Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia

Who rules

Name

King Emeric (Imre), ruling through his ban; his brother Duke Andrew, whose duchy this was in 1198-1199, is a fugitive in Austria

Title

King of Hungary, Dalmatia and Croatia (the kingdom's own crown is held by the king of Hungary in personal union since 1102)

Since

Emeric king since 23 April 1196; direct rule in Croatia and Dalmatia again since Andrew's defeat at Rád and flight in summer 1199

Born

Emeric about 1174 (see the hungary realm record)

Family

Árpád dynasty

Confidence

high

English and Hungarian Wikipedia on Emeric and Andrew II (citing Érszegi and Solymosi 1981, Zsoldos 2022); the ban lists on English and German Wikipedia; Hrvatska enciklopedija (Slavonija). The ban of the winter is Benedict, Emeric's man (1199-1200); see Ban Benedict.

Overlord

None: the king of Hungary is king of Croatia and Dalmatia in his own right. The pope is the realm's spiritual judge and, through the legate Gregory, the mediator between the brothers.

What the realm holds

• Slavonia between the Drava and the Sava and up to the Gvozd hills: the royal counties of Zagreb, Varaždin and Križevci (Kőrös), the castle districts of Garić, Gora and Dubica, the castle folk and the royal estates; the bishop of Zagreb's great estates lie among them (Church map).
• Croatia proper south of the Gvozd and the Kapela: the royal castle and county of Knin, the castle of Klis above Split, and the župe of the Croatian kindreds (Bribir, Krbava, Lika, Gacka, Karin and Lapac, Modruš with Vinodol), held by hereditary counts under the crown.
• The Dalmatian towns that recognise the king: Zara (Zadar), Spalato (Split), Traù (Trogir), Nona (Nin) and Sebenico (Šibenik) with their districts (dal records); the Templars at Vrana and Senj (Church map).
• Claims: Hum between the Cetina and the Neretva (taken by Andrew in 1198; holder that winter not pinned); overlordship over Bosnia (Ban Kulin, dal records); the Kvarner islands and the whole Dalmatian coast against Venice.

How it was acquired

Croatia passed to the Árpáds in 1102 when Coloman was crowned at Biograd. The later tradition that the Croatian nobles made a pact with him (the Pacta conventa, or Qualiter) is in its written form a 14th-century text, but it reflects an agreement of about 1102. Béla III recovered Dalmatia from Byzantium after 1180 and Zadar threw off Venice in 1181. Emeric gave Croatia and Dalmatia to Andrew in early 1198 and took them back by force in summer 1199.

Allies and rivals

Emeric's men: the bishop of Zagreb, Dominic (campaign notes), and the ban Benedict. Andrew's men: the archbishops he installed at Split and Zadar (campaign notes: under papal inquiry), and among the lay lords the counts of Krk, the Babonići and other local lords who worked with him as duke (Curta 2006, Fine 1994), the Slavonian Monoszló kindred (Macarius's son Thomas backed Andrew), and the ban Andrew (Andrija) whom the lists give for the duke in 1198, probably the comes Andrew whom Zsoldos names among Andrew's backers. Kalán of Pécs, governor of Croatia and Dalmatia in 1190-1193, is a power in his own right (campaign notes).

Abroad: Venice wants Zara and the islands back; Leopold VI of Austria and Styria shelters Andrew; Ban Kulin of Bosnia is the crown's vassal, accused of sheltering heretics in 1199; Serbia's princes fight over Hum.

The realm that morning

Emeric rules. His ban Benedict holds the office that winter (the lists give him 1199-1200; the exact months are not pinned) and governs Slavonia and Croatia for the king, with Emeric's partisans in the royal castles and counties since the summer of 1199. Andrew holds nothing in the kingdom: he is a fugitive at Leopold VI's court in Austria. The Croatian kindreds hold their župe as before; those who worked with Andrew as duke are lying low or have made their peace with the ban (not pinned).

The Dalmatian towns stand under the crown (Zara with its own archbishop, an appointee of Andrew under papal inquiry). The legate Gregory is mediating; no treaty has yet been made. The Venetian war for Zara is unresolved, with no truce known for 1199-1200 (dal records).

