Trpimir I of Croatia
Trpimir I, Prince (
Slavic:
Knez) of
Dalmatia (TransSavian
Croatia) in 845–864 and the
Duke of Croats since 852. He is the founder of the
Croatian House of Trpimir. Although he was a faithful vassal of the Frankish Emperor
Lothair I, Trpimir used the mettling Frankish-Byzantine conflicts and rule on his own.
Trpimir succeeded
Dalmatia's Prince
Mislav in 845 and asserted his throne in
Klis. Trpimir battled successfully against his neigbours, the
Byzantine coastal cities under the
strategos of
Iader in 846–848. In 853 he repulsed an attack from an Army of the
Bulgarian Khan Boris I and concluded a peace treaty with him, exchanging gifts.
On
4 March 852 Trpimit issued a
Latin charter, confirming
Mislav's donations to the
Archbishopric in
Split. In this document, dated, Trpimir named himself the "by the mercy of God, Duke of Croats" (
Latin:
Dux Chroatorum) and his realm as the "Realm of the Croats" (
Regnum Chroatorum).
The famous
theologian Gottschalk of Orbais was at Trpimir's court between 846 and 848, and his work
De Trina deitate is an important source for Trpimir's reign. During Trpimir's reign, the first obvious dividations in the
Christian Church appeared, further dividing the
Croats and
Serbs, with the
Croats falling under the western Latin-Roman-German sphere of influence. Trpimir founded the
House of Trpimir that would rule
Croatia until the end of the 11th century.
Trpimir had three sons:
* Petar; died around 852
*
Zdeslav *
Muncimir*
Hrvatski leksikon (1996-1997) (in
Croatian)
