Kingdom of Croatia

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This article is part of the History of Croatia series.

Origins of the Croats

Before the Croats

Medieval Croatian state

Kingdom of Croatia

Union with Hungary

Habsburg Empire

First Yugoslavia

Independent State of Croatia

Second Yugoslavia

War of independence

Croatia since 1995

The Croatian Kingdom existed between 925 and 1102 and was ruled mostly by native Croats Trpimirović dynasty. Kingdom grew into powerful military state in first half of 10th century.

Tomislav

Tomislav was crowned in the Duvno field in 925 (note that sources vary from 923 to 928), as the first King of Croatia. The central town of the Duvno field is nowadays named Tomislavgrad (Tomislavtown) in his honor. Tomislav was a descendant of Trpimir I so he is considered the founder of the Trpimirović dynasty. He was recognized as King by Pope John X. Tomislav, rex Chroatorum, created a sizeable state, including most of today's central Croatia, Slavonia, Dalmatia . The country was administered as a group of eleven counties (župa(nija)) and one banate (banovina), and each of these regions had a fortified royal town.

In the northeast, Tomislav came into war with the Bulgarians, under Simeon I. Tomislav made a pact with Byzantium, against the Bulgarians, which allowed him to control the Dalmatian city-states as long as he curbed Bulgarian expansion. Simeon I tried to break the Croatian-Byzantine pact by sending his duke Alogobotur with a formidable army force against Tomislav in 926, but was defeated in the Battle of the Bosnian Highlands. According to De Administrando Imperio Tomislav's strong army and navy consisted of approximately 100,000 infantry, 60,000 cavaliers, and 80 large and 100 smaller warships. Most historians believe these figures are invented.

Tomislav was succeeded by Trpimir II (928–935) and Krešimir I (935–945), and they managed to hold on to their power and keep good relations with both the Eastern Empire and the Roman Pope. Croatia was in first half of 10th century great military power. However, king Miroslav (945–949) was killed by his ban Pribina during an internal power struggle, and Croatia again lost the islands of Brač, Hvar and Vis to the Serbian dukes of Pagania, the Dalmatian city-states to the Byzantium, lost control of the duchy of Bosnia, as well had as eastern Slavonia and Srijem taken by the Magyars.

Mihajlo Krešimir II (949–969), next king and younger brother of Miroslav, restored order in the bulk of the state. He kept particularly good relations with the Dalmatian cities, him and his wife Jelena donating land and churches to Zadar and Solin. A 976 inscription is preserved the Church of St. Mary in Solin that names the Croatian royalty.

Mihajlo Krešimir II was succeeded by his son Stjepan Držislav (969–997), who established better relations with the Byzantine Empire and again took control of the Dalmatian cities. But as soon as Stjepan Držislav died in 997, his three sons Svetoslav (997–1000), Krešimir III (1000–1030) and Gojslav (co-ruler with Krešimir, 1000–1020), each contested the throne, weakening the state, which allowed the Venetians under Pietro II Orseolo and the Bulgarian Tsar Samuil to encroach on the Croatian possessions in the Adriatic. In 1000, Pietro Orseolo led the Venetian fleet into the eastern Adriatic and gradually took control of the whole of it, first the Kvarner islands and Zadar, then Trogir and Split, followed by a successful naval battle with the Narentines upon which he took control of Korčula and Lastovo, and claimed the title dux Dalmatiæ.

The tenth century brought upon a segmentation of the society, where the local leaders župani were replaced by the subjects of the king, who in turn took land from the previous landowners and essentially created a feudal system. The previously free peasants became serfs and stopped being soldiers, which caused the military power of Croatia to fade.

The next king in this period, Krešimir III, tried to restore the Dalmatian cities and had some success up to 1018, but was defeated by Venice as well as the Langobards. His son Stjepan I (1030–1058) succeeded Krešimir III. His success only went so far as getting the Narentine duke to join his state after 1050.

