Principality of Nitra
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The Principality of Nitra or Nitrian Principality ( Slovak: Nitrianske kniežatstvo, Nitriansko, Nitrava) was a principality in what is today Slovakia and some adjacent territories in present-day Hungary in the Middle Ages. Nitra was its capital.
The principality is the oldest known state of the (proto-)Slovaks. The name form "Nitrava" (Nitria) – a parallel to the neighbouring "Morava" (Moravia) – was recorded in the 9th century.
Initially, the principality was an independent country. From 833 until the 920s, it was part of Great Moravia, then of the Hungarian principality, from 1001 until 1030 of Poland, and finally from 1030 onwards of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was dissolved in 1108.
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[edit] Independent country
The Principality of Nitra emerged in the 8th century as an independent Slavic state centered in Nitra. The only prince known from written sources was Pribina (ruled c. 825 - 833), who had the first known Christian church of all Western and Eastern Slavs built in 828. The church was consecrated by Adalram, the Bishop of Salzburg, at the seat of the ruling prince Pribina in Nitra. Many other buildings in Nitra, the Váh river valley, Orava, and Spiš are also dated to Pribina's period.
The principality was plausibly involved in heavy fights of the local Slavic population and Charlemagne against the Avars living in present-day Hungary. The Avars were totally defeated by around 800 and – as for the northern Pannonian Plain - remnants thereof were allowed to live on around the Neusiedler See and present-day Komárno.
In the early 9th century the territory of the Nitrian principality covered present-day Slovakia (except the Záhorie region), the adjacent present-day northern eastern Hungary and western Carpathian Ruthenia (some, especially older sources, however hold that easternmost Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia were annexed only later in the course of the 9th century).
[edit] Part of Great Moravia
In 833, Pribina’s principality was conquered by Mojmír I, the prince of the Moravian principality (present-day southern Moravia and Záhorie), who thereby founded the country later known as Great Moravia. The principality became part of the Great Moravian territory, but was usually given as an appanage to the heir of the dynasty. It was thus ruled by Svätopluk I during the reign of Rastislav. Svätopluk I appears as the "prince of Nitra" from c. 850 until 867 and as the appanage prince of Nitra from 867 until 870. In 870, the principality was temporarily occupied by Louis the German. During the reign of Mojmír II, it was given as an appanage to Svätopluk II.
This system of establishing a "secondary" ruler in Nitra (turned into an appanage system by 867) was devised to make defense against Frankish incursions more efficient. But it eventually turned to be dangerous for the unity of Great Moravia. Using rich resources of Nitra, both Svätopluk I and Svätopluk II revolted against their formal sovereigns. The level of autonomy they enjoyed was considerable, as documented by the Papal correspondence, addressing Svätopluk I of Nitra in the same way as two contemporaneous rulers of independent countries (Rastislav of Great Moravia, and Koceľ of the Balaton Principality).
All Great Moravian settlements mentioned by contemporary sources by name (Devín, Bratislava proper, and Nitra) were situated in the Principality of Nitra. The only known bishopric of Great Moravia was created in 880 in Nitra. The first bishop of that bishopric was Wiching.
Quarrels between Mojmír II of Moravia and Great Moravia and Svätopluk II of the Principality of Nitra weakened Great Moravia and led to its defeat in the three battles of Bratislava in 907.
[edit] Rule of Hungarian chieftains
The events between 907 and 925 are largely unknown. In c. 925, a reduced Nitrian principality (present-day south-western Slovakia only) was conquered by a Magyar tribe led by the chieftain ("duke") Lehel (Lél), who did not belong to the House of Arpad. He was captured by the Germans in the Battle of Lechfeld and executed in 955. The Principality of Nitra thus became part of the Árpáds' domain (the Árpáds were based in northern Transdanubia) and thereby also of the arising Hungarian state (Hungarian principality, later on Kingdom of Hungary). The remaining territories belonging to the Great-Moravian Principality of Nitra fell to local Slovak rulers and most of them were integrated to the Principality of Nitra under Hungarian rule progressively, mainly at the end of the 11th century.
The Great Moravian appanage system was adopted by the Árpád dynasty of the Kingdom of Hungary. Ruled by the heir of the dynasty, the Principality of Nitra kept its autonomous status.
While Taksony (c. 955-971) ruled present-day Hungary, his father Zoltán, Árpád's son, ruled the Principality of Nitra and maybe had to accept the supremacy of Bohemia in western Slovakia (c. 955-970). According to other sources, Taksony and then his son Géza were the rulers of Nitra before 971 instead.
In 971, when Géza (c. 971-997), son of Taksony, became a "Grand Prince" of the Hungarian principality, the Principality of Nitra was given in fief to his brother Michael (ruling there in 971-995). Michael was married to Adelajda (Adelhaid), the daughter of the Polish Prince Mieszko I. By various deals with Slovak nobles, Michael managed to expand the Hungarian territory to some further parts of present-day Slovakia. Since Michael became too powerful, Géza had him killed in 995, and Michael's sons Vazul and Ladislaus the Bold fled abroad.
