Arnulf of Carinthia ( 850 – 8 December 899 ) was the Carolingian King of East Francia from 887, the disputed King of Italy from 894 and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor from 22 February 896 until his death.

Arnulf was, according to most sources, the illegitimate son of Carloman, King of Bavaria, and his concubine Liutswind, perhaps of Carantanian origin, and possibly the sister of Ernst, Count of the Bavarian Nordgau Margraviate in the area of the Upper Palatinate, or perhaps the burgrave of Passau, as some sources say.

Arnulf was granted the Duchy of Carinthia, a Frankish vassal state and successor of the ancient Principality of Carantania, by his father Carloman, after Carloman had become reconciled with his own father Louis the German and was created King of Bavaria.

After Carloman was incapacitated by a stroke in 879, Louis the Younger inherited Bavaria, Charles the Fat was given the Kingdom of Italy and Arnulf was confirmed in Carinthia by an agreement with Carloman.

Bavaria, however, was ruled more or less by Arnulf.

Arnulf had in fact ruled Bavaria during the summer and autumn of 879 while his father arranged his succession and he himself was granted " Pannonia ," in the words of the Annales Fuldenses, or " Carantanum ," in the words of Regino of Prüm.

Pannonia was invaded, but Arnulf refused to give up the young Wilhelminers.

Arnulf did not make peace with Svatopluk until late 885, by which time the Moravian was a man of the emperor.

Arnulf, having distinguished himself in the war against the Slavs was elected by the nobles of the realm ( only the eastern realm, though Charles had ruled the whole of the Frankish lands ) and assumed his title of King of East Francia.

In 893, Arnulf switched his support from Odo to Charles the Simple after being persuaded by Fulk ( Archbishop of Reims ) that it was in his best interests.

At one point, Charles was forced to flee to Arnulf and ask for his protection.

Arnulf was not a negotiator, but a fighter.

In 893, a new pope, Formosus, not trusting the newly crowned co-emperors Guy and Lambert, sent an embassy to Omuntesberch, where Arnulf was holding a Diet with Svatopluk, to request Arnulf come and liberate Italy, where he would be crowned in Rome.

His march northward through the Alps was interrupted by Rudolph, King of Transjurane Burgundy, and it was only with great difficulty that Arnulf crossed the mountain range.

In the meantime, Lambert and his mother Ageltrude travelled to Rome to receive papal confirmation of his imperial succession, but Formosus, still desiring to crown Arnulf, was imprisoned in Castel Sant ' Angelo.

Arnulf was greeted at the Ponte Milvio by the Roman Senate who escorted him into the Leonine City, where he was received by Pope Formosus on the steps of the Santi Apostoli.

Arnulf only retained power in Italy as long as he was personally there.

With his return to Germany in 896, Arnulf found that his physical ill health meant he was unable to deal with the problems besetting his reign.

The characteristics they shared with many Merovingian female saints may be mentioned: Regenulfa of Incourt, a 7th-century virgin in French-speaking Brabant of the ancestral line of the dukes of Brabant fled from a proposal of marriage to live isolated in the forest, where a curative spring sprang forth at her touch ; Ermelindis of Meldert, a 6th-century virgin related to Pepin I, inhabited several isolated villas ; Begga of Andenne, the mother of Pepin II, founded seven churches in Andenne during her widowhood ; the purely legendary " Oda of Amay " was drawn into the Carolingian line by spurious genealogy in her 13th-century vita, which made her the mother of Arnulf, Bishop of Metz, but she has been identified with the historical Saint Chrodoara ; finally, the widely-venerated Gertrude of Nivelles, sister of Begga in the Carolingian ancestry, was abbess of a nunnery established by her mother.

With the support of the nobles, Arnulf held a Diet at Tribur and deposed Charles in November 887, under threat of military action.

One of his sons, Henry, sometimes called margrave and duke in Franconia under King Charles the Fat of East Francia, fell fighting against the Normans in 886 ; another, Poppo, was margrave in Thuringia from 880 to 892, when he was deposed by King Charles successor Arnulf of Carinthia.

* Poppo of Thuringia, count of the march in Thuringia, is deposed by the German Carolingian king Arnulf of Carinthia.

The turn of events outran the messages, when Hugh captured both Charles and Arnulf and convoked a synod at Reims in June 991 which obediently deposed Arnulf and chose as his successor Gerbert of Aurillac.

During a coup led by his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia in November 887, Charles was deposed in East Francia, Lotharingia, and Italy.

Immediately after Christmas, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Arnulf of Chocques, was deposed on the ground that his election had been uncanonical, and with Bohemund's support, Dagobert was elected in his place.

