John ( Latin Johannes ; died after 804 ) is the Duke of Istria (789/799 - not earlier than 804), the only vassal of the Emperor of the Franks Charles the Great , mentioned in modern documents with such a title.
| John | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lat Johannes | |||||||
| |||||||
| Predecessor | Eric | ||||||
| Successor | Gunfried I | ||||||
| Birth | |||||||
| Death | after 804 | ||||||
Biography
John was probably a noble franc [1] . Some historians suggest that he might have been the unnamed by the Duke of Istria, whom in 791 Charles the Great described in a letter to his wife Fastrade one of his best generals who distinguished himself especially in his campaign against the Avars [2] . These researchers are of the opinion that, after the seizure of Istria belonging to Byzantium in 789, the Duchy of Istria formed on these lands was transferred to the King of the Francs by John [3] . However, there is also an assumption based on the list of cities under the authority of Duke Eric [4] , who died in 799, that the Duchy of Istria belonged to the possessions of the ruler Friul , and John was his successor here [1] .
According to the act of the court hearing held in 804 in the city of Risano (present-day Riga , Slovenia ), residents of nine Istrian cities brought to Charles the Great a complaint of abuse by the Duke of John. The king of the Franks sent three envoys to Istria ( presbyter Izzo and counts Kadolag and Ayo ), who, in the presence of Patriarch Grado Fortunat, examined the charges brought against John. It was found that the Duke of Istria "ruled like a tyrant, pursuing his own interests and the interests of his family": under the pretext of fighting the Avars, he taxed local residents with exorbitant taxes, forbade them to use public forests, illegally confiscated lands, lodged Slavs on them, taxes from which received in his personal, not state, treasury. The allegations were also confirmed that the ruler of Istria independently abolished many of the benefits for the Istrians that existed under the Byzantines, and dissolved the city government based on the system of Byzantine ranks [5] , placing personally loyal people at the head of the cities. Despite the intercession of Patriarch Fortunatus, John was forced to admit most of the charges against him to be true, swearing an oath to compensate for the damage he had done from his own means. The governor of Istria rejected part of the accusations, citing his lack of knowledge of the taxation of the taxable population [3] . In 815, Emperor Louis I the Pious confirmed the privileges to the inhabitants of Istria, substantiating this decision with evidence from the charter for a court hearing of 804 granted to him [1] [6] .
Nothing is known about the further fate of John. It is assumed that his successor in the Duchy of Istria no later than 806 was Gunfried I [7] [8] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Hlawitschka E. Johannes // Franken, Alemannen, Bayern und Burgunder in Oberitalien (774–962). - Freiburg: Eberhard Albert Verlag, 1960 .-- S. 211-212.
- ↑ Epistolae variorum Carolo Magno regnante scriptae. Number 20 . - Monumenta Germaniae Historica . Epistolae IV. Epistolae Karolini aevi (II). - Berlin: Weidmannos, 1895. - P. 528-529. - 639 p.
- ↑ 1 2 Hagermann D. Charlemagne. - M .: Publishing House AST LLC: NPP Ermak CJSC, 2003. - S. 479-480. - 684 p.
- ↑ Paulinus Aquileienses. Versus Paulini de Herico duce . - Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Poetae Latini aevi Carolini (I). - Berlin: Weidmannos, 1881. - P. 131-133. - 652 p.
- ↑ As such, the document mentions the stands , domestics , ipatas, and other ranks.
- ↑ Barbero A. Charlemagne . - University of California Press, 2004. - P. 193-195. - 426 p. - ISBN 978-0520239432 .
- ↑ Hunfried I. (German) . Genealogie Mittelalter. Date of treatment March 29, 2015.
- ↑ Hlawitschka E. Hunfrid (I.) // Franken, Alemannen, Bayern und Burgunder in Oberitalien (774–962). - Freiburg: Eberhard Albert Verlag, 1960 .-- S. 206-207.