Deposition by King Ludwig the German

In 854 Ratpot may have allied with the Great Moravian Prince Rastislav , whereupon King Ludwig accused him of rebellion. It is possible that Ratpot had become (own) powerful in the royal family. In addition, Ratpot was regarded as an opponent of the Carolingian division of the empire in the course of the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The "uprising" was quickly put down and Ratpot was deposed by the king for treason. Whether Ratpot actually made common cause with the Moravian prince against the king cannot be determined from the sources known today. The king donated the former fiscal estate Ratpots near Tulln to the Regensburg monastery of Sankt Emmeram in 859 . His own property initially remained in the clan. The nun Peretkund received the possessions of Ratpot in Pitten in an inheritance dispute with Count Kundahari, which was carried out on a court day under Prince Karlmann in autumn 869 .

Ludwig appointed his son Karlmann as prefect of the Marcha orientalis two years after Ratpot was overthrown. Ratpot was the last Frankish magnate in the function of prefect of the Bavarian east country.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Michael Mitterauer : Carolingian margraves in the southeast, Franconian imperial aristocracy and Bavarian tribal nobility in Austria , Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nachf., Graz, Vienna, Cologne 1963
2. ↑ ^{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
3. ^ Regest: Karlmann, 869 , on the website of the Bavarian State Library
4. ^ Pitten on the website of the Landesmuseum Niederösterreich
5. ↑ Ratbod ( Memento of the original from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt (accessed on July 28, 2012) 
6. ^ Karl Gutkas: Geschichte Niederösterreichs, Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-7028-0209-6 , p. 27
7. ^ ^{A b c} Hans Krawarik: settlement history of Austria: settlement beginnings, settlement types, settlement genesis , Verlag Lit, 2006
8. ↑ ^{a b} Jochen Böder: Officials and rulers under Ludwig the German , approval work for the state examination, published at www.intelligenzia.de, 1999
9. ↑ Rostislav on the “Genealogy Middle Ages” website (accessed on July 26, 2012)
10. ↑ Herwig Friesinger, Brigitte Vacha: The many fathers of Austria. Romans · Teutons · Slavs. A search for clues. , Compress Verlag, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-900607-03-6
11. ^ Mathias Becher, Alheydis Plassmann (ed.): Streit am Hof ​​im Mittelalter, V&R unipress, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89971-884-3 , p. 233
12. ^ Regest: Ludwig the German, May 1, 859 , on the Regesta Imperii website ; D LD 96 .

predecessor	Office	successor
Gerold II.	Prefect of the Marcha orientalis 832 / 833–854	Karlmann