Luitpold had in 893 been appointed margrave in the March of Carinthia and Upper Pannonia by Arnulf of Carinthia, then King of East Francia.

Luitpold had 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 is his son Arnulf the Bad who, based on his father's acquisitions, will first assume the title of a Bavarian duke.

As Luitpold had remained a loyal supporter of the Carolingian monarch Arnulf of Carinthia and his son Louis the Child, he has enjoyed their support and has been entrusted with the defense at the Hungarian and Moravian borders.

He had in 898 fought successfully against Mojmír II, the king of Great Moravia, on behalf of the king's rebellious brother Svatopluk II and had forced Mojmír to become a vassal of Arnulf.

A Magyar army ravages Bavaria in 900; Liutpold and Bishop Richer of Passau defeat a subsequent group of Magyar raiders.