Who was Duke Eric?

Sa？etak Historical research has treated the passages from Frankish chronicles and from Einhard's "The Life of Charlemange" which speak of the death of the Friulian great duke Eric near Tarsatika in such a manner that it subordinates these facts to theses which it had arrived at well in advance. In such a manner and depending on the author and his assumptions about this period, "the inhabitants of Tarsatika", who according to Frankish sources were Eric's murderers, "became" Croatian, Frankish or Byzantine subjects. The article shows the unfoundedness of these theses and its agreement with what the Frankish sources actually state: Eric's death is to be connected with the death of the Bavaraian prefect Gerold and both of them were victims of Avarian hands because they had entered a war which the Avars wanted to prevent