Aribo of Austria
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Aribo or Arbo (circa 850 – 909) was the margrave (comes terminalis, "frontier count") of the Marcha Orientalis, sometimes Ostmark (Eastern March) or Awarenmark (Avar March), from 871 until his death. In his day, the march orientalis corresponded to a front along the Danube from the Traungau to the Szombathely and Raba rivers and including the Vienna basin.
Aribo was originally appointed to succeed the brothers William and Engelschalk I after they died on campaign against Moravia. This has been used to support the hypothesis that he was a brother-in-law of the two margraves. Aribo maintained peace with Svatopluk of Moravia and it paid off when, in 882, the son of the late margrave Engelschalk, Engelschalk II, rebelled against him, claiming the rights to the march. The emperor Charles the Fat confirmed Aribo's position and Engelshcalk turned to Arnulf of Carinthia, Aribo's southern neighbour, for support. Svatopluk, however, entered the so-called Wilhelminer War on the side of Aribo and the emperor. In 884, peace returned to the marcha.
A signe of Aribo's strength after this was that he was unable to be unseated by Arnulf when the latter succeeded to the German throne in 887.
[edit] 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.