Wealth

Not acreage but rights: the marten-skin tax (marturina) paid by the Slavonian peasants, the royal share of the port tolls of the Dalmatian towns (by Coloman's privileges the towns keep two thirds and the king one third), the tolls on the road from the Hungarian plain through Zagreb and over the Kapela to Senj and the coast, the royal estates and castle folk of the Slavonian counties, wine in the Zagorje and the Kalnik hills, cattle, horses, timber and furs. The coast's salt (Pag, Nin) and its ships lie in the towns. Coin: Friesach pennies (frizatici) circulate; Andrew struck his own as duke.

The ban's own coin (banovac) is later (from 1235).

Military

The ban leads the host of the kingdom. The Croatian nobles serve with their own retinues; by the custom later written into the Qualiter they serve at their own cost as far as the Drava and at the king's beyond it. In Slavonia the counties raise the castle warriors (iobagiones castri) and the castle folk, as in Hungary. The great castles are royal: Knin, Klis, Zagreb, Varaždin, Križevci and Kalnik, Garić. Record: the royal army was routed at Mački in December 1197, and Andrew's partisans were routed at Rád in 1199.

No numbers are recorded.

Threats

• Andrew's return: the legate is working for a peace that will give him back the duchy, and every lord who served him in 1198-1199 is waiting for it.
• Venice: the war for Zara (since 1181) has no settlement, and Venice holds Krk through its counts and wants the Kvarner and Zara back.
• Bosnia and Hum: heresy charges against Ban Kulin (1199) and the Serbian princes' quarrel over Hum.
• The Styrian frontier: the Pettau lords took the land up to the line Središče (Polstrau) to Ljutomer (Luttenberg) at Easter 1199, next to the Zala and Varaždin country (sty records).
• The Croatian kindreds' independence: hereditary counts in their župe who answer to whoever holds the duchy.

Institutions

The ban is the king's lieutenant for the whole kingdom: he leads the host, judges the nobles, and governs the royal castles and counties; a single ban governs Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia until 1225, when separate bans of Slavonia and of Croatia-Dalmatia appear. When the king gives the kingdom to a son or brother as duke (Andrew in 1198-1199), the duke rules it and names his own ban. South of the Gvozd the land is divided into župe under counts (župan, comes) who are local nobles holding by hereditary right under customary law; the nobles are organised in kindreds (rod, generatio).

The tradition of twelve noble kindreds with tax freedom and limited service (the Pacta conventa or Qualiter) is first verifiable in 1350-1351 and the text is most likely a 14th-century forgery; around 1200 the kindreds were already spreading to the towns and their neighbours (Raukar). North of the Gvozd, Slavonia is organised like Hungary into royal castle counties under ispáns, with the bishop of Zagreb as the great landowner. Assemblies of the nobles (sabor) are recorded only later in the 13th century.

The Dalmatian towns elect their own counts and bishops for the king's confirmation, keep their own law, and need their consent for any Hungarian to settle within the walls (Coloman's privileges of 1108).

Bishops

Church map records: Zagreb (Bishop Dominic, Emeric's man, campaign notes), with the Kaptol and the great estates in Slavonia; Split, the metropolitan of Croatia proper and Dalmatia, and Zadar: both held by archbishops whom Andrew installed as duke, men Celestine III had excommunicated, under papal inquiry; Bernard of Perugia, Emeric's old tutor, is the crown's choice for Split and is archbishop there during 1200 (campaign notes; GM ruling 7 asks who holds each see that morning: dal records the towns). The suffragan sees of Croatia proper: Knin (the Croatian bishop; Bishop Grgur, brother of Miroslav of Bribir, is attested in 1201), Krbava (founded 1185), Senj (founded 1169), Nin, Trogir, Skradin. The Templars hold Vrana and Senj (Church map).

Under Andrew as duke the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre settled in the province (Curta 2006); their house is not located here.

Dalmatian towns

The towns of the coast (dal records) are self-governing communes under the crown: Zara (Zadar), the greatest of them, has been under the Hungarian king since it threw off Venice in 1181 and is Venice's chief war aim; Spalato (Split), Traù (Trogir), Nona (Nin), Sebenico (Šibenik) and Scardona (Skradin) recognise the king. Krk with its counts, and the other Kvarner islands, are Venice's or contested (dal and the Northern Italy map). Ragusa (Dubrovnik) is outside the kingdom (dal records).

