Medieval Bosnian History

The original letter of Duke Stjepan Vukčić Kosača, issued on the 1st of March 1455 in Ključ, which regulated the possible relations between him and his potential bride Barbara of Liechtenstein, is today preserved in the Princely Collection of the Liechtenstein family in Vienna. The text of the document was hitherto published only in the works of the Hungarian historian Lajos Thallóczy. However, he did not supply an image of the charter and described it only summarily indicating that it was written on parchment and that the script was in bluish ink. Apart from that, he also remarked that the letter was composed in poor Latin and that the concept was probably created by Ruggiero, the Duke’s scribe.

The charter is of a rectangular shape and was folded twice vertically and once horizontally (not counting the folded lower margin). On the very bottom of the document a broken dark brown wax lump with a red seal image was attached to the parchment by a red silk braided cord. Even though it is very difficult to speak about the broken seal, it can be concluded that it is in fact the great seal of Duke Stjepan, for which many historians considered was preserved only on one charter of his son Vlatko from the 26th of July 1470. We can now confirm that the seal was indeed used on the official charters of Duke Stjepan, even though the seal image is almost completely destroyed.

The contents of the charter are connected to the plans of Duke Stjepan to arrange great nuptial festivities in 1455 for the weddings of his two sons, but also for his own marriage since he was a widower from October 1453. It is still an open question how did the Duke get in touch with the court in Nicolsburg, today Mikulov in the Czech Republic, and under which circumstances did the combinations about the marriage relations with the Austrian princely dynasty of Liechtensten emerge. The charter which the Duke issued together with his sons was supposed to regulate the rights of his future spouse, the conditions of their “lasting and indissoluble union”, guarantee her religious rights and allow her to have her own retinue with priests. Apart from that, the Duke also promised to present Barbara a wedding gift in the form of a castle with an income of 2.000 golden florins. In the case of his death, the charter stipulated that Barbara could sell the castle to his heirs for a hefty sum of 14.000 golden ducats. She could then freely dispose with this money in Bosnia, as well as abroad. Despite all the trouble and incurred expenses, the marriage was never realized, and in May of 1455 Duke Stjepan married another woman, also named Barbara.

This work treats an episode from the early relations between the Ottoman Empire and the Bosnian Kingdom through the prism of a joint attack on Bosnia carried out by Ottoman and Serbian soldiers in 1398. Namely, after the initial hostile contacts between Bosnia and the Ottomans in the 1380-ies, during the last decade of the 14th century Bosnia continued to suffer an increasing number of strong attacks which were executed by Ottoman raiding forces based in the marcher region of Skoplje. The last of those harassing incursions occurred in January of 1398 when the sons of Sultan Bayezid, allied with the army of Serbian Prince Stefan Lazarević, attacked the borders of Bosnia. Even though their assault was significant, causing distress and disturbance in Bosnia itself, and in the coastal regions of Zeta as well, the attackers were thwarted by the harsh winter conditions and the terrible cold. Despite the fact that their offensive was unsuccessful, it still brought about almost an immediate change in the political landscape of Bosnia. Soon a new monarch appeared on the Bosnian throne, and with him a completely new attitude towards the Ottomans. Already by 1399 it was well known in the region that “Bosnians are allied with the Turks”.

U članku je donesen opširni pregled političke, društvene i kulturne povijesti Bosanskoga Kraljevstva od Tvrtkova uspeća na prijestolje pa do pada svih ostataka i stečevina Bosanskoga Kraljevstva pod Osmanlije. Posebno su fokusu ondašnji bosansko-hrvatski odnosi. Mnogo je originalnih promišljanja poput početaka uporabe brzopisne ćirilice na hrvatskom prostoru povezano s ustrojem pisarske kancelarije u Klisu, datacija Hrvojeva portreta u viteškoj opremi koja se nalazi na kraju Misala kneza Hrvoja i sl. Zanimljivom se čini teza da je osmansko „raščinjavanje“ hrvatskoga prostora posljedica dugotrajnih sukobljavanja Bosanskoga i Ugarskoga Kraljevstva ponajviše na hrvatskom prostoru.

With the Austro-Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, the legal position of this former province of the Ottoman Empire was thoroughly changed. One of the issues which arose from the newly established situation concerned the choice of the “correct” national arms for Bosnia because it did not have its symbols since the loss of state independence in the mid-15th century. In the general lack of heraldic tradition, numerous Croatian, Austrian and Hungarian experts were consulted with the aim to find a solution to this question. The final decision was influenced by the famous Hungarian motto that “Rama is Bosnia” (Rama seu Bosna), and the arms were chosen accordingly. The aim of this paper is to investigate the origin of the Rama coat-of-arms in the Habsburg ruling ideology, and to highlight the possibility that the initial “fictive” arms of Bosnia were replaced by the arms of Rama in order to reconcile the ruling title and the heraldic repertoire of the Hungarian kings. Namely, while the arms of Bosnia featured almost regularly in the heraldic displays of the Habsburgs, the name of that land was absent from their royal title. According to the understanding and explanation of the Hungarian jurists, Bosnia’s place was taken by Rama. Since the arms of Rama were nowhere to be found in earlier heraldic sources, the “logical” solution was reached whereby the arms of Bosnia and arms of Rama were one and the same. The full circle of this story was closed by the end of the 19th century, when the “arms of Rama” became the “arms of Bosnia”.

