Ratimir, Duke of Lower Pannonia

Ratimir (Latin: Ratimarus)^[a] was a Slavic duke or prince (knez) that ruled the Lower Pannonia[1] between ca. 829 to 838.[2] His name mean "peace" and also "holy". It is believed that Ratimir descends from a royal dynasty that provided rulers for Moravia, Carantania and Carniola.

In 827, the Bulgars under Great Khan Omurtag invaded and conquered the Lower Pannonia and parts of Frankish territories to the north. In 829 the Bulgars imposed a local prince, Ratimir, as the new ruler of the territory. His province is believed to have been the territory of the former Roman Pannonia Savia,[3] and is known in modern historiography as Lower Pannonia; earlier, Sigismund Calles (1750) called him "Slovene duke of the Drava".[4]

In 838, nine years later, following the Bulgarian conquest of Macedonia, the Danubian count Radbod, prefect of the East March, deposed Ratimir and restored Frankish rule. Ratimir fled the land, and the Franks instated dukes Pribina and Kocelj to rule Pannonian area in the name of the Franks.

Older Slovene historians write that Pribina ruled over Pannonian Slavs living in the 9th century between the rivers Drava, Sava, Raba, Zala and around Lake Balatonfureth, all the way to the Danube River in the east. His country stretched from the town of Ptuj (Poetovio), then across Pečuh, from the Drava, to Kisek. The capital was initially called Pribinovgrad, and later Blatograd (German Mosapurc).

On the west side, the principality of Pribin bordered Carantania, and on the north, Upper Pannonia. To the east was the border of the Danube River and on the other side the Slovenian principality of Moravia. In the south, Lower Pannonia bordered on Bulgarians and Serbs, and in the southwest on Croats. Vita s. Clementis explicitly claims that Pribina's son, Prince Kocelj, ruled throughout Pannonia (Dr. Franc Kos, Material for the History of the Slovenes, Book 2, No. 212, Ljubljana 1906), but there is no such precise source for Pribina. Nevertheless, his territory was probably about the same size as the later territory of his son Prince Kocelj.

This is how Slovene princes describe both princes at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and in the first half of it. This is true for dr. Hair, dr. Grudna, dr. Mala in dr. Grivca. In recent times, their opinion has been joined by many unofficial Slovenian historians, especially renowned dr. Joško Šavli.

Unlike his predecessors, Ratimir experienced a rift in relations with the Christian Byzantine Empire.[5]

According to the South Slavic Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja, rejected by historians, one of Ratimir's descendants was Svatopluk.[6]