Relations

• Rome: Innocent III wants peace between the brothers, Andrew's crusade vow fulfilled, and free elections in Dalmatia (campaign notes, Part 8, 8); his legate Gregory (which cardinal Gregory is GM ruling 3) is mediating. Rome also watches Bosnia for heresy (Part 8, 5).
• Venice: At war over Zara since 1181: Venice's expedition of 1190 failed and cost it Pag, Ossero and Arbe; Enrico Dandolo (doge from 1193) took Pag back and appeared before Zara in September 1193; Pisa helped Zara in 1195 and was driven from the Adriatic. No truce is known for the winter of 1199-1200. Venice renewed its compact with the counts of Krk in 1198 and 1199 (HBL, Frankapan).
• Bosnia: Ban Kulin is a vassal of the Hungarian crown; in 1199 Vukan of Serbia accused him of sheltering heretics (dal records the banate).
• Hum and Serbia: Andrew occupied Hum between the Cetina and the Neretva before May 1198 and threw back a Serbian attack on 31 March 1198; who holds that land after his flight is not pinned. Serbia is split between Stefan Nemanjić and Vukan; Emeric's Serbian war (1201-1202) is later.
• Austria and Styria: Leopold VI, duke of Austria and Styria, backed Andrew at Mački and shelters him now. The Styrian (Salzburg) lords of Pettau advanced the frontier toward the Drava at Easter 1199 (sty records).

Officers

The ban Benedict (Ban Benedict) for the king, with no vice-ban or banal officers named for 1199-1200. The great officers of the crown are the Hungarian king's (the palatine that winter is Mika of the Ják kindred, 1199-1201: hut records the hungary realm). The ispáns of Zagreb, Varaždin and Križevci and the castellans of Knin and Klis are not named in the sources used here.

Heirs

The kingdom follows the Hungarian crown. Andrew was Emeric's heir presumptive until Emeric's son Ladislaus was born, about 1200 (whether before 1 January is not pinned here: see the hungary realm record). Béla III had left his younger son money and his own crusade vow, not land; Andrew won Croatia and Dalmatia as an appanage by force at Mački.

Kindreds

Croatia proper: the Šubić of Bribir (Šubić of Bribir); the counts of Krk on the mainland at Modruš and Vinodol (Counts of Krk: Modruš and Vinodol); the Gusić in Krbava (Gusić of Krbava); the Lika and Gacka nobility (Lika and Gacka); the Lapčani and Karinjani and the other kindreds of the Luka country (Luka kindreds); the Kačić of Omiš on the coast (dal). Slavonia: the Babonići of Gora and Vodica (Babonići) and the Monoszló of Monoszló on the Drava (Monoszló kindred), with Hungarian kindreds and the bishop of Zagreb holding estates among the royal castle lands.

Wars and feuds

In force on 1 January 1200: the brothers' quarrel (no open war that winter: Andrew is in exile and the legate is mediating); the Venetian war for Zara (since 1181; no truce known for 1199-1200; dal records); the Styrian frontier won by the Pettau lords at Easter 1199 (quiet that winter as far as the sources show; sty records). No raiding on the Bosnian frontier is recorded for that winter.

Treaties

Coloman's privileges for the Dalmatian towns (1108); the grant of Croatia and Dalmatia to Andrew (early 1198), void since summer 1199; the counts of Krk's compact with Venice (1198, renewed in 1199) for their island.

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. Winter and spring 1200 (not pinned)The legate Gregory negotiates between Emeric and Andrew.Depends on: Andrew staying in Austria and accepting mediation; Emeric's willingness to forgive. Stopped by: A new conspiracy, a war with Austria, or Andrew's death.
2. Summer 1200 (no exact date in the sources)The brothers are reconciled through the legate; Emeric grants Croatia and Dalmatia to Andrew again, with his power markedly curbed, and Andrew returns as duke.Depends on: The legate's mediation succeeding; Andrew accepting limits; the pope's backing for the lawful king. Stopped by: Emeric refusing, Andrew rising again, or the legate failing. Without the treaty Benedict stays ban and Emeric's men keep the counties.
3. 1200-1201 (after the regrant)Nicholas, palatine in 1205, serves as Andrew's ban.Depends on: Andrew's return as duke. Stopped by: No reconciliation.
4. About 1200 (see the hungary realm record)Emeric's son Ladislaus is born, ending Andrew's hope of the throne; Innocent later confirms that Andrew's sons may inherit only the duchy.Depends on: Nature. Stopped by: A stillbirth or the child's death.
5. During 1200Bernard of Perugia holds the see of Split (campaign notes).Depends on: The papal inquiry into Andrew's archbishops. Stopped by: Rome confirming Andrew's man (GM ruling 7).
6. 11 October 1200Innocent III urges Emeric to deal with the heretics in Bosnia: the crown and its ban are expected to bring Ban Kulin to heel.Depends on: The charges against Kulin standing. Stopped by: Kulin's own approach to Rome.

