Duklja

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Image:Principalities02.png Duklja/Дукља (Latin: Doclea or Dioclea) was a Slavic medieval state with hereditary lands roughly encompassing the terrotories of the Zeta River, Skadar Lake and the Boka bay and bordering with Travunia at Kotor. Duklja was at first a semi-independent part of the Grand Principality (Zhupanate) of Rascia (Raška) which was a vassal of the Eastern Roman Empire and later directly under Byzantine suzeranity until it won its independence in the mid-11th century, ruled by the House of Voislav (Vojislavljević).

Duklja was named after Dioclea (from Docleata, the ancient Illyrian tribe). Dioclea, located near present-day Podgorica, was the capital of early Duklja. Afterwards, Skadar became the capital of the state until the end of the Middle Ages. The Royal Capital of Duklja was Ston.

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Name

"Doclea" was the name of the region during the early period of the Roman Empire. It is believed to originate from the name of an early Illyrian tribe. The Romans "hyper-corrected" to "Dioclea" wrongly guessing that an "I" had been lost due to vulgar speech patterns. "Duklja" is the later Slavic version of that word.

The relationship between the names of Duklja and Zeta is somewhat unclear, as the two terms overlap. Duklja was mostly referenced as the littoral area between the Bay of Kotor and the Skadar Lake, while Zeta refers to the river located inland. Zeta is thus the more accurate predecessor of the 19th century Montenegro, while today's Montenegro encompasses the territory of both. According to another interpretation, Duklja was composed of Zeta and Travunia. In any event, the name Duklja went out of use by the end of the Middle Ages.

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History

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Early

De Administrando Imperio from the 10th century mentions it in the story of the province of Dalmatia:

Now, the said Croatia and the rest of the Slavonic regions are situated thus: Diocleia is neighbour to the forts of Dyrrachium, I mean, to Elissus and to Helcynium and Antibari, and comes up as far as Decatera, and on the side of the mountain country it is neighbour to Serbia.

It was one of the four southern Dalmatian Slavic principalities (Sclavinias). Although Slavs populated the regions of Dioclitia since the 6th century, the greater wave of Slavic migrants came in the first half of the 7th century together with the White Serbs and White Croats. The land was given by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius to settle and accept his supreme rule.

Doclea was in 753 a part of the territorial entity known as Red Croatia, subjected to the neighbouring Dalmatian Croatia, and her people defined as Red Croats.

Prince Petar or Predimir of Doclea and Travunia split his lands among his sons.

The Principality of Doclea was subjected to the Grand Principality of Rascia since approximatly the early 9th century, under Grand Prince Vlastimir of All Rascias, but kept endorsing its semi-independence with Diocleia as her capital.

Prince Ceslav of Klomir of the House of Vlastimir, last descendant of the Unknown Archont, created an independent Serbia and managed to exerpt control over Doclea. The Byzantine enclaves of Kotor, Bar and Ulcinj had to pay taxes and sometimes were even governed by the Doclean rulers. Image:JovanVladimirSlika.jpg Image:Arhpetar.jpg The death of Ceslav brought an opportunity for a more independent Duklja under rulers such as Saint Jovan Vladimir, who fought the Arbanass tribes that menaced the eastern territories. Skadar was subsequently formalised as the political center of Duklja. The Bulgarian Tsar Samuil invaded Doclea and took the Prince as a prisoner. As a result of marriage between Jovan Vladimir and the Bulgarian princess Kossara, Jovan Vladimir was allowed to return and rule as a Bulgarian vassal. After the successful plot of the last Czar of the Bulgarian Empire Ivan Vladislav to take Jovan Vladimir's life on 22 May 1016. Saint Jovan Vladimir expanded his pretensions greatly by also becoming the ruler of Tribalia and Serbia.

Duklja became a part of the Byzantine theme of Serbia (thema Servia) under strategos of Serbia Constantine Diogenes; while its rulers remained only titulary.

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High, Voislav, Golden Age

The anarchic ages that followed the dawn of the 11th century were crucial for Duklja. The people rebelled and lynched their Prince, Dragomir.

Starting in 1034, Dobroslav, also called Stefan Voislav, son of Dragomir (Stefan Vojislav; the eponym of the House of Voislav), who was among the Travunian gentry, started to amass a movement to liberate Doclea. While Voislav was preparing for war, he played nice with the Byzantines, assuring them that he was their faithful subject. He gained the nickname "Stefan" from the Greek word Stephanos meaning "crowned" to resemble his independent power. In 1035 and 1036 an uprising was raised, but the Byzantines have quickly manage to impose peace terms. Voislav was taken hostage to Constantinople, and the task of occupying Duklja was given to Serbia's strategos, Theophilos Erotikos. Voislav managed to escape imrisonment and push the fight to expel strategos Theophilos and briefly create an independent territory from the Skadar lake to the Hum mountain. He also helped the uprising of Slavs that quickly expanded from Belgrade across Naissus to Skopje led by Petar Delian, as well as the Tihomir's Slavic uprising in Dyrrachion. Those involved in the uprising even reached the ruins of Thebes on one occasion, so the Byzantines left Duklja untroubled for some time.

