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Frankish organisation of their southeast flank was as follows. By no later than 803, there were
two prefectures to the north of the Danube: Bavaria and the Bavarian eastern march (plaga
orientalis). The latter encompassed Pannonia as far as the Raab river (and perhaps further), as
well as the Traun in Old Bavarian lands, and Carantania. To the south, the administrative
domain of the duke of Friuli covered a huge area, from Friuli across Istria and modern-day
Slovenia, stretching far to the east between the Drava and Sava, perhaps even as far as
Syrmia. It also incorporated the wider area of Sisak and the western Dalmatian hinterland. It
is not clear where the border between the Bavarian and Friulian eastern marches lay. What is
clear is that the ecclesiastical and administrative borders were not the same. The Drava
formed the ecclesiastical border between Salzburg and Aquileia along its entire length, but
may only have been taken as the administrative border in Pannonia, though even that is not
certain. During the uprising of Ljudevit Posavski, or Louis, prince of Lower Pannonia (819–
823), Baldric, the duke of Friuli, who was charged with putting down the uprising, extended
his command over Carantania, parts of which had joined the rebellion. In addition to
territories coming directly under the administration of the two march-prefectures, there were
many client principalities throughout this large region which retained a relative amount of
internal independence under Frankish overlordship, while also providing the first line of
defence for the Carolingian state. Examples of this in the Bavarian eastern march were the
principalities of the Carantanians and, from 805, of the Avars between the Danube and the
Raab. In the March of Friuli, there were Carniolans living in the upper Sava valley,
Guduscans along the Gacka river in Lika and the Slavonian Slavs ruled by the aforementioned
prince Louis (Ljudevit Posavski) from Sisak at the confluence of the Kolpa and Sava.
In 818, prince Louis of lower Pannonia (Ljudevit Posavski) sent emissaries to
Emperor Louis the Pious to bring charges of “cruelty and intolerance” against Cadaloh,
Prefect of the March of Friuli, and successor of Erik (who had been killed in 799). The
following year, the duke began an open rebellion (rebellio Liudewiti), which soon became a
war (bellum Liudewiticum), in which he initially had the upper hand. Louis’ tribal union,
backed by the military successes, had an integrating impact on neighbouring peoples, bringing
together Carniolans, some of the Carantanians and the Timokians, whose attachment to the
rebellion represented a change in their original plan to abandon the Bulgars and join the
Franks. Even the rather unfortunate patriarch of Grado, Fortunatus, whose ecclesiastical
province in Istria and Venetia was divided across two states in 812 by a Frankish-Byzantine
treaty, sent craftsmen and masons to prince Louis to build fortifications, perhaps doing so at
the behest of the Byzantines. Louis inflicted significant damage against the Frankish ally
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Borna, a prince in Dalmatia and Liburnia, but also suffered major defeats himself after
Frankish attacks on three sides, the aim of which was to destroy the economic foundations of
his power. Finally, he was forced to flee to western Dalmatia, where he was killed in 823.
Louis’ Carantanian and Carniolan allies actively engaged in the battles against the
Franks. In 819 and 820, the Carantanians frequently – though without success – faced the
Frankish army along the Drava. In 820, after almost one hundred years, the “godless Slavs”
again razed Maximilian’s monastic cell in Bischofshofen in Bavaria. The same year, Baldric,
the duke of Friuli, who had succeeded Cadolah on his death in 819, again brought the
Carantanians and Carniolans “who live along the Sava river” under his authority. When some
Carantanians sided with Louis, the authority (cura) of Duke Baldric, to whom the emperor
had clearly delegated supreme command over all the rebellious territories, was extended over
Carantania, while Pannonia north of the Drava also came under his command. When Bulgars
from the Syrmia area along the Drava advanced north of the river into Pannonia in 827 and
“banished Slavic princes, replacing them with Bulgar rulers,” the blame for this serious blow
was laid at Baldric’s door at a diet in Aachen (in 828) and he was removed. The immense area
under his authority was divided between four counts.
The Royal Frankish Annals, which describe these events, do not give the names of the
four powerbrokers in Baldric’s former realm, so there has been considerable speculation and a
range of suggestions as to the identity of the four counties. The reform of 828 signalled the
end of a process that had been ongoing for some years, which also led to changes in the
Frankish administrative structure in the southeast of their state. During the first phase of
Carolingian authority, the concept of the administration and the related defence of the eastern
and southeastern border was to surround the state territory with a line of primarily Slavic,
client tribal principalities, which would retain a relative level of independence under Frankish
overlordship, while also providing the first line of defence for the Carolingian state.
The rebellion of Louis, who was rapidly joined by a number of the Slavic gentes that
had recognised Frankish overlordship, clearly indicated the weaknesses of this model, as the
Slavic tribes were too independent and made unreliable partners. The consequence was that
the Frankish administrative structure along the border began to change in the 820s. At that
point, administration by counts began to replace tribal rule. This entailed a Frankish count
(comes) being given a mandate by the Frankish ruler and ruling in his name, and thus
replacing the tribal prince (dux) and the related tribal constitution. Two counties were created
on the territory of the Avar’s tributary khaganate between the Raab and the Danube. In
Carantania, the last indigenous prince, Etgar, was replaced by the Bavarian count, Helmwin.