Petar of Serbia
| Petar | |
|---|---|
Chalcedonian Christian |
Petar Gojniković or Peter of Serbia (Serbian Cyrillic: Петар Гојниковић, Greek: Πέτρος;[a] ca. 870 – 917) was Prince of the Serbs from 892 to 917. He ruled and expanded the First Serbian Principality and won several wars against other family members that sought the crown. He was the first Serbian monarch with a Christian (non-Slavic) name.
Petar was the son of
Early life
| Vlastimirović dynasty |
|---|
Petar was born between 870 and 874, as the son of the Prince
In the 880s, Mutimir seized the throne, exiling his younger brothers and Klonimir, Strojimir's son, to the court of Boris I of Bulgaria.[3] This was most likely due to treachery.[4] Young Petar was kept at the Serbian court of Mutimir for political reasons,[4] but he soon fled to Branimir of Croatia.[3]
Civil wars
Mutimir died in 890 or 891, leaving the throne to his oldest son, Pribislav.[3] Pribislav had only ruled for a year when Petar returned in 892, defeating him in battle and seizing the throne. Pribislav fled to Croatia with his brothers Bran and Stefan.[3] Bran later returned and led an unsuccessful rebellion against Petar in 894.[5] Bran was defeated, captured and blinded (a Byzantine tradition meant to disqualify a person from taking the throne[6]). In 896, Klonimir returned from Bulgaria, backed by Tsar Boris, and invaded Serbia, taking the important city Destinikon, but was attacked and killed by Petar.[7][8][9]
Bulgarian alliance
After several failures to capture the throne by other Vlastimirovićs, including the one backed by the Bulgarians, Tsar Simeon I of Bulgaria recognized Petar as ruler.[3] He was put under Simeon's protection, resulting in a twenty-year peace and the Serbian-Bulgarian alliance (897–917).[3] Petar was probably not happy with his subordinate position, and may have dreamed of reasserting his independence; his situation and the succession wars of the three branches of Vlastimir's sons were to play key parts in the coming Bulgarian-Byzantine War.[3]
Christianity presumably was spreading in his time.[3] Also, since Serbia bordered Bulgaria, Christian influence and perhaps missionaries came from there. This would increase during the twenty-year peace.[10]
According to Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio, Petar ruled under the suzerainty of Leo VI and was at peace with Bulgaria for twenty years.[11]
Bulgarian-Byzantine War, Expansion to the west, and death
(Madrid Skylitzes, fol. 120r)
On May 11, 912, on the death of the Byzantine Emperor
As Peter had secured the eastern border, he turned to the west, where he sought to strengthen his grip on the local Slavic principalities. He defeated
In 917, a Byzantine army led by
Notes
- ^ Name: The first attestation of his name is the Greek Petros (Πέτρος), in Latin Petrus, in Serbian Petar. He was a descendant of Vlastimirović, his father was Gojnik, hence, according to the contemporary naming culture, his name was Petar Gojniković Vlastimirović.
References
- ^ Konstantin Jireček
- ^ The entry of the Slavs into Christendom, p. 209
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Fine 1991, p. 141.
- ^ a b c Đekić, Đ. 2009, "Why did prince Mutimir keep Petar Gojnikovic?", Teme, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 683–688. PDF
- ^ a b c d Fine 1991, p. 150.
- ISBN 0-312-17445-4
- ^ Moravcsik 1967, pp. 156–157.
- ^ Živković 2013a, p. 47.
- ^ The early medieval Balkans, p. 154
- ^ a b Fine 1991, p. 142.
- ^ Konstantinos Porphyrogenitos, De Administrando Imperio ch. 32, p. 156
- ^ a b c d e f g Fine 1991, p. 148.
- ^ a b c Fine 1991, p. 149.
- ^ a b c Srbi između Vizantije, Hrvatske i Bugarske
- ^ Stephenson 2000, p. 26.
- ^ Obolensky 1974, p. 151.
- ^ a b BBNB, p. 27
Sources
- ISBN 9780884020219.
- ISBN 9781275594623.
- ISBN 9781405142915.
- Curta, Florin (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Ferjančić, B. 1997, "Basile I et la restauration du pouvoir byzantin au IXème siècle", Zbornik Radova Vizantološkog Instituta, no. 36, pp. 9–30.
- ISBN 0472081497.
- ISBN 9780351176449.
- Ostrogorsky, George (1956). History of the Byzantine State. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
- ISBN 9780598749222.
- ISBN 9780521357227.
- Stephenson, Paul (2000). Byzantium's Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900–1204. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521770170.
- ISBN 9780804726306.
- ISBN 9780521074599.
- Живковић, Тибор (2002). Јужни Словени под византијском влашћу 600-1025 (South Slavs under the Byzantine Rule 600-1025). Београд: Историјски институт САНУ, Службени гласник. ISBN 9788677430276.
- Tibor Živković, Portreti srpskih vladara (IX—XII), ISBN 86-17-13754-1), p. 11
- ISBN 9788675585732.
- Živković, Tibor (2013a). "On the Baptism of the Serbs and Croats in the Time of Basil I (867–886)" (PDF). Studia Slavica et Balcanica Petropolitana (1): 33–53.
- ISBN 9788677431044.