Great Moravia
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| This article is part of the Czech history series. |
| Samo's realm |
| Great Moravia |
| Middle Ages |
| Czech lands: 1526-1648 |
| Czech lands: 1648-1867 |
| Czech lands: 1867-1918 |
| Czech lands: 1918-1992 |
Great Moravia (Old Church Slavonic approximately Велья Морава, Czech Velká Morava, Slovak Veľká Morava, Latin Magna Moravia) was a Slavic empire existing in Central Europe between 833 and the early 10th century. Its core territory lied in present-day Moravia and Slovakia.
The Empire was founded when Prince Mojmír I unified by force the neighboring Principality of Nitra with his own Moravian Principality in 833. Unprecedented cultural development resulted from the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who came during the reign of Prince Rastislav in 863. The Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent under King Svatopluk I (871-894). Weakened by internal struggle and frequent wars with the Frankish Empire, Great Moravia was ultimately overrun by Magyar invaders in the early 10th century and its remnants were later divided between the Kingdom of Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, and the Holy Roman Empire.
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Name
The designation "Great Moravia" originally stems from the work De Administrando Imperio written by the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950.<ref>De Administrando Imperio.</ref>
The word "Moravia" did not refer only to present-day Moravia, but to a country situated on both sides of the Morava river, whose (currently unknown) capital was also plausibly called Morava. The adjective "Great" nowadays denotes Moravia plus the annexed territories. In De Administrando Imperio, it may have rather meant "distant", because Byzantine texts used to distinguish between two countries of the same name using the attribute "little" for the territory closer to the Byzantine Empire (such as the Morava rivers in Serbia) and "great" for the more distant territory (such as the Morava river between Moravia and Slovakia).
The use of the term (Great) Slovak Empire instead of Great Moravia is promoted by some Slovak authors who try to define it as an early Slovak state. This term has not been adopted by mainstream historians.
History
Foundation
A kind of predecessor of Great Moravia was Samo's Empire, encompassing the territories of Moravia, Slovakia, Lower Austria and probably extending also to Bohemia, Sorbia at the Elbe, and temporarily to Carinthia between 623 and 658. Although this tribal union plausibly did not survive its founder, it created favorable conditions for formation of the local Slavic aristocracy.<ref>Graves dated to the period after King Samo's death show that Avars returned to some of their lost territories. However, archaeological findings from the same period (such as an exquisite noble tomb in Blatnica) also indicate formation of a Slavic upper class on the territory that later became the nucleus of Great Moravia. See Štefanovičová (1989).</ref>
In the late 8th century, the Morava river basin and western Slovakia, inhabited by the Slavs and situated at the Frankish border, flourished economically. Construction of new hill forts indicates that political integration was driven by regional strongmen protected by their armed retinues. The so-called Blatnica-Mikulčice culture, partially inspired by the contemporaneous Western European and Avar art, arose from this economic and political development.<ref>Štefanovičová (1989).</ref> In the 790s, the Slavs settled on the middle Danube overthrew the Avar yoke in connection with Charlemagne's campaigns against the Avars. Further centralisation of power and progress in creation of state structures of the Slavs living in this region followed.
As a result, two major states emerged: the Moravian Principality originally situated in present-day southeastern Moravia and westernmost Slovakia (with the probable center in Mikulčice) and the Principality of Nitra, located in present-day western, central and northern eastern Slovakia (with the center in Nitra). The Moravian Principality was mentioned for the first time in Frankish sources in 822. Its ruler Mojmír I supported Christian missionaries coming from Passau and he also arguably accepted Frankish formal suzerenaity.<ref>Moravians already paid homage to the Frankish Emperor at the Diet in Frankfurt in 822 (Royal Frankish Annals).</ref> Nitra was ruled by Prince Pribina, who, although probably still a pagan himself, built the first Christian church in Slovakia (828).<ref>Conversio.</ref> In 833, Mojmír I ousted Pribina from Nitra and the two principalities became united under the same ruler. Excavations revealed that at least two Nitrian castles (Pobedim and Čingov) were destroyed during the conquest. But Pribina with his family and retinue escaped to the Franks and their king Louis the German granted him the Balaton principality.
