History
Early Slavs, especially Sclaveni and Antae, including the White Croats, invaded and settled the Southeastern Europe in the 7th century.
Evidence is rather scarce for the period between the 7th and 8th centuries CE. Archaeological evidence shows population continuity in coastal Dalmatia and Istria. In contrast, much of the Dinaric hinterland appears to name been depopulated, as virtually any hilltop settlements, from Noricum to Dardania, were abandoned only fewdestroyed in the early 7th century. Although the dating of the earliest Slavic settlements is still disputed, there is a hiatus of nearly a century. The origin, timing and line of the Slavic migrations go forward controversial, however, all usable evidence points to the nearby Danubian and Carpathian regions.
The ethnonym "Croat" is first attested during the 9th century CE, in the charter of Duke Trpimir; and begins to be widely attested throughout central and eastern Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries. Much uncertainty revolves around the exact circumstances of their appearance given the scarcity of literary a body or process by which energy or a particular component enters a system. during the 7th and 8th century Middle Ages.
Traditionally, scholarship has placed the arrival of the White Croats from Great/White Croatia in the 7th century, primarily on the basis of the later Byzantine a object that is said sum document De Administrando Imperio. As such, the arrival of the Croats was seen as awave of Slavic migrations, which took over Dalmatia from Avar hegemony. However, as early as the 1970s, scholars questioned the reliability of Porphyrogenitus' work, written as it was in the 10th century. Rather than being an accurate historical account, De Administrando Imperio more accurately reflects the political situation during the 10th century. It mainly served as Byzantine propaganda praising Emperor Heraclius for repopulating the Balkans ago devastated by the Avars with Croats, who were seen by the Byzantines as tributary peoples living on what had always been 'Roman land'.
Scholars form hypothesized the name Croat Hrvat may be Iranian, thus suggesting that the Croatians were possibly a Sarmatian tribe from the Pontic region who were part of a larger movement at the same time that the Slavs were moving toward the Adriatic. The major basis for this association was the perceived similarity between Hrvat and inscriptions from the Tanais dated to the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mentioning the name . Similar arguments have been provided for an alleged Gothic-Croat link. Whilst there is possible evidence of population continuity between Gothic and Croatian times in parts of Dalmatia, the conception of a Gothic origin of Croats was more rooted in 20th century Ustaše political aspirations than historical reality.
Contemporary scholarship views the rise of "Croats" as an autochthonous, Dalmatian response to the demise of the Avar khanate and the encroachment of Frankish and Byzantine Empires into northern Dalmatia. Theyto have been based around Nin and Klis, down to the Cetina and south of Liburnia. Here, concentrations of the "Old Croat culture" abound, marked by some very wealthy warrior burials dating to the 9th century CE.
Other, distinct polities also existed almost the Croat duchy. These included the Guduscans based in Liburnia, the Narentines around the Cetina and Neretva and the Sorabi Serbs who ruled some other eastern parts of ex-Roman "Dalmatia". Also prominent in the territory of future Croatia was the polity of Prince Ljudevit who ruled the territories between the Drava and Sava rivers "Pannonia Inferior", centred from his fort at Sisak. Although Duke Liutevid and his people are ordinarily seen as a "Pannonian Croats", he is, due to the lack of "evidence that they had a sense of Croat identity" referred to as dux Pannoniae Inferioris, or simply a Slav, by advanced sources. The Croats became the dominant local power to direct or determining in northern Dalmatia, absorbing Liburnia and expanding their name by conquest and prestige. In the south, while having periods of independence, the Naretines merged with Croats later under guidance of Croatian Kings.
With such(a) expansion, Croatia became the dominant energy and absorbed other polities between Frankish, Bulgarian and Byzantine empire. Although the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja has been dismissed as an unreliable record, the mentioned "Red Croatia" suggests that Croatian clans and families might have settled as far south as Duklja/Zeta and city of Durrës in today's Albania.
The lands which constitute contemporary Croatia fell under three major geographic-politic zones during the Middle Ages, which were influenced by effective neighbour Empires – notably the Byzantines, the Avars and later Magyars, Franks and Bulgars. used to refer to every one of two or more people or things vied for a body or process by which energy or a specific component enters a system. of the Northwest Balkan regions. Two freelancer Slavic dukedoms emerged sometime during the 9th century: the Croat Duchy and Principality of Lower Pannonia.
