of the Slavs, centred north of modern Klagenfurt, preserved independence and came to be known as Carantania. The name Carantania itself begins to appear in historical sources soon after 660. The first clear indication of a specific ethnic identity and political organisation may be recognised in the geographical term Carantanum which Paul the Deacon used in reference to the year 664, and in connection to which he also mentioned a specific Slavic people (gens Sclavorum) living there. When about 740 Prince Boruth asked the Bavarian duke Odilo for help against the pressing danger posed by Avar tribes from the east, Carantania lost its independence. Boruth's successors had to accept the overlordship of Bavaria and the semifeudal Frankish kingdom, ruled by Charlemagne from 771 to 814. Charlemagne also put an end to the invasions undertaken by the Avars, who had regained eastern parts of Carantania between 745 and 795. In 828, Carantania finally became a margraviate of the Carolingian Empire. The local princes were deposed for following the anti-Frankish rebellion of Ljudevit Posavski, the prince of Slavs of Lower Pannonia, and replaced by a Germanic (primarily Bavarian) ascendancy. By the 843 Treaty of Verdun, it passed into the hands of Louis the German (804–876) who, according to the Annales Fuldenses (863), gave the title of a "prefect of the Carantanians" (praelatus Carantanis) to his eldest son Carloman. In 887 Arnulf of Carinthia (850–899), a grandson of Louis the German, assumed his title of King of the East Franks and became the first Duke of Carinthia. The city of Chur suffered several invasions by the Magyars in 925-926, when the cathedral was destroyed. In the area of Carantania 954–979 exist Slavic parish "pagus Crouuati"(Croats) which is mentioned in royal charters, ruled by count Hartwig in the name of the German king. The Ducal Inauguration The principality of Carantania is particularly notable for the ancient ritual of installing Carantanian dukes (or princes, both an approximate translation of Knez/Knyaz/Fürst), a practice that continued after Carantania was incorporated into the later Duchy of Carinthia. It was last performed in 1414, when the Habsburg Ernest the Iron was enthroned as Duke of Carinthia. The ritual took place on the Prince's Stone (Slovene Knežji kamen, German Fürstenstein), an ancient Roman column capital near Krnski grad (now Karnburg) and was performed in Slovene by a free peasant who, selected by his peers, in the name of the people