Tvrtko I.

Tvrtko I (* 1338 ; † March 10, 1391 ), Stefan Tvrtko I (or Stepan / Stjepan in the national languages), from the house of Kotromanić , was the Ban of Bosnia from 1354 to 1377 and from 1377 since his royal coronation in 1377 until 1391 the first king of the medieval Bosnian state .

As the successor of Stjepan II. Kotromanić , he managed to detach the country from the Kingdom of Hungary and to rule the newly established Kingdom of Bosnia. Under his rule, Bosnia became the most powerful state on the western Balkan peninsula, which also included large parts of Croatia , Serbia and Dalmatia .

Live and act

ancestry

Tvrtko was the firstborn son of Vladislav Kotromanić (1295-1353). This was the third born son of Stjepan I. Kotroman (1242-1314), Ban of Bosnia 1290-1314, married to Princess Jelisaveta (Elisabeth) of Serbia, daughter of King Stefan Dragutin of Serbia and Princess Katalin of Hungary. Stjepan I. Kotroman's father was Prijezda I , a Slavonian magnate and the first known representative of the Kotromanić family. His mother, Jelena Šubić , came from the Croatian noble family of Zrinski and was the daughter of the Counts of Trogir, Split and Šibenik. Tvrtko came from two of the most important aristocratic families in the southern Slavic region, both on his father's and mother's side, who were also among the greats of the Hungarian Empire. Tvrtko's cousin Jelisaveta Kotromanić married the Hungarian King Ludwig I in 1353 , his other cousin Katharina married the powerful Count Hermann I of Cilli in 1361 . The Hungarian-Polish Queen Jelisaveta and Tvrtko in particular are said to have been very close throughout their lives. His grandfather Stefan Dragutin belonged to the Serbian Nemanjids . Tvrtko was married to Doroslava (Dorothee), daughter of the Bulgarian tsar Ivan S (t) razimir von Widin .

Ban of Bosnia

Seal of Tvrtko I as Ban of Bosnia (1356).

Tvrtko succeeded his uncle Stjepan II. Kotromanić as Ban in Bosnia in 1353 and was thus nominally the governor of the Hungarian king south of the Save . The early appointment at the age of only 15 is likely to be related to the marriage of Ludwig I to Elisabeth Kotromanić that same year. For the time being, his father Vladislav was still running the business for the young Tvrtko. When he died in 1354, Tvrtko and his brother Vuk received not only Bosnia but also the banks of Zagora and Herzegovina ( Zahumlje ). Tvrtko's mother Jelena tried to rule for her sons, but was not accepted by the Bosnian nobility. Tvrtko himself was able to put down the rebellion of the nobility, which was led by his cousin Pavle Kulišić . Pavle was imprisoned and Tvrtko took over his property. Through this success, the young Ban established himself as an independently acting ruler.

As Mladen III. Šubić died, his possessions in Dalmatia became ownerless. The Hungarian king commissioned Jelena Šubić Kotromanić and her son Tvrtko to take over the areas south of Duvno and thus to keep them under the sovereignty of Hungary. This was only partially successful.

During the Hungarian-Venetian War (1356-1358) Tvrtkos relations with King Ludwig deteriorated very much. Tvrtko refused to provide troops for the war. In 1357 he was called to court and Ludwig withdrew from him Herzegovina, and the king also accepted the nobility on the border to Dalmatia into his direct allegiance. Tvrtko and his brother Vuk only kept the Banates of Bosnia and Usora . They were instructed to take strict action against the heresy of the Bogomils , which would have further destabilized their position because the Bogomils had many followers, especially among the Bosnian nobility.

The king's actions show how fragile the Hungarian supremacy was on the southern borders of the empire. It was based solely on the ruler's personal relationships with the noble families and the cities. And although Ludwig saw a danger in Tvrtko's rule, he did not have the power to depose him as Ban in his heartland Bosnia, although as king he had the formal right to appoint and depose Bane.

After Ludwig had completed the conquest of the Venetian possessions in Dalmatia in 1358 , he also placed the Republic of Ragusa under his protection. This was intended to further curtail Tvrtko's power, as the Bosnian Ban had previously been the patron of the republic. Ludwig did not have the power to protect Ragusa against the incursions of the Serbian prince Vojislav Vojinović ; after the Ragusans had asked for help several times, it was Tvrtkos and not the king's troops who restored order in 1362. With this victory he brought a large number of the aristocrats in the Bosnian-Dalmatian border region back on his side.

In 1363 there was an open war between Ludwig and Tvrtko. The Bosnian bishop Petar Šikloš had received the Pope's blessing for this as early as 1360, because Rome saw Tvrtko as the head of the Bogumil heretics. The Bosnian Ban remained victorious and then made itself finally independent from Hungary. From 1364, by the grace of God , he called himself the Ban of all of Bosnia , while omitting the name of the Hungarian king in his title. The Republic of Venice , an old enemy of the Hungarians, gave Tvrtko the patriciate of the city. Many Bosnian aristocrats did not recognize Tvrtko as ruler, so that civil war-like conditions arose in the country.

