Balaton Principality

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The Balaton Principality (also called Pannonian or Transdanubian Principality, in Slovak: Blatenské kniežatstvo, in Bulgarian: Blatensko Knezevstvo) (839/840-876) was a Slavic principality (duchy) located in the western part of the Pannonian plain, between rivers Danube to its east, Drava and Mura to the south, the Rába river to the west and probably the Balaton lake to the north.

All the above names are modern names, because no name has been preserved from that time. The name "Balaton" is a Magyarized word for the original Slavic name - Blatno or a similar form - for that lake.

The principality was one of the several Slavic states and groups connecting the areas inhabited by Slavs before they were divided into the northern and the southern Slavs by the conquests of the Franks, the arrival of the Magyars in Pannonia, and later by the expansion of the Romanians.

The Slavic people of that time were weakly differentiated, speaking closely related dialects of the same common language. The inhabitants of the Balaton Principality were most probably closely related to each of neighboring Slavic people: Great Moravians (Slovaks) to the north, Karantanians (Slovenes) to the west, Pannonian Croats to the south, and Serbs to the south-east, providing the bridge between those Slavic states and tribal unions.

The Slavic inhabitation of Pannonia started in the late 5th century after the fall of the Hunnic tribal union. In the late 6th century the Slavs in the territory became subjects of the Avar tribal union (Avar Khaganate). Attacks of Franks (led by Charles the Great), Slavs from present-day Moravia and Slovakia, and Bulgars (led by khan Krum) and internal feuds defeated the Avars in the late 8th century and the liberated Slavs of Pannonia started organizing semi-independent political units.

In the course of the creation of (see) Great Moravia in 833 to the north of the Danube, Pribina (Priwina), until then the Prince of the Nitrian principality (Slovakia), was expelled from his country by the prince of the Moravian principality. In 839 or 840, he founded the Balaton Principality (whose Slavic name means "Principality (Duchy) of the Muddy lake (or river)"). Its capital was the Blatnograd (Blatnohrad, later called Mosapurc), a fortified city built at the Zala river (Zala in Hungarian, in Slavic languages "Blatna" or similar forms meaning Muddy river) between the small and large Balaton lakes (Balaton in Hungarian, in Slavic languages Blatno / Blatenské jazero or similar forms meaning Muddy lake).

During the reign of Pribina's son, prince Kocel (Gozil, Koceľ, Kocelj) (861-876), in the summer of 867, it provided short-term hospitality to brothers Cyril and Methodius on their way from Great Moravia to the pope in Rome to justify the use of the Slavonic language as a liturgical language. They and their disciples turned Blatnograd into one of the centers that spread the knowledge of the new Slavonic script (Glagolitic alphabet) and literature, educating numerous future missionaries in their native language.

The principality was founded as a vassal of the east-Frankish (i.e. German) kings, but later it started resisting the influence of German feudal lords and clergy, trying to organize an independent Slavic archdiocese. Eventually, after Kocel's death in 876, it was again made part of the Carinthia March of the East Frankish Empire. In 884 it was conquered by Great Moravia, 894 it became part of the East Frankish Empire again. In 896 the Franks gave the territory to the Slavic prince Braslav in fief. Soon afterwards, in 901 it was conquered by the Magyars, who terminated the remaining elements of Slavic self-organization. The territory became part of the arising Hungarian state.

Sources

• Kirilo-Metodievska enciklopedija (Cyrillo-Methodian Encyclopedia), in 3 volumes, Bulgarian language, [DR5.K575 1985 RR2S], Sofia 1985
• Welkya - Creation of Slavic Script, [1].
• Dejiny Slovenska (History of Slovakia) in 6 volumes, Bratislava (volume 1 1986)de:Plattensee-Fürstentum

pl:Księstwo Błatneńskie pt:Principado de Balaton sk:Blatenské kniežatstvo sl:Spodnja Panonija