History of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Encyclopedia II - History of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Middle Ages

History of Bosnia and Herzegovina - Middle Ages

The Slavs, who had originated in areas spanning modern-day southern Poland, were subjugated by the Eurasian Avars in the 5th century, and together they invaded the Eastern Roman Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, settling in what is now Bosnia, Herzegovina, and the surrounding lands. The Serbs and Croats came later, in the first half of the 7th century as is explained in De Administrando Imperio, settling in the lands parts of Bosnia and surrounding lands. Majority of the Serbs settled in Rascia while the majority of Croats established themselves in western Croatia. The Byzantine book "De Administrando Imperio", written by emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus around 950, describes them being invited by Emperor Heraclius to drive the Avars from Dalmatia.

In the early Middle Ages, the term Bosnia described the region of the upper Bosna river valley, roughly Bosnia proper. Later this term spread to cover most of what is today Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Around this time dates the earliest preserved mention of the name "Bosnia". The book De Administrando Imperio, Heading 32, mentions one of the territories under Serbian control as a "small region" (χοριον) of "Bosona" (Βοσωνα), in which lie the two inhabited cities, Kotor and Desnik. Though the location of Desnik is still unknown, Kotor was located to the south of present day Sarajevo (not to be confused with Kotor at the seaside). Vrhbosna arised out of Kotor.

The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja from 1172-1196 also names Bosnia, and references an earlier source from the year 753.

According to the work known as De Regno Sclavorum (Of the Realm of Slavs) from 753, Bosnia was ruled by Bans and together with Rascia forming Zagorje, which was sometimes referred to as Surbia in Latin records.

Prince of Pannonia Liudevit Transavian initiated a movement for uniting Slavs in his fight against the Frankish Empire in the first half of the 9th century. In 822 he was forced to retreat to western Bosnia, where he was accepted to the court of the Serbian Prince, but tricked him and took his area for himself. It later turned out that the Serbian ruler was a Frankish ally, seeing in the Franks the only way to liberate himself from Byzantine rule and Liudevit thought that he was going to betray him.

The Serbs fell under the control of The Bulgarians soon. Duke Trpimir of Dalmatian Croatia has fought successful wars against the Bulgarians and their Serb subjects and succeeded to expand his realm to the Drina rive and include entire Bosnia by the second half of the 9th century.

Around 924 or 925, Duke Tomislav of Dalmatian Croatia rose to prominence as the first King of Croatia, and held Bosnia until 927, when the border withdraw to Bosna river after the famous Battle of the Bosnian Highlands in which the Croatian forced assisted by Serbian mercinaries have decisivly stopped the advances of Bulgarian Emperor Simeon.

Serbian Prince Časlav Klonimirović, has soon forged an independent realm by 931, and the Bosnian chiefdom had joined his state. By 949, the the Bosnian territories to the River of Vrbas seceded from Croatia that was torn by civil war and joined Ceslav. The Hungarians invaded Serbia on several occasions, and harr, long fights occured like near Doboj. Ceslav's death in a battle against the Hungarians north of Bosnia meant the end of his realm, as it was subjected by the Byzantine Empire, while the territories of Bosnia dissolved into independent statelets ruled by various Bosnian chiefs. Technicly, Bosnia became a part of the theme of Serbia with Constantin Diogenes as its first Strategos.

In 968, most of Bosnia was conquered by the Croatian king Mihajlo Krešimir in his war against the Byzantine Empire and after the Bosnian chiefs were put down, it was incorporated into the Croatian state. It is unclear whether it remained so during the rule of Stjepan Držislav, and during the dynastic struggle that arose after his death in 997.

The Byzantines restored control over Bosnia, but not for long as it was soon taken by the Czar of Bulgarians Samuilo. In 1019 the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, after the defeat of Samuilo, forced Serbian and Croatian rulers to acknowledge Byzantine sovereignty. Croatian king Petar Krešimir IV who rose to power in the 1060s exerted his influence over Bosnia.

Some time before 1077, the prince Mihajlo of the House of Vojislavljević took control of Hum (or Zahumlje, today's Herzegovina), and declared his independence from the Byzantine Empire before 1077. Mihajlo was crowned as King of Serbia by Pope Gregory VII. Mihajlo's son Konstantin Bodin conquered Bosnia in 1082-1085 and implaced Stephen, one of his courtiers as Ban, but his rule of Bosnia lasted only a short time, and discord among his heirs led to the breakup of the kingdom shortly after his death in 1101. Some attempts to reunite the former Serbian lands were made, especially by King Kočopar of Duklja who forged an allience with Bosnia against Rascia, but utterly failed.

When Croatia became part of the Hungarian kingdom in 1102, most of Bosnia became vassal to Hungary as well. Since 1137, King Bela II of Hungary claimed the duchy of Rama, a region of northern Herzegovina. His title included "rex Ramae" since the Council at Ostrogon 1138, likely referring to all of Bosnia. However, by the 1160s the Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Comnenus defeated Hungary and restored Bosnia to the Eastern Roman Empire for a time.

