The Kingdom of Croatia (Croatian: Kraljevina Hrvatska, Hrvatsko Kraljevstvo; Hungarian: Horvát királyság; Latin: Regnum Croatiae), also known with full diplomatic name Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia (Latin: Regnum Croatiae et Dalmatiae), entered a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary in 1102, after a period of rule of kings from the Trpimirović and Svetoslavić dynasties and a succession crisis following the death of king Demetrius Zvonimir.
With the coronation of King Coloman of Hungary as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in 1102 in Biograd, the realm passed to the Árpád dynasty until 1301, when the (male) line of the dynasty died out. Then, kings from the Capetian House of Anjou, who were also cognatic descendants of the Árpád kings, ruled the kingdoms. Later centuries were characterized by conflicts with the Mongols, who sacked Zagreb in 1242, competition with Venice for control over Dalmatian coastal cities, and internal warfare among Croatian nobility. Various individuals emerged during the period, such as Paul I Šubić of Bribir, who was representing the most powerful Croatian dynasty at the time, the Šubić noble family. These powerful individuals were on occasion able to de facto secure great deal of independence for their fiefdoms. The Ottoman incursion into Europe in the 16th century significantly reduced Croatian territories and left the country weak and divided. After the death of Louis II in 1526 during the Battle of Mohács and a brief period of dynastic dispute, both crowns passed to the Austrian House of Habsburg, and the realms became part of the Habsburg monarchy.
Some of the terms of Coloman's coronation and the later status of the Croatian nobles are detailed in the Pacta Conventa, a document preserved only in transcript from the 14th century. The precise terms of this relationship became a matter of dispute in the 19th century; nonetheless, even in dynastic union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained through the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the Ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.
Name
The diplomatic name of the kingdom was "Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia" (Latin: Regnum Croatiae et Dalmatiae) until 1359 when a plural form "kingdoms" (Latin: regna) came into use. The change was a consequence of the victory of Louis I against the Republic of Venice and the Treaty of Zadar, by which the Venetian Republic lost its influence over Dalmatian coastal cities. However, the kingdom was still mostly referred to as the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia until Venice regained the Dalmatian coast in 1409. A common synonym were "Sclavonia" (Slavonija and Slovinje) and "tota Sclauonia" (Whole Slavonia). The most common Croatian language form of the name was Hrvatska zemlja ("Croatian country" or "Croatian land").
Background
Succession crisis
Demetrius Zvonimir was the King of Croatia of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović. He began as a Ban of Croatia in the service of Peter Krešimir IV. Peter probably declared him his heir and, in 1075, Demetrius Zvonimir succeeded to the Croatian throne. Zvonimir married Helen of Hungary from the Árpád dynasty in 1063. Helen was a Hungarian princess, daughter of Béla I, and sister to King Ladislaus I of Hungary. They had a son, Radovan, who died in his late teens or early twenties. After Zvonimir's death in 1089, he was succeeded by Stephen II, last of the House of Trpimirović. Stephen's rule was relatively ineffectual and lasted less than two years. He spent most of this time in the tranquility of the monastery of St. Stephen beneath the Pines (Croatian: Sv. Stjepan pod Borovima) near Split. Stephen II died peacefully at the beginning of 1091, without leaving an heir. Since there was no living male member of the House of Trpimirović, civil war and unrest broke out in Croatia shortly afterward.