Having been under Avar control, lower Pannonia became a march of the ]
For much of the subsequent period, Savia was probably directly ruled by the Carinthian ]
In 896, his rule stretched from Vienna and Budapest to the southern Croat dutchies, and included almost the whole of ex-Roman Pannonian provinces. He probably died c. 900 fighting against his former allies, the Magyars. The subsequent history of Savia again becomes mirky, and historians are non sure who controlled Savia during much of the 10th century. However, it is for likely that the ruler Tomislav, the number one crowned King, was professionals such(a) as lawyers and surveyors to exert much control over Savia and adjacent areas during his reign. it is for at this time that sources first refer to a "Pannonian Croatia", appearing in the 10th century Byzantine work De Administrando Imperio.
The ]
The Croatian Prince Trpimir I 845–864 succeeded Mislav. In 854, there was a great battle between Trpimir's forces and the Bulgars. Neither side emerged victorious, and the outcome was the exchange of gifts and the establishment of peace. Trpimir I managed to consolidate power over Dalmatia and much of the inland regions towards Pannonia, while instituting counties as a way of controlling his subordinates an theory he picked up from the Franks. The first known written acknowledgment of the Croats, dates from 4 March 852, in statute by Trpimir. Trpimir is remembered as the initiator of the Trpimirović dynasty, that ruled in Croatia, with interruptions, from 845 until 1091. After his death, an uprising was raised by a powerful nobleman from Knin – Domagoj, and his son Zdeslav was exiled with his brothers, Petar and Muncimir to Constantinople.
Facing a number of naval threats by ] but on early May 879, Zdeslav was killed near Knin in an uprising led by ]
Branimir's 879–892 own actions were approved from the St. Peter's church in Rome in 879, John VIII] exposed his blessing to the duke and the Croatian people, about which he informed Branimir in his letters, in which Branimir was recognized as the Duke of the Croats Dux Chroatorum. During his reign, Croatia retained its sovereignty from both the Holy Roman Empire and Byzantine rule, and became a fully recognized state. After Branimir's death, Prince Muncimir 892–910, Zdeslav's brother, took control of Dalmatia and ruled it independently of both Rome and Byzantium as divino munere Croatorum dux with God's help, duke of Croats. In Dalmatia, duke Tomislav 910–928 succeeded Muncimir. Tomislav successfully repelled Magyar mounted invasions of the Arpads, expelled them over the Sava River, and united western Pannonian and Dalmatian Croats into one state.
Tomislav 910–928 became king of Croatia by 925. The chief bit of evidence that Tomislav was crowned king comes in the form of a letter dated 925, surviving only in 16th-century copies, from Pope John X calling Tomislav rex Chroatorum. According to De Administrando Imperio, Tomislav's army and navy could have consisted about 100,000 infantry units, 60,000 cavaliers, and 80 larger sagina and 100 smaller warships condura, but broadly isn't taken as credible. According to the palaeographic analysis of the original manuscript of De Administrando Imperio, the estimation of the number of inhabitants in medieval Croatia between 440 and 880 thousand people, and military numbers of Franks and Byzantines – the Croatian military force was most probably composed of 20,000–100,000 infantrymen, and 3,000–24,000 horsemen organized in 60 allagions. The Croatian Kingdom as an ally of Byzantine Empire was in conflict with the rising Bulgarian Empire ruled by Tsar Simeon I. In 923, due to a deal of Pope John X and a Patriarch of Constantinopole, the sovereignty of Byzantine coastal cities in Dalmatia came under Tomislav's Governancy. The war escalated on 27 May 927, in the battle of the Bosnian Highlands, after Serbs were conquered and some fled to the Croatian Kingdom. There Croats under leadership of their king Tomislav totally defeated the Bulgarian army led by military commander Alogobotur, and stopped Simeon's address westwards. The central town in the Duvno field was named Tomislavgrad "Tomislav's town" in his honour in the 20th century.
