Tomislav

Tomislav (died in 928), was one of the greatest ruler of Croatia in Middle Ages. He reigned from 910 until 928, in first as Duke of Dalmatian Croatia in 910–925, and then became first King (rex Croatorum) of Croatian Kingdom in 925–928.

He was probably the son of Muncimir, Duke of Dalmatian Croatia. Tomislav was one of the most prominent members of the House of Trpimir. He united the Croats of Dalmatia and Pannonia into a single Kingdom in 925. Tomislav rounded off his state from the Adriatic Sea to the Drava River, and from the Rasa River in Istria to the Drina River. Under his rule, Croatia became one of the most powerful kingdoms in Medieval Europe.

Duke

Tomislav defeated the Magyar mounted invasions of the Arpads in battle and forced them across the Drava River. Tomislav annexed a part of Pannonian Croatia to his Croatian Dalmatia. This included the area between the rivers Drava, Sava and Kupa, so his Duchy bordered with Bulgaria for a period of time. This was the first time that the two Croatian Realms were united, and all Croats in one state.

At the peak of his reign, Tomislav controlled a vast military force composed out of 100,000 infantrymen and 60,000 horsemen and a sizable fleet of 80 large ships and 100 smaller vessels. Tomislav's efforst would bring his Croatian Kingdom to the peak of the Early Medieval South Slavic civization and make him one of the leading figures in the Balkans.

The Duke had to face renewed threats from the Bulgarians under Tsar Simeon I who had already conquered the Serbs. In 923, the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Byzantine Emperor offered to deal with Simeon's plights if Pope John X would accept a rejoined of the distanced Holy Sees of Rome and Constantinople. The Pope also demanded that the Patriarch gives him the suzeiranity over the Dalmatian Byzantine Cities. After this was done, the Byzantine Emperor gave Duke Tomislav the coastal Cities under his Goverency: the Byzantine Province of Dalmatia ((Zadar, Split, Trogir...). In 921-924, the Bulgarian leader Simeon smited through Rascia, enslaving and tricking the people, which made many Serbs under dethroned Prince Zaharije Pribislavljević of the House of Vlastimirović flee and seek shelter in Tomislav's Realm.

With the claiming of the coastal cities by Trpimir, the question of suzeiranity over the Croatian Archbishopric of Nin was raised. In 925 the Pope summon a synod in Split to resolve the situation. Tomislav was subsequently crowned at the field of Duvno (named Tomislav's City in his honour) as the first King of Croatia, Tomislav I, marking the first official recognition of Croatian statehood. Although he was referred to as King, Tomislav's more frequent title would be Princeps instead. On the Synod in Split, the Latin Bishops and Abbeys of the Seaside outvoted Nin's Bishop Grgur and his supporters, so the supremacy of the Archbishopric of Split was affirmed. Under Tomislav's requests, the Croatian branch of the Church in Nin was abolished and ecclesiastical service in the Slavic language banned, allowing only the usage of Latin. These actions further decreased the Glagolitic Slavic scrypt that was in use in Croatia, as the Latin influence easily spread under Rome's pressures and Tomislav's support.

King

After he became King in 925, at two church synods in Split, he established the relationship between the dioceses of Split (Latin) and of Nin (Croatian), and in this way strengthened internal relations in Croatia and resolved the dispute around the liturgical language between the Latinists and Croatian Glagolites (users of Glagolitic alphabet). Through this, Tomislav obtained the support of the Pope, who was at that time the most important power in Europe.

Tomislav had to repel the attacks of the invading Bulgarians in 926 due to Tomislav's protectorate of the Serbian dynasty's head, Zaharije Pribislavljević. The Croatians fought the army of Simeon I of Bulgaria led by duke Alobogotur on May 27, 927 and won the famous Battle of the Bosnian Highlands. For that occasion Tomislav organized a large army, assisted by numerious mercinaries. The huge battle, considered to be one of the most important battles in the south-eastern Europe's history, took place, in the north-eastern part of Bosnia. Simeon I led an army was that was repulsed in Zahumlje, while Simeon I might have been mortally wounded in the battle. Simeon's general Alobogotur penetrated through Posavina up to Sisak. In a counteroffensive, stretched Alobogotur's army was split, and routed by Croats and their allies in the final battle on May 27, 927 fought in Mačva. Tomislav's further advances were halted as the Bulgarians managed to take Srijem and the part of Bosnia between the rivers of Drina and Bosna from him. The latter was given to the collaborating Serbian Princes of the House of Vlastimirović.

Tomislav disappeared from the political scene in 928. . At the time of his death there was discord in the country over whether the liturgical language of the Roman Catholic Church in Croatia would be Latin or Croatian. Decades of famine and pestilence raged through most of the Southern Europe.

Miscelanous

Tomislav is celebrated as the founder of the first united Croatian state. In the Croatian capital of Zagreb, there is a square dedicated to Tomislav. Near the place where he was crowned lies the town of Tomislavgrad (Tomislav's City).

Controversy

Croatian historians Nada Klaić and Ivo Goldstein disputed the extension of Tomislav's kingdom. However, in the later editions of her work, Klaić dropped the issue of territorial compass of Tomislav's kingdom and omitted the historical maps dealing with the murky issue of eastern border of Tomislav's kingdom. Ivo Goldstein claimed that Tomislav never ruled Bosnia in his Hrvatski rani srednji vijek. Still, dominant modern university history textbooks like Tomislav Raukar's Hrvatsko srednjovjekovlje (Croatia in the Middle Ages), as well as other university textbooks on the medieval Croatian state, consider that during Tomislav's rule his kingdom covered between 60% and 80% of contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina. Other historical sources tend to be fuzzy: for instance, a European history site gives a similar picture, while Serbian historian Relja Novaković considered that Tomislav's state encompassed even more territory: "In the first half of the 10th century until the 930s, the eastern Croatian political boundary was, probably, a mountain wreath composed of the array of mountains Zelengora, Lelija, Treskavica, Jahorina, Romanija, Ozren and Zvijezda." (Relja Novaković: On some questions regarding borders of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia in the X century, Proceedings of the Belgrade Philosophical Faculty, VII/1, 1963., pg. 178/ O nekim pitanjima granica Srbije, Hrvatske i Bosne u X veku, Zbornik Fil.fak. u Beogradu, VII/1, 1963, str. 178.) However, even this can be, due to the lack of strong historical evidence, considered mere speculation. This issue, frequently hotly debated due to modern Croatian and Serbian national ideologies' intentions, actually bears little importance on medieval Bosnian history, since pre-Ottoman ethno-cultural landscape of this country was formed mainly in the period from the 13th to the 15th century.

References

Opća Enciklopedija Jugoslavenskog Leksikografskog Zavoda, Zagreb, 1982
De Administrando Imperio, Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitos, 950

External links

http://www.croatian-king-tomislav.com/
http://www.hbzup.com/tomislavgrad/kultura/kralj/
Croatia in the X and XI centuries: maps from the pre-eminent Croatian historian Šišić's book

928 deaths | Dukes of Croatia | Kings of Croatia | History of Croatia | History of Bosnia and Herzegovina