There are various historic documents that include unclear or conflicting information as to the ethnic identity of the inhabitants of medieval Bosnia. For example, the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja (Ljetopis popa Dukljanina), created around 1172-1196 mentions Bosnia (Bosnam) as one of the two Serbian lands, while describing the four southern Dalmatian duchies (including most of today's Herzegovina) as Red Croatian lands, a description rather inconsistent with other historical works from the same period. Coupled with other inaccurate or simply wrong claims in the text, it cannot be considered reliable.

After some centuries of rule by Croatia, Serbian principalities, the Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, an independent Bosnian state flourished in central Bosnia between the 12th and 15th centuries.

Beginning with the reign of Ban Borić in 1154, Bosnia was a semi-independent Banate under the sovereignty of the King of Hungary. It waged war against the Byzantine Empire and Borich reached Braničevo with his forces, but the later involvements in Hungary's dynastic struggles have eventually brought Hungary's wrath on Bosnia as the Hungarian forces deposed him. This is the first appearence of the ancestors of the House of Kotroman, Bosnia's greatest dynasty. A German nobleman Cotromano Goto was the leader of Hungary's military.

Ban Kulin, issued the first written Bosnian document written in Cyrillic in 1189, where he described Bosnia's statehood and refered to its people as Bosnians (Bošnjani).

The Charter of Ban Matej Ninoslav (son of Radivoj) dated 1240 includes references to Srblyin and Vlach. Ban Stjepan II Kotromanić used the word "Serbian" to describe his langugage in a letter of his dated 1333, and then used the word "Croatian" for the same thing in another letter of his dated 1347.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Herzegovina was made up of separate small duchies: Zahumlje (Hum), centered around the town of Blagaj and Travunia-Konavli, centered on the town of Trebinje. These states were sometimes ruled by semi-independent Princes, mostly under real control of Serbian Princes or at some cases Bulgarian. Over the course of several centuries, they were under Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian rule. Their territories included modern Herzegovina and parts of Montenegro and southern Dalmatia. The name Herzegovina was adopted when Duke (Herceg) of St. Sava Stjepan Vukčić Kosača asserted its independence in 1435/1448.

The religion of the original Slavic population of Bosnia and Herzegovina was mixed: there were Catholic and Orthodox Christians, but also many were Krstjani ("Christians"), an indigenous Bosnian Church. This church was very similar to Catholicism and Orthodoxy but under a separate bishop, and it was accused by the Catholic and Orthodox authorities of being a dualist heresy and linked to the Bogomils (Patarens).

The Bosnian bans and kings were Catholics, except for the single exception of king Ostoja Kotromanić who showed some interest in the Bosnian Church. There were, however, several important noblemen who were Krstjani, such as Hrvoje Vukčić, the Radenović-Pavlovići, Sandalj Hranić, Stjepan Vukčić, Paul Klešić. It was fairly common for the Holy See to have the Bosnian rulers renounce any relation to the Bosnian Church or even perform conversions, in return for military or other support.

By the mid-14th century, Bosnia reached a peak under ban Tvrtko Kotromanić who came into power in 1353. Tvrtko made Bosnia an independent state and is thought by many historians to have been initially crowned in Mili near today's cities of Visoko and Sarajevo.

He went on to claim not only Bosnia and Hum, but the surrounding lands as well:

• in 1377 he was crowned Kralj Srbljem i Bosni i Pomorju i Zapadnim stranama¹ in a Franciscan monastery in Mile, in the city of Visoko near Sarajevo. This coronation is believed to have happened as a token of reaffirmation of his suzerainty over Serbia, and some believe he adopted the name Stephanus (Stefan/Стефан/Stjepan/Стјепан) to emulate the Nemanjić dynasty. The exact location of the coronation is disputed, as some historians claim that this actually occurred in the Serb Orthodox Mileševo monastery by the grave of Serb patron saint St. Sava.
• by 1390, Tvrtko I expanded his empire to include a part of Croatia and Dalmatia, and assumed the title of King of Rascia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, Croatia and the Seaside.

Stjepan Tvrtko I's full title listed subject peoples and geographical dependencies, following the Byzantine norm. At the peak of his power, he was King of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Hum, Usora, Soli, Dalmatia, Donji Kraji etc.

After the death of Tvrtko I, the power of the Bosnian state slowly faded away. The Ottoman Empire had already started its conquest of Europe and posed a major threat to the Balkans throughout the first half of the 15th century. Finally, under the king Stjepan Tomašević Bosnia officially "fell with a whisper" (šaptom pala) in 1463 and became the westernmost province of the Ottoman Empire. Herzegovina fell to the Turks in 1482. It took another century for the western parts of today's Bosnia to succumb to Ottoman attacks.

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