Duklja: Encyclopedia II - Duklja - History

Duklja - History

Duklja - Early

De Administrando Imperio from the 10th century mentions it in the story of the province of Dalmatia:

It was one of the four southern Dalmatian Slavic principalities (Sclavinias), other three being Zachlumia, Travunia and Pagania/Narenta/Neretvia.

The most famous description of Duklja is the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (Barski rodoslov) which was written by a Catholic priest from Bar around 1180-1196. It includes numerious informations on Duklja, and calls it a part of Red Croatia; according to a source it names, De Regno Sclavorum dating from 753.

Prince Petar or Predimir of Doclea and Travunia split his lands among his sons.

The Serbs were given this land by the Byzantine Emperor to inhabit and to be christianized. De Administrando Imperio mentions Ceslav Klomir (927-960)(Časlav Klonimirović) ruling Travunia and Pagania with the northeastern region of Rascia/Rasca (Raška/Рашка being the Slavic name), and forming an independent Serbian state. Duklja was directly to the south to Rascia but it maintained its semi-independence for several centuries. Some sources state that Ceslav ruled Duklja directly as well.

The Byzantine enclaves of Kotor, Bar and Ulcinj had to pay taxes and sometimes even be governed by the Doclean rulers.

The death of Ceslav brought an opportunity for a more independent Duklja under rulers such as John Vladimir (Jovan Vladimir, ca. 990 - 1016), who fought the Arbanass tribes that menaced the eastern territories. Skadar was formalised as the political center of Duklja. The Bulgarian Tsar Samuil conquered Doclea and took the Prince as a prisoner. As a result of marriage between Jovan Vladimir and the Bulgarian princess Kossara, Jovan Vladimir was allowed to return and rule as a Bulgarian vassal. After the successful plot of the last Czar (Emperor) of the (first) Bulgarian Empire Ivan Vladislav to take Jovan Vladimir's life in 1016, Duklja became a part of the Byzantine theme of Serbia (thema Servia) under strategos of Serbia Constantine Diogenes; while its rulers kept only titles.

Duklja's population were then supporters of the Latin Rite (since the coastland was populated by the Romanized ancestral population with highly advanced Latin culture), but as time passed, more and more of the Eastern Rite appeared, and the Latin-orientated rulers of Duklja kept increasing their Eastern-orientation as the time passed.

Duklja - High Voislav Golden Age

Starting in 1034, Dobroslav, also called Stephen Voislav (Stefan Vojislav; the eponym of the House of Voislav), who was among Travunian gentry, liberated Duklja by expelling the last Byzantine strategos of Serbia, Theophilos Erotikos. He gained the nickname "Stefan" from the Greek word Stephanos meaning "crowned" to resemble his independent power. The Nemanjid dinasty accepted it as their title in honor of Voislav. Voislav also helped the uprising of Slavs in Macedonia.

Later his achievements were repeated by his descendent Michael Voislav (Mihailo Vojislavljević; 1050-1082), who held the old Rascian Grand Princely title of Grand Zhupan (Prince) of Rascia (Veliki Župan Raške/Велики Жупан Рашке) up to 1077 when received the title of King of Slavs (and crown) from Pope Gregory VII. To mark his crowning, the Pope raised the Bishopric of Bar to an Archbishopric in 1080. His realm was known as the Kingdom of Serbia, and he often used the title Ruler of Tribals and Serbs. During Duklja's expansion into Croatia in which the Doclean forces went as far as Knin, he took the title King of Doclea and Dalmatia. He sends his son with an army to assist the insurrection of George Voiteh (Ѓорѓи Војтех) in 1072 during the Slavic rebellion in Macedonia. Constantin Bodin was accepted as Peter III, Czar of Bulgarians (see: List of Bulgarian monarchs), but he got captured by the Byzantine forces. He was rescued by his father in 1078. King Mihailo finished the incorporation of the Byzantine enclaves of Dubrovnik, Kotor, Bar and Ulcinj, started by his predecessor.

