Rostislav

prince of the Great Moravian State from A. D. 846 to 870, nephew of Prince Mojmir I.

Rostislav acceded to the throne with the aid of King Louis the German but carried out independent policies. Rostislav waged a struggle against German aggression; entered into an alliance around 860 with an opponent of Louis, the Austrian margrave Carloman; and concluded an alliance with Byzantium in 862 or 863. It was at his invitation that the Slavic missionaries Cyril and Methodius were sent from Byzantium to the Great Moravian State in 862 and succeeded in creating a Slavic church independent of the German bishops in 869 or 870. Rostislav was deposed in 870 by a coup of aristocrats led by his nephew Svatopluk.