In February 1366 Tvrtko was overthrown by the Bosnian nobility and replaced by his brother Vuk. Tvrtko now had to flee to Hungary, where he reconciled with his royal brother-in-law. Already at the end of March 1366 he got parts of Bosnia under his control again, Ludwig appointed him ban again and with the help of the king and the Ragusans he defeated his brother Vuk and the rebellious nobility. By punishing some and granting others new privileges, Tvrtko was able to re-establish control over the Bosnian nobility. Meanwhile his brother fled to Ragusa. Tvrtko turned down the offer of mediation from the Ragusans, who asked him to reconcile with his brother. Rather, he marched to Ragusa in July 1367, but Vuk escaped the city in time. The rest of the year was spent on military campaigns against various princes in Herzegovina and in eastern Bosnia.

Vuk managed to get Pope Urban V. Tvrtko condemned as a heretic and called for his expulsion. The Banat Bosnia should be dependent on Hungary again and Vuk should be used as a Ban. He also entered Bosnia with an army in 1370, but was then persuaded to end the fratricidal war against Tvrtko.

Trvtko had, however, allied with the Serbian prince Lazar Hrebeljanović - whose territory was on the Morava - against Nikola Altomanović , who ruled the Drina and Herzegovina. Nikola was defeated in 1373 and his country was divided, with Đuraš Balšić from the Zeta also having a chance . He knew how to secure Trebinje , which Tvrtko had also claimed.

Tvrtko I. designated himself in 1356 as the Ban of "the whole of Bosnia and all of Usora & Soli " ( čitave Bosne i čitave Usore i Soli ). After the proclamation of the Bosnian Kingdom, Soli entered the title of ruler separately from Usora . It read: " Kralj Srbljem, Bosni, Primorju, Hlmsci Zemli, Zapadnim Stranam, Dolnim Krajem, Usori, Soli, Podrinju ik tomu ".

In 1374 Tvrtko finally reconciled with his brother Vuk. In the same year he married Doroslava (Dorothea), the daughter of the Bulgarian prince Ivan Sratsimir. After the wedding in December, he launched a surprise attack in the Ballsha area and captured Trebinje. Afterwards he took the remaining Serbian areas north of it up to the important Orthodox monastery Mileševa in possession.

Royalty

Remains of the church in Mile, presumed coronation site of Tvrtko I.

Tvrtko's sphere of influence went far beyond the Bosnian Banat in 1376 and included extensive areas that had never been dependent on Hungary but belonged to the Serbian Empire. On this basis, Tvrtko was able to establish his independent kingdom.

The solemn coronation of the Catholic Tvrtko took place on October 26, 1377 according to traditional research in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje . Already in the first half of the 20th century and especially after archaeological finds by the historian Pavao Anđelić in the 1960s, this place was questioned on various occasions and instead the Mile Monastery near Visoko in central Bosnia was named as the coronation site. Some historians even suspected that Tvrtko was crowned twice, in Mile as King of Bosnia and in Mileševa as ruler of Serbia.

Although Tvrtko raised a claim to the Serbian throne due to his kinship with the Nemanjids, his power-political interests were mainly directed west. He took over the Serbian court offices and titles that he gave to his Bosnian nobles. On the one hand he documented his independence from Hungary, on the other hand he was able to win the recognition of his Serbian subjects. The most important Serbian princes Lazar Hrebeljanović and Vuk Branković recognized Tvrtko's kingship. Ludwig I of Hungary accepted the coronation as King of the Serbs, but held on to the title of Ban for Bosnia. However, this was of no practical importance. After Ludwig's death in 1382, Tvrtko's title as Bosnian king was undisputed.

From 1378 to 1381 there were again armed conflicts in Dalmatia, in which Tvrtko was only marginally involved, as he had to secure his rule in Serbia. Ragusa and Kotor were able to skillfully play off the Republic of Venice, Hungary and Tvrtko against each other and thus expand their autonomy. In the end, both cities recognized the sovereignty of Hungary, but were in fact independent. In 1382 he built his own port at Brstanik (today Herceg Novi ) to have access to the sea independent of Kotor and Ragusa. The Ragusans recognized the danger to their trade and blocked Novi until Tvrtko allowed them the particularly lucrative salt trade again alone.

After the death of Ludwig I, Tvrtko became the guardian of his cousin Elisabeth and her daughters Maria of Hungary and Hedwig of Poland in 1382. It was at this time that Tvrtko began to build up a small fleet with the help of Venice, but at no time could it compete with the maritime power of the Dalmatian cities.

