Svatopluk I or Svätopluk I, also known as Svatopluk the Great, was a ruler of Great Moravia, which attained its maximum territorial expansion during his reign (870–871, 871–894).Kirschbaum 2007, pp. 5., 278.Bartl 2002, pp. 17., 336.

Svatopluk's career started in the 860s, when he governed a principality within Moravia, the location of which is still a matter of debate among historians, under the suzerainty of his uncle, Rastislav. In 870 Svatopluk dethroned Rastislav, who was a vassal of Louis the German, and betrayed him to the Franks. Within a year, however, the Franks also imprisoned Svatopluk.Spiesz et al. 2006, p. 21. After the Moravians rebelled against the Franks, Svatopluk was released and led the rebels to victory over the invaders. Although he was obliged to pay tribute to East Francia under the peace treaty concluded at Forchheim (Germany) in 874, he was able to expand his territories outside the Franks' sphere of interest in the following years. His forces even invaded the March of Pannonia within East Francia in 882.

Svatopluk established a good relationship with the popes, and he and his people were formally taken under the protection of the Holy See in 880. Pope Stephen V even addressed him as "King" in a letter written in 885. Svatopluk seems to have wanted to appease the German clergy who opposed the conducting of the liturgy in Old Church Slavonic, and he expelled the disciples of Methodius from Moravia in 886, after their teacher's death.

Svatopluk's state was a loose assemblage of principalities and also included conquered territories.

Not long after his death Svatopluk's realm of Great Moravia collapsed in the midst of a power struggle between his sons and the intensifying Hungarian raids.Spiesz et al. 2006, p. 311.

Svatopluk, whose empire encompassed parts of the territory of modern Czech Republic (Moravia and Bohemia), Slovakia, Poland and Hungary, has occasionally been presented as a "Slovak King" in Slovak literary works since the 18th century, the period of the Slovak national awakening.

Early years

The Annals of Fulda refer to Svatopluk as a nephew of Rastislav, the second known ruler of Great Moravia. Svatopluk was most probably born around 840. His father's name was Svetimir, according to the late 12th-century Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, a medieval historical work long dismissed as a collection of fact and fiction. According to the unproven later Moravian tradition of Tomáš Pešina z Čechorodu (17th century), who fulfilled the family tree of the House of Mojmír, Svatopluk was the son of a certain Bogislav. According to Simon of Kéza his father was Morot, a Prince of Poland who had subdued Bractari"Simonis De Keza Geta Hungarorum" edited and translated by Laszlo Veszpremy and Frank Schaer with a study by Jeno Szucs. CEU Press, 1999. P.75 and occupied Crișana before retiring to Veszprém."Anonymus Notary of King Bela The Deeds of the Hungarians" edited translated and anotated by Martyn Rady and László Veszprémy. CEU Press, 2010. P.33

Svatopluk seems to have risen to power in Great Moravia in the early 860s. The Life of Methodius relates that Svatopluk and his uncle jointly asked the Byzantine Emperor Michael III to send missionaries who were familiar with the Slavic tongue to Moravia. Michael III chose two brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who were fluent in the dialect of Slavic spoken in the environs of Thessaloniki (Greece). They arrived in Moravia in 863, and immediately set to work teaching and preaching. Their translation of liturgical texts into Old Church Slavonic was approved by Pope Hadrian II in 867.

Beginning of his reign

By the time Svatopluk first appeared in a Frankish sources (the Annals of Fulda) in 869, he was ruler of his own "realm" (regnum, implying autonomous or semi-autonomous land) within Great Moravia. This is generally accepted to be the Duchy of Nitra.Dušan Třeštík: Vznik Velké Moravy. Moravané, Čechové a střední Evropa v letech 791–871 (Praha 2001). His court was at "Rastislav's old city" (urbs antique Rastizi), which may have been either at Staré Město whose name literally means "old city" in Czech, or at Nitra (today in Slovakia), but it has also been identified with Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica in Serbia).

Svatopluk's "realm" was invaded and plundered in 869 by Bavarian troops led by Carloman, the eldest son of Louis the German, King of East Francia. At the same time Franconian and Alamannian troops attacked Rastislav's territories under the leadership of the same King's youngest son, Charles the Fat. Although the two armies soon returned, Svatopluk entered into clandestine negotiations with Carloman, and agreed to commend himself and his principality to Carloman.

Having learned of this agreement, Rastislav is said to have become furious and set a trap for his nephew, inviting him to a banquet where he intended to have him murdered. Svatopluk, however, was warned of his uncle's plans, took Rastislav prisoner and handed him over to Carloman. Rastislav was sent to Bavaria under guard, while Carloman annexed his realm outright.

As a reward for capturing Rastislav, Carloman allowed Svatopluk to retain his principality, but the rest of Great Moravia was placed under the control of two Frankish lords, William and Engilschalk. Carloman's forces also captured Methodius, whom Pope Hadrian II had earlier appointed Archbishop of Sirmium with jurisdiction over the realms ruled by Rastislav and Svatopluk. Early in 871 Carloman also imprisoned Svatopluk on unspecified charges of disloyalty, which may have been connected to the rebellion of Carloman's younger brothers, Louis the Younger and Charles the Bald.Goldberg 2006, pp. 306., 309. Believing that Svatopluk was dead, the Moravians selected another member of their ruling family named Slavomír and made him their ruler.

