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 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.

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.

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

In addition, in 889, Arnulf supported the claim of Louis the Blind to the kingdom of Provence, after receiving a personal appeal from Louis ’ mother, Ermengard, who came to see Arnulf at Forchheim in May 889.

In 895, Arnulf summoned both Charles and Odo to his presence at Worms.

Last, Henry besieged his residence at Ratisbon ( Regensburg ) and forced Arnulf into submission.

To withstand Saxon overlordship Wenceslaus ' father Vratislaus had forged an alliance with the Bavarian duke Arnulf the Bad, then a fierce opponent of King Henry ; however, it became worthless when Arnulf and Henry reconciled at Regensburg in 921.

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

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.

Arnulf ( variants include Arnold, Arnoul, Arnoulf ), a Germanic name common in the Middle Ages and rare at present, may refer to:

In 1071 Philip I and Count Arnulf III of Flanders were defeated at St Omer by Robert the Frisian.

The French elected Odo, though he was opposed at first by Guy III of Spoleto, who also opposed Arnulf in Lotharingia.

Arnulf was born to an important Frankish family at an uncertain date around 582.

Arnulf gave distinguished service at the Austrasian court under Theudebert II After the death of Theudebert in 612 he was made bishop of Metz.

Severely injured at one of his fights with Arnulf, Conrad died on 23 December 918 at his residence Weilburg Castle.

At that moment, Arnulf, king of Carinthia, at war with the Slav ruler Svatopluk, king of Great Moravia, decided like the Byzantines to appeal to the Hungarians.

He died 10 September 918 at Blandinberg ( near Ghent ) and was succeeded by his eldest son Arnulf I of Flanders.

Arnulf died on 30 March, 987 at age 26.

The young Arnulf III was killed the next year at the Battle of Cassel ( 1071 ) and Baldwin's younger son eventually became Baldwin II of Hainaut.

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.

That same year, Formosus died, leaving Lambert once again in power, and both he and Berengar killed any officials who had been put in place by Arnulf, as Ratold also fled from Milan to Bavaria.

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.

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.

In autumn 895 Arnulf undertook his second Italian campaign, and in 896 he was crowned by the Pope in Rome.

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.

* February 22 – A succession struggle erupts in Flanders between Richilde, widow of Baldwin VI and her brother-in-law Robert the Frisian, son of Baldwin V. Robert defeats Richilde and her nephew Arnulf III in the Battle of Cassel and is appointed count by King Philip.

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.