Zeta (Dioclea): Vukan's share

Who rules

Name

Vukan Nemanjic

Title

King of Dioclea and Dalmatia (his own style); grand prince of Zeta under his brother in Serbian usage

Since

about 1190 (governor of the coastland centred on Zeta); kept it as his share at the 1196 abdication

Born

before 1165 or in the 1160s (not pinned)

Family

Nemanjic: eldest son of Stefan Nemanja

Confidence

high

English Wikipedia (Vukan Nemanjic, Stefan Nemanja), Cirkovic 2004 p. 38 as cited there; FMG Serbia; the 1195 inscription of St Luke's church at Kotor.

Overlord

His brother Stefan as grand zupan, whom he had to recognise in 1196; he seeks the pope's blessing and is in touch with King Emeric of Hungary.

What the realm holds

• Dioclea (Zeta): the plain of the Moraca and the Zeta round Ribnica (Podgorica) and the ruins of Doclea
• the coastal towns: Kotor (with its commune), Budva, Bar, Ulcinj
• Skadar with its castle and Drivast
• Travunia: Trebinje, Konavle, Dracevica and Risan
• Toplica (Prokuplje, Kursumlija) as an inland share
• Hvosno (Pec and the northern Metohija) as an inland share

How it was acquired

Nemanja took Dioclea and Travunia in the 1180s (Kotor in 1184 or 1185) and set Vukan over the coastland about 1190; at the 1196 abdication Vukan kept Zeta, Travunia, Hvosno and Toplica.

Allies and rivals

Rival of his brother Stefan. Seeks Rome (Innocent III's legates in 1199) and later allies with King Emeric of Hungary (1202). Hostile to Ban Kulin of Bosnia, whom he denounced as a protector of heretics (campaign notes, Part 6 H). The archbishop of Bar is his Church; Ragusa resents the loss of its southern suffragans. Shelters Stefan's wife Eudokia when Stefan drives her out (1200 or 1201, later).

The realm that morning

Vukan rules his share as a king in all but name of overlord, at peace with his brother that morning but already a rival: no fighting is recorded before the coup of 1202. Across his borders: Byzantine Dyrrachion to the south (the epi sheet), Arbanon round Kruja (Arbanon), Hum to the north-west, Ragusa at the edge of Konavle, Stefan's Raska inland.

Wealth

The Latin trading towns of the coast (Kotor above all), salt pans, wine and oil of the coast, the fisheries of Lake Skadar, the road inland from Kotor and Bar to Ras and Prizren; Toplica's grain.

Military

The levies of Zeta and Travunia and the townsmen of the coast; the castles of Skadar, Drivast, Kotor and the fortified towns. No figures.

Threats

• His brother Stefan, to whom he owes recognition.
• Ragusa's archbishop, who contests the archbishopric of Bar.
• Byzantine Dyrrachion and the archons of Arbanon on his southern border.

Heirs

His sons (Djordje the eldest, later king of Dioclea in 1208); ages in 1200 not pinned.

Treaties

His submission to the pope's authority and the restoration of the archbishopric of Bar (1199).

Coinage

None of his own; Byzantine and Venetian money on the coast.

Church

Latin on the coast and in Skadar (the province of Bar: Arbanon, Skadar, Pult, Drivast, Svac, Ulcinj and Sarda signed its council of 1199; Kotor under Bari; Trebinje under Ragusa); Orthodox in Toplica and Hvosno.

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. 1200 or 1201Shelters Eudokia when Stefan drives her out and sends her on to Dyrrachion.Depends on: The break-up of Stefan's marriage. Stopped by: A reconciliation of Stefan and Eudokia.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1202With Hungarian troops Vukan drives Stefan out and takes Ras as grand zupan; he is expelled again in 1204.Depends on: Alliance with Emeric; Stefan isolated after his divorce. Stopped by: A settlement between the brothers, or Emeric unable to send troops.

Places of note

• Doclea (Duklja) ruins: The Roman city that gave Dioclea its name, near Ribnica.

Where the sources disagree

• English Wikipedia (Vukan) says Nemanja died in 1200 and that Vukan then began to plot; the date usually given is 13 February 1199. See Serbia.

Evidence: Vukan's titles are attested by the Kotor inscription (1195), his letter to Innocent III (1199) and a later inscription of 1202-1203; the extent of his share is from the Serbian lives. His household, his officers and the exact limits of Travunia and Toplica are not documented.

On the map: The seat is shown at Ribnica (Podgorica) for want of evidence for Vukan's residence. Toplica and Hvosno are drawn as Vukan's because his 1195 title and the Serbian lives give them to him; whether he still held them in 1200 rather than through deputies is not pinned. The line with Arbanon and Byzantine Dyrrachion south of Skadar is a guess along the Drin.

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.

• The Chronicle of the Priest of Dioclea, Anonymous (the priest of Dioclea; Rudger, archbishop of Bar, by Zivkovic's attribution) (disputed: the 12th century on the older view, about 1295 to 1301 on the current one). The chronicle ends before 1200 and gives no event of that year. Read online
• 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
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III (pontifical years 1 to 3, 1198 to 1201), Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Segni) and the papal chancery (1198 onwards, year by year). The register for the second and third pontifical years (February 1199 to February 1201) holds the letters that set the eastern stage for 1200: the exchange with Kaloyan of Bulgaria opened in December 1199 and continued through 1200 over union with Rome and a crown, letters to Vukan of Zeta and to Stefan of Serbia, letters to Alexios III and the patriarch John Kamateros pressing for church union and help for the crusade, the preaching commissions and the legation of Peter Capuano, the Antioch succession quarrel between Bohemond and Leo of Armenia, letters to Aimery of Cyprus and Jerusalem, and the French interdict over Ingeborg. 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
• The Lives of St Simeon (Stefan Nemanja) by Sava and by Stefan the First-Crowned, Sava of Serbia (Rastko Nemanjic) and Stefan the First-Crowned (Sava's Life 1208, as the preface to the Studenica typikon (a short Life stands in the Hilandar typikon of 1199); Stefan's Life 1216). The two sons' lives of Stefan Nemanja are the Serbian witness to the situation of 1200: Nemanja's abdication at Ras in 1196 in favour of Stefan, his monastic years at Studenica and on Mount Athos, the founding of Hilandar (1198) and his death there on 13 February 1199, and, in Stefan's version written after the event, the war with the elder brother Vukan of Zeta, who seized the throne with Hungarian help in 1202. Read online