Quick historical overview
Croats were one of Slavic tribes which invaded balkans in late VI. and early VII. century. Frankish, Latin and Byzantine chronicles mostly refer to Slavs as Sclaveni, although they report that Sclaveni are only one of three branches - two others were Wenedi and Antae.
First contemporary source about Croats is a document from first half of IX. century, where duke od Dalmatia
Trpimir is titled
Rex Sclavorum in one text and
dux Croatorum in another, and rules over a
Regnum Sclavorum in one document and
Regnum Croatorum in another.
All early sources use terms Slav/Croat as synonims and Croatia is often also called Slavonia ( as lands of Slavs ) or Dalmatia. Often sources reffer to whole are of western Balkans as
Sclavonia or
Ilyria.
One of most important documents is De
Administrando Imperio (mid X. century) in which Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII. mentions each of nations that border Byzantines and explains shortly their history. According to him Croats lived in White Croatia which was located north of Pannonia, and came to Dalmatia as Byzantine
foederati to expel Avars, they fought Avars and then settled the land. This happened in time of emperor Heraclius, in first half of VII. century.
We have also several others sources about these White Croats. One sources tells us of fightings between White Croats and Chezcs, another source tells us of Russian princes which fought against White Croats, and also White Croats are mentioned as one of tributary Slavic tribes which took part in Russian raids against Byzantines.
Last mention of those
White Croats in the north is X. century, it would appear that later they were incorporated into Russian and Polish states and were no loger independent tribe.
To the south Croats funded two princedoms, as DAI tells us, one in Dalmatia and another in southern Pannonia, and these two were independent one of the other and each had its own prince.
When Franks expand to these lands in start of IX. century, and fight againt Avars, they are supported by local Slavs, the Carinthians which soon got conquered by Bavarians, and two more slavic duchies, one in lowere Pannonia and another in Dalmatia. Both of these became tributary to Franks and had to accept frankish rule.
In later period with Frankish decline, Croats became independent, and after Hungarian migration, southern dukes from Dalmatia managed to take control of southern Pannonia, setting Croatian - Hungarian border at Drava river, which became ethnic border for more then thousand years. From this point Croatian rulers started to use title king for themselves.
Last Croatian king was married to Hungarian princess, after his death and with no heir, her brother Hungarian king invaded Croatia,and attempted to claim Croatian crown as protector of her sister. Her husband late king was first a ban of Slavonia ( the area of southern Pannonia ) and thus she too had there most of her supporters )
Northern part of Croatia thus accepted Hungarians right away but southern resisted. Several years later an pact was made according to which Hungarian king obligated himself to recognize all rights of Croatian nobility, their land possesions and so forth and in turn they recognized him in 1102. as king of Croatia. He was crowned in Biograd na Moru as king of Croatia with a crown of late king Zvonimir. Practice of dual coronation continiued to be used another 100 years. After this event Croatia remained in such perosnal union with Hungary until 1918. and end of World War I.
Croatian army of this period was divided into 3 categories
-
Genereal Levy - in time of war, duke could for a short time raise all able men for war. These are in my roster called Slavonic Levies. They were reliable only in defense and ambushes.
-
Tribal Warriors - land was divided in
zhupas, each led by
zhupan. At this time, Croats are divided into tribes and tribes into clans. Elders of clans and tribes would hold these positions. Each of those tribes or
zhupas were obligated to equip armed horsemen for the duke. These troops would form most of the army. Since they were equiped by whole tribe, these men were well equiped and also well trained.
-
Druzhina - this would be core of the army.
Druzhina means fellowship or band, and comes from singular
drug, whichmeans a friend or companion. It is common Slavic word, used even today. Early Byzantine sources report that Balkan Slavic chieftains had warrior retinues, warbands, usualy not more than 200 men. Each of Croatian
zhupans would have such
druzhina, and Croatian duke would have the biggest druzhina, as it was source of his power. These men were constantly ready for war, equiped and payed by their lord. They were also used to garrison important fortresses and towns and to guard the duke.
in early 9. century, Dalmatian duke Borna, frankish vasssal, fought against Pannonian duke Ljudevit, who rebbeled against Franks. Borna lost this battle, but frankish sources tell us that Borna was betrayed by Guduscani ( his tribe, as earlies he was titled
dux Guduscanorum ), but he was saved from the battle by his
pretorians. It is likely that name od these
pretorians in Slavic would be
druzhina, as it was in Poland and Russia, although we unfortunately dont have Croatian name for them recorded.
Druzhina of Svetoplek, king of Moravia is estimated to count as manny as 5500 men, so
druzhinas could be quite large, depending on the strength and financial means of the ruler.
