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Arnulf of Carinthia — news, coverage & facts — IJR

King of East Francia

Arnulf took the leading role in the deposition of Charles the Fat. In November 887, a Diet was meeting at Tribur. Supported by nobles from eastern parts of the Empire, Arnulf seized the opportunity and deposed the ailing Emperor. In the same time, Arnulf was elected and proclaimed as king. Charles agreed to this involuntary retirement, but not without first chastising his nephew for his treachery and asking for a few royal villas in Swabia on which to live out his final months, which Arnulf granted him.

Charles died at the very beginning of 888, and since Arnulf was elected king only by the nobles of East Francia, several questions arose regarding the rule over other regions of the Carolingian Empire. During the spring of 888, Arnulf was staying at Regensburg, where he received nobles and envoys of eastern Franks, Alamanns, Bavarians, Thuringians, Saxons, and the neighboring Slavs, but regions of West Francia, Burgundy, and Italy remained out of his scope, electing their own rulers.

During 889, he held Diets at Forchheim and Frankfurt, trying to secure acceptance among nobles for his sons Zwentibold and Ratold, who were born to him outside of wedlock, and also receiving envoys from Normans and Slavs. In the same year, Arnulf organized an expedition against the Obotrites, a Polabian Slavic tribe, but without success, and thus the conflict continued up to 895, when a peace agreement with the Obotrites was reached.

Like many rulers of the period, Arnulf was heavily involved in ecclesiastical disputes. In 895, at the Diet of Tribur, he presided over a dispute between the episcopal sees of Bremen, Hamburg, and Cologne over jurisdictional authority, which saw Bremen and Hamburg remain a combined see, independent of the see of Cologne.

Arnulf was more a fighter than a negotiator. In 890, he was successfully battling Slavs in Pannonia. In early/mid-891, Vikings invaded Lotharingia and crushed an East Frankish army at Maastricht. Terms such as "Vikings", "Danes", "Northmen" and "Norwegians" have been used loosely and interchangeably to describe these invaders. In September 891, Arnulf repelled the Vikings and essentially ended their attacks on that front. The Annales Fuldenses report that there were so many dead Northmen that their bodies blocked the run of the river. After this victory, Arnulf built a castle on an island in the Dijle river.

Interventions in West Francia and Burgundy

Arnulf's policies towards West Francia and Burgundy were marked by various challenges. Upon receiving news of deposition and death of emperor Charles, nobles of West Francia were faced with several choices. Since Carolingian prince Charles was still a child, some magnates gave their initial support to duke Guy of Spoleto, a relative of the Carolingian dynasty, who came from Italy in order to claim the West Frankish throne, but majority opted for count Odo of Paris. He was crowned king of West Francia in February 888 in Compiègne, while Guy was crowned king in Langres in March 888, trying to gain rule over Lotharingia, including Upper Burgundy. Failing to achieve those goals, Guy soon left for Italy, while a group of nobles from Upper Burgundy met at Saint-Maurice and elected local duke Rudolph as king of those Burgundian regions.

Coronations of Guy and Rudolph were conducted without Arnulf's consent, thus initiating long rivalries, that continued for years, while Odo took different approach, recognizing the superiority of Arnulf's position and formally accepting the suzerainty of Arnulf.

In May 889, the queen-dowager Ermengard of Provence arrived to the court of Arnulf at Forchheim, making a submission on behalf of her young son Louis. In August 890, at the regional Diet of Valence, local nobles and bishops from Lower Burgundy and Provence elected Louis as king in those regions, with Arnulf's consent.

In 893, Arnulf switched his support from Odo to young prince Charles the Simple after being persuaded by Fulk, Archbishop of Reims, that it was in his best interests. Arnulf then took advantage of the following fighting between Odo and Charles in 894, harrying some territories of West Francia. At one point, Charles the Simple was forced to flee to Arnulf and ask for his protection. His intervention soon forced Pope Formosus to get involved, as he was worried that a divided and war-weary West Francia would be easy prey for the Vikings.

