Rostislav (Prince of Great Moravia)

First years of reign

Rostislav was the nephew of Moymir I. In 846, King of the East Frankish Kingdom Louis II of Germany managed to put him on the throne as heir to Moymir. Louis considered Rostislav to be his vassal and proceeded from the fact that the latter would represent the interests of the East-Frankish kingdom in Central Europe . While Louis was busy fighting against his relatives, Rostislav expanded and strengthened his state. On his initiative, fortresses were built, alliances were concluded with the Bulgarian kingdom and the Byzantine Empire .

Beginning in 850, Rostislav broke off close relations with the East-Frankish Kingdom and provided refuge to the opponents of Louis II of Germany. Among them were high-ranking dignitaries of the king, as well as, temporarily, his sons Carloman and Louis . Rostislav expelled the Bavarian priests from Great Moravia and annexed the land between the Danube and Dyje to his state (according to some sources, this happened already in 791 ).

In 855, the army of Louis II of Germany invaded Great Moravia and moved towards the fortress of Rostislav, most likely in the current suburb of Bratislava Devin . Near her, the Moravians launched a successful attack on the army of Louis II. The Moravians pursued the Franks to the Danube and ravaged the border lands of Bavaria. In 858 Rostislav made an alliance with the son of Louis Carloman. For this, he received lands in today's Hungary (around Pilishvörsvara ), which he annexed to Great Moravia. In 861, supported by Rostislav, the army of Carloman fought with Louis II and his ally Pribina , who died in this struggle. After that, the son of Pribina , who went over to Rostislav, became the ruler of the Blaten principality .

Missionary activity of Cyril and Methodius

Louis II of Germany continued to threaten Great Moravia by concluding an alliance with the Bulgarians. Rostislav sent ambassadors to Rome asking the Pope to send teachers to train their own priests. By this, Rostislav hoped to weaken the influence of the East-Frankish kingdom in Great Moravia. However, the Pope did not accept the ambassadors of Rostislav. In 861 and 862 Rostislav sent new ambassadors, this time to Byzantium to Emperor Michael III , asking for teachers, priests or a bishop who would lay the foundation of his own church administration in his state. Michael III satisfied the request of Rostislav and sent Cyril and Methodius to the Moravians. Their missionary activities were fundamental to the cultural development not only of Great Moravia, but of the whole of Eastern Europe . In Moravia, Cyril and Methodius, finding the lack of their own written language among the locals, invented the verb ^[1] . They translated church books from Greek into Slavic , taught the Slavs reading, writing, and conducting services in the Slavic language.

In 864, Louis II of Germany again invaded Great Moravia and surrounded Rostislav in Devin fortress. Rostislav was forced to submit to the East-Frankish kingdom and allow the return of the East-Frankish priests. However, a year later, Rostislav rebelled against Louis again and the mission of Cyril and Methodius continued. The brothers stayed in Moravia for more than three years, after which they were summoned to Rome, where many considered worship in the national languages ​​of the “barbarian” peoples of Europe to be sacrilege. However, the Pope eventually supported their mission. In 868, Methodius and his three disciples Gorazd, Clement and Naum were elevated by the Pope to priesthood. In Rome, St. Cyril died, and Methodius subsequently returned to Moravia to continue teaching at the Great Moravian Academy .

After another, this time unsuccessful, attack of the Eastern Franks, Rostislav handed over the Nitransky principality to his nephew Svyatopolk . Practically, it came to the division of Great Moravia into two parts. Both Rostislav and Svyatopolk were forced to defend themselves against the new invasions of Louis the German, who in 869 again reached the fortress of Rostislav and again could not take it.

At about the same time, the Pope appointed Methodius returning to Great Moravia as Archbishop of Pannonia and Great Moravia, freeing him from church dependence on the Bavarian episcopacy. The first Slavic archdiocese headed by Methodius arose in Great Moravia.

End of reign

In 870, Svyatopolk formed an alliance with the East-Frankish Kingdom and recognized its supremacy over the Nitrian principality. Rostislav responded with a failed attempt to kill his nephew. In response, Svyatopolk managed to capture Rostislav and subsequently transfer him to the Eastern Franks. Rostislav was convicted and sentenced to blindness. Together with Methodius, who in the spring of 870, on the way from Rome to Great Moravia, was captured by order of the Bavarian bishops, he was kept in Bavarian monasteries, where he later died. After the death of Rostislav in Great Moravia, the struggle for power began. Claims for the throne put forward by Svyatopolk, who eventually defeated the candidates of Louis II of Germany, Margraves of the Eastern brand and Engelshalka I.