Page "Arnulf of Carinthia" Paragraph 9

As early as 880, Arnulf had designs on Great Moravia, and had the Frankish bishop Wiching of Nitra interfere with the missionary activities of Methodius, with the aim of preventing any potential for creating a unified Moravian nation.

In 893 or 894, Great Moravia probably lost a part of its territory — present-day Western Hungary — to him.

As a reward, Wiching became Arnulf ’ s chancellor in 892.

Arnulf, however, failed to conquer the whole of Great Moravia when he attempted it in 892, 893, and 899.

Yet Arnulf did achieve some successes, in particular in 895, when Bohemia broke away from Great Moravia and became his vassal.

An accord was made between him and the Bohemian Duke Borivoj I ( reigned 870-95 ); Bohemia was thus freed from the dangers of invasion.

However, in his attempts to conquer Moravia, in 899 Arnulf invited across the Magyars who had settled in Pannonia, and with their help he imposed a measure of control on Moravia.

While Arnulf remained alive, the Magyars refrained from any overt acts of pillage, but with Arnulf ’ s death, they proceeded to invade Italy in 900.