The aim of this work is on one hand to collect literature on the old question of the possible heresy of the Bosnian catholic diocese in the middle ages as far as possible,
on the other hand is an attempt to show the importance of this issue in recent times.

Despite the affiliation to the European catholic Middle Ages Bosnia is ignored to a large extent in today's European medieval studies. Not until its Turkish occupation 1463 Bosnia comes into the consciousness of the medieval studies, then however as something, which stands outside of Europe. Interestingly enough Bosnia ranks in addition, not among the Byzantine world of the Middle Ages, since the Byzantine influence in the slavic world is limited to Greater Moravia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia.
The medieval Bosnian state, which existed before the ottoman conquest at least 300 years, is today so far out of view that neither European nor Byzantine medieval studies feel responsible for it. As a direct consequence during the Yugoslav war of secession in Bosnia (1992-1995) in the political discussion occured ignorant voices, which stated that before the 20th Century a Bosnian state would not have existed.
The goal of this work is to note the political history of the medieval Bosnian Banates for the first time in a German-language monograph. The necessary place to economic, cultural and religious regional studies of Bosnia and the Hercegovina is granted. Also religious definitions were taken up to the work to come to meet the readers without previous knowledge of the history of the religious forces important in Bosnia. Finally ruler lists and multilingual listings of the ruler designations, local and flurnamen became (German, Croatian, Latin, Hungarian, Turkish, etc..) put on, in order to facilitate the overview.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Crusade-in-the-Fifteenth-Century-Converging-and-competing-cultures/Housley/p/book/9781472464712

By highlighting Ottoman attacks on Croatia, Hungary and North Italy during the 15th century, this paper will explore the origins and development of the “antemurale” concept from a Bosnian point of view. Whereas the cases of certain frontier states which bordered with the expanding Ottoman Empire have been well researched so far, not much attention has been given to the role played by the Bosnian Kingdom in the broader Christian struggle against this aggressive adversary.
The Ottomans gained a foothold in Bosnia very early on, in the last decade of the 14th century, and I will attempt to show that they used Bosnia as a stepping-stone for further attacks on lands ruled by the Hungarian King and other Christian princes in the West. It is because of this that the Bosnian rulers and nobles were considered as being complicit in these assaults, and were effectively denied the assistance necessary to get rid of the Ottoman influence in their state. In a way, having been forced to remain on the opposite side of Christendom’s bulwark, Bosnia became an open gate through which the Ottoman akinji raiders passed at will. When it became inevitable that the Ottomans would conquer their Kingdom, the Bosnian rulers sought military help from those states which were not directly threatened. In order to draw attention to their plight, and thus initiate a crusade, they presented their state as a “gate”, “key” or “shield” of Christendom. Despite their best efforts, they received no help from the Western states and the Bosnian Kingdom was finally incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1463. The strategic importance of Bosnia was not lost on contemporaries and in the following period the Bosnian “antemurale” discourse was adopted by Venice and the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus.

This paper uses two published but previously unused sources for the analysis of complex political relations in the triangle between the Ottoman Empire, the Bosnian and Hungarian Kingdom during the last decade of the 14th century. These documents shed light on events from the summer of 1394 and supplement the known data about the agreement between King Dabiša of Bosnia and King Sigismund of Hungary, the breakdown of the rebellion of the Horvati brothers, and the siege of the castle Dobor in northern Bosnia. Those sources also give valuable information about the involvement of the Ottoman Turks in these events, testifying about the enormous military pressure they were exerting on Bosnia and the neighbouring countries at the time.

Ovo je prvi od dvaju članaka u kojima se istražuje odnos bosanske kraljice Katarine i humanista. Ovdje su pritom u fokusu epigrami talijanskog humanista Leonarda Montagne spjevani u njezinu čast. Na osnovi epigrama donosi se nova rekonstrukcija Katarinina životnog puta dvije godine uoči njezina dolaska u Rim 1467., te se razmatraju kako njezina uloga na istočnojadranskoj političkoj sceni, tako i Montagnina uloga kraljičina savjetnika i posrednika. Članak uključuje i izdanje i prijevod epigrama.

U svojoj prvoj kraljevskoj povelji Dubrovčanima iz 1378. godine, kralj Stefan Tvrtko obrazložio je porijeklo i smisao svog novostečenog vladarskog dostojanstva te opisao put kojim je nemanjićko kraljevsko naslijeđe prešlo na bosanskog bana. Služeći se alegorijama i bogatim književnim izrazima, u arengi je govorio o “procvatu izdanka plemenito ukorijenjenog” u rodu njegovom, o tome kako ga je Bog počastio da naslijedi “prijestol mojih praroditelja, gospode srpske”, te o “vjenčanju” Bogom darovanim vijencem kada je počeo “s Bogom kraljevati i praviti prijestol srpske zemlje”, podizati ono što je palo i popravljati ono što je razoreno.

