In 893, he was appointed
margrave in the
March of Carinthia and Upper
Pannonia by Arnulf of Carinthia, then King of
East Francia. Luitpold succeeded the deposed Margrave
Engelschalk II of the
Wilhelminer family; unlike his predecessors he could extend his power unimpeded by the mighty Margrave
Aribo, acquiring numerous counties in Carinthia as well as on the
Danube and in the
Nordgau around
Regensburg from 895 on, and setting himself up as the most prominent of Bavaria's aristocracy. Though he thereby laid the foundations of the renewed
stem duchy, it was his son
Arnulf the Bad who, based on his father's acquisitions, first assumed the title of a
Bavarian duke.
As Luitpold remained a loyal supporter of the Carolingian monarch Arnulf of Carinthia and his son
Louis the Child, he enjoyed their support and was entrusted with the defence at the
Hungarian and
Moravian borders. In 898 he fought successfully against
Mojmír II, the
king of Great Moravia, on behalf of the king's rebellious brother
Svatopluk II and forced Mojmír to become a vassal of Arnulf. In 903, Luitpold held the title of a dux Boemanorum, "Duke in
Bohemia". He organised the Frankish defence against the
Magyars under Grand Prince
Árpád after invading Hungary, on 4 July 907 was killed east of Vienna in the
Battle of Pressburg.[1]
From his descendants' titles, Luitpold is often called a duke of Bavaria or margrave of Bavaria, the latter title being more accurate to his actual status.
Muller-Mertens, Eckhard (1999). "The Ottonians as kings and emperors". In Reuter, Timothy; McKitterick, Rosamond (eds.). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 3, C.900-c.1024. Cambridge University Press.239