After unification
Image:Prince Rastislav.JPG What modern historians and Constantine VII designate as "Great" Moravia arose in 833 from the above mentioned Mojmír's conquest of the Principality of Nitra. In 846, Mojmír I was succeeded by his nephew Rastislav (846-870). Although he was originally chosen by Frankish king Louis the German, the new prince pursued an independent policy. After stopping a Frankish invasion in 855, he also wanted to weaken influence of Frankish priests preaching in his realm. Rastislav asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send teachers who would interpret the Christianity in the Slavic vernacular. Upon this request, two brothers, Byzantine officials and missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius came in 863. Cyril developed the first Slavic alphabet and translated the Gospel into the Old Church Slavonic language, thus starting the history of Slavic (including Slovak) literatures. Numerous fortified castles built thorough the country are dated to Rastislav's reign and some of them (e.g. Devín Castle) are mentioned in connection with Rastislav by Frankish chronicles.<ref>Annals of Fulda.</ref>
During Rastislav's reign, the Principality of Nitra was given to his nephew Svatopluk as an appanage. The rebellious prince allied himself with the Franks and overthrown his uncle in 870. In the subsequent years, he successfully defended independence of his realm from Eastern Francia and subjected many neighbouring lands. As the first Great Moravian leader, Svatopluk I (871-894) assumed the title of the king (rex). Under his reign, the Great Moravian Empire reached its greatest territorial extent, when not only Moravia and Slovakia but also present-day northern Hungary, Lower Austria, Bohemia, Silesia, Lusatia and southern Poland belonged to the empire. Svatopluk also withstood several attacks of proto-Magyar tribes, Eastern Francia, and Bulgaria.
In 880, the Pope John VIII issued the Bull "Industriae Tuae", by which he set up an independent ecclesiastical province in Great Moravia with Archbishop Methodius as its head. He also named the German cleric Wiching the Bishop of Nitra, and Old Church Slavonic was recognized as the fourth liturgical language, besides Latin, Greek and Hebrew.
Decline and fall
After the death of King Svatopluk in 894, his sons Mojmír II (894-906?) and Svatopluk II succeeded him as the King of Great Moravia and the Prince of Nitra respectively. However, they started to quarrel for domination of the whole Empire. Weakened by an internal conflict as well as by constant warfare with Eastern Francia, Great Moravia lost most of its peripheral territories. The proto-Magyar nomadic tribes also took advantage and invaded the Danubian Basin. Both Mojmír II and Svatopluk II probably died in battles with the proto-Magyars between 904 and 907 because their names are not mentioned in written sources after 906.
In three battles (July 4-5 and August 9, 907) near Bratislava, the Magyars routed Bavarian armies. Historians traditionally put this year as the date of breakup of the Great Moravian Empire. However, there are sporadic references to Great Moravia from later years (e.g. 924/925, 942).<ref>In 924/925, both Folkuin in his Gesta abb. Lobiensium and Ruotger in Archiepiscopi Coloniensis Vita Brunonis mention Great Moravia. From 925 until 931, there are several references to counts Mojmír and Svatopluk in official documents from Salzburg, though the origin of the two nobles are not clear. In 942, Magyar warriors captured in Al Andalus said that Moravia is the northern neighbor of their people. See Havlík (1992).</ref> The fate of Northern and Western parts of former Great Moravia in the 10th century is thus largely unclear.
The western part of the Great Moravian core territory (present-day Moravia) was annexed by Bohemia after 955, in 999 it was taken over by Poland under Boleslaus I of Poland and in 1019 it finally became part of Bohemia. As for the eastern part of the core (present-day Slovakia), its southernmost parts were conquered by the Hungarian chieftain Lehel (Lél) around 925 and they fell under domination of the old Magyar dynasty of Arpads after 955. The rest remained under the rule of local proto-Slovak aristocracy (western Slovakia maybe sharing the fate of Moravia from 955 to 999). In 1000 or 1001, all of Slovakia was taken over by Poland under Boleslaus I, and in 1030 the southern half of Slovakia was again taken over by Hungary (the rest of Slovakia progressively integrated from the end of the 11th century till the 14th century). Since the 10th century, population of this territory has been evolving into the present-day Slovaks.
List of rulers
- Mojmír I (833-846)
- Rastislav (846-870)
- Slavomír (871)
- Svatopluk I (871-894)
- Mojmír II (894-?906)
Territory and people
Image:Great Moravia.JPG The territory of Great Moravia included:
- 833-?907: today's Slovakia + Moravia + Lower Austria (territory north of the Danube)+ Hungary (territory north to Budapest and Theiss River, except for western Hungary)
- 874-?: plus a strip of about 100-250km of present-day Poland above Slovak border (Vistula Basin, Krakow)
- 880-?: plus a strip of about 100-250km of present-day Poland above Czech border (Silesia)
- 880-896: plus remaining present-day Hungary east of the Danube
- 880/883/884-894: plus the remaining present-day Hungary (up to Vienna)
- 888/890-895: plus Bohemia
- 890-897: plus Lusatia
As for the history of Bohemia - annexed by Great Moravia for five to seven years (from 888/890 to 895) - the crucial year is 895, when the Bohemians broke away from the empire and became vassals of Arnulf of Carinthia. Independent Bohemia, ruled by the dynasty of Přemyslids, began to gradually emerge.
The inhabitants of Great Moravia were designated "Slovene", which is an old Slavic word meaning the "Slavs". The same name was also used by (future) Slovenians and Slavonians at that time. People of Great Moravia are sometimes called "Moravian peoples" by Slavic texts, and "Sclavi" (i.e. the Slavs), "Winidi" (another name for the Slavs), "Moravian Slavs" or "Moravians" by Latin texts. The present-day terms "Slovaks" / "Slovakia" (in Slovak: Slováci / Slovensko) and "Slovenes" / "Slovenia" (in Slovene: Slovenci / Slovenija) arose later from the above "Slovene".
Towns and castles
Image:Kostolec-hradisko.jpg According to Geographus Bavarus, 30 out of the 41 Great Moravian castles (civitates) were situated on the territory of present-day Slovakia and the remaining 11 in Moravia.<ref>Geographus Bavarus.</ref> These numbers are also corroborated by archaeological evidence. The only castles which are mentioned by name in written texts are Nitra (828),<ref>Conversio.</ref> Devín Castle (today in Bratislava) (864),<ref>Annals of Fulda.</ref> Bratislava (907),<ref>Annals of Salzburg.</ref> and Uzhhorod (in Ukraine) (903). Many other (for example Mikulčice and Staré Město in Moravia; Pobedim, Ducové, Trenčín, and Beckov in the Váh river valley; Ostrá skala in Orava; Čingov and Spišské Tomášovce in Spiš; Esztergom in Hungary; Gars-Thunau in Austria) were identified by excavations. The first known church, bishopric and monastery in Great Moravia were all established in Nitra between the years 828 and 880.
Great Moravian castles were rather large hill forts, fortified by wooden palisades, stone walls, and in some cases also moats. Most buildings were made of timber, but ecclesiastic and residential parts were made of stone. At least some churches (e.g. in Bratislava) were decorated by frescoes, plausibly painted by Italian masters since the chemical composition of colors was the same as in northern Italy. In Nitra and Mikulčice, several castles and settlements formed a huge fortified urban agglomeration. Other castles (e.g. Ducové) served as regional administrative centers, ruled by a local nobleman. Their form was probably inspired by Carolingian estates called curtis.<ref>Štefanovičová (1989).</ref> The largest castles were usually protected by a chain of smaller forts. Forts (e.g. Beckov) also controlled trade routes and provided shelter for peasants in case of a military attack.
Although location of the Great Moravian capital has not been safely identified, the fortified town of Mikulčice with its palace and 12 churches is the most widely accepted candidate.<ref>Poulík (1975).</ref> Nitra, the second center of the Empire, was ruled autonomously by the heir of the dynasty as an appanage. However, it is fair to note that early medieval kings spent a significant part of their lives campaigning and traveling around their realms due to the lack of reliable administrative capacities. It is thus very likely that they also resided from time to time in other important royal estates, such as Devín and Bratislava.<ref>The Devín Castle was mentioned in Annals of Fulda as a fortress of Prince Rastislav. Importance of the Bratislava Castle is shown by its stone palace and a three-nave church.</ref>
Culture
Due to the lack of written documents, very little is known about the original Slavic religion and mythology. The territory of Great Moravia was evangelized by missionaries coming from the Frankish Empire or Byzantine enclaves in Italy and Dalmatia since the early 8th century (and sporadically earlier).<ref>Vita Methodii.</ref> The first known Christian church of the Western and Eastern Slavs was built in 828 by Pribina in his capital Nitra. The church, consecrated by Bishop Adalram of Salzburg, was built in a style similar to contemporaneous Bavarian churches. Architecture of two Moravian churches from the early 9th century (in Mikulčice and Modrá) indicates influence of Irish missionaries.<ref>Poulík (1975).</ref> The Church organization in Great Moravia was supervised by the Bavarian clergy until the arrival of Saints Cyril and Methodius in 863.
Image:Bascanska ploca.jpg The mission of Cyril and Methodius also had other yields, such as the first known Slavic school (the Great Moravian Academy - initially led by Methodius - probably in Devín, 863), the first Slavic script, first Slavic translation of the Bible, first Slavic literature, first Slavic law code, and the first Slavic archbishopric (in Nitra) after centuries: Saint Cyril translated important religious and legal works into Old Church Slavonic, which became the first literary language of the Slavs. Thanks to this mission, the Great Moravian law code combined the local customary law with advanced Byzantine law. Clerics, originally educated by Saint Methodius in Great Moravia, disseminated the Glagolitic script (created by Saint Cyril for the mission to Great Moravia) to other Slavic countries, such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Bohemia. One of Methodius' disciples created the Cyrillic alphabet, later adopted by several Slavic langauges, including Russian.