Through his cousin Elisabeth, Tvrtko was repeatedly involved in conflicts with the Hungarians in the following years. In 1385 he was able to take over the personal possessions of Elisabeth in Herzegovina and also take the places Livno, Duvno and Glamoč. As a result, he signed a contract with Hungary, according to which he should no longer interfere in Hungarian affairs, for which he was awarded Kotor.

In 1387 Tvrtko's cousin Elisabeth was murdered. Their daughter Maria blamed her husband Sigismund for this. Tvrtko waged war in Croatia and Dalmatia in 1388 against the new King of Hungary. In the same year, a first attack by the Ottomans on Bosnia in the Battle of Bileća (August 27, 1388) was successfully repulsed. Tvrtko now saw the need to devote more time to defending his country against the Turks. Under his general Vlatko Vuković , Bosnian troops fought in the famous Battle of the Blackbird Field in 1389 on the side of the Serb prince Lazar Hrebeljanović . Although the Bosnian wing of the army deployed against the Ottomans remained undefeated in this battle, the generally lost battle resulted in Tvrtko losing large parts of his Serbian territories, whose princes now recognized the supremacy of the Ottomans. In 1390, however, Tvrtko was able to defeat the Hungarians in Dalmatia, who could only hold the city of Zadar . Most of the cities and islands recognized Tvrtko as king.

However, the Bosnian rule over parts of Croatia and Dalmatia was not permanent, because on March 10, 1391 Tvrtko died unexpectedly. He was buried in Mile next to his uncle Stjepan II. Since Tvrtko's son Tvrtko II was still a minor, his nephew Stjepan Dabiša succeeded him as king.

As namesake

• In numerous cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, streets are named after King Tvrtko, including in Banja Luka , Sarajevo , Bijeljina , Vitez , Zadar and Knin .

Sleeve badge of the HVO Brigade Kralj Tvrtko

• During the Bosnian War , a Croatian military unit of the HVO ( Hrvatska brigada "Kralj Tvrtko" ) in Sarajevo bore his name.

See also

• House Kotromanić
• History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Kingdom of Bosnia # List of Bane

literature

• Milko Brković: Bosanske srednjovjekovne latinske isprave izdane u Splitu. In: Croatica Christiana periodica. Volume 14, 1990, pp. 109-125.
• Milko Brković: Latinska povelja bosanskog kralja Tvrtka I. izdana Bracu godine 1390. In: Radovi Zavoda za povijesne znanosti HAZU u Zadru. Volume 33, 1991, pp. 119-130.
• Sima Ćirković : Istorija srednjovekovne Bosanske drzave. Beograd 1964
• Sima Ćirković: Bosnia . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 2, Artemis & Winkler, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-7608-8902-6 , Sp. 472-477.
• Sima Ćirković: Tvrtko I . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages (LexMA). Volume 8, LexMA-Verlag, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-89659-908-9 , Sp. 1127 f.
• Vladimir Ćorović: Kralj Tvrtko I. Kotromanić. Zemun, Beograd 1925
• Frank fighter : Tvrtko I. Kotromanić . In: Mathias Bernath and Karl Nehring (eds.), Gerda Bartl (editors): Biographical lexicon for the history of Southeast Europe. Volume 4 (= Southeast European Works, Volume 75.4), R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-486-42421-1 , pp. 366-367
• Ivan Lovrenović: Bosnia and Herzegovina. A cultural history (= Transfer Europe, Volume 14). Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-85256-082-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ With the acceptance of the royal title Tvrtko called himself Stefan Tvrtko ( ancient Greek Στέφανος , Latin Stephanus = the crowned ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Prijezda I. | Hrvatska enciklopedija. Retrieved October 3, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Kotromanići | Hrvatska enciklopedija. Retrieved October 3, 2017 . 
4. ↑ ^{a b} Zvonimir Banović: SOLANA 125 GODINA. ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: http://solana.ba/corporate_solana/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Solana-monografija-3.pdf SOLANA dd Tuzla Tuzla, Ulica soli 3, 2010; Retrieved December 23, 2017 (Croatian, Bosnian). 
5. ^ Eastern Europe . ABC-CLIO, ISBN 978-1-57607-800-6 ( google.de [accessed January 1, 2018]).
6. ↑ See, for example, Noel Malcolm: Bosnia. A short history. New York 1996, p. 19 .
7. ↑ ^{a b} Marko Perojević: Kralj Stjepan Tvrtko I. In: Hrvatsko kulturno društvo Napredak (ed.): Povijest Bosne i Hercegovine . tape I . Sarajevo 1998, p. 313-349, here p. 314 .
8. ^ ^{A b} Mustafa Imamović: Bosnia-Herzegovina until 1918 . In: Dunja Melčić-Mikulić (ed.): The Yugoslavia War: Handbook on Prehistory, Course and Consequences . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-663-09609-2 , pp. 64–87, here p. 66 ( google.de [accessed January 1, 2018]).
9. ↑ Mile was declared a Bosnian National Monument in 2003. ( Memento of the original from January 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.