Principality of Serbia (early medieval)

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Principality of Serbia
Кнежевина Србија
Kneževina Srbija
780–960
Emblem of prince Strojimir of Serbia
Emblem of
prince Strojimir
Vlastimir (notable)
• 850–891
Mutimir (first Christian)
• 933–943/960
Časlav (last)
Historical eraEarly Middle Ages
• Established
780
• Byzantine annexation
960
ISO 3166 codeRS
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Byzantine Empire
Catepanate of Ras
Duklja
Grand Principality of Serbia

The Principality of Serbia (

Southeastern Europe. It existed from the 8th century up to c. 969–971 and was ruled by the Vlastimirović dynasty. Its first ruler known by name was Višeslav who started ruling around 780. While by that time, starting from the year 680–681, the Bulgarian state had taken the lands to the east. Vlastimir resisted and defeated the Bulgarian army in a three-year-war (839–842), and the two powers lived in peace for some decades. Vlastimir's three sons succeeded in ruling Serbia together, although not for long; Serbia became a key part in the power struggle between the Byzantines and Bulgarians, predominantly allied with the Byzantines, which also resulted in major dynastic wars for a period of three decades. The principality was annexed in 924 by Simeon I and subjected to Bulgarian rule until 933 when Serbian prince Časlav
was established as ruler of the Serbian land, becoming the most powerful ruler of the Vlastimirović dynasty.

An important process during this period was the

Christianization of the Serbs,[2] completed by the establishment of Christianity as state-religion in the second half of the 9th century. The principality was annexed by the Byzantines in c. 969–971 and ruled as the Catepanate of Ras.[3] The main information of the history of the principality and Vlastimirović dynasty are recorded in the contemporary historical work De Administrando Imperio (written c. 948–949).[4][5][6]

Background

Main article: History of Serbia

Slavs (

White Serbs to southeastern Europe and received the protection of Emperor Heraclius (r. 610–641), prior to the Bulgar invasion (680).[9][10] The Serbian ruler was titled "Prince (archon) of the Serbia" (αρχων Σερβλίας).[11] The DAI mentions that this ruler was succeeded by a son, followed by a grandson, and historians generally accept the accounts of DAI on succession of princes from the same family, but their names are unknown until the coming of Višeslav (c. 780-800).[12]

Višeslav, Radoslav and Prosigoj (circa 780–830)

Slavic principalities in ca. 814 AD.

The time and circumstances of the first three Serbian rulers are almost unknown. The first of the dynasty known by name was

Travunija,[16][18] while the "land" of Duklja was held by the Byzantines (it was presumably settled with Serbs as well).[19][20] Given the large territory, the Serbs most likely arrived as a small military elite which managed to organize and assimilate other already settled and more numerous Slavs.[21][22][23] These polities bordered "Serbia" to the north.[16] The exact borders of the early Serbian state are unclear.[15]

Although Višeslav is only mentioned by name, the DAI mentions that the Serbs served the Byzantine Emperor and that they were at this time at peace with the Bulgars, whose neighbors they were and with whom they shared a common frontier.

patrikios Staurakios.[27]

Višeslav was succeeded by his son

karst fields and fertile basins. Those patches of the territory had fertile land, suitable for the agriculture, while the barely accessible, some mountain regions remained uninhabited.[31] Višeslav's great-grandson Vlastimir began his rule during 830s, and he is the oldest Serbian ruler on which there is more substantial data.[32]

Countering Bulgarian expansion (805–829)

In the east, the

30-year peace treaty, but in 818, during the rule of Omurtag (814–836), the Braničevci and Timočani together with other tribes of the frontiers, revolted and seceded from Bulgaria because of an administrative reform that had deprived them much of their local authority.[34] The Timočani left the society (association, alliance[35]) of the Bulgarian Empire, and sought, together with the Danubian Obotrites and Guduscani, protection from Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious (r. 813–840), and met him at his court at Herstal.[35] The Timočani migrated into Frankish territory, somewhere in Lower Pannonia, and were last mentioned in 819, when they were persuaded by Ljudevit to join him in fighting the Franks.[35] The Danubian Obotrites stayed in Banat, and resisted the Bulgars until 824 when nothing more is heard of them.[36] Krum sent envoys to the Franks and requested that the precise boundary be demarcated between them, and negotiations lasted until 826, when the Franks neglected him.[36] The Bulgars answered by subjugating the Slavs that lived in Pannonia. Then the Bulgars sent ships up the Drava river, and, in 828, devastated Upper Pannonia north of the Drava.[36] There was more fighting in 829 as well, and, by this time, the Bulgars had conquered all of their former Slavic allies.[36][37]

The Bulgarian Empire had a general policy of expansion in which they would first impose the payment of tribute on a neighboring people and the obligation of supplying military assistance in the form of an alliance (society), leaving them internal self-government and local rulers, and when the need for this kind of relationship expired, they would terminate the self-government of the said people and impose their direct and absolute power, integrating them fully into the Bulgarian political and cultural system.[38]

Vlastimir, Mutimir and Prvoslav (830–892)

Main articles:
Prvoslav of Serbia
delegations
of Croats and Serbs.

