614-802 Hungarian Rule
1102-1526






Croatia 802-1102



Christianization

In 803, the Croats seem to have accepted the sovereignty of Charlemagne after his defeat of the Avars. The Treaty of Aachen 812 (Aix-la-Chapelle) allocated the coastal region of Dalmatia to Byzantium, the hinterland to the Franks. Frankish annals report of a final rebellion, under Duke LJUDEVIT, being crushed in 819/823. The Franks enforced the christianization of the Croats in their sphere. With the partition of the Frankish Kingdom in 843, and with Viking attacks on the East Frankish Kingdom setting in, Frankish influence on Croatia declined.
In 852 a Duke TRPIMIR is mentioned in records, his center of power located near Split. In 863 CYRIL and METHODIUS arrived from Constantinople, bringing with them the old church slavic script, which as GLAGOLITIC SCRIPT was used for liturgical texts throughout Croatia.


Rise of the Croat Kingdom

In the 888 "BRANIMIR Duke of the Croats" is recorded in an inscription.
In 924 Zupan TOMISLAV of Nin was crowned King of the Croats by the legate of pope John X.; a Croatian church council decided to integrate the Croatian church into the Latin church and to sever ties to the Greek (later Orthodox) church; the bishopric at Nin was suppressed in 928, the archdiocese of Spalato placed itself under Rome. The 10th century Croat Kingdom stretched from the Dalmatian coast to the Sava River. Another state claimed to be Croat, Slavonia, extended between the Sava and Drava Rivers; unfortunately it is poorly documented. The Kingdom of Croatia was subdivided into many counties, administrated by Zupans (counts). In Dalmatia, a number of cities had survived since antiquity (although often relocated and renamed); they enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy.
In 968, King KRESIMIR conquered Bosnia, which remained Croatian until it was conquered by Byzantine Emperor Basil II. in 1019.
King PETAR KRESIMIR IV. (1058-1074) merged the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia and was confirmed by Pope Gregory VII. as King of Croatia and Dalmatia.
From the 1060es onward a number of monasteries were founded in Croatia. They spread literacy, and a new literature in vernacular Croatian language and Glagolitic script emerged.
When prince ZVONIMIR died in 1089, the throne was contested until Prince KALMAN of Hungary was crowned in 1102. As he was crowned King of Hungary in 1106, a long history of DYNASTIC UNION of Hungary and Croatia began. In 1091, Croatian nobles concluded the PACTA CONVENTA with King Ladislaus of Hungary, promising the Croatian crown to the king in exchange for a guarantee of Croatian autonomy. Hungarian dominance over Croatian politics became evident when ZAGREB was created at the seat of a bishopric in 1094, as a suffragan to Kalocsa in Hungary.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Croatia, History of, from Catholic Encyclopedia 1914 edition, from Discover Croatia, from croatia.net , from dalmatia.net, illustrated
Dalmatia, History of, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition
Agram (i.e. Zagreb); Spalato-Macarska (Salona) from Catholic Encyclopedia 1914 edition
Biography of King Tomislav, from Mojmir
Bosnia, History of, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition
Glagolitic, from Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914 edition; Croatian Glagolitic and Cyrillic Scripts and the Baska Tablet, by Zeljko Lupic, illustrated
Yugoslavia, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
DOCUMENTS Excerpts from De Administrando Imperii by Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (913-959) relating to Croatia, by Zeljko Lupic
REFERENCE Fred Singleton, A Short History of the Yugoslav Peoples, Cambridge University Press (1985) 1999
Ivo Goldstein, Croatia - a History, (1999) McGill-Queen's UP 2001


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 7th 2004

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