Margravate of Meissen

Predecessors[edit]

In the mid 9th century, the area of the later margravate was part of an eastern frontier zone of the Carolingian Empire called Sorbian March (Limes Sorabicus), after Sorbian tribes of Polabian Slavs settling beyond the Saale river. In 849, a margrave named Thachulf was documented in the Annales Fuldenses. His title is rendered as dux Sorabici limitis, "duke of the Sorbian frontier", but he and his East Frankish successors were commonly known as duces Thuringorum, "dukes of the Thuringians", as they set about establishing their power over the older Duchy of Thuringia in the west.^[2]


The Sorbian march had already lost its importance around 900 AD; the last known margrave Poppo was deposed by King Arnulf in 892 and replaced with Conrad who continued to appear as a "Duke of Thuringia". Conrad himself was replaced by Burchard, whose title in 903 was marchio Thuringionum, "margrave of the Thuringians".


Due to scarce sources, the geographical extent of the Frankish march east of the Saale is a matter of ongoing debate among historians; it may have reached up to the settlement area of the Slavic Glomacze (Talaminzi) tribes beyond the Mulde river, identified as eastern neighbours of the Sorbs by the Bavarian Geographer about 850. These territories were under constant attacks by the East Frankish rulers; in 908 they were first campaigned by the Saxon prince Henry the Fowler, son of Duke Otto the Illustrious. By 928/29, the main Glomacze fortress on the Jahna river was destroyed and their lands up to the Dresden Basin incorporated into the Marca Geronis.