ABSTRACT
The relationship between military and social organization has long been a topic of major concern and debate among scholars specializing in the history of the European middle ages. Many historians have regarded the eighth and ninth centuries as the formative period in defining relationships between military and social organization during the entire middle ages. During Charlemagne's lifetime only Lower Austria came under the direct control of marcher lords of Frankish descent. Upper Pannonia, between Szombathely and Petronell was gradually pacified and placed under the rule of an Avar khan who had accepted Christianity. In Carinthia the Slavic duces Priwilzlauga, Cemicas, Ztoimar, and Etgar served as Carolingian underlings until 828. The Carolingian Ostmark collapsed during the early years of the tenth century. The immediate cause was the coming of the Magyars, swift horsemen from the steppes of southern Russia, who in 907 crushed a Bavarian army near Bratislava.
