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.

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.

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.

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.

His illegitimate son by her, Arnulf, was granted the duchy of Carinthia.

The earliest written record of the Zillertal dates from 889, when Arnulf of Carinthia granted land to the Archbishop of Salzburg in the " Cilarestal ".

Soon after this he married Emelota or Emma, the niece of Patriarch Arnulf of Chocques, and was also granted Jericho and its revenue, which was formerly church property.

Later, after he had been crowned King of East Francia, Arnulf turned his old territory of Carinthia into the March of Carinthia, a part of the Duchy of Bavaria.

Arnulf spent his childhood on the Mosaburch or Mosapurc, which is widely believed to be Moosburg in Carinthia, only a few miles away from one of the Imperial residences, the Carolingian Kaiserpfalz at Karnburg, which before as Krnski grad had been the residence of the Carantanian princes.

ga: Arnulf de Carinthia

He was ordained as a subdeacon by Pope Marinus I, followed by his being raised to the deaconate by Pope Stephen V. During the pontificate of Pope Formosus ( 891 – 896 ), he was a member of the party of nobles who supported the Emperor Lambert, who was the opponent of Formosus and the pope ’ s preferred imperial candidate, Arnulf of Carinthia.

Formosus persuaded Arnulf of Carinthia to advance to Rome, invade the Italian peninsula, and take control of Italy.

Under Emperor Arnulf of Carinthia, Carantania, now ruled by a mixed Bavarian-Slav nobility, shortly emerged as a regional power, but was destroyed by the Hungarian invasions in the late 9th century.

At the time of Svatopluk I and King Arnulf of Carinthia in the 9th century, Silesia was a part of Greater Moravia ; after its destruction in the early 10th century, it was conquered by Bohemia.

Early in 929 the joint forces of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria and King Henry I the Fowler reached Prague in a sudden attack, which forced Wenceslaus to resume the payment of a tribute which had been first imposed by the East Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia in 895.

* Arnulf of Carinthia

* Arnulf of Carinthia defeats the Normans at the Battle of Leuven.

* Arnulf of Carinthia, King of the East Franks ( d. 899 )

* Arnulf of Carinthia ascends to the throne of Eastern Francia ( modern Germany ).

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.

The Vikings were defeated in 891 by Arnulf of Carinthia near Leuven.

* The Eastern Franks invade and conquer Italy under the leadership of Arnulf of Carinthia.

* Arnulf of Carinthia undertakes his second Italian campaign.

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

* Arnulf of Carinthia and his Magyar ( Hungarian ) allies invade Great Moravia.

* Arnulf of Carinthia grants Osnabrück trade privileges.

The following year his nephew Arnulf of Carinthia, the illegitimate son of King Carloman of Bavaria, raised the standard of rebellion.