The widow of late King Zvonimir, Helen, tried to keep her power in Croatia during the succession crisis. Some Croatian nobles around Helen, possibly the Gusić family and/or Viniha from Lapčan family, contesting the succession after the death of Zvonimir, asked King Ladislaus I to help Helen and offered him the Croatian throne, which was seen as rightfully his by inheritance rights. According to some sources, several Dalmatian cities also asked King Ladislaus for assistance, and Petar Gusić with Petar de genere Cacautonem presented themselves as "White Croats" (Creates Albi), on his court. Thus the campaign launched by Ladislaus was not purely a foreign aggression nor did he appear on the Croatian throne as a conqueror, but rather as a successor by hereditary rights. In 1091 Ladislaus crossed the Drava river and conquered the entire province of Slavonia without encountering opposition, but his campaign was halted near the Iron Mountains (Mount Gvozd). Since the Croatian nobles were divided, Ladislaus had success in his campaign, yet he was not able to establish his control over entire Croatia, although the exact extent of his conquest is not known. At this time the Kingdom of Hungary was attacked by the Cumans, who were likely sent by Byzantium, so Ladislaus was forced to retreat from his campaign in Croatia. Ladislaus appointed his nephew Prince Álmos to administer the controlled area of Croatia, established the Diocese of Zagreb as a symbol of his new authority and went back to Hungary. In the midst of the war, Petar Snačić was elected king by Croatian feudal lords in 1093. Petar's seat of power was based in Knin. His rule was marked by a struggle for control of the country with Álmos, who was not able to establish his rule and was forced to withdraw to Hungary in 1095.
Ladislaus died in 1095, leaving his nephew Coloman to continue the campaign. Coloman, as was the case with Ladislaus before him, was not seen as a conqueror but rather as a pretender to the Croatian throne. Coloman assembled a large army to press his claim on the throne and in 1097 defeated King Petar's troops in the Battle of Gvozd Mountain, who was killed in battle. Since the Croatians did not have a leader any more and Dalmatia had numerous fortified towns that would be difficult to defeat, negotiations started between Coloman and the Croatian feudal lords. It took several more years before the Croatian nobility recognised Coloman as the king. Coloman was crowned in Biograd in 1102 and the title now claimed by Coloman was "King of Hungary, Dalmatia, and Croatia". Some of the terms of his coronation are summarized in Pacta Conventa by which the representatives of the noble institution of twelve noble tribes of Croatia agreed to recognise Coloman as king. In return, the 12 Croatian nobles that signed the agreement retained their lands and properties and were granted exemption from tax or tributes. The nobles were to send at least ten armed horsemen each beyond the Drava River at the kings expense if his borders were attacked. Despite that Pacta Conventa is not an authentic document from 1102, there was almost certainly some kind of contract or agreement between the Croatian nobles and Coloman which regulated the relations in the same way.
Historical and legal context
In 1102, after a succession crisis, the crown passed into the hands of the Árpád dynasty, with the crowning of King Coloman of Hungary as "King of Croatia and Dalmatia" in Biograd. The precise terms of the union between the two realms became a matter of dispute in the 19th century. The two kingdoms were united under the Árpád dynasty either by the choice of the Croatian nobility or by Hungarian force. Croatian historians hold that the union was a personal one in the form of a shared king, a view also accepted by a number of Hungarian historians, while Serbian and Hungarian nationalist historians preferred to see it as a form of annexation. The claim of a Hungarian occupation was made in the 19th century during the Hungarian national reawakening. Thus in older Hungarian historiography Coloman's coronation in Biograd was a subject of dispute and their stance was that Croatia was conquered. Although claims of this kind can also be found today, since the Croatian-Hungarian tensions are gone, it has generally been accepted that Coloman was crowned in Biograd for king. Today, Hungarian legal historians hold that the relationship of Hungary with the area of Croatia and Dalmatia in the period till 1526 and the death of Louis II was most similar to a personal union, resembling the relationship of Scotland to England.
According to the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations and the Grand Larousse encyclopédique, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102, which remained the basis of the Hungarian-Croatian relationship until 1918, while Encyclopædia Britannica specified the union as a dynastic one. According to the research of the Library of Congress, Coloman crushed opposition after the death of Ladislaus I and won the crown of Dalmatia and Croatia in 1102, thus forging a link between the Croatian and Hungarian crowns that lasted until the end of World War I. Hungarian culture permeated northern Croatia, the Croatian-Hungarian border shifted often, and at times Hungary treated Croatia as a vassal state. Croatia had its own local governor, or Ban; a privileged landowning nobility; and an assembly of nobles, the Sabor. According to some historians, Croatia became part of Hungary in the late 11th and early 12th century, yet the actual nature of the relationship is difficult to define. Sometimes Croatia acted as an independent agent and at other times as a vassal of Hungary. However, Croatia retained a large degree of internal independence. The degree of Croatian autonomy fluctuated throughout the centuries as did its borders.