Prema tome, zaključujući na osnovu autentičnih i savremenih izvora, ne može biti nikakve sumnje da je Tvrtko svoje krunisanje zasnovao na temeljima ranijeg postojanja srpske kraljevine, ustanovljene 1217. godine, i svog srodstva sa srpskom vladarskom dinastijom Nemanjića. Stoga se i u dosadašnjoj historiografskoj literaturi posvećenoj obradi ovog pitanja uglavnom operiralo s pojmovima “prenos” – translatio, ili čak “obnova” – renovatio, srpskog kraljevstva u Bosni. I dok se kralj Tvrtko javnosti predstavljao kao obnovitelj srpske monarhije, realni dometi tog političkog programa bili su ograničeni okolnošću da u tadašnjem rasporedu snaga u Srbiji nije bilo prostora za njegovo snažnije uplitanje, te je Sima Ćirković s pravom primijetio da je “obnovljeno srpsko kraljevstvo ostajalo u sferi prava i pretenzija”.

Upravo je u tom kontekstu Tvrtkova jedinstvena doktrina o dvostrukoj kruni – “sugubom vijencu” – odigrala ključnu ulogu u faktičkom uzdizanju Bosanske banovine u rang kraljevstva. Posmatran iz tog ugla, Tvrtkov “samodržavni” čin krunisanja se može tumačiti i kao stvaranje kraljevstva na novim osnovama uz oslonac na stare političke modele, što je događaj paralelan krunidbi Stefana Prvovenčanog 160 godina ranije.

U ovom radu ta dva prelomna događaja bit će posmatrana komparativno u namjeri da se oba pokušaju sagledati u historijskoj perspektivi dugog trajanja. Zbog toga će biti nužno izložiti pregled osnovnih podataka, kao i historiografskih prijepora o ključnim pitanjima krunisanja kralja Tvrtka, no glavni fokus će ipak biti usmjeren na pitanje naslijeđa srpske krune i dinastije Nemanjića na kojima se zasnivala uspostava novog Bosanskog kraljevstva. S obzirom na činjenicu da je u literaturi do sada obično naglašavano ono što je tom prilikom preuzeto sa srpskog vladarskog dvora, poput dvorskog ceremonijala, kancelarijskih obrazaca, te zvanja i titula, u izlaganju ćemo se posvetiti i onim elementima vladarske ideologije i simbolike koji se nisu oslanjali na modele preuzete iz Srbije. S tim u vezi, cilj rada je ukazati na one momente koji su i tokom Tvrtkove vlasti, ali posebno nakon njegove smrti, doprinijeli tome da se obnoviteljima države Nemanjića ne smatraju nasljednici kralja Tvrtka nego nasljednici kneza Lazara.

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In his first royal charter to Dubrovnik of 1378, king Stefan Tvrtko explained the origin and meaning of his new royal title, describing the path whereby the Nemanjić royal inheritance passed on to the Bosnian ban. Using allegories and rich literary expressions, he speaks in the arenga about the “flourishing of the offshoot rooted in a noble manner” among his people, about how God honoured him to inherit “the throne of my forefathers, the Serbian lords”, and about the “coronation” with the God-gifted crown when he started “to rule with God and create the throne of the Serbian land”, erect what had fallen and restore what had been devastated.

Therefore, based on authentic and contemporary sources, there is no doubt that Tvrtko based his coronation on the foundations of the earlier existence of the Serbian kingdom, established in 1217, and his kinship with the Serbian ruling Nemanjić dynasty. The hitherto historiographical literature on this issue has usually used the terms “translation” – translatio, or even “restoration” – renovatio, of the Serbian kingdom in Bosnia. While king Tvrtko presented himself in public as the restorer of the Serbian monarchy, the real outreach of such political programme was limited by the circumstance that the then distribution of forces in Serbia left no room for stronger interference. Sima Ćirković thus rightly noted that “the restored Serbian kingdom remained in the sphere of rights and pretensions”.

It is in this very context that Tvrtko’s unique doctrine about the double crown (sugubi vijenac) played a key role in the rise of the Banate of Bosnia to the rank of a kingdom. Observed in this light, Tvrtko’s “autocratic” act of coronation can also be interpreted as the creation of the kingdom on new foundations, with reliance on old political models, which is an event on a par with the coronation of Stefan the First-Crowned 160 years before.

This paper observes comparatively these two landmark events, with the aim to observe them in a long-term historical perspective. It will therefore be indispensable to give an overview of the main data, as well as historiographical disputes about the key issues of the coronation of king Tvrtko. However, the main focus will be placed on the issue of inheritance of the Serbian crown and the Nemanjić dynasty, on which the establishment of the new Bosnian Kingdom was based. Given that literature has so far usually emphasised the aspects assumed from the Serbian royal court, such as the court ceremony, office patterns and titles, we shall place emphasis on those elements of