Vlastimir

The prince (archon) that led the Serbs to the Balkans and received the protection of Heraclius (r. 610–641), known conventionally as the Unknown Archont, was an ancestor of Vlastimir.[1] The Serbs at that time were organized into župe, a confederation of village communities (roughly the equivalent of a county),[2] headed by a local župan (a magistrate or governor).[3] According to Fine, the governorship was hereditary, and the župan reported to the Serbian prince, whom they were obliged to aid in war.[4] Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (r. 913–959) mentions that the Serbian throne is inherited by the son, i.e., the first-born,[1] though on one occasion there is a triumvirate in his enumeration of monarchs.[5][6] The Serbs established several future principalities by the 10th century: Serbia (roughly the later province of Rascia, including Bosnia; part of Zagorje - "hinterlands"); and Pagania, Zachlumia, Travunia (including Kanalitai) and Dioclea (part of Pomorje - "maritime").[7][8]

Višeslav, the great-grandfather of Vlastimir and first Serbian monarch known by name, was a contemporary with Charlemagne (fl. 768–814). He directly held the hereditary lands of Neretva, Tara, Piva and Lim.[9][10] Constantine VI conquered the Sclaviniae (slavdom - "slav area") of Macedonia, situated to the south, in 785.[11] Radoslav, then Prosigoj, succeeded Višeslav, and they ruled during the revolt of Ljudevit Posavski against the Franks (819–822). According to the Royal Frankish Annals, written in 822, Ljudevit went from his seat at Sisak to the Serbs, who controlled the greater part of Dalmatia.[12][13]

Bulgarian expansion by 814.

In the east, the Bulgarian Empire grew strong. In 805, khan Krum conquered the Braničevci, Timočani and Obotrites, to the east of Serbia, banished their tribal chiefs, and replaced them with administrators appointed by the central government.[14] In 815, the Bulgarians and Byzantines signed a 30-year peace treaty.[15] In 818 during the rule of Omurtag (814–831), the Braničevci and Timočani together with other tribes of the frontiers, revolted and seceded from Bulgaria because of an administrative reform that had deprived them much of their local authority.[16] The Timočani left the societas (association, alliance[17]) of the Bulgarian Empire, and sought, together with the Danubian Obotrites and Guduscani, protection from Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious (r. 813–840), and met him at his court at Herstal.[17] The Timočani migrated into Frankish territory, somewhere in Lower Pannonia, and were last mentioned in 819, when they were persuaded by Ljudevit to join him in fighting the Franks.[17] The Danubian Obotrites stayed in Banat, and resisted the Bulgars until 824, when nothing more is heard of them.[18] The khan sent envoys to the Franks and requested that the precise boundary be demarcated between them, and negotiations lasted until 826, when the Franks neglected him.[18] The Bulgars answered by attacking the Slavs that lived in Pannonia, and subjugated them, then sent ships up the Drava river, and, in 828, devastated Upper Pannonia, north of the Drava.[18] There was more fighting in 829 as well, and by this time, the Bulgars had conquered all of their former Slavic allies.[18][19]

The Bulgarian Khanate (later Empire) had a general policy of expansion in which they would first impose the payment of tribute on a neighboring people and the obligation of supplying military assistance in the form of an alliance (societas), leaving them internal self-government and local rulers, and when the need for this kind of relationship expired, they would terminate the self-government arrangement and impose direct and absolute power, integrating their neighbor fully into the Bulgarian political and cultural system.[20]

Emperor Theophilos, who was the overlord of the Serbs, was prohibited to aid Vlastimir in a potential war with the Bulgars as a peace treaty was in effect. Some historians maintain that he had an important part in the Bulgar-Serb war.

