An Oldie from the vaults;
Origin of Great Moravia
The Moravian centres of power were the cities of Mikulčice, Staré Město and Nitra.
When the Slavic Moravian tribe formed, is unknown but it is probable that the earliest unification was under Samo's leadership in the 5th century. Written records specifically about the historical regions of Moravia and Slovakia date to 822, however archaeology can trace its history back to the 8th century with castle complexes in Mikulčice, Staré Město and Olomouc dominating the territory of Moravia. Other areas emerged after the destruction of the Avars in the early 9th century.
Conversion to Christianity led to church building under the auspices of the Diocese of Passau after 800.
At some point, 817-822, the Moravian tribes recognized the sovereignty of the East Frankish King, Louis the German, over their territory and consequently attended the parliament in Frankfurt.
Foundation of the State
The exact date of the Moravian state or empire founding is uncertain. Formation began about 790 and was completed about 831 under Prince Mojmir I. After uniting the Moravians under his rule, Mojmir mass baptised the Moravian ruling class in 831.
In 833, he deposed the pro-Frankish Prince Pribina of Nitra, putting Moravia in opposition to the Frankish Empire. The merger of these two states created the "Great Moravian" state.
In August 846, Louis the German marched with a Frankish army, deposing Mojmir and installing his nephew Rastislav as the new Moravian ruler, from whom Louis expected greater loyalty as a vassal. It is probable that Mojmir I became a threat to King Louis due to his policy towards becoming a sovereign Christian-Slavic Kingdom or as part of an overall offensive against the neighbouring Slavs.
In the early 850s Rastislav began to pursue an increasingly independent policy. In 855 Louis the German moved against the Moravians with a Frankish army, but was defeated at Rastislav's fortress. Rastislav was able to suspend tribute payments to the East Franks and drove the Bavarian clergy out of his country. He tried to withdraw his country from the Frankish sphere of influence with the help of Byzantium and the Eastern Church.
After Pope Nicholas I failed to comply with Rastislav's request to send Slavic-speaking priests to establish his own Moravian church, Rastislav turned to the Byzantine Emperor Michael III in 862.
He responded to the Prince and sent the Byzantine priests and scholars Cyril and Methodius , who arrived in 863. Cyril, using the Glagolitic alphabet created a written Slavonic language which was introduced as a liturgical language.
In 864, Louis the German again attacked and forced Rastislav to surrender. Although the Bavarian clerics could now return to Moravia, the activities of Cyril and Methods as well as the Slavic liturgy continued to exist. Cyril and Methodius went to Rome in 867 to have their Slavic liturgical language legitimized by the Pope, Hadrian II who recognised the Slavic liturgical language as equal to Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Cyril, later, died in Rome, but his brother, Methodius was made Archbishop of Moravia in 870. He could not return to Moravia until 873 after three years of detention in Bavaria.
Meantime, Louis had, in 869, been defeated by Ratislav in another punitive attack on Moravia. Louis used Ratislav's co-regent and nephew Svatopluk I to depose Rastislav 870 and occupy Moravia. In 871, after Svatopluk was also accused, by Louis, of betrayal, deposed and deported, the Moravian Prince Slavomir led a successful anti-Frankish revolt. As a result Svatopluk was released and was able to prevail again as Ruler of Moravia.
Svatopluk, in 871, destroyed the Frankish army of occupation and, in 874, concluded a peace agreement with Louis, which allowed him, while maintaining loyalty to the Franks and paying tribute, a large degree of freedom of action.
After this agreement Svatopluk began a rapid expansion of the Moravian Empire by war and marital politics. In the period from 874 to 884 he was able to add Wislania, Pannonia, Theissland, Silesia, Bohemia and Lusatia to Moravia by either conquest or marriage. The enlarged Kingdom comprised about 350,000 square kilometres with about one million inhabitants. Attacks by the new East Frankish King Arnulf of Carinthia and the nomadic Magyars in the years 892-893 were successfully resisted by Svatopluk.
The Church policy he pursued was oriented to the Vatican. In 880 Svatopluk asked that Great Moravia be put directly under the auspices of the Holy See. In response, the Pope recognised Moravia as an independent state.
After the death of Archbishop Methodius in 885, at the request of Pope Stephen V, Svatopluk forbade the retention of the Old Slavonic liturgy and replaced it with the Latin liturgy followed a mass expulsion of the Moravian priests who wanted to retain the Slavic liturgy.
Decline and Fall
In 894 Prince Svatopluk I died, his successor on the Moravian throne was his eldest son Mojmir II . He was immediately confronted with a series of serious problems, such as the disengagement of conquered territories, pressure from the Eastern Franks, the ever-increasing Magyar danger and domestic conflicts.
Mojmir II managed to handle this skilfully from the beginning. In 894, he concluded a peace treaty of vassalage with Arnulf of Carinthia, in order to secure the throne.
Moravian Bishop Wiching had defected to King Arnulf so the Moravians possessed no recognized Bishop. Mojmir II requested the renewal of the Moravian Archbishopric from the Pope who responded positively, sending Archbishop John and Bishops Benedict and Daniel to Moravia.
In the year 895, the Bohemians broke away from Moravia. Mojmir II led a futile reconquest campaign against them. In the year 896, with the permission of Mojmir II, the Magyars settled in Theissland and Mojmir II undertook joint raids with them against the Franks. In 897 the Sorbs also declared independence. In 899 Moravia was riven by a civil war between Mojmir II and his brother Svatopluk II in Nitra during which the Bavarian army freed the defeated Svatopluk II and brought him to Bavaria.
In 900, the Magyars occupied Pannonia after a campaign in Italy and began to settle in the Carpathian Basin. The increasing self-confidence of the Magyars forced Moravia to act. At the beginning of 901 Mojmir II concluded a peace treaty with the Bavarians, with their help, in 902, fought off a Magyar attack from Pannonia.
In the next few years, stability in the central Danubian region, which had arisen with the mutual peace agreement, also favored Bavarian-Moravian trade. In 904, however, the Magyar Prince Kurszán was murdered at a banquet in Bavaria. Magyar revenge was directed not only against the Bavarians, but also against Mojmir II. The Moravian army was destroyed by the Magyar in a single battle at Nitra in 905-906, in the course of which Mojmir II died.
As a result of this disaster, the Moravia sunk into chaos and pagan uprisings. The devastating defeat of Bavaria at the Battle of Pressburg in 907, meant the final fall of Moravia which was later taken by Bohemia.