The turn of events outran the messages, when Hugh Capet captured both Charles and Archbishop Arnulf and convoked a synod at Reims in June 991, which obediently deposed Arnulf and chose as his successor Abbot Gerbert of Aurillac, afterwards Pope Silvester II.

: vassal of the German King Arnulf of Carinthia, reduced to Friuli 889-894, deposed by Arnulf in 896.

: opponent of Berengar, ruled most of Italy but was deposed by Arnulf.

Arnulf was there crowned King and Emperor by Formosus, who declared Lambert deposed.

Patriarch Arnulf of Chocques was deposed for having supported the marriage, but was reinstated by Pope Paschal II in 1116, on condition that the marriage was annulled ; Baldwin agreed and then attempted to bring Arda back from Constantinople.

The king was blamed for a bigamous marriage ( as Arda was still alive ) and the Patriarch Arnulf was deposed.

Arnulf instead sent his son Zwentibold with an army to join Berengar, the deposed king, and march on Trento.

During this papacy, a serious dispute arose over the deposition in 991 of Arnulf, Archbishop of Reims, by French churchmen, the Pope's interference leading at first to no definite result.

Winning the confidence of Charles of Lorraine and of Arnulf, archbishop of Reims, he was restored to his see ; but in 991 he gave Laon, together with Charles and Arnulf, into the hands of Hugh Capet.

Charles peacefully went into his involuntary retirement, but not without first chastising his nephew for his treachery and asking only for a few royal villas in Swabia, which Arnulf mercifully granted him, on which to live out his final months.

Arnulf took advantage of the problems in West Francia upon the death of Charles The Fat to secure the territory of Lorraine, which he converted into a kingdom for his son, Zwentibold.

Odo, on the other hand, personally attended, together with a large retinue, bearing many gifts for Arnulf.

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.

Upon his accession he wrote to Peter the Venerable and the monks of Cluny, asking them to pray for him, while he was congratulated by Arnulf of Lisieux.

Gerbert was a natural candidate for his succession, but Hugh Capet appointed Arnulf, an illegitimate son of Lothair instead.

This was a political move as repayment for the support of Bishop Arnulf of Metz and Pepin I, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, the two leading Austrasian nobles, who were effectively granted semi-autonomy.

But in 894 Arnulf declared his support for Charles, and after a conflict which lasted three years, Odo was compelled to come to terms with his rival and surrender a district north of the Seine to him.

Under the marriage agreement, if Baldwin and Adelaide had no children, the heir to the kingdom would be Roger II of Sicily, Adelaide's son by her first husband Roger I. Technically the marriage to Adelaide was bigamous because Arda was still alive in a monastery in Jerusalem, and it would later cause many problems both for Baldwin and Patriarch Arnulf, who had sanctioned it.

Today his drawings continue to be a source of inspiration for both Swedish and international artists such as Arnulf Rainer, Günter Brus, Georg Baselitz, Per Kirkeby, Torsten Andersson, Ola Billgren, or Donald Baechler.

In 891 bishop Gebhard I received an endowment from King Arnulf for the cathedral foundation.

In gratitude for Erik's having saved Hy-Brasil, King Arnulf presents him with the Horn Resounding, which is much larger than Erik had imagined.

Arnulf may have been trying to make up for the problems he caused disproving the authenticity of the Lance, and the True Cross became the most sacred relic of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.

* Arnulf / Ernulf ( illegitimate ), exiled for supporting his father in rebellion but allowed to return to England, probably in the reign of King Henry II

The Arnulf Ciborium ( a miniature architectural ciborium rather than the vessel for hosts ), now in the Munich Residenz, is the third major work in the group, along with the frame of an antique serpentine dish in the Louvre.

However, in 933 Adeloft died, and Arnulf took the countship of Boulogne for himself, but later conveyed it to his nephew, Arnulf II.

Sven Hedin supported the cause of the Norwegian author Arnulf Øverland and for the Oslo professor of philology and university director Didrik Arup Seip, who were interred in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Arnulf built a castle at Pembroke in West Wales, described by Giraldus Cambrensis as a " slender fortress of turf and stakes " under the command of one of his young officers, Gerald FitzWalter ( aka Gerald de Windsor ), who held it for Arnulf in the face of the great Welsh uprising of 1093.

Arnulf turned his attention to Ireland, where, prior to the Montgomery rebellion, he had sent Gerald de Windsor to secure for him the hand in marriage of Lafracoth, daughter of the Irish king Muircheartach Ua Briain ; by 1102, Arnulf was mentioned by Muirchertach as his son-in-law in a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm of Bec.