Later, on the likely course

1. Later (for orientation): 24 November 1202; October 1203; 1209Venice and the crusaders take Zara (1202); Emeric arrests Andrew near Varaždin (1203); Andrew as king gives Varaždin its first royal privileges (1209).

Places of note

• Zagreb: The bishop's city and the centre of Slavonia; with Knin, the place where duke and ban held court.
• Knin: The royal castle of Croatia proper and seat of the Croatian bishop.
• Klis: The royal fortress above Split, key to the road inland.

Where the sources disagree

• The English Wikipedia ban list links the ban Benedict of 1199-1200 to Benedict Osl, but that article is about a bishop born about 1200; Kádár (2018) identifies the ban with Benedict, son of Korlát, while Zsoldos (2011) gives the office to the Benedict who was palatine in 1202-1204. The name and the dates agree; the man is not pinned.
• The campaign notes say Andrew installed the archbishops of Split and Zadar as duke. That fits a duke who ruled from early 1198 to summer 1199; who holds each see on 1 January 1200 stays GM ruling 7 (dal).
• Celestine III died on 8 January 1198. If he excommunicated the archbishops Andrew put into Split and Zadar (campaign notes), Andrew was placing men in Dalmatia already in 1197, before the formal grant of early 1198; the War for Zadar article does date Andrew's control of Croatia from 1197. Worth the campaign's attention when ruling on the sees (ruling 7).
• Requested check: Slavonia's eastern counties. The Hrvatska enciklopedija says Požega, Vukovar and Srijem never joined the Kingdom of Slavonia; this file draws Požega as Hungarian ground (Požega) although the assignment lists it under Slavonia.

Evidence: The brothers' war, the dates of Mački, the 1199 plot and the 1200 reconciliation are well attested in Hungarian scholarship. The ban of the winter is known from the archontologies only by name and year. The Croatian kindreds and their župe in 1200 are thin: charters name few counts between 1184 and 1209.

On the map: The kingdom is drawn as two blocks of core ground. Its southern and eastern edges toward Bosnia and Hum are not fixed lines in 1200: the Una and upper Vrbas country, Hlivno (Livno) and Duvno are thin and are left to the anchors. The Dalmatian towns and the Kvarner islands are dal's.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• History of the bishops of Salona and Split, by Thomas the Archdeacon, Thomas of Split (about 1266). Written two generations later by a Split churchman born about 1200. Read online
• History of the doges of Venice (about 1229, with a continuation). The earliest surviving Venetian narrative close to the events. Read online
• The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Charters of the kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia, volume 2, 1101 to 1200 (documents of 1101 to 1200, edited 1904). The Croatian and Dalmatian charters to 1200: the acts of Duke Andrew as lord of Croatia and Dalmatia (1197 to 1204), the Hungarian kings' grants, the Templars and the bishops of Zagreb, Split, Zadar and Trogir, the communal statutes of the coastal towns, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about Ban Kulin of Bosnia and heresy. Read online
• Hungarian royal charters: Fejér's Codex diplomaticus and Szentpétery's critical calendar of the Árpád kings (documents of the 11th to 13th centuries; Fejér published 1829 to 1844, Szentpétery vol. 1 in 1923). The documentary base for Hungary in 1200: King Emeric's grants to Pannonhalma, the bishops, the Templars and Hospitallers, Duke Andrew's acts in Croatia and Dalmatia, and the papal letters of 1200 to Emeric about his brother's rebellion and about heresy in Bosnia. Read online
• Documents on the older commercial and political history of the Republic of Venice, part 1, 814 to 1205 (documents of 814 to 1205, edited 1856). Venice's treaties and privileges in full text. Read online