Arnulf of Carinthia

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Later romantic portrait of Arnulf.

ArnulfUsually referred to as Arnulf of Carinthia; German Arnulf von Kärnten, Slovenian Arnulf Koroški. (850 – December 8 899) was the Carolingian King of East FranciaEast Francia had been split from the rest of Frankish Realm by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. It evolved into Germany after the Carolingian eclipse. from 887 to his death. He was the illegitimate son of Carloman, King of Bavaria, and his concubine, Liutswind,Also Litwinde or Litwindie of Carinthian origin, daughter of one Count Ernst. He was given the duchy of Carinthia (a Frankish vassal state and successor of the ancient Principality of Karantania) by his father when he divided his realm, giving Bavaria to Louis the Younger and the Kingdom of Italy to Charles the Fat, in 880 on his death.

He spent his childhood in Karantania, homeland of his mother. Carloman had a court there, in Moosburg (then Blatograd), where the young Arnulf grew up. From later events it is evident that the Karantanians, from an early time, treated him as their own duke.

He took the leading role in the deposition of his uncle, the Emperor Charles the Fat. With the support of the nobles, Arnulf held a diet and deposed Charles in November 887, under threat of military action. Charles peacefully went into his involuntary retirement, but not without first chastising his nephew for his treachery and asking only for a few royal villas in Swabia, which Arnulf mercifully granted him, on which to live out his final months. Arnulf was elected by the nobles of the realm (only the eastern realm, though Charles had ruled the whole of the Frankish lands) and assumed his title of King.

Arnulf was not a negotiator, but a fighter. At the decisive Battle of Leuven in September 891, he defeated an invading force of the Northmen, or Vikings, essentially ending their invasions on that front. The Annales Fuldenses report that the bodies of dead Northmen blocked the run of the river. After his victory, Arnulf built a new castle on an island in the Dijle river.Latin Luvanium, local Lovon.

In 894 or 895, Great Moravia probably lost a part of its territory — present-day Western Hungary — to him. Arnulf, however, failed to conquer the whole of Great Moravia when he attempted it in 892, 893, and 899. In 895, Bohemia broke away from Great Moravia and became his vassal. An accord was made between him and the Bohemian Duke Borivoj I (reigned 870-895); Bohemia was thus freed from the dangers of invasion.

Arnulf invaded Italy in 896 and was crowned Emperor and King of Italy by Pope Formosus in opposition to Duke Lambert of Spoleto. He only retained power in Italy as long as he was personally there, he was vigorously opposed by Lambert's mother, Agiltrude, and when he left, having taken ill, most of Italy was in Lambert's supporters' hands. On his death in 899, he was succeeded as a king of the East Franks by his son by his wife Ota, Louis the Child. Arnulf's illegitimate son Zwentibold, whom he had made King of Lotharingia in 895, continued to rule there until the next year (900).

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