Editing Pannonian Avars (section)

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[[File:Awarenmark-frankenreich.png|thumb|right| Frankish [[Avar March]] and neighbouring provinces in the time of [[Charlemagne]] (reigned 800–814)]]
{{main|Avar Wars}}
{{See also|Avar March|March of Pannonia|Pannonian Slavs}}

The gradual decline of Avar power accelerated to a rapid fall. A series of Frankish campaigns, beginning from 788, ended with the conquest of the Avar realm within a decade. Initial conflict between Avars and Franks occurred soon after the Frankish deposition of Bavarian duke [[Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria|Tassilo III]] and the establishment of direct Frankish rule over [[Duchy of Bavaria|Bavaria]] in 788. At that time, the border between Bavarians and Avars was situated on the [[Enns (river)|river Enns]]. An initial Avarian incursion into Bavaria was repelled, and Franco-Bavarian forces responded by taking the war to neighbouring Avarian territories, situated along the Danube, east of Enns. The two sides collided near the river [[Ybbs]], on Ybbs Field ({{langx|de|Ybbsfeld}}), where the Avars suffered a defeat in 788. This heralded the rise of Frankish power and Avarian decline in the region.{{sfn|Bowlus|1995|pp=47, 80}}{{sfn|Pohl|2018|pp=378–379}}

In 790, the Avars tried to negotiate a peace settlement with the Franks, but no agreement was reached.{{sfn|Pohl|2018|pp=378–379}} A Frankish campaign against the Avars, initiated in 791, ended successfully for the Franks. A large Frankish army, led by [[Charlemagne]], crossed from Bavaria into the Avarian territory beyond the Enns, and started to advance along the Danube in two columns, but found no resistance and soon reached the region of the [[Vienna Woods]], near the Pannonian Plain. No pitched battle was fought,{{sfn|Schutz|2004|p=61}} since the Avars had fled before the advancing Carolingian army, while disease left most of the Avar horses dead.{{sfn|Schutz|2004|p=61}} Tribal infighting began, showing the weakness of the khaganate.{{sfn|Schutz|2004|p=61}}

The Franks had been supported by the Slavs, who established polities on former Avar territory.{{sfn|Schutz|2004|pp=61–62}} Charlemagne's son [[Pepin of Italy]] captured a large, fortified encampment known as "the Ring", which contained much of the spoils from earlier Avar campaigns.{{sfn|Duruy|1891|p=446}} The campaign against the Avars again gathered momentum. By 796, the Avar chieftains had surrendered and became open to the acceptance of Christianity.{{sfn|Schutz|2004|p=61}} In the meantime, all of Pannonia was conquered.{{sfn|Sinor|1990|pp=218–220}} According to the ''[[Royal Frankish Annals|Annales Regni Francorum]]'', the Avars began to submit to the Franks in 796. The song "''[[De Pippini regis Victoria Avarica]]''" celebrating the defeat of the Avars at the hands of [[Pepin of Italy]] in 796 still survives. The Franks baptized many Avars and integrated them into the [[Francia|Frankish Empire]].<ref>''...(sc. Avaros) autem, qui obediebant fidei et baptismum sunt consecuti...''</ref> In 799, some Avars revolted.{{sfn|Schutz|2004|p=62}}

In 804, [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgaria]] conquered the southeastern Avar lands in [[Transylvania]] and southeastern Pannonia up to the Middle Danube, and many Avars became subjects of the [[First Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian Empire]]. Khagan Theodorus, a convert to Christianity, died after asking Charlemagne for help in 805; he was succeeded by Khagan [[Abraham (Avar khagan)|Abraham]], who was baptized as the new Frankish client (and should not be assumed from his name alone to have been [[Kabar|Khavar]] rather than Pseudo-Avar). Abraham was succeeded by Khagan (or [[Tudun]]) [[Isaac (Avar khagan)|Isaac]] (Latin ''Canizauci''), about whom little is known. The Franks turned the Avar lands under their control into a [[March (territory)|frontier march]]. The [[March of Pannonia]]{{mdash}}the eastern half of the [[Avar March]]{{mdash}}was then granted to the Slavic Prince [[Pribina]], who established the [[Pannonian Slavs#Principality|Lower Pannonia principality]] in 840.

