Krešimir III of Croatia

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Krešimir III was a King of Croatia in 1000–1030 from the Trpimirović dynasty. He was the middle son of former King Stjepan Držislav.

[edit] Reign

After Croatia's King Stjepan Držislav died in 997, he become one of the three equal Kings of Croatia with his brothers Svetoslav Suronja and Gojislav. Although, Svetoslav subsequently abolished the triarchic system together with Croatia's Ban Varna, relinquishing the ruling rights of his brothers - which Krešimir's raising of a rebellion together with his younger brother. The Dalmatian cities joined Krešimir and his brother because Svetoslav allied with the the violent ill-famed Narentine pirates. The coastal cities invited the Venetian Doge Peter Orsello, who after securing good relations with the Byzantine Empire launched a military intervention in Dalmatia in 1000, and eventually defeated Svetoslav.

The Venetians implaced Krešimir as the King of Croatia, who ruled equally with his brother Gojislav. Krešimir and his co-regent brother spent their reign attempting to restore rule over the Dalmatian cities that were now under Venetian control. This brought upon them a conflict with their former protector, the Republic of Venetia, in 1018. Peace was concluded upon the diplomatic intervention of Byzantine Emperor Basil II.

In 1020 Gojslav died, which left Krešimir III as the sole ruler of the Croatian Kingdom for a decade until his death in 1030, when he was succeeded by his son Stjepan I. In 1027 a member of the HOuse of Trpimirovic, Stjepan, invades the Croatian Kingdom from Hungary and separates Slavonia, which becomes the Hungarian Banate of Slavonia under the Svetoslavich dynasty, separate from Croatia.