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name of Pribina’s son, Kocel, which is an abbreviated form of the Bavarian-Frankish name,
Cadaloh – indirectly indicate that Pribina’s wife came from the Bavarian counts family of
Wilhelminian. It may well have been to meet her needs that the archbishop of Salzburg
consecrated a church in Nitra in around 827/828. This is the first known church on Slavic
territory north of the Danube.
However, Pribina’s desire to exercise his own political power and lordship soon
brought him into contention with the powerful Ratbod, and he was forced to continue his
flight. Together with his son and entire retinue, he now fled to the Bulgars – probably to
Syrmia. From there, his path was soon to lead him to the Slavic prince, Ratimir, successor to
the rebellious Louis (Ljudevit Posavski), the prince of Lower Pannonia. This meant he was
once more on territory controlled by the Franks and under the jurisdiction of Ratbod, the
prefect. Ratbod took up arms in 838 against Ratimir, who withdrew, while Pribina’s group
moved northwest, crossing the Sava into the land ruled by Count Salacho, i.e. Carniola, which
in 828 was part of Bavaria’s Eastern Prefecture. Pribina’s lengthy odyssey ended when a
reconciliation with his overlord, Ratbod, was arranged by Salacho. Pribina finally found his
homeland in Pannonia in 840 when Louis the German granted him a large territory, west of
Lake Balaton along the Zala river, as a fief.
After the victorious conclusion to the Avarian wars, Pannonia up to the Danube
formed the ‘wild east frontier’ of the Frankish realm – a land offering unlimited opportunities
for personal affirmation. And Pribina was one of those who exploited those opportunities. He
built his capital at the point where the Zala river flows into Lake Balaton, which lay – like
Nitra before it – on an important geographical and traffic route, at the meeting point of
already ancient roads. The marshy environment and fortified nature (munimen) of the
settlement were the source of its name, which contemporary sources report in Slavic, German
and Latin forms: Blatenski Kostel, Moosburg, and Urbs Paludarum. Blatenski Kostel (which
translates as Fortress on the Marsh) became the centre of Pribina’s seigneury, which began “to
gather tribes from all around and multiply them on that land.” As well as the groups of Avars,
Slavs and even Gepids already settled there, who had survived the collapse of the Avar
khaganate, numerous new colonists began to arrive in Pannonia from Carantania, from the
Slavic world to the north of the Danube, and from Bavaria. Central Pannonia, between the
Raab, Drava and Danube rivers had become a melting pot, home to the ethnogenetic process
of mixing between ethnic groups called colluvies gentium. Slavs must have predominated in
this mix of peoples, otherwise it would not be possible to explain the exceptional appeal of
Constantine and Methodius’ Slavic liturgy in the area.
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Only after Pribina’s position had been consolidated, and the structures of power and
administration in Pannonia established, were the doors to the region opened to Salzburg,
which had officially held ecclesiastical power over it since 796. At least seventeen churches
were consecrated in Pribina’s ‘principality’ during Archbishop Liupram’s reign alone (836–
859). Pribina built three churches in Blatenski Kostel itself, using painters, masons, smiths
and carpenters sent from Salzburg. The locations of most of these churches cannot now be
identified, but those that can be indicate that Pribina’s authority stretched from the Raab river
to the north, to Pécs to the southeast, and to Ptuj to the west. During the Middle Ages, Ptuj, a
town with a rich ancient tradition, was also one of the most important places on the territory
of modern-day Slovenia. Particular importance derived from the stone bridge over the Drava,
which had stood there since Antiquity on the major route between Italy and Pannonia. In 874,
the Salzburg archbishop, Theotmar, consecrated a second church in Ptuj, which Kocel had
ordered to be built, and which may well have stood on the site of the later provost (parish)
church, which still exists today.
The reward for Pribina’s successful work in consolidating Frankish Pannonia, and for
his “zeal for the work of God and king,” came in 847 when Louis the German granted Pribina
lordship over all the lands he had previously held as a fief, at the same time making him a
count, which made him an agent of state authority. Only the Pannonian possessions of the
Salzburg church were exempt from his rule, because of the immunity the church enjoyed. This
special dual position – similar to the status of tribal princes in Brittany, who were also the
counts of the Breton March – was to characterise Pribina’s position in Pannonia from that
time. In addition to the office of count, he continued to be the prince of his tribe. In a
document of Louis the German from February 860, in which Pribina makes his last
documented appearance alive, he is described as prince (dux), and his territory as a
principality (ducatus). Sources from this time also use dual titles to refer to his son, Kocel,
who succeeded his father as count and as prince. He is referred to as the count of the Slavs
(comes de Sclauis) and a Pannonian prince (knaz’ panon’sky).
Pribina was killed in around 861 by the very Moravians he had fled many years
before. It seems his death related to turbulent events then shaking the Bavarian Eastern
Prefecture. In 854, the powerful prefect Ratbod was deposed due to disloyalty. Two years
later, Louis the German replaced him with his son Carloman. Carloman took charge of the
Eastern March (marchia orientalis), as the Bavarian east between the Danube and Sava began
to be known, applying a vigorous and very independent policy: In 858, he made peace and
formed an alliance with the Moravian prince, Rastislav, whose territory lay north of the