Rastislav was ruler of Moravia from 846 - 870?.
He came to power in the kingdom, later duchy, Moravia with the support of the Karolingian frost Louis the German. In 846, his pagan uncle Mojmír I, who had forged a ruling in the 830-840-840 Moravia, was thrown out of the throne, and so Christianity began to enter into this Slavic people. In both 861 and 864 Karloman rebelled against his father, receiving support from Ratislav, and in 865, Louis had to recognize the German that Karloman was entitled to part of the empire.
Rastislav sought to ensure the independence of his princess by establishing relations with Constantinople. He had asked for a bishop in 861 Rome, but when the pope did not respond quickly enough to his request, he asked Constantinople for help to celebrate his people. Michael III of Byzantium sent him Cyrillus and Methodius, who went to make the region a bastion of Christianity. There might have been something like a Slavic run script (Runica or Vlasovice), but what was written in it was later burned as pagan. The two missionaries designed a whole new scripture, the Cyrillic script for liturgy. The liturgical language was Slavic and even the Pope gave his permission for using something other than Latin. He may have thought of too much influence from Constantinople in the Slavic area.
If Rastislav wanted to tear off the franks, he was imprisoned and blinded (and killed?). Moravia rebelled after him under Slavomír and in 870 Svatopluk I became his successor.
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