Whatever was left of Avar power was effectively ended when the [[Bulgars]] expanded their territory into the central and eastern portions of traditional Avar lands around 829.{{sfn|Skutsch|2005|p=158}} According to Pohl, an Avar presence in Pannonia is certain in 871, but thereafter the name is no longer used by chroniclers. Pohl wrote, "It simply proved impossible to keep up an Avar identity after Avar institutions and the high claims of their tradition had failed",{{sfn|Pohl|1998|p=19}} although [[Regino of Prüm|Regino]] wrote about them in 889.{{sfn|Olajos|2001|pp=50–56}}<ref>"''Et primo quidem Pannoniorum et Avarum solitudines pererrantes''"</ref> The growing amount of archaeological evidence in [[Transdanubia]] also presumes an Avar population in the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th century.{{sfn|Olajos|2001|pp=50–56}} Archaeological findings suggest a substantial, late Avar presence on the [[Great Hungarian Plain]]; however, it is difficult to determine their proper chronology.{{sfn|Olajos|2001|pp=50–56}} The preliminary results of the new excavations also imply that the known and largely accepted theory of the destruction of the Avar settlement area is outdated; a disastrous depopulation of the Avar Khaganate never happened.{{sfn|Ančić|Shepard|Vedriš|2017}}{{page needed|date=August 2022}}

Byzantine records, including the "''Notitia episcopatuum''", the "''Additio patriarchicorum thronorum''" by [[Neilos Doxapatres]], the "''Chronica''" by Petrus Alexandrinus and the "''Notitia patriarchatuum''" mention the 9th century Avars as an existing Christian population.{{sfn|Olajos|2001|pp=50–56}} The Avars had already been mixing with the more numerous Slavs for generations, and they later came under the rule of external polities, such as the Franks, Bulgaria, and [[Great Moravia]].{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=79}} Fine presumes that Avar descendants who survived the [[Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin|Hungarian Conquest]] in the 890s were likely absorbed by the Hungarian population.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=79}} After the mid to late 8th-century Frankish conquest of Pannonia, Avar and Bulgar refugees migrated to settle in the area of Bulgaria and along its western periphery.{{sfn|Fine|1991|pp=251–252}} The Avars in the region known as ''solitudo avarorum''{{mdash}}currently called the Great Hungarian Plain{{mdash}}vanished in an arc of three generations. They slowly merged with the Slavs to create a bilingual Turkic-Slavic-speaking people who were subjected to Frankish domination; the invading Magyars found this composite people in the late 9th century.{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=264}} The ''[[De Administrando Imperio]]'', written around 950 and based on older documents, states that "there are still descendants of the Avars in [[Kingdom of Croatia (925–1102)|Croatia]], and are recognized as Avars". Modern historians and archaeologists until now proved the opposite, that Avars never lived in Dalmatia proper (including [[Lika]]),<ref>{{cite book |last=Petrinec |first=Maja |chapter=Avar finds on the eastern coast of the Adriatic |date=2022 |editor=Papeša, Anita Rapan; Dugonjić, Anita |title=Avars and Slavs: Two Sides of the Belt Strap End - Avars on the North and the South of the Khaganate, proceedings of the international scientific conference held in Vinkovci 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/93521564 |location=Zagreb, Vinkovci |publisher=Arheološki muzej u Zagrebu, Gradski muzej Vinkovci |page=378 |isbn=9789538143588}}</ref> that statement occurred somewhere in Pannonia, and the information belongs to the 9th century.{{sfn|Živković|2012|pp=51, 117–118}}{{sfn|Sokol|2008|pp=185–187}} There has been speculation that the modern [[Avars (Caucasus)|Avar people of the Caucasus]] might have an uncertain connection to the historical Avars, but direct descent from them is rejected or doubted by many scholars.{{sfn|Skutsch|2005|p=158}}