The alleged agreement called Pacta conventa (English: Agreed accords) or Qualiter (first word of the text) is today viewed as a 14th-century forgery by most modern Croatian historians. According to the document King Coloman and the twelve heads of the Croatian nobles made an agreement, in which Coloman recognised their autonomy and specific privileges. Although it is not an authentic document from 1102, nonetheless there was at least a non-written agreement that regulated the relations between Hungary and Croatia in approximately the same way, while the content of the alleged agreement is concordant with the reality of rule in Croatia in more than one respect.
In the Kingdom of Croatia also existed own "consuetudines antiquae Croatorum", a customary law unique to the Croatian legal tradition compared to the Hungarian one ("consuetudo Hungaricalis"). Presumably the earliest mention of the term "consuetudo Croatorum" is from 1348 when Ivan of Stipko of Bribir (i.e. Šubić) in his will left part of his estate to the Franciscan monastery of St. Mary in Bribir "despite the contrary Croatian custom, which forbids it" ("nec obstante consuetudine aliqua Chroatorum, qua prohibetur, ne quis suum Patrimonium aliis quam suis consaguineis vei propinquis alicui valeat dare"). In 1361 the ban Nicholas Szécsi was ordered by king Louis I of Hungary "to litigate according to the Hungarian customs and not the customs of the Croats and Dalmatians" ("non more aut secundum consuetudinem Croatorum an Dalmaticorum, sed iuxta legem et consuetudinem Hungaricalem iudicare deberemus"). In 1376 gathered in Knin the "antiqui homines parcium Crohacie" (Croatian elders) to interpret the "iura Crohatorum" (Croat rights), and in the 15th century was legally used in the district of Šibenik ("Sesubiecerat iurisdictioni Sibenicensi cum hoc quod gubernaretur secundum leges Croatiae"). The Croatian legal customs were preserved by Venetian Republic in Dalmatia (since 1409), and were codified in the Vinodol Statute (13th century), Poljica Statute (14-15th century), Novigrad Statute (15th century), and Vrana Statute (15th century) among others. In the Kingdom of Croatia continued to be used both Croatian and Hungarian customary law until the early 16th century when was written Tripartitum (1514) by István Werbőczy, who also noted that the "laws and legal customs (...) of the kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia and Transylvania differ in some provisions and articles from the laws and legal customs of our homeland i.e. this Kingdom of Hungary ... the Dalmatians, Croats, Slavonians and Transylvanians (...) in many legal customs use legal customs that differ greatly from ours".
The all aforementioned Croatian legal and noble institutions and privileges, and continuous mention of the Kingdom of Croatia (and Dalmatia) and Croats in official documents, preserved and consolidated the existence of a separate pre-modern Croatian nation.
Geography and administrative organization
The Kingdom of Croatia was bounded to the west by the Dalmatian coast (from the headland of the Kvarner Gulf in the north to the mouth of the Neretva in the south), bounded to the east by the courses of the Vrbas and Neretva, to the south by the lower Neretva, and to the north by the Gvozd Mountain and river Kupa. The territory between Dalmatia and the Neretva, western Hum, was not always in Croatia's possession. The term "Dalmatia" referred to several coastal cities and islands, at times used as a synonym of Croatia, and was to spread further inland only with the expansion of Venice in the 15th century. In the second half of the 15th and early 16th century borders of Croatia spread north and included the territory of the Zagreb county and its surroundings, that have already been under the same administration.