Towards the Peace of Forchheim

Carloman soon came to the conclusion that the accusations against Svatopluk were unfounded and released him from prison. In order to bind Svatopluk to his family, Carloman had Svatopluk stand as godfather to his illegitimate grandson. Thus this son of Carloman's son Arnulf received the Moravian name Zwentibold.

Svatopluk also agreed to lead Carloman's armies against Slavomír and the rebellious Moravians. However, on his arrival at "Rastislav's old city", Svatopluk betrayed the Bavarians and conspired secretly with the rebels. Although he captured the fortress in accordance with Carloman's plan, once he was inside its walls he renounced his loyalty to Carloman, rallied a large Moravian force and launched a devastating surprise attack on the unsuspecting Bavarian army encamped outside. The Moravians took a great number of soldiers hostage, killed the rest and rid Moravia of the Frankish occupation. Carloman's governors, William and Engelschalk, were also both slain, and Svatopluk became the undisputed ruler of Great Moravia.

In October 871 Louis the German sent Bavarian and Franconian troops against the Bohemians (Czechs). During the campaign the Franconians surprised a party of Moravians somewhere near the traps that guarded the narrow approaches to a Bohemian fort. The Moravians were returning to their homeland with the daughter of a Bohemian dux ("duke"), presumably to marry an unidentified Moravian magnate. Although the Moravians managed to reach the safety of the fort, they had to abandon 644 fully equipped horses in the narrows. The marriage of a Bohemian leader's daughter to a Moravian magnate implies that Svatopluk was planning to form an alliance with the Bohemians.

Louis the German realized the grave threat posed by Svatopluk and assembled forces for a multipronged expedition with pincer movements advancing on Moravian territory from several directions in 872. One army was sent out "against the Moravian Slavs" from Regensburg (Germany) in May, but the Thuringian and Saxon soldiers fled in their first encounter with the enemy. The second army, composed of Franconians under Bishop Arn of Würzburg and Abbot Sigihard of Fulda, experienced mixed results: although their forces fought well, the majority of the men were killed, and only a handful of survivors returned to East Francia. Finally a third force, consisting of Bavarians and Carantanians under Carloman's command, laid Moravian territories to waste, put Svatopluk's army to flight and forced it to take refuge in an "extremely well fortified stronghold". Svatopluk, however, soon assembled a large army and attacked the Bavarians who had been left behind under the command of Bishop Emriacho of Regensburg to guard ships on the bank of the river Danube.

In May 873, Pope John VIII moved energetically to discover the whereabouts of Methodius, who was still being held prisoner in Bavaria. He sent harshly worded letters to Carloman and the Bavarian bishops, and commanded Methodius's immediate reinstatement. The Pope seems also to have brokered a lasting peace between Louis the German and Svatopluk. After his meeting with the Pope at Verona (Italy), Louis the German went to Forchheim where, according to the Annals of Fulda, "he received the legates of Svatopluk asking for a peace treaty". The exact terms of their agreement are not known, but it seems to have been a compromise: Svatopluk was forced to make an annual payment of tribute to Louis the German, who agreed to avoid any hostile acts against Great Moravia. Thus Methodius, who had in the meantime been allowed to return to Moravia, could continue his work in relatively peaceful conditions for some years.

Years of expansion

Great Moravia underwent considerable expansion in the 870s. For instance, the Life of Methodius refers to the capture of "a very powerful pagan prince settled on the Vistula" in territory of later Poland, and a letter written around 900 by Archbishop Theotmar of Salzburg states that Svatopluk conquered the region of Nitra, which had been thereto inhabited by pagans. Modern historiography, however, has tended to question the claims that huge neighboring territories were permanently annexed by Great Moravia. For instance, there is little clear archaeological or written evidence of a permanent extension of Moravian power in Lesser Poland or to the west in Silesia, or in Pannonia, as is suggested in earlier historical works.

Svatopluk's expansionist policy was perhaps so successful because most of Western Europe was in the grip of unusually savage and large-scale Viking raids between 879 and 886. On the other hand, the Life of Methodius directly links Svatopluk's military achievements and Methodius' work. For instance, according to his Life, Methodius promised Svatopluk that if the Prince would celebrate Saint Peter's Day in the Archbishop's church, "God will soon deliver" his enemies to him, and "so it came to pass".

Nevertheless, at the court of Svatopluk, who himself professed the Latin Rite, intrigues against Methodius and the liturgy in Old Church Slavonic gathered strength. Svatopluk sent John of Venice, a known opponent of the Slavic liturgy, to Rome in 879 to achieve a settlement of ecclesiastical differences. In a letter addressed to Methodius in the same year, the Pope sharply rebuked him for using Slavonic in church services. Methodius, however, travelled to Rome in 880, together with a Moravian delegation. Under his influence Pope John VIII changed his mind and in a letter, known for its incipit, Industriae tuae, the Pope repeated that Mass was to be sung in Latin whenever requested, but he also allowed the use of Slavonic liturgy. The letter also confirmed the decision taken by the Holy See during Rastislav's reign to create an archdiocese for Great Moravia. Upon Svatopluk's request the Pope promoted a German priest, Wiching, to be Bishop of Nitra, but he added that the new Bishop and all the clerics in Great Moravia were expected to be obedient to Methodius, who remained the head of the church in Svatopluk's realms.

The "Wilhelminer War"