-Weapons and armors - as Byzantine sources tell us, Slavs fought mainly on foot and exceled at guerilla warfare, skirmishes and ambushes. They used round shields, but also very large shields, as large as doors. Primary weapons were curved bows, javelins, spears and axes. Swords were rather rare and expensive, and used only by nobles and druzhina. They were mostly Carolingian, imported from Francia. Archeology also found frankis9h winged spear heads, and spurs, even for children, as well as franciscas.
One Byzantine sources estimates Croatian army in 10. century at 60 000 horsemen and 100 000 infantry. This is surely too large, but does suggest importance of cavalary in Croatian army. It is likely that anyone who could afford horse, would also fight mounted. There were no mounted horse archers among Croats, primary weapon would be lance, and as secondary likely a sword, an axe or mace.
Armors - there is very little we know about armors, but likely they were rare, and used only by the rich. Primarily it would be mail, and possibly also scales or lammelar, as those were used by Franks, Avars, Bulgars and Byzantines - chief Croatian enemies and neighbours.
Croatian enemies - as sources tell us, Croats arrived as Byzantine allies, fought against Avars ( and likely their Slavic allies too ) who invaded Dalmatia previously, and then settled the region.
Several coastal towns survived, and those remained as Byzantine possesion, theme of Dalmatia. It did not had howover strategos, but money usualy reserved for him was instead payed to Croatian duke as tribute. Sources tell us that in mid 9. century Croatian duke fought against Greeks. Likely it was against strategos of Dalmatia.
Soon after Franks defeated Avars, Croats had to become Frankish vassals. Duke of Dalmatia supported Franks, as it was means of gaining the control of Dalmatian towns, but Pannonian duke raised rebbelion which was eventualy crushed. Soon aftewards with declince of Carolingians, Croats gained independence.
Croats also fought several wars against Bulgars, and were often allied with Byzantines.
Chief enemy on see was Venice, which at the time attemted to gain control of Adriatic trade routes. Venice had to pay tribute for safe passage. Piracy was very popular, especialy among pagan Neretvani, tribe which was incorporated into Croatia by 11. century, altought it remained long independent and fiercly paganic. Adriatic was also very often raided by Arabic pirates.
Title of the ruler and name of the land- Croatia was callel in Latin usualy
Regnum Croatorum or
Regnum Sclavorum. Name Dalmatia as old roman name was also often used. Later on Latin sources use
Regnum Croatie. It was initialy kingom of Croats, and later changed to kingdom of Croatia, once name Croatia started to replace Dalmatia, and name Dalmatia starts to be used only to several enclaves on the coast.
Rulers are titled with manny different titles :
-Byzantines haved used mostly title
strategos, that way they did not accept Croatian independence, and claim the region as part of Roman Empire, and saw Croats as their foederati, in their imperial province. Byzantines recognized Croatia as independent kingdom first in 976. when Croatian king Drzislav received crown from Konstantinopol and was given name Stjepan ( Stephan ) which means "
crowned one". It is at this time that Byzantines renounced their claim on Croatia and Dalmatian towns, as those were officialy Byzantine Thema ( but without strategos ) until this period.
Franks used motly title
dux, as both Croat duchies had to recognize Frankish emperor Charlemagne as overlord after war of which we know very little about, between 800. and 805, and as such couldnt style themselves kings ( anymore ). Still sometimes title
rex was still used, as well as
princeps. The land itself was always reffered to as
regnum ( kingdom ) howover, even if ruler was
dux ( duke )
With decline of Carolingians Croats became independent again around 880s , but only in first half of 10. century have Croatian rulers started to use title
rex consistently. We dont know how did early Croat rulers titled themselves in Croatian language unfortunately, but we do know from
Baska tablet, written in Croatia, that title of king Zvonimir was
kralj, which is even today a word in west and south Slavic languages for a king, coming probably from name of Karlo the Great.
Title
knez has been used for powerfull noblemen in Croatia, but it was possibly also title used by early Croatian ruler as well. Interestingly in Kievan Rus, title of ruler was
Veliky Knyaz which means grand duke. In Serbia ruler was called
Veliki Zhupan, which means grand zhupan.
Along those, there is another unique croatian title called
ban. Recorded first time in early 10. century, it appears
ban was bannermen of the king, who held 3 zhupas in border area toward Franks in Carinthia, as was thus more powerfull than other
zhupans who only held one
zhupania. Later on South Pannonia/Slavonia, was also ruled by
ban, and formed separate
banate within kingdom. This title became also title of rulers of Bosnia, since in early period it was often part of Croatian Kingdom. Once Croatia entered personal union with Hungary, the title of
ban, and
banates as duchies in border areas of the state was used extensivly by Hungarians trougout their kingdom, and
ban ruler Croatia as royal viceroy all the way to end of WWI.
AoC Regnum Chroatorum
[/IMG]
Reply With Quote
Re: AoC Regnum Chroatorum
Originally Posted by Hrobatos
