Matej Ninoslav
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Matej Ninoslav (d. 1250), son of Radivoj, was a Bosnian Ban (1232-1250). Most of Bosnia was under the Kingdom of Hungary from 1235 to 1241. Matej was also a Prince of Split in 1242-1244 during the local civil war. Ninoslav established control of most of Bosnia after the Hungarian withdrawal. Matej defended Bosnia from the Crusaders and maintained a bad relationship with neighbouring Rascia. He was succeeded by his cousin, Ban Prijezda, in 1254.
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[edit] Life
[edit] Early
Throughout his early life, Matej was an opposer of the Bogumils, a faithful Hungarian supporter and a pious Catholic Christian.
[edit] As Ban
Matej Ninoslav forcibly replaced his predecessor, Stjepan Kulinić with the help of the adherents of the Bosnian Church. Bosnia and Rascia were not in good relations during his reign.
[edit] Early rule
Matija served as a faithful Hungarian vassal, but was greatly underestimated during his reign.
The Prenestine Bishop James, serving as the Pope's legate, finished a business in Hungary and came to Bosnia to influence Matej of Ninoslav to give a statement that he will remain a Catholic Christian, even though his ancestors were Bogomil heretics.
The Roman Pope wrote a letter to Matej Ninoslav thus on 10 October 1233, guarranteeing his integrity and putting him under his proctetorate: Hugging you with true love, your person and your land of Bosnia. We accept under the protection of Saint Peter and Us with all the lands, that you rightfully hold, and We stand by you through the protection of this letter, as long as you remain in Catholic religion... The letter also bears a mention of his Bogumil cousin, Prijezda who now returned to his old religion by converting to Catholicism. This was insufitient to the Pope's emissaries - so Prijezda had to give his son hostage as a guarrantee. Ban Ninoslav himself had to beg to Rome itself for the release of Prijezda's son.
In 1234 King Andrew II of Hungary gifted Matej's title to Herzeg Coloman of Croatia who passed on the title on to Matej's cousin, Prijezda during the Crusades between 1234 and 1239, weakening Matej's position as the Ban. At the same time, the son of former Bosnia's Ban Stijepan, Prince Sibislav of Usora starts to intrude Ninoslav's territory with his forces, trying to return the title of Ban to the House of Kulinić. To make matters worse; the Pope was unsatisfied with the Bogumil sect in Bosnia; so he replaced the old, presumably Bogumil, Bosnian Bishop, in 1233, by a German member of the Dominican Order Johannes Wildeshausen, who was not welcomed in Bosnia since its population didn't want a German for their ecclesiastical leader. The Pope's emissaries to Bosnia become more and more frequent - as the situation become more and more tense. It led to Pope Gregory IXth calling for a Crusade on Bosnia on 17 October 1234. This proclamation was given in Rome the same significance of the Crusades for the Holy Land. On 9 August 1235 the Pope also confirmed King Andrew's proclamation of Croatia's Herzog Coloman as the Ban of Bosnia.
[edit] Edicts to Dubrovnik
Somewhere between 1232 and 1235, Ban Matej issued an edict to the Republic of Dubrovnik, guarranteeing the old privileges given to Dubrovnik by Ban Kulin long ago. In it, Ninoslav mentions Serbs (Srblji) and Vlachs (Vlasi). It deals with commercial privileges and states that for deceit by a Vlach of a Serb, a Bosnian court was to be conveyed. But for deceit of a Serb over a Vlach, a court was to be conveined in Dubrovnik.
Translation of The Charter
- In the name of the father, son and the holy ghost! I, God's slave, Matej, branch of Ninoslav, great Bosnian ban, swear unto the prince of Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik's Žan Dandole (Gianni Dandolli) and all the regions of Dubrovnik. I swear just as Ban Kulin swore before me: For the Vlachs to walk freely as they did in the time of Ban Kulin, freely without deceit and evil...thus if a Vlach deceives a Serb, may he be held in the Ban's court.
Matej reissued the edict to the Republic of Dubrovnik on 22 March 1240, but expanded it to include a proctatorate guarrenteeing the independence of Dubrovnik in case of an attack from the neighbouring Serb Kingdom of Rascia of King Stefan Vladislav I. The latter was reissued in march of 1249 during King Stefan Uroš I.