In 895, Arnulf summoned both Charles and Odo to his residence at Worms. Charles's advisers convinced him not to go, and he sent a representative in his place. Odo, on the other hand, personally attended, together with a large retinue, bearing many gifts for Arnulf. Angered by the non-appearance of Charles, he welcomed Odo at the Diet of Worms in May 895 and again supported Odo's claim to the throne of West Francia.

At the same assembly he crowned his illegitimate son Zwentibold as the king of Lotharingia, including Upper Burgundy, but the Burgundian possessions were out their reach, since those lands were ruled by local kings, Rudolph and Louis.

King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor

In Italy, Berengar of Friuli and Guy III of Spoleto fought over the Iron Crown of Lombardy. Berengar had been crowned king in late 887, but Guy was then crowned in 889. While Pope Stephen V supported Guy, even crowning him Emperor in 891, Arnulf threw his support behind Berengar.

In 892, the new Pope Formosus crowned Guy's son Lambert as co-emperor, but soon came in conflict with them, and sent an embassy to Arnulf, inviting him to come and liberate Italy. Arnulf met the Primores of the Kingdom of Italy, dismissed them with gifts and promised to assist the pope. Arnulf then sent Zwentibold with a Bavarian army to join Berengar. They defeated Guy but were bought off and left in autumn.

When Pope Formosus again asked Arnulf to invade, he personally led an army across the Alps, early in 894. In January 894, Bergamo fell, and Count Ambrose, Guy's representative in the city, was hanged from a tree by the city's gates. Conquering all of the territory north of the Po River, Arnulf forced the surrender of Milan and then drove Guy out of Pavia, where he was proclaimed King of Italy. Arnulf went no further before Guy died suddenly in late autumn, and a fever incapacitated his troops. His march northward through the Alps was interrupted by Rudolph I of Burgundy, and it was only with great difficulty that Arnulf crossed the mountain range. In retaliation, Arnulf ordered Zwentibold to ravage Rudolph's kingdom. In the meantime, Lambert and his mother Ageltrude travelled to Rome to receive papal confirmation of his imperial succession, but when Pope Formosus, still desiring to crown Arnulf, refused, he was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo.

In September 895, a new papal embassy arrived in Regensburg beseeching Arnulf's aid. In October, Arnulf undertook his second campaign into Italy. He crossed the Alps quickly and again took Pavia, but then he continued slowly, garnering support among the nobility of Tuscany. Maginulf, Count of Milan, and Walfred of Friuli joined him. Eventually even Adalbert II of Tuscany abandoned Lambert. Finding Rome locked against him and held by Ageltrude, Arnulf had to take the city by force on 21 February 896, freeing the pope. Arnulf was then greeted at the Ponte Milvio by the Roman Senate who escorted him into the Leonine City, where he was received by Pope Formosus on the steps of the Santi Apostoli.

On 22 February 896, Formosus led the king into the church of St. Peter, anointed and crowned him as emperor, and saluted him as Augustus. Arnulf then proceeded to the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, where he received the homage of the Roman people, who swore "never to hand over the city to Lambert or his mother Ageltrude". Arnulf then proceeded to exile to Bavaria two leading senators, Constantine and Stephen, who had helped Ageltrude to seize Rome.

Leaving one of his vassals, Farold, to hold Rome, two weeks later Arnulf marched on Spoleto, where Ageltrude had fled to join Lambert. However at this point, Arnulf had a stroke, forcing him to call off the campaign and return to Bavaria. Rumours of the time made Arnulf's condition to be a result of poisoning at the hand of Ageltrude.

Arnulf retained power in Italy only as long as he was personally there. On his way north, he stopped at Pavia where he crowned his illegitimate son Ratold as sub-king of Italy, after which he left Ratold in Milan in an attempt to preserve his hold on Italy. That same year Pope Formosus died, leaving Lambert once again in power, and both he and Berengar proceeded to kill any officials who had been appointed by Arnulf, forcing Ratold to flee from Milan to Bavaria. For the rest of his life Arnulf exercised very little control in Italy, and his agents in Rome did not prevent the accession of Pope Stephen VI in 896. The pope initially gave his support to Arnulf but eventually became a supporter of Lambert.