Crantz (or Creontius/Craentius) was an eighth century Bavarian dignitary – chancellor to the Bavarian Duke Tassilo III (circa 736 – circa 796).

Tassilo (the last of the dynasty of Agolfings) was at various times in rebellion against Charlemagne and, as with all who rebelled against that tyrant, he did not profit by his resistance.  In the end he was outmaneuvered, forced to renounce his claims on Bavaria and was eventually tonsured (along with his son) and he and his family were forced to live out their lives as monks and nuns in the monastery at Lorsch and, as regards the daughters (as per the Chesne fragment), at Chelles and Laon.

So much for Tassilo.

Crantz does not appear much in literature but he is generally accepted as a genuine 8th century source.  References to Crantz’s now lost works are made in manuscripts written much later by Johann Georg Turmair or Thurmayr aka “Johannes Aventinus” or just Aventinus of Bavaria (1477 – 1534).  Aventinus is known as the father of Bavarian historiography and he mentions fragments that are generally accepted to have originated with Crantz.

The two works of note are Aventinus’:

• Annales ducum Bavariae (the “Annals“), and
• Baierische Chronik  (the “Chronicle“).

The Annals were written first in Latin.  The Chronicle is basically a German language version of the Annals.  Both were republished in the 19th century, most notably by Riezler (1882) as part of a wider set of Aventinus’ works.  They came to the attention of King when he was putting together an English translation of various sources regarding Charlemagne.

What interest us in particular are the mentions of Slavs – the Carantanians – in excerpts from the Annals and the Chronicle that attributed to Crantz.  We present these here in King’s English translation, along with the print versions of the same passages and the original manuscript pages (Clm 283 Annales; Cgm 1562 Chronik) .

We start with the print versions of the Annals:

And of the Chronicle:

Year 771
Annals

“…There succeeded Hadrian I, who supported the imperial regions against the Lombards.  The Lombards and stirred up (?) the Germans against the king of the Lombards.”

“The Lombards were were defeated by the Venetians [King notes ‘perhaps ‘by the Wends’ and notes that what follows (two words it seems) is ‘illegible’ ‘].”

Year 772
Annals

“Theodo, son of Tassilo, was taken to Italy, to Desiderius, his grandfather, and thence to Rome; he was baptized (?) at Whitsuntide.”

“A people extremely ferocious in war at this time were the Slavs or Wends, to use the language of common speech, or, to use their own, the Charini or Chariones [Carantanians], who lived on the rivers Drava and Mura [‘ad Dravus Nuciamque (?)’].  Into Italy with an immense multitude…”

[and the source breaks off]

[the parallel with the Charini of Pliny’s or, to the extent they were different, with the  Germanic Harii is interesting]

Year 772
Chronicle  

“And the above-named princes, duke Tassilo, his wife, the duchess Liutperga, and their son, duke Dieth or Theodo, out of special devotion for the salvation of their souls, dispatched to Rome with truly great offerings a splendid embassy: bishop Alim of Saeben, count Maegel, count Machelm and many other magnates, spiritual and temporal, brave and eminent men.  King Charles would not let them all pass;”

“he allowed only the above-named Alim of Saeben or Brizen and abbot Atto of Mondsee to proceed to Rome and made all the other people go home again — But duke Tassilo was displeased by this affair; he felt insulted that his cousin, king Charles, had refused to let his people through and was seized by a great rancor towards him.  King Charles, for his part, was no less anxious about his cousin, duke Tassilo, who, to him, was aiming to be just too powerful; Tassilo was certainly at one with the Saxons, Wends and Huns, all of whom had long been sworn and mortal enemies of king Charles and all the kings in Francia.”

“A fierce war was on the point of breaking out.  Then pope Hadrian intervened became a mediator and sent two bishops from Rome to Bavaria, to duke Tassilo, who made peace between the duke and the king.  Duke Tassilo came to his cousin, king Charles, at Worms [781] and gave him great gifts of goods and money; in return the king gave him even more, receiving duke Tassilo right honourably and treating him with great propriety and respect.  They concluded an eternal peace with each other.  And so duke Tassilo went back to Bavaria and again sent count Machelm, a very elderly lord, with many companions, on pilgrimage to Rome.  All died there, of fever.”

Post Scriptum

Note that the Annals, the Chronicle and other writings by Aventinus also mention Wends/Slavs elsewhere but those passages are not attributable to Crantz so we do not generally present them here.  Nevertheless, since Chapter 78 of the Chronicle does address Tassilo’s (Thessel’s) dealings with the Carantanian Slavs, we thought we should include those passage here.  We leave to you to translate the terrible things that the Carantanian Slav pagans did to deserve their fate according to the author.  The like source here is the Conversion of the Carantanians:

Copyright ©2016 jassa.org All Rights Reserved