According to Constantine VII, the Serbs and Bulgars had lived peacefully as neighbours until the invasion in 839 (in the last years of Theophilos).[22] It is not known what exactly prompted the war,[21] as Porphyrogenitus gives no clear answer; whether it was a result of Serbian-Bulgarian relations, i.e., the Bulgar conquest to the southeast, or a result of the Byzantine-Bulgarian rivalry, in which Serbia was an Imperial ally.[15] It was not unlikely that the Emperor had a part in it; as he was at war with the Arabs, he may have pushed the Serbs to drive the Bulgars from western Macedonia, which would benefit them both.[22] According to J. Bury, this alliance would explain Malamir's action.[22] Zlatarski supposes that the Emperor offered the Serbs complete independence in return.[22][25]

According to Porphyrogenitus, the Bulgars wanted to continue their conquest of the Slav lands and force the Serbs into subjugation. Presian I (r. 836–852) launched an invasion into Serbian territory in 839, which led to a war that lasted for three years, in which the Serbs were victorious; the heavily defeated Presian lost a large number of his men, made no territorial gains, and was driven out by Vlastimir's army.[21][25][26] The Serbs held out in their easily defensible forests and gorges, and knew how to fight in the hills.[21][24] The war ended with the death of Theophilos in 842, which released Vlastimir from his obligations to the Empire.[27]

According to Živković, it is possible that the Bulgarian attack came after the failed invasion of Struma and Nestos in 846 (see next section): Presian may have collected his army and headed for Serbia, and Vlastimir may have participated in the Byzantine–Bulgarian Wars, which would mean that Presian responded to a direct Serbian involvement.[28]

The defeat of the Bulgars, who had become one of the greater powers in the 9th century, shows that Serbia was an organized state, fully capable of defending its borders, and possessing a very high military and administrative organization. It is not known whether Serbia at the time of Vlastimir had a fortification system or developed military structures in which the župan had clearly defined roles.[29]

Supposed political map of the Western Balkans, 9th century.

After the victory over the Bulgars, Vlastimir's status rose.[24] He went on to expand to the west, taking Bosnia, and Herzegovina (Hum).[27][30] Vlastimir married off his daughter to Krajina, the son of a local župan of Trebinje, Beloje, in ca. 847/848.[31] With this marriage, Vlastimir elevated Krajina's title to archon.[31] The Belojević family was entitled to the rule of Travunia. Krajina had a son with Vlastimir's daughter, named Hvalimir, who would later on succeed as župan of Travunia.[32]

Vlastimir's intent to connect to the ruling house of Travunia shows, in context, that his reputation among the neighbouring Serbian archontes and župani was on the rise, as well as the political importance and military strength of Serbia.[31] It is possible that, prior to Vlastimir's reign, the Travunian župan sought to free himself from Serbia's influence, but that Vlastimir found the solution in the political marriage of his daughter to Krajina.[33] The elevation of Krajina's title (which meant the practical independence of Travunia) strongly suggests that Vlastimir was a Christian ruler who understood very well the monarchal ideology that developed in the early Middle Ages.[33] There is a possibility that the marriage took place before the conflict with the Bulgars, which makes another theory likely: that the Bulgars reacted to Vlastimir's rising political position, particularly given that he had the right to confirm rulers in the neighbouring Serbian principalities with Byzantine sanction.[29] Although Vlastimir's elevations of titles were merely symbolic, rather than a reflection of administrative-political relations, it does show that he had the right to act this way, which undoubtedly puts him at the head of all Serbian archontes—viz., the leading ruler among the Serbian principalities.[29]

The Paganians, also known as Narentines, who are described by De Administrando Imperio as Serbs,[34] engaged the Venetians on the Adriatic (they were noted pirates), and killed more than 100 of doge Pietro Tradonico's men.[35]

Soon after 846, with the end of the thirty-year-truce, Malamir (or Presian) invaded the regions of the Struma and the Nestos, and Empress-Regent Theodora (r. 842–855, the wife of Theophilos) answered by attacking Thracian Bulgaria.[21] A brief peace was concluded, then Malamir proceeded to invade Macedonia.[21][22][25] The Bulgars also imposed rule on the Morava region, the frontier region between Serbia and the Bulgarian Khanate; in 844, an anonymous Bavarian geographer mentions the Merehani as the people that bordered the Franks furthest away.[36] They lived in the valleys of the present-day Morava river basin, and were still unconquered by the Bulgarians.[36] However, after 845, the Bulgars added these Slavs to their societas; they are last mentioned in 853.[37]

The Byzantines were also active in the hinterland of Dalmatia, to the west of Serbia; the strategos of the cities of Dalmatia came into conflict with a Frankish vassal, Duke Trpimir I of Croatia, in 846/848, who defeated the strategos.[33]

Vlastimir was succeeded by his three sons about 851.