The Byzantine Emperor Michael, waiting in Thessalonika, was to receive a shipment of gold of 10 Kentenars from Southern Italia. One Galley accidentally crashed in Duklja's Bay. Its treasures were taken by the Voislav's men, which greatly enriched Duklja's economy. This incurred Michael's fury, as he sent Imperial Eunuch George Probat to crush Voislav's movement. The Eunuch's Army was cought in the Doclean Gorges in an ambush and suffered a total defeat. Voislav's son, Radoslav was famous for killing a Byzantine military commander himself on the battlefield. The Slavic uprisings in Macedonia of Peter Delian who now crowned himself as Czar Peter II of Bulgarians stopped any possibility for another Byzantine military atempt against Duklja. Image:Mihailo.jpg Image:Ston.jpg Later his achievements were repeated by his descendant Mihailo of Voislav, who held the old Grand Princely title of Grand Prince of Rascia up to 1077 when he received the title of King of Slavs and crown from Pope Gregory VII. To mark his crowning, the Pope raised the Bishopric of Bar to an Archbishopric in 1080. His realm was known as the Kingdom of Serbia, and Mihailo wore the title Ruler of Tribals and Serbs. During Duklja's expansion into Croatia in which the Doclean forces raided as far as Knin, the full rulling title was King of Doclea and Dalmatia. He sends his son with an army to assist the insurrection of George Voiteh in 1072 during the Slavic rebellion in Macedonia. Constantin Bodin was accepted as Peter III, Czar of Bulgarians (see: List of Bulgarian monarchs), but he got captured by the Byzantine forces. He was rescued by his father in 1078. King Mihailo finished the incorporation of the Byzantine enclaves of Dubrovnik, Kotor, Bar and Ulcinj, started by his predecessor.

This period was useful for Duklja. While its eastern borders were used as a demarcational zone between the Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch, the rulers of Duklja used the Latin side to gain independence from the Byzantine, but enforced Eastern Rite and Schismatic Orthodoxy so as not to be controlled by the Catholic west. Image:Duklja map.jpg Constantin Bodin inherited his father's Doclean kingdom. He was a son-in-law of the Guy of Normandy Robert Guiscard. After the death of Bodin, Duklja didn't have any powerful rulers and fights over the crown were became more common. In 1101, an Army of Crusaders passed through Duklja under Count Raymond IV of Toulouse during the Crusade of 1101.

Other Voislav dynasty rulers after Bodin included Vukan, Marko, Uroš I, Uroš II.

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Late, Rascian

The Byzantines gave numerious lands of the Grand Principality of Rascia to Stracimir, son of Prince Zavida of Zahumlje, who ruled in the name of his oldest brother, Grand Prince Tihomir of Rascia as a vassal of the Byzantine Empire since 1166. The majority of Duklja was included in his lands.

Out of Diocleia Ribnica arose, which was the birthplace of Prince Stracimir's brother, Prince Nemanya, another of the sons of Prince Zavida of Zahumlje. Up to 1168 Nemanja ascended to the throne as Grand Prince of Rascia after he defeated Tihomir. Stracimire initially supported Tihomir in the fight, but drew back as soon as Tihomir started to lose.

Stracimir's other brother, Prince Miroslav of Zahumlje had to call off his military expeditions against Korčula and Vis, because of the losing war against the Republic of Dubrovnik in 1184 in which Stracimir offered military assistence. Miroslav eventually drew from the war, while Stracimir didn't want to advance alone, so abandoned the conquest of the Republic too. Stracimir got the job to take the islands Korčula and Vis in 1185. The smaller part of his force managed to raid heavily Vis. Stracimir's galleys landed his forces on Korčula and took the island, but did not manage to control it, so they raided the island's fertile regions on the western part. The inhabitants of Korčula hailed the Dubrovnik Republic for assistence and it managed to capture all of Stracimir's galleys. Prince Stracimir managed to sign an agreement with the island's inhabitants: he guarranteed that the island will have autonomy, separated from Zahumlje; while the islanders agreed to help his forces set sail back to the mainland.

Although Prince Stracimir was the factual ruler of Duklja, Prince Mihailo of the old rulling Voislav family and Stefan Nemanja's nephew remained as the titulary ruler. After Stracimir's passing away, Mihailo had claims to rule Duklja in the name of the Byzantine Emperor, rather then the Serbian Duke. In 1186, while Stefan Nemanja was at war with the Byzantine Empire, he went on a military campaign to incorporate Duklja into his realm. He besieged Bar which was under the leadership of the local Archbishop, Grgur. Grgur wrote the Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja in 1172-1196 to boost the morale of the people, attempting first to keep Duklja independent, and then only to mark its former glory. He predicted the return of the old regal power in Duklja, but his hopes were all in vain. Stefan Nemanja demanded 800 perpers of ransom to abandon the siege of Bar, while Prince Mihailo of Duklja was under attack by Nemanja's brothers. Stefan Nemanja gave Duklja in 1186 to his oldest son, Vukan, who asserted to power with the old regal title of King of Duklja and Dalmatia. In 1189, Prince Mihailo died and his Princess Desislava escaped with the remaining loyal nobility of Duklja and the Archbishop of Bar in her two ships to the Republic of Dubrovnik. Desislava then moved to Omis, where she died. Archbishop Grgur was exiled and his post temporarely aboloshed after Nemanja's capture of Bar, so he continued his chronicles in exile.

Vukan of Nemanya maintained good relations with the Papacy, as he married the Pope's relative and accused Bosnia's Ban Kulin of heresy to the Pope. Vukan was enraged that he didn't inherit from Stefan Nemanja the Grand Princely throne which was contrary to the traditional system of primogeniture, so he rebelled against the new Grand Prince Stephen II the First-crowned of Nemanya with the help of the Dukljan nobility and managed to assess to the Grand Princely throne in 1202, but was deposed in 1204 by Stephen II with Bulgarian assistence. Vukan withdrew to Duklja where he continued to rule and kept fighting the Grand Prince.

Around this time, the name Zeta replaced the ancient name of the region (name deriving from the river of Zeta). Its population is henceforward defined as Serbian.

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List of rulers

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Chronology

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External links

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