[edit] Late rule, the Crusades
The Hungarians amassed an immence Crusader Force. The Bosnians didn't want to give up their religion for another, under Hungarian sword - so they organized resistance. Soon the Crusaders led by Croatia's Herzog Coloman stormed Bosnia. As Ban Matej didn't have the strength to oppose, he retreated to the impassable mountains and primeval forests. The war lasted for almost five years; and was very exhausting for both sides as can be seen in the fact that Bishop Johannes begged the Pope to relief him from his duty. Matej put up a stouch defense. Prince Sibislav of Usora joined the fight against Matej soon. Many of the Bosnian noblemen under Sibislav crossed to the Hungarian side - while others were simply too afraid to act. On 26 April 1238, it seemed that Coloman has destroyed the heretic strength in Bosnia. On 23 December 1238, Coloman continued to triumphate against the heretic side. Although the Crusaders managed to freely overrun the Western Areas and the Hum - they could never get a permanent hold of Bosnia proper.
Matej had to retreat to Dubrovnik in 1240, after the numerous crusaders overran his realm.
In 1241 the Tartars invaded Hungary and killed herzeg Coloman on the river of Šaj. King Bela IV was on the retreat which enabled Matej to restore control over most of Bosnia. The Tartars were fent off by the Croats - so they fell back across Bosnia, bringing their wave of destrucion to the Bosnian land.
Matej ruthlessly punished the Pope's supporters throughout Bosnia after he restored control. His cousin, Prijezda, fled to Hungary. Ninoslav also interviened in the civil war in Croatia between the loyalist Trogir and rebelling Split. The reason was the King's expandment of Split's possessions (like Ostrog) from 18 March 1242. He sided with Split which rebelled against King Bela IV and even elected Matej as its new Prince. The Bosnian-Split assault on the City of Trogir failed, but the City's surroundings were devastated. In 1244, King Bela sent one of his two armies on Bosnia against Ninoslav. Prince Matej lost Split, as the Hungarian Army under Slavonia's Ban Dionisus took the City in the summer of 1244 together with the forces of Trogir. A peace treaty was signed on 19 July 1244. The amnesty itself excluded Split's allies, presented by Matej. The other army was led by King Bela himself and breached to the city of Glaško in Bosnia. Bosnia was not harmed itself by the King's military campaign and a peace was signed on 20 July 1244 with Ban Ninoslav and his brothers and nobility, that confirmed the rights and lands of the Bosnian Church. Bela's negotiations lasted in Glaško from 15th to 21 July.
Although - the Bosnian heresy remained strong, so King Bela IV and the Roman Catholic Archbishop requested that Pope Innocent IV launches a new Crusade against Ninoslav in 1247. The situation got very dangerous, so Matej wrote to the new Pope that he always remained a stouch Catholic Christian, and never a heretic; that was confirmed by the Pope's delegacies that visited Bosnia shortly thereafter, so the Pope wrote to the Catholic Archbishop in 1248: "As we found out, the noble man, Bosnian ban, had not denounced his old faith, but lives like a Catholic and served under the Christian ways, even though he received help and simpathy from the infidels against his old enemies. As we confirmed under some trustworthy letters, even though old as they are, we got commendable confirmations about the purity of his faith, We command you, to remember well, that it must be clear in front of the eyes and reach the salvation of the soul, not to raise against the mentioned ban and his land, especially now..."
The remainder of his reign, Ban Matej spent in dealing inner matters in Bosnia. His death in 1250 brought some conflicts over the throne; as the Bosnian Church desired someone from their own sphere of interest, and the Hungarians side desired someone that they could easily control. Eventually, King Bela IV conquered and pacified Bosnia and succeed in putting Matej's cousin Prijezda as the Bosnian Ban.
| Preceded by Stjepan |
Grand Bosnian Ban 1232–1250 |
Succeeded by Prijezda I |
| Preceded by unknown |
Prince of Split 1242–19 July 1244 |
Succeeded by unknown |