In the same year, Géza's son Vajk (after his baptism called Stephen) was made by his father the ruler of the Principality of Nitra under the sovereignty of the Hungarian principality. Stephen probably brought his Christian wife Gisela (the date of marriage is disputed, most probably 995 or 996) to the old Christian center of Nitra, and that is why he became an ardent Christianizer first in his principality, later in whole Hungary. His marriage of Gisela promoted the influence of Bavarian clerics and nobles in Hungary. He also established friendly relationships with Slovak nobles in present-day Slovakia (especially the Poznans and the Hunts), who helped him in 997 to defeat Koppány (the pagan duke of Somogy, member of a collateral branch of the Árpáds), who, supported by old Hungarian chieftain families, claimed Hungarian leadership after Géza's death.
[edit] Part of Poland
In 1001, Stephen lost the Principality of Nitra to Poland. The Polish ruler made Stephen’s cousins Ladislaus the Bold (1001-1029) and Vazul (1029-1030), who had fled Hungary in 995, the rulers of the principality, yet also Polish vassals. In 1030, Stephen reconquered Slovakia from Poland, Vazul was imprisoned, and in 1031 (when Stephen’s only son Imre died) he was blinded in Nitra so that he wouldn't succeed to the Hungarian throne.
[edit] Part of the Kingdom of Hungary
However, Vazul’s three sons (Levente, and the two future kings Andrew and Béla, and Domoslav (Bonuslaus), son of Ladislaus the Bold) managed to flee abroad. Andrew and Béla (the ancestors of all the following Árpád rulers of the Kingdom of Hungary) returned to Hungary from abroad and expelled the then Hungarian king Peter Urseolo. Domoslav, in turn, was temporarily installed as the ruler of western Slovakia in 1042, when the territory was conquered by Bretislav I and Henry III.
In 1048, the Hungarian king Andrew I (1046-63) shared power with his brother Béla by making him an apanage ruler of one-third of Hungary (called "tercia pars regni", Ducatus or the Nitrian Frontier Duchy) with the capital in Nitra, The duchy consisted of present-day southern Slovakia (the Principality of Nitra proper) and north-eastern Kingdom of Hungary (called Bihar, however not identical with the later Bihar). Béla received the title of "duke" (1048-1063).
All the following dukes of Nitra were members of the Árpád dynasty and most of them were future Hungarian kings. Especially before 1077, the dukes had an independent foreign and internal policy and the duchy was accepted as a separate entity not only by Hungary, but also by the Pope and by the German emperor. For example, when King Andrew I was in conflict with Byzantium, the Byzantine emperor contacted Béla.
In 1059, Béla fled to Poland to his brother-in-law Boleslaus II, after king Andrew I had his own son Solomon crowned future king in 1057 (to be able to engage him with Judith). In 1060, Béla returned to the Kingdom of Hungary and defeated King Andrew I. Béla I (1061–1063) became the new king of Hungary and parallelly remained the duke of Nitra.
After Béla's death in 1063, Henry installed Solomon as the new king of Hungary and Béla's sons Geza, Ladislaus and Lampert fled to Poland (to their kin, Boleslaus II). When Henry left Hungary, Boleslaus II attacked Solomon, defeated him and forced him to accept Geza as the king of Hungary. Finally, however, in 1064, peace was made between Solomon and the sons of Béla, under which Solomon (1063-1074) remained king and Geza and Ladislaus received the Nitrian Frontier Duchy; more precisely, Géza became the duke of what is now Slovakia (11 counties), Ladislaus received Bihar (4 counties) and Lampert stayed in Nitra together with Geza without receiving own domains. New conflicts arose again soon and in 1074, Geza, Ladislaus and Lampert defeated Solomon. As a result, Geza I (1074-1077) became the new king of Hungary. His brother Ladislaus became the new Duke of the Nitrian Frontier Duchy (incl. Bihar) and later, in 1077, he succeeded his brother as the king of Hungary.
In the late 11th century, the Kingdom of Hungary (the Nitrian Frontier Duchy) annexed the territories of present-day northern western and central Slovakia.
In 1077, Lampert became the new Duke of Nitra, however Ladislaus considerably restrained Lampert's powers and deprived him of an own army. In 1081, Ladislaus put an end to Solomon's rule in Bratislava, which the former Hungarian king Solomon occupied in 1074.
In 1095, Prince Álmos, who had been the duke of the newly conquered eastern Croatia until then, was appointed the duke of the Nitrian Frontier Duchy by his brother, the Hungarian king Coloman. A conflict arose between King Coloman and Álmos, who was supported by the Holy Roman Empire and Bohemia, in 1098, after Coloman had even declared himself the king of Croatia in 1097 (crowned in 1102). Finally in 1108, peace was made between the two brothers, but Coloman violated it and had Almos (and his son Béla) blinded and imprisoned in 1108 or 1109 to prevent him from becoming the future king. This act also marks the end of the Nitrian Frontier Duchy/Principality of Nitra and thus a full integration of the territory of Slovakia into the Kingdom of Hungary.