Legacy
Destruction of the Great Moravian Empire was rather gradual. Since excavations of Great Moravian castles show continuity of their settlement and architectural style after the alleged disintegration of the Empire, local political structures must have remained untouched by the disaster. Another reason is that the originally nomad old Magyars lacked siege engines to conquer Great Moravian fortifications. Nevertheless, the core of Great Moravia was finally integrated into the newly established states of Bohemia and the Kingdom of Hungary.
Great Moravian centers (e.g. Bratislava, Nitra, Zemplín) also retained their functions afterwards. As they became the seats of early Hungarian administrative units, the administrative division of Great Moravia was probably just adopted by new rulers.<ref>Štefanovičová (1989).</ref> Social differentiation in Great Moravia reached the state of early feudalism, creating the social basis for development of later medieval states in the region.<ref>Kučera (1974).</ref> A significant part of the local aristocracy remained more or less undisturbed by the fall of Great Moravia and their descendants became nobles in the newly formed Kingdom of Hungary.<ref>Lukačka (2002).</ref> Therefore, it is not surprising that many Slavic words related to politics, law, and agriculture were adopted by the Hungarian language.<ref>Štefanovičová (1989).</ref> The most obvious example of political continuity is the Principality of Nitra, which was ruled autonomously by heirs of the Arpads dynasty – a practice similar to that of the Mojmírs dynasty in Great Moravia. Similarly, the Church organization survived invasion of the pagan Magyars at least to some degree.<ref>Pilgrim, Bishop of Passau, wrote to Pope Benedict VI in 974 about four Great Moravian bishops serving after the Magyars invaded Bavaria (i.e. after the alleged fall of the Empire in 907). Continuity of the Church organization is also confirmed by the list of Moravian bishops from the 14th century (Havlík, 1992).</ref>
Neither the demographic change was dramatic. As far as the graves can tell, there had been no influx of the Magyars into the core of former Great Moravia before 955. Afterwards, Magyar settlers appear in some regions of Southern Slovakia, but graves indicate a kind of cultural symbiosis (described as the Belobrdo culture), not domination.<ref>Štefanovičová (1989).</ref> Due to cultural changes, archaeologists are not able to identify the ethnicity of graves after the half of the 11th century (though it is usually possible to determine the ethnicity of a whole village). This is also why integration of central, eastern, and northern Slovakia into the Hungarian Kingdom is difficult to be documented by archaeology, and written sources have to be used.
The Byzantine double-cross thouhgt to have been brought by Cyril and Methodius has remained the symbol of Slovakia until today.
Notes
<references/>
Sources
Primary sources
- Annals of Fulda.
- Annals of Salzburg.
- De Administrando Imperio written by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos around 950 in Constantinople.
- Geographus Bavarus, written in ca. 850 probably in Regensburg.
- Libellus de conversione Bagoariorum et Carantanorum (i.e. Conversio), written in Salzburg in the 870s.
- Royal Frankish Annals, covering the period from 741 until 829.
- Vita Methodii.
Primary documents can be found in the following volumes:
- Havlík, Lubomír E. (1966-1977). Magnae Moraviae Fontes Historici I.-V., Brno: Masarykova univerzita.
- Marsina, Richard (1971). Codex diplomaticus et epistolaris Slovaciae I., Bratislava: Veda.
- Ratkoš, Peter (1964). Pramene k dejinám Veľkej Moravy, Bratislava: Vydavateľstvo Slovenskej akadémie vied.
Secondary sources
- Dekan, Jan (1981). Moravia Magna: The Great Moravian Empire, Its Art and Time, Minneapolis: Control Data Arts. ISBN 0-89893-084-7
- Havlík, Lubomír E. (1992). Kronika o Velké Moravě, Brno: Iota.
- Kučera, Matúš (1974). Slovensko po páde Veľkej Moravy, Bratislava: Veda.
- Lukačka, Ján (2002). Formovanie vyššej šľachty na západnom Slovensku, Bratislava: Mistrál.
- Poulík, Josef (1975). Mikulčice: Sídlo a pevnost knížat velkomoravských, Praha.
- Štefanovičová, Tatiana (1989). Osudy starých Slovanov, Bratislava: Osveta.
- Wieczorek, Alfried and Hans-Martin Hinz (Hrsg.) (2000). Europas Mitte um 1000, Stuttgart. ISBN 3-80621-545-6 or ISBN 3-80621-544-8
External links
cs:Velkomoravská říše de:Großmähren eo:Grandmoravia regno fr:Grande-Moravie nl:Groot-Moravische Rijk ja:モラヴィア王国 pl:Państwo wielkomorawskie ru:Великая Моравия sk:Veľká Morava sl:Velikomoravska uk:Великоморавія