Vlastimir succeeded his father, Prosigoj, in c. 830.

thirty-year-peace treaty between the Byzantines and Bulgars, signed in 815, was still in effect.[44]

According to Constantine VII, the Serbs and Bulgars had lived peacefully as neighbours until the Bulgar invasion in 839 (in the last years of Theophilos).

Belojević family was thus entitled to rule Travunia.[48]

After Vlastimir's death, the rule was divided among his three sons:

Christianization of the Serbs was completed.[50][51] Mutimir maintained the communion with the Eastern Church (Constantinople) when Pope John VIII
invited him to recognize the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium.

The Serbs and Bulgarians adopted the

Croatia in c. 892.[40]

Peter, Pavle and Zaharija (892–927)

Main articles: Petar of Serbia, Pavle of Serbia, and Zaharija of Serbia

The name Peter suggests that Christianity had started to permeate into Serbia, undoubtedly through Serbia's contacts with the Bulgarians and Byzantines. Peter secured himself on the throne (after fending off a challenge from Klonimir, son of Stojmir) and was recognized by

Bosna River valley, and then moved west securing allegiance from the Narentines, a fiercely independent, pirateering Slavic tribe. However, Peter's expansion into Dalmatia brought him into conflict with Prince Michael of Zahumlje, who has also grown powerful, ruling the coastal Principality of Zachlumia.[52][53]

Although allied to

Dyrrhachium. Searching for allies against Bulgaria, the Byzantines showered Peter with gold and promises of greater independence if he would join their alliance - a convincing strategy. Peter might have been planning an attack on Bulgaria with the Magyars, showing that his realm had stretched north to the Sava river. However, Michael of Zahumlje forewarned Symeon of this plan, since Michael was an enemy of Peter, and a loyal vassal of Symeon. What followed was multiple Bulgarian interventions and a succession of Serb rulers.[52][53]

Symeon attacked Serbia (in 917) and deposed Peter, placing

Croatia. The Serbian župans were then summoned to recognize Časlav as the new Prince. When they came, however, they were all imprisoned and taken to Bulgaria, as too was Časlav. Much of Serbia was ravaged, and many people fled to Croatia, Bulgaria and Constantinople. Simeon made Serbia into a Bulgarian province so that Bulgaria now bordered Croatia and Zahumlje. He then resolved to attack Croatia, because it was a Byzantine ally and had sheltered the Serbian Prince.[54][55][56][57]

Časlav (933–943/960)

Main article: Časlav of Serbia
Serbian principality during the rule of Časlav (933–943/960)

The Bulgarian rule over Serbia lasted only three years. After Symeon died,

Časlav Klonimirović (933- c. 943/960) led Serb refugees back to Serbia. He secured the allegiance of the Dalmatian duchies and ended Bulgarian rule in central Serbia. After Tomislav's death, Croatia was in near-anarchy as his sons vied for sole rule, so Časlav was able to extend his domain north to the Vrbas river (gaining the allegiance of the chiefs of the various Bosnian župas).[58]

During this apogee of Serbian power, Christianity and culture penetrated Serbia, as the Serb prince lived in peaceful and cordial relations with the Byzantines. However, strong as it had grown to be, Serbia's power (as in other early Slavic states) was only as strong as its ruler. There was no centralized rule, but instead a confederacy of Slavic principalities. The existence of the unified Grand Principality was dependent on the allegiance of the lesser princes to Časlav. When he died defending Bosnia against

Magyar incursions sometime between 950 and 960, the coalition disintegrated.[58]

After this, there is a gap in the history of hinterland Serbia (in later western sources: Rascia),[59] as it was annexed by the Byzantine Empire (c. 970). The dynasty continued to rule the maritime regions, and in the 990s, Jovan Vladimir rose as the most powerful Serbian prince, ruling over present-day Montenegro, eastern Herzegovina, and northern Albania. This state became known as Duklja, after the ancient Roman town of Doclea. However, by 997, it was made subject to tsar Samuel of Bulgaria.[58]

When the Byzantines finally defeated the Bulgarians, they regained control over most of the Balkans for the first time in four centuries. Serbian lands were governed by a strategos presiding over the Theme of Sirmium. However, local Serbian princes continued to reign as vassals to the Byzantine Emperor, maintaining local autonomy over their lands, while only nominally being Byzantine subjects. Forts were maintained in

Braničevo
. These were, for the most part, in the hands of local nobility, which often revolted against Byzantine rule.

Fall and aftermath

Main article:
Catepanate of Serbia

After Časlav died c. 943/960, the hinterland of Serbia was annexed by the Byzantines and reorganized as the

Bosnia and Serbia into his realm. After defeating Vladimir, Samuel reinstated him as a vassal prince. We do not know what Vladimir's connection was to the previous princes of Serbia, or to the rulers of Croatia—much of what is written in the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja about the genealogy of the Doclean rulers is mythological. Vladimir was murdered by Vladislav, Samuel's brother and successor, circa 1016 AD. The last prominent member of his family, his uncle Dragimir, was killed by some local citizens in Kotor in 1018. That same year, the Byzantines defeated the Bulgarians, and in one masterful stroke re-took virtually all of southeastern Europe.[58]

Government

Vlastimirović dynasty

The Serbian ruler was titled "Prince (

župe (sing. župa), a confederation of village communities (roughly the equivalent of a county), headed by a local župan (a magistrate or governor); the governorship was hereditary, and the župan reported to the Serbian prince, whom they were obliged to aid in war.[14]

Historian B. Radojković (1958) proposed that Serbia was a "divided principality". According to him, Višeslav could have been a chief military leader (veliki vojvoda) who with his company seized the entire power in his hands and turned himself into a hereditary ruler, as Veliki župan; in this way, the first Serbian state was thus established after 150 years of permanent living in the new homeland and existence of

Sima Ćirković in 1960.[65]

Geography

Cities

According to DAI, baptized Serbia included the following cities (καστρα/kastra),[66][67][68] with spellings used in Moravcsik's transcript (1967):

"Inhabited city" Notes
Serbia (proper)
Destinikon (Δεστινίκον) Slavicized as Destinik and Dostinik.
—Unidentified[69]
Tzernabouskeï (Τζερναβουσκέη) Slavicized as Crnobuški and Černavusk.
—Unidentified[69]
Megyretous (Μεγυρέτους) Slavicized as Međurečje (meaning "[land] between rivers").
—Unidentified[69]
Dresneïk (Δρεσνεήκ) Slavicized as Drežnik and Drsnik.
—Unidentified[69]
Lesnik (Λεσνήκ) Slavicized as Lešnik and Lesnica
—Unidentified[69]
Salines (Σαληνές) Slavicized as Soli.
—Tuzla[69]
Bosnia
Katera (Κατερα) Slavicized as Kotor.[70]
—Unidentified[69][71]
Desnik (Δέσνηκ)
—Unidentified.[17][71][69]

Religion

Main article: Serbian Orthodox Church
Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul
(UNESCO)

By the beginning of the 7th century, Byzantine provincial and ecclesiastical order in the region was destroyed by invading Sclaveni and Pannonian Avars. The church life was renewed in the same century in the province of Illyricum and Dalmatia after a more pronounced Christianization of the Serbs and other Slavs by the Roman Church.[72][1][73] [74] In the 7th and mid-8th century the area wasn't under jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.[75] Early medieval Serbs are accounted as Christian by 870s,[76] but it was a process that ended in the late 9th century during the time of Basil I,[77] and medieval necropolises until the 13th century in the territory of modern Serbia show an "incomplete process of Christianization" as local Christianity depended on the social structure (urban and rural).[78] Basil I probably sent at least one embassy to Mutimir of Serbia,[79] who decided to maintain the communion of Church in Serbia with the Patriarchate of Constantinople when Pope John VIII invited him to get back to the jurisdiction of the bishopric of Sirmium (see also Archbishopric of Moravia) in a letter dated to May 873.[80][81][82] It is considered that Destinikon was an ecclesiastical centre and capital of early medieval Serbia.[83][1][84]

Seal of prince Strojimir of Serbia, from the late 9th century

The seal of

Strojimir (d. between 880 and 896), the brother of Mutimir, was bought by the Serbian state in an auction in Germany. The seal has a Patriarchal cross in the center and Greek inscriptions that say: "God, help Strojimir (CTPOHMIP)".[85][86]

Petar Gojniković (r. 892–917) was evidently a Christian prince.[87] Christianity presumably was spreading in his time.[40] Also, since Serbia bordered Bulgaria, Christian influence—and perhaps missionaries—came from there.[40] This would increase during the twenty-year peace.[88] The previous generation (Mutimir, Strojimir and Gojnik) had Slav names, but the following (Petar, Stefan, Pavle, Zaharija) had Christian names, an indication of strong Byzantine missions to Serbia, as well as to the Slavs of the Adriatic coast, in the 870s.[87]

The imperial charter of Basil II from 1020 to the Archbishopric of Ohrid, in which the rights and jurisdictions were established, mentions that the Episcopy of Ras belonged to the Bulgarian autocephal church during the time of Peter I (927–969) and Samuel of Bulgaria (977–1014).[89][90] It is considered that it was possibly founded by the Bulgarian emperor,[83][91] or it is the latest date when could have been integrated to the Bulgarian Church.[92] If previously existed, it probably was part of the Bulgarian metropolis of Morava, but certainly not of Durrës.[93] If it was on the Serbian territory, seems that the Church in Serbia or part of the territory of Serbia became linked and influenced by the Bulgarian Church between 870 and 924.[94][95][96] Anyway, the church would have been protected by Bulgarian controlled forts.[97] By then, at the latest, Serbia must have received the Cyrillic alphabet and Slavic religious text, already familiar but perhaps not yet preferred to Greek.[98]

Notable early church buildings include the

Church of Saints Peter and Paul.[99]

Archaeology

Part of a series on the
History of Serbia
Map of Balkans, Byzantine Empire and Anatolia, 1355. -- Velhagen & Klasing atlas of history, Berlin 1931 (english version)
By century
Prehistory
Pre-Roman
Early Roman
Late Roman
Early Middle Ages
White Serbia around 600 AD
Principality of Serbia
Bosnia
 7th–10th century
Catepanate of Ras around 969–976
Grand Principality
 1071–1217
Kingdom of Serbia 1217–1346
King Dragutin's realm 1282–1325
 1346–1371
Lordship of Prilep 1371–1395
Prince Lazar's Serbia 1371–1402
Vuk's Land 1371–1412
Despotate of Serbia 1402–1537
Koča's frontier
1788–1791
Serbia 1804–1918
Serbian Revolution 1804–1815
Principality of Serbia 1815–1882
Serbian Vojvodina 1848–1849
Serbia and Banat 1849–1860
Kingdom of Serbia 1882–1918
Serbia since 1918
Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1918–1941
Axis occupation 1941–1944
Federal unit of Socialist Yugoslavia 1944–1992
Constituent state with Montenegro 1992–2006
Republic of Serbia 2006–present
flag Serbia portal
  • Church of Saint Apostles Peter and Paul in Ras
  • Sočanica basilica
  • Gradina, Sebečevska reka, in Raška[100]
  • Gradina Martinića, Zeta[100]
  • Gradina, Brsenica, near Sjenica[100]
  • Gradina on Jelica, near Čačak[100]
  • Gradina on Postenj, near
    Petar's Church[100]

See also

References

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  3. ^ a b Krsmanović 2008, p. 135.
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  7. ^ Janković 2004, p. 39-61.
  8. ^ Špehar 2015b, p. 329-350.
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  10. ^ Živković 2008a, p. 89-90.
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  12. ^ a b Ćirković 2004, p. 14.
  13. ^ a b Samardžić & Duškov 1993, p. 24.
  14. ^ a b Fine 1991, pp. 225, 304.
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  25. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 16.
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  38. ^ Komatina 2010, p. 24
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  48. ^ Živković 2008a, pp. 222–223.
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  50. ^ Špehar 2010, pp. 203–220.
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  52. ^ a b Ćirković 2004, pp. 17–18.
  53. ^ a b Uzelac 2018, pp. 236–245.
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  57. ^ Ćirković 2004, p. 18.
  58. ^ a b c d Ćirković 2004.
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  61. ^ Ivanišević & Krsmanović 2013, p. 450.
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  64. ^ Radojković 1959, p. 9.
  65. ^ Ćirković 1960, pp. 195–198.
  66. ^ Živković 2008b, pp. 9–28.
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  68. ^ Špehar 2019, pp. 113–124.
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  70. ^ Bulić 2013, p. 219.
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  72. ^ Curta 2001, p. 125, 130.
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  79. ^ Živković 2013a, pp. 46.
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  81. ^ Komatina 2015, pp. 713, 717.
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  83. ^ a b Popović 1999, p. 401.
  84. ^ Živković 2013a, pp. 30.
  85. ^ Živković 2007, pp. 23–29.
  86. ^ "Pečat srpskog kneza Strojimira" [Seal of the Serbian prince Strojimir]. Glas javnosti (in Bosnian). 27 July 2006.
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  89. ^ Komatina 2015, pp. 717.
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  91. ^ Ćirković 2004, pp. 20, 30.
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  97. ^ Špehar 2019, p. 122.
  98. ^ Vlasto 1970, p. 209.
  99. ^ Јанковић 2007.
  100. ^ a b c d e Јанковић 2012.

Sources

Primary sources
Secondary sources

External links

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