Petar Krešimir IV

During the reign of Petar Krešimir IV (1058–1074), the mediæval Croatian kingdom reached its territorial peak. Petar Krešimir IV managed to get the Byzantine Empire to confirm him as the supreme ruler of the Dalmatian cities. He also allowed the Roman Curia to get more involved into the religious affairs of Croatia, which consolidated his more power but disrupted his rule over the Glagolitic-using clergy in parts of Istria in 1060. Croatia under Petar Krešimir IV was composed of twelve counties and was slightly larger than in Tomislav's time. It included the closest southern Dalmatian duchy of Pagania, and his influence extended over Zahumlje, Travunia and Duklja.

However, in 1072 Krešimir helped the uprising of Bulgarians and Serbs against their Byzantine rulers, after which the Byzantine Empire retaliated in 1074 by sending the Norman duke Amik to besiege Rab. They failed to capture the island, but did manage to capture the king himself, and the Croatians were then forced to settle and give away Split, Trogir, Biograd, Nin and Zadar to the Normans. In 1075, the Venetians banished the Normans and secured the cities for itself. The end of Petar Krešimir IV in 1074 also marked de facto end of the Trpimirović ruling dynasty, which had ruled the Croatian lands for over two centuries.

Dmitar Zvonimir

After that there was one more notable native king, Dmitar Zvonimir (1075–1089). He was previously a ban in Slavonia. He gained the title of king with the support of Pope Gregory VII, after which he aided the Normans in their struggle against the Byzantine Empire and Venice between 1081 and 1085. Zvonimir helping to transport their troops through the Strait of Otranto, in the occupation of Durres and the battles along the Albanian and Greek coast. Due to this, in 1085 the Byzantines transferred their rights to Dalmatia to Venice.

Zvonimir's kinghood is carved in stone Baška Tablet, preserved to this day as the oldest written Croatian text, kept in the archæological museum in Zagreb. Zvonimir's reign is remembered as a peaceful and prosperous time, during which the connection of Croats with the Pope was further affirmed, so much so that Catholicism would remain among Croats until the present day. In this time the noble titles in Croatia were made analogous to those used in other parts of Europe at the time, with comes and baron used for the župani and the royal court nobles, and vlastelin for the noblemen.

Dmitar Zvonimir died in 1089, with no heir to succeed him on the throne. After his death, Stjepan II (1089–1091) of the Trpimirović dynasty ruled Croatia, but he died in old age, having reigned only two years. After his death it became apparent that Zvonimir's brother-in-law Ladislaus I of Hungary was the strongest candidate for the throne through his sister Jelena, Zvonimir's widow, who had much influence in Pannonian Croatia.

Ladislaus' army penetrated Croatian territory after Stjepan's death in 1091, and quickly occupied all of Pannonian Croatia, after which they were met with some unorganized resistance in Dalmatian Croatia. The Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius I reacted by making the Cumans attack the Magyars, which made Ladislaus retreat from Croatia, but he did leave Prince Álmos (Almoš in Croatian) to rule over Slavonia.

Yet the Croatian feudal lords struggled for independence from Hungary, and elected a new Croat king Petar Svačić (1093–1097). He managed to unify the kingdom around Knin, and banish Almoš from Slavonia (1095). However, after Ladislaus died in same year, Almoš's brother Coloman of Hungary came to power, made peace with Pope Urban II. Coloman led an army into Croatia in 1097. Petar Svačić's army was defeated in Battle of Gvozd Mountain and he was killed. Coloman and his forces were called back to the northeast to fight the Ruthenians and Cumans in Galicia in 1099, and the Croatian nobles took the chance to liberate themselves from Hungarian rule.

However, when Coloman returned in 1102, they yielded and recognized him as the common king for Croatia and Hungary in a treaty of 1102 often referred to as the Pacta Conventa. Croatia lost its independence by entering a personal union with Hungary, it never became part of the Kingdom of Hungary but rather ruled as a separate kingdom, most of the time as a vassal and sometimes as an equal. There were periods when Croatia acted completely on its own. Entering a personal union Croatia lost its navy, and had to heed king's calls to arms. Coloman did, however, retain the institution of Sabor and relieved the Croatians of taxes on their land. Colomans succesors did not continue to crown themselves as kings of Croatia separatley in town Biograd na Moru. In the 14th century a new term came to life in order to represent the Connection of Croatia and Hungary. The whole realm under the rule of the Hungarian king was called Archiregnum Hungaricum (Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen) which consisted of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia and the various banates attached to the realm. The two crowns remained connected until the end of World War I.