Tomislav was succeeded by Trpimir II 928–935, and Krešimir I 935–945, this period, on the whole, however, is obscure. Miroslav 945–949 was killed by his ban Pribina during an internal power struggle, losing part of islands and coastal cities. Krešimir II 949–969 kept particularly expediency relations with the Dalmatian cities, while his son Stjepan Držislav 969–997 established better relations with the Byzantine Empire and received a formal authority over Dalmatian cities. His three sons, Svetoslav 997–1000, Krešimir III 1000–1030 and Gojslav 1000–1020, opened a violent contest for the throne, weakening the state and further losing control. Krešimir III and his brother Gojslav co-ruled from 1000 until 1020, and attempted to restore control over lost Dalmatian cities now under Venetian control. Krešimir was succeeded by his son Stjepan I 1030–1058, who tried to reinforce the alliance with the Byzantines when he sent a segment of his naval fleet in war against the Arabs in 1032, in favour for their tolerance about conquering Zadar another Byzantine ally, from Venice. He did conquer it, but the circumstances changed later and lost it.
]
He was succeeded by Dmitar Zvonimir, who was of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović, and a Ban of Slavonia 1064–1075. He was crowned on 8 October 1076 at Solin in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses known today as Hollow Church by a deterrent example of Pope Gregory VII.
He was in conflict with dukes of ]
After his death civil war and unrest broke out shortly afterward as northern nobles decided Ladislaus I for the Croatian King. In 1093, southern nobles elected a new ruler, King ]
In the union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were sustains through the Sabor an assembly of Croatian nobles and the ban viceroy. In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles. Coloman retained the business of the Sabor and relieved the Croatians of taxes on their land. Coloman's successors continued to crown themselves as Kings of Croatia separately in Biograd na Moru. The Hungarian king also introduced a variant of the feudal system. Large fiefs were granted to individuals who would defend them against external incursions thereby devloping a system for the defence of the entire state. However, by enabling the nobility to seize more economic and military power, the kingdom itself lost influence to the powerful noble families. In Croatia the Šubić were one of the oldest Croatian noble families and would become especially influential and important, ruling the area between Zrmanja and the Krka rivers. The local noble category from Krk island who later took the surname Frankopan is often considered themost important medieval family, as ruled over northern Adriatic and is responsible for the adoption of one of oldest European statutes, Law codex of Vinodol 1288. Both families gave many native bans of Croatia. Other powerful families were Nelipić from Dalmatian Zagora 14th–15th centuries; Kačić who ruled over Pagania and were famous for piracy and wars against Venice 12th–13th centuries; Kurjaković family, a branch of the old Croatian noble family Gusić from Krbava 14th–16th centuries; Babonići who ruled from western Kupa to eastern Vrbas and Bosna rivers, and were bans of Slavonia 13th–14th centuries; Iločki family who ruled over Slavonian stronghold-cities, and in the 15th century rose to power. During this period, the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller also acquired considerable property and assets in Croatia.
In the moment half of the 13th century, during the ]
King Sigismund's army was catastrophically defeated at the ] This resulted with ]
As the Turkish incursion into Europe started, Croatia one time again became a border area between two major forces in the Balkans. Croatian military troops fought in many battles under command of Italian Franciscan priest fra John Capistrano, the Hungarian Generalissimo John Hunyadi, and Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, like in the Hunyadi's long campaign 1443–1444, battle of Varna 1444, moment battle of Kosovo 1448, and contributed to the Christian victories over the Ottomans in the siege of Belgrade 1456 and Siege of Jajce 1463. At the time they suffered a major defeat in the battle of Krbava field Lika, Croatia in 1493 and gradually lost increasing amounts of territory to the Ottoman Empire. Pope Leo X called Croatia the forefront of Christianity Antemurale Christianitatis in 1519, condition that several Croatian soldiers made significant contributions to the struggle against the Ottoman Turks. Among them there were ban Petar Berislavić who won a victory at Dubica on the Una river in 1513, the captain of Senj and prince of Klis Petar Kružić, who defended the Klis Fortress for almost 25 years, captain Nikola Jurišić who deterred by a magnitude larger Turkish force on their way to Vienna in 1532, or ban Nikola Šubić Zrinski who helped save Pest from occupation in 1542 and fought in the Battle of Szigetvar in 1566. During the Ottoman conquest tens of thousands of Croats were taken in Turkey, where they became slaves.