This period was useful for Duklja. While its eastern borders were used as a demarcational zone between the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch, the rulers of Duklja used the Latin side to gain independence from the Byzantine, but enforced Eastern Rite and Shismatic Orthodoxy not to allow to be controlled by the Catholic west.

Constantine Bodin (1082-1102) inherited his father's Doclean kingdom. He was a son-in-law of the Guy of Normandy Robert Guiscard. After the death of Bodin, Duklja didn't have any powerful rulers and fights over the crown were became more common. In 1101, an Army of Crusaders passed through Duklja under Count Raymond IV of Toulouse during the Crusade of 1101.

Other Voislav dinasty rulers after Bodin included Vukan, Marko, Uroš I, Uroš II.

Duklja - Late Rascian

Stracimir, brother of Nemanja ruled the lands roughly encompassing Duklja in Tihomir's (his oldest brother) name as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire since 1166. The same year Nemanja ascends to the throne as Grand Zhupan of Rascia after he defeats Tihomir's army near Pantino (in Kosovo). Stracimir helped Tihomir in this fight.

Stracimir would continue to nurish separatist tendencies, but his death would eventually bring the annexation of Doclea in 1186 (during the numerious struggles of Rascia against the Byzantine Empire in 1183-1196) when his brother, Zhupan of Rascia and Grand Zhupan of Rascia Stefan I Nemanja expanded Rascia to include Duklja and other coastal territories. He besieged many major cities of Duklja during his campaign with the exception of Kotor. Nemanja took the title Stefan from Voislav in his honor. Stefan Nemanja was the founder of the Nemanyid dynasty. Since him, the title of all Nemanjić rulers was Stefan (Stephanos). Nemanja gave Duklja to his oldest son, who took the old regal title as King of Doclea and Dalmatia.

Around this time, the name Zeta replaced the ancient name of the region (name deriving from the river of Zeta).

Duklja - List of rulers

• Petar (Predimir), Prince of Doclea and Travunia ca. 900
• Petrislav, Prince of Doclea and Travunia 971 - 990
• St. Jovan Vladimir, Prince of Doclea and Travunia ca. 990 or 995 - 22 May 1015
• Stefan Dobroslav I Voislav, Prince of Duklja 1034 - ca. 1050
• Grand Prince, King Mihailo of Voislav of Duklja ca. 1050 - 1081
• King Constantin Bodin of Duklja and Dalmatia 1081 - 1101
• King Dobroslav II of Duklja 1101 - 1102
• King Dobroslav III of Duklja 1102
• King Kočopar of Duklja 1102 - 1103
• King Vladimir of Duklja 1103 - 1113
• King George of Duklja 1113 - 1118
• Prince Grubeša of Duklja and Antivari 1118 - 1125
• King George of Duklja 1125 - 1131 (reinstated)
• Grand Prince of Rascia, Duke of all Serbia Stefan I Nemanja 1186 - 1196
• King Stefan Vukan II of Nemanja of Duklja and Dalmatia 1196 - 1208 as a vassal of first Stefan I Nemanja and then Stefan II the First-crowned of Nemanja; 1202 - 1204 independent

Duklja - Chronology

• ca. 950 - the first known knez (archont) of Duklja - Petrislav
• 990 - the beginning of the rule of Saint Jovan Vladimir
• 1016 - Jovan Vladimir loses his life in a plot by the Bulgarian Czar, Ivan Vladislav
• 1034 - the beginning of a rebellion led by a Travunian nobleman by the name of Dobroslav or Voislav against the Byzantine rule
• 1042 - Stefan Dobroslav I Voislav decisevly defeats the Byzantine Army near Bar, keeping Duklja's independence
• ca. 1050 - Mihailo Voislav inherites Stefan's realm, taking the old Grand Princely Rascian title
• 1054 - the Great Schism
• 1077 - Duklja becomes a Kingdom, with Mihailo Voislav as its first King
• 1082 - Constantin Bodin inherites the throne
• 1101 - death of Constantin Bodin; numerious dinastic struggles for the throne start

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki