Tomislav of Croatia
Tomislav | |
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Muncimir (suspected) | |
Religion | Christianity |
Tomislav (pronounced
Tomislav attended the 925
Reign
Duke of Croatia
Although Tomislav's ancestry is unknown, he might have been a member of the
After the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin in the late 9th and early 10th centuries, the Hungarians immediately began raiding and expanding their territory. They threatened Lower Pannonia (still nominally under Frankish suzerainty) and killed Braslav, the last Pannonian duke.[3] The Hungarians also fought Croatia,[3] although it was not a primary target of their raids.[5]
The
East of Croatia, the First Bulgarian Empire's power increased significantly. After a war between the Bulgarian
Tomislav's realm covered most of southern and central Croatia and the Dalmatian coast, excluding the Theme of Dalmatia, parts of present-day western Herzegovina and northern and western Bosnia.[3] During the early 10th century, Croatia was divided into 11 counties: Livno, Cetina, Imotski, Pliva, Pset, Primorje, Bribir, Nona, Knin, Sidraga, and Nin. Three counties (Lika, Krbava, and Gacka) were ruled by a ban. After its expansion, Tomislav's state presumably contained more than eleven counties.[8] Byzantine emperor and chronicler Constantine VII writes in De Administrando Imperio that at its peak, Croatia could have raised a military force composed of 100,000 infantry, 60,000 horsemen, and a naval fleet of 80 large ships and 100 smaller vessels.[9] However, these figures are viewed as a considerable exaggeration of the size of the Croatian army.[3] According to palaeographic analysis of the manuscript of De Administrando Imperio, the population of medieval Croatia was estimated at 440,000 to 880,000; its military force probably consisted of 20,000–100,000 infantrymen and 3,000–24,000 horsemen organized into 60 allagia.[10][11]
Coronation and Croatian kingdom
Tomislav had become
Older historiography assumed that Tomislav was crowned in a field at Duvno (near Tomislavgrad), although there are no contemporary records of this event. This conclusion was drawn from the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, which describes a coronation of a King Svatopluk (Budimir in a later version of the chronicle) and a council held in a field at Dalma. Some 19th-century historians theorized that Tomislav and Svatopluk were the same person, or the author was mistaken about the king's name.[18] Nonetheless, it did not take place.[19] Other theories suggested that the pope (or a representative) had Tomislav crowned before the 925 Council of Split, or Tomislav crowned himself.[20][21]
Councils of Split
In 925, Pope John X convened a
Thomas the Archdeacon did not mention the council in his Historia Salonitana. He wrote that Split had had ecclesiastical rights over former Roman Dalmatia since the 7th century (contradicting the council proceedings which bestowed the rights to Split in 925), apparently to maintain his narrative's consistency.[25]
The council was attended by Tomislav (referred to as a king in related documents) and Michael of Zahumlje. According to some historians, Michael recognized Tomislav's rule (making Zachlumia a vassal state of Croatia).[26] Tomislav did not protest the council's decision. Bishop Gregory appealed to the pope, and a second council (also in Split) was convened in 928 to resolve the controversy and enforce the first council's conclusions. The supremacy of the metropolitan archbishopric of Split was confirmed, and the Diocese of Nin was abolished.[23]
War with Bulgaria
During Tomislav's rule, the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires were at war. The Bulgarians under
Since Croatia was harboring Bulgarian enemies and was allied with the Byzantine Empire, Simeon attacked with an army led by Duke Alogobotur. Tomislav cut off Alogobotur's advance into Croatia and destroyed his army at the Croatian–Bulgarian battle of 926, which probably took place in eastern part Bosnia. After Simeon's death in 927, Pope John X sent legates with Bishop Madalbert to mediate between Croatia and Bulgaria and restored peace.[30][31][32] It is unknown how Tomislav died, but he disappeared from the political scene after 928 and was succeeded by Trpimir II.[33]
Geographic extent
The geographic extent of Tomislav's kingdom is not fully known.
Josip Lučić and Franjo Šanjek's 1993 Hrvatski povijesni zemljovid (Croatian Historical Map) depicted the extent of Tomislav's kingdom. Lučić, an
According to John Van Antwerp Fine Tomislav's northern border was the Drava River. South of it, the king held "modern Croatia, Slavonia, northern and western Bosnia, and the territory along the Dalmatian coast from what is now Rijeka to at least the mouth of the Cetina River (excluding the scattered Byzantine towns)".[3] Fine criticized the relationship between Tomislav's territory and modern Croatian nationalist sentiment in his 2006 book, calling 10th-century sources unreliable and "roughly a third" of Croatia's perceived eastern land "entirely speculation".[43] Fine wrote, "It is possible that Croatia really did have some of it, but Bulgaria may have had some of it; early Serb entities may have had some of it, not to speak of various župans and other local Slavic lords who in any serious way answered to no one. If the last supposition is true (to any degree), then parts of this territory would not have been held by any 'state.'"[43] Acknowledging the possibility that Croatia held all the depicted territory and more, Fine said that whoever controlled the eastern land depicted in Tomislav's kingdom is unknown and should be marked as terra incognita on maps. He criticised Lučić and Šanjek's delineation of Tomislav's eastern border as "nationalist map-making" and "distorting the perceptions of children on their nation's history in a way that promotes interpreting later events as territorial loss and fragmentation."[43]
Legacy
Tomislav is celebrated as the first Croatian king and the founder of the first Croatian state. In Zagreb, the Croatian capital, a square named Tomislav was dedicated in November 1927; a monument by sculptor Robert Frangeš-Mihanović was erected that year. The Bosnian city of Duvno was renamed Tomislavgrad in 1925 by King Alexander I of Yugoslavia to commemorate the millennial of Tomislav's coronation, and celebrations were held throughout the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In 1926, an obelisk in his honor was erected in Livno.
