Engelschalk II was the margrave (''comes terminalis'', "frontier count") of the
March of Pannonia
March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 21 ...
in the late ninth century in opposition to
Aribo. In his day, the ''march orientalis'' corresponded to a front along the
Danube
The Danube ( ; see also #Names and etymology, other names) is the List of rivers of Europe#Longest rivers, second-longest river in Europe, after the Volga in Russia. It flows through Central and Southeastern Europe, from the Black Forest sou ...
from the
Traungau to the
Szombathely
}
Szombathely (; ; also see #Etymology, names) is the 10th largest city in Hungary. It is the administrative centre of Vas County in the west of the country, located near the border with Austria. Szombathely lies by the streams ''Perint'' and '' ...
and
Raba rivers and including the
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
basin.
Engelschalk was the son of
Engelschalk I and nephew of
William II, sons of William I (the
Wilhelminers). He led his brothers and cousins in rebellion against the new margrave Aribo when they were not accorded the succession to their fathers in 871. They displaced Aribo off and on until the
Wilhelminer War of 882 – 884, when they were defeated by Aribo and
Svatopluk of Moravia, aided by the emperor
Charles the Fat
Charles the Fat (839 – 13 January 888) was the emperor of the Carolingian Empire from 881 to 887. A member of the Carolingian dynasty, Charles was the youngest son of Louis the German and Hemma, and a great-grandson of Charlemagne. He was t ...
. They fled to
Arnulf of Carinthia
Arnulf of Carinthia ( – 8 December 899) was the duke of Carinthia who overthrew his uncle Emperor Charles the Fat to become the Carolingian king of East Francia from 887, the disputed king of Italy from 894, and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor, ...
, who refused to hand them over to Svatopluk. When Arnulf became king in 887, Engelschalk probably expected to receive his support, but Aribo was so strongly entrenched by then that the new king did not dare upset the balance.
Sometime before 893, Engelschalk captured Arnulf's illegitimate daughter Ellinrat and, probably, married her, in order to force Arnulf to accede to his demands. His plan failed and he had to flee to Moravia. In 893, Arnulf did regrant Engelschalk some power in Pannonia, but he offended the magnates of Bavaria and they conspired against him. In
Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
that year, the aristocracy came together to negotiate with Engelschalk and prevent his assisting the Moravians, against whom Arnulf was planning a campaign for that year. Engelschalk was arrested and blinded without Arnulf's knowledge. His brother William immediately connived with Svatopluk, but the Bavarian aristocracy began to purge the court of Wilhelminers.
Sources
*MacLean, Simon. ''Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century: Charles the Fat and the end of the Carolingian Empire''. Cambridge University Press: 2003.
*
Reuter, Timothy
Timothy Alan Reuter (25 January 1947 – 14 October 2002), grandson of the former mayor of Berlin Ernst Reuter, was a German-British historian who specialized in the study of medieval Germany, particularly the social, military and ecclesiastical ...
. ''Germany in the Early Middle Ages 800–1056''. New York: Longman, 1991.
Wilhelminer dynasty
9th-century counts in Europe
9th-century people from East Francia
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