Fugitives, Exiles and Renegades on the Moravian and Bavarian Borderlands in the 9th Century

The early medieval juridical norms commonly outlawed and, consequently, banished people convicted of serious crimes like murder, adultery or woman kidnapping. In the case of the ruling authority, monarchs punished the acts of treason and infidelity mainly with exile. Sources referring to the Moravian principality in the 9th century often mention exiles and fugitives from the higher social strata. The article provides a specification of these persons and a partial analysis of the political circumstances motivating the banishments and requests for asylum in the Moravian principality. Besides the remarkable case of Pribina, who was sent to exile by the Moravian prince Mojmír, almost every known exile and outcast
came to the realm of the Moravians from the Carolingian Eastern March (Marcha orientalis). Therefore, the paper addresses the politics of exile on the Slavic and Bavaria borderlands near the Middle Danube and attempts to clarify the occurrence of Wilhelminer and, partly, of the Mojmirid outcasts.