Dmitar Zvonimir of Croatia
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| Dmitar Zvonimir | |
| King of Croatia | |
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| King Dmitar Zvonimir by Kristian Kreković | |
| Reign | 1075 – 1089 |
| Coronation | 1075 |
| Died | 1089 |
| Buried | Church of St. Stephen, Solin |
| Predecessor | Petar Krešimir IV of Croatia |
| Successor | Stjepan II of Croatia |
| Royal House | House of Trpimirović, House of Krešimirović |
Dmitar Zvonimir or Demetrius Sunimirio (died 1089) was the King of Croatia of the Svetoslavić branch of the House of Trpimirović. His native name was Zvonimir, and he added the name Dmitar at his coronation. He began as a ban of Slavonia in the service of Stjepan I of Croatia and then as duke of Croatia for his successor Petar Krešimir IV. Peter declared him his heir and, in late 1074 or early 1075, Dmitar Zvonimir succeeded to the Croatian throne. He was the last native king who exerted any real power over the entire Croatian state, which he inherited at its height.
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[edit] Banate of Slavonia and Croatia
From about 1065, during the reign of Petar Krešimir IV, his relative through the Orseoli of Venice, Dmitar Zvonimir ruled in Slavonia (the land between the rivers Drava and Sava) with the title of ban.
At the beginning of 1075, Petar Krešimir IV named Dmitar Zvonimir by the mercy of God Duke of Dalmatian Croatia. This title made him not only the ruler of northern Dalmatia, but also the chief advisor of the king and his heir. Petar Krešimir IV died soon thereafter and Dmitar Zvonimir succeeded him.
[edit] Reign
Dmitar Zvonimir was crowned on 8 October 1076 at Solin in the Basilica of Saint Peter and Moses by a representative of Pope Gregory VII. After the pope's deputies crowned him for the king of the Croatia, Dmitar Zvonimir in 1076 donated the city of Vrana and Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory, as a sign of loyalty to Pope Gregory VII. He ruled from Knin, which today is nicknamed "Zvonimir's city." He continued the expansive and pro-Roman policies of his predecessor, maintaining close alliance with the papacy. He instituted the Gregorian reform and took up many domestic reforms. During his reign, slavery was abolished in the kingdom.
Dmitar Zvonimir also took the hard line against the Byzantine Empire, but, unlike Petar Krešimir IV, he was also an ally of the Normans, with whom he joined in wars against Byzantium. When Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia, invaded the western Balkan provinces of the empire in 1084, Zvonimir sent troops to his aid.
There are several versions of Zvonimir's death. The most commonly accepted one, asserted by Thomas, Archdeacon of Split, asserts that Demetrius died of natural causes.[citation needed] Another account, from the Presbyter of Doclea, says that on 20 April 1089, Pope Urban II and Alexios I Komnenos responding to pleas from Constantinople against the Seljuks and the desire to heal the East-West Schism, asked Zvonimir, his strongest Balkan ally, to come to the military aid of the empire against the Turk. Zvonimir convened the Sabor at Kosovo Polje near Knin that year to mobilise the army on behalf of the pope and the emperor, but the nobility refused him and a rebellion erupted. Zvonimir was assassinated at the field of meeting by his own soldiers.[citation needed] His death marked the collapse of Croatian royal power. The myth of the "Curse of King Zvonimir" is based on the legend of his assassination.
[edit] Succession and legacy
Dmitar Zvonimir was married to his distant relative Jelena Lijepa, the sister of Ladislaus I of Hungary. Through Jelena, he was connected to the royal families of not only Hungary, but also Poland, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Byzantium. She bore him a son, Radovan, who predeceased him, and a daughter, Claudia, who, being married to the vojvoda of Lapcani Lika, was ineligible for the throne. He was succeeded by Stephen II, last of the House of Trpimirović, but he died in 1091, at which point Ladislaus of Hungary became the best candidate for the succession.
The culturally and historically significant Baška tablet was inscribed shortly after his death and contains references to him and a number of his nobles of the eleventh century. For the first time, Baška tablet mentions the title of Croatian Kings in Croatian: kral (today kralj in Croatian).
[edit] External links
| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Petar Kresimir IV |
King of Croatia 1076 – 1089 |
Succeeded by Stjepan II |
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