On May 18, 1941, the House of Savoy's Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta was proclaimed King Tomislav II of the Independent State of Croatia to gain legitimacy for the Axis puppet state. Tomislav's statue in Zagreb was depicted on the reverse of the Croatian 1000 kn banknote issued in 1994,[44] and his name is used for a dark beer brewed in Croatia.[45]
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Monument in Tomislavgrad
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Plaque in Petrovaradin
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Monument in Livno
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Commemorative plaque in Orebić
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Monument in Zagreb
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Memorial plaque in Kotor
See also
References
- Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža, 1999–2009, retrieved March 13, 2014
- ^ a b c d Budak 1994, p. 30.
- ^ a b c d e f Fine 1991, pp. 261–262.
- ^ Thomas (Spalatensis, Archdeacon): Historia Salonitanorum Atque Spalatinorum Pontificum, p.61
- ^ a b Goldstein 1995, p. 286.
- ^ Goldstein 1995, pp. 286–287.
- ^ Goldstein 1995, p. 285.
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 263.
- ^ De Administrando Imperio, XXXI. Of the Croats and of the country they now dwell in
- ^ Vedriš, Trpimir (2007). "Povodom novog tumačenja vijesti Konstantina VII. Porfirogeneta o snazi hrvatske vojske" [On the occasion of the new interpretation of Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus'report concerning the strength of the Croatian army]. Historijski zbornik (in Croatian). 60: 1–33. Retrieved 29 July 2020.
- ISBN 978-953-340-061-7.
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 297.
- ^ Budak 1994, p. 31.
- ^ a b Fine 1991, p. 264.
- ^ a b Florin Curta: Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250, p. 196
- ^ Codex Diplomaticus Regni Croatiæ, Dalamatiæ et Slavoniæ, Vol I, p. 32
- ^ Codex Diplomaticus Regni Croatiæ, Dalamatiæ et Slavoniæ, Vol I, p. 34
- ^ Goldstein 1995, pp. 299–300.
- .
- ^ Nada Klaić, Povijest Hrvata u ranom srednjem vijeku; Zagreb, 1975., p. 290
- ^ Goldstein 1985, p. 50.
- ^ Goldstein 1995, pp. 278–279.
- ^ a b Budak 1994, p. 32.
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 269.
- ^ a b Fine 1991, p. 271.
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 160.
- ^ De Administrando Imperio: XXXII. Of the Serbs and of the country they now dwell in
- ^ Fine 1991, p. 157.
- ^ Goldstein 1995, pp. 289–291.
- ^ a b Florin Curta:Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250, p. 196
- ^ Canev, Bǎlgarski hroniki, p. 225.
- ^ Runciman, Steven (1930). A history of the First Bulgarian Empire. p. 176.
- ^ Nada Klaić, Povijest Hrvata u ranom srednjem vijeku; Zagreb, 1975., p. 311-312
- ^ Iohannes Diaconus, Istoria Veneticorum, p. 150: (in Latin)qui dum Chroatorum fines rediens transire vellet, a Michahele Sclavorum duce fraude deceptus,
omnibusque bonis privatus atque Vulgarico regi, Simeoni nomine, exilii pena transmissus est. - ^ Fine 2006, p. 63.
- ISBN 0-7190-6502-X.
- ISBN 0-521-09531-X.
- ^ Klaić N., Izvori za hrvatsku povijest do 1526, Zagreb 1972.
- ISSN 0353-295X. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
- ISBN 953-0-30703-9.
- ISSN 1330-7134. Retrieved 2012-02-14.
- ISBN 953-0-60573-0.
- ^ a b c Fine 2006, pp. 177–180.
- ^ "Description of the 1000 Kuna Banknote". Archived 2009-05-11 at the Wayback Machine Croatian National Bank. Retrieved 30 March 2009.
- ^ Zagrebačka Pivovara d.o.o.: Tomislav tamno pivo Archived 2013-07-26 at the Wayback Machine
Sources
- Budak, Neven (1994). Prva stoljeća Hrvatske (PDF) (in Croatian). Zagreb: Hrvatska sveučilišna naklada. ISBN 953-169-032-4. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
- ISBN 0472081497.
- ISBN 0-472-11414-X.
- Goldstein, Ivo (May 1985). "O Tomislavu i njegovom dobu" (PDF). Journal of the Institute of Croatian History (in Croatian). 18 (1): 23–55. Retrieved 13 March 2017.
- ISBN 978-953-6045-02-0.
Further reading
- Madgearu and Gordon, Alexandru and Martin (2008). The wars of the Balkan Peninsula: their medieval origins. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810858466.
- Šišić, F. (1925). Povijest Hrvata u vrijeme narodnih vladara (in Croatian). Zagreb.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Smičiklas, T. (1882). Poviest Hrvatska, Dio Prvi: od najstarijih vremena do godine 1526 (PDF) (in Croatian). Zagreb.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Horvat J., Kultura Hrvata kroz 1000 godina, Prvi svezak, Ljubljana 1980.
External links
- Jayne, Kingsley Garland (1911). Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 07 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 471–477, see page 474.
History...& ...The Croatian Kingdom:c.910–1091...and founded a national kingdom about 910. It is probable that Tomislav or Timislav, who had led their armies to victory, assumed the title of king...
. In - Croatia in the 10th and 11th centuries: maps from the book of Ferdo Šišić, a Croatian historian