Demetrius Zvonimir of Croatia

Demetrius Zvonimir
King of Croatia
'King Dmitar Zvonimir by Kristian Kreković
Reign 1075–1089
Coronation 1075
Predecessor Peter Krešimir IV
Successor Stephen II
Ban of Slavonia, King of Croatia and Dalmatia

rex Chrobatorum et Dalmatinorum
rex (tocius) Chroacie atque Dalmacie

Chroatorum atque Dalmatinorum rex[1]
Reign c. 1065 – 1074
Successor Successed King of Croatia
House House of Trpimirović,
House of Krešimirović
Died 1089 (1090)
Burial Church of St. Stephen, Solin

Demetrius Zvonimir (or Demetrius Sunimirio) (Croatian: Dmitar Zvonimir) (died 1089) was the King of Croatia of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović. His native name was Zvonimir, and he added the name Dmitar at his coronation. He began as a ban of Slavonia in the service of King Stephen I and then as Duke of Croatia for his successor Peter Krešimir IV. Peter declared him his heir and, in 1075, Dmitar Zvonimir succeeded to the Croatian throne. He was the last native king who exerted any real power over the entire Croatian state, which he inherited at its height.

Contents

Biography

Donation of a land parcel in Lažani to the monastery of Saint Benedict in Split (1076.-1078.)[2]

Banate of Slavonia and Croatia

From about 1065, during the reign of Peter Krešimir IV, his relative through the Orseoli of Venice, Demetrius Zvonimir ruled in Slavonia (the land between the rivers Drava and Sava) with the title of ban.

At the beginning of 1075, Peter Krešimir IV named Demetrius Zvonimir by the mercy of God Duke of Dalmatian Croatia. This title made him not only the ruler of northern Dalmatia, but also the chief advisor of the king and his heir. Peter Krešimir IV died soon thereafter and Demetrius Zvonimir succeeded him.

Reign

Demetrius Zvonimir was crowned on 8 October 1076 at Solin in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses by a representative of Pope Gregory VII.[3][4] After the pope's deputies crowned him for the king of the Croatia, Demetrius Zvonimir in 1076 donated the city of Vrana and Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory, as a sign of loyalty to Pope Gregory VII. He ruled from Knin, which today is nicknamed "Zvonimir's city." He continued the expansive and pro-Roman policies of his predecessor, maintaining close alliance with the papacy. He instituted the Gregorian reform and took up many domestic reforms. During his reign, slavery was abolished in the kingdom.

Demetrius Zvonimir also took a hard line against the Byzantine Empire, but, unlike Petar Krešimir IV, he was also an ally of the Normans, with whom he joined in wars against Byzantium. When Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, invaded the western Balkan provinces of the empire in 1084, Zvonimir sent troops to his aid.

Engagement of Demetrius Zvonimir and Jelena by Celestin Medović (1920.)

There are several versions of Zvonimir's death. The most commonly accepted one, asserted by Thomas the Archdeacon, asserts that Demetrius died of natural causes.[5][6] Another account, from the Presbyter of Doclea, says that on 20 April 1089, desiring to heal the East-West Schism Pope Urban II asked Zvonimir, his strongest Balkan ally, to come to the military aid of Alexios I Komnenos against the Seljuks. Zvonimir convened the Sabor at Kosovo Polje near Knin that year to mobilize the army on behalf of the pope and the emperor, but the nobility refused him and a rebellion erupted, leading to Zvonimir's assassination at the hands of his own soldiers. His death marked the collapse of Croatian royal power. The myth of the "Curse of King Zvonimir" is based on the legend of his assassination.[7]

Succession and legacy

Demetrius Zvonimir was married to his distant relative Jelena, the sister of Ladislaus I of Hungary.[8] Through Helen, he was connected to the royal families of not only Hungary, but also Poland, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Byzantium. She bore him a son, Radovan, who predeceased him, and a daughter, Claudia, who, being married to the vojvoda of Lapcani Lika, was ineligible for the throne. He was succeeded by Stephen II, last of the House of Trpimirović, but he died in 1091, at which point Ladislaus became the best candidate for the succession.

The culturally and historically significant Baška tablet was inscribed shortly after his death and contains references to him and a number of his nobles of the eleventh century. For the first time, Baška tablet mentions the title of Croatian Kings in Croatian: kral (today kralj in Croatian).[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Arhinet Dmitar Zvonimir
  2. ↑ http://arhinet.arhiv.hr/_DigitalniArhiv/Monumenta/HR-HDA-876-10.htm
  3. ↑ Demetrius, Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia, after receiving the royal title by a legate of Gregory VII (1073-1085) promises to grant St. Peter’s pence
  4. ↑ Tomislav Raukar: "Hrvatsko srednjovjekovlje", Školska knjiga, Zagreb, 1997., ISBN 953-0-30703-9, str. 49
  5. ↑ Historia Salonitana
  6. ↑ Marcus Tanner, Croatia - a nation forged in war, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1997 ISBN 0-300-06933-2
  7. ↑ Damir K., The Šubići and the Good King Zvonimir. A Contribution to the Research on Use of Legends as a Means of Politics of Croatian Aristocratic Families, Zagreb 2000
  8. ↑ Trpimir Macan, Povijest hrvatskoga naroda, Zagreb, 1992.
  9. ↑ Baska tablet - Dr. sc. Mateo Zagar

External links

Regnal titles
Preceded by
Peter Krešimir IV		 King of Croatia
1076–1089		 Succeeded by
Stephen II
House of Trpimirović
Trpimir I (845–864) · Zdeslav (878–879) · Muncimir (892–910) · Tomislav (910–928) · Trpimir II (928–935) · Krešimir I (935–945) · Miroslav (945–949) · Michael Krešimir II (949–969) · Stephen Držislav (969–997) · Svetoslav Suronja (997–1000) · Krešimir III (1000– c. 1030) and Gojslav (1000–c. 1020) · Stephen I (c. 1030–1058) · Peter Krešimir IV (1058–1074) · Demetrius Zvonimir (1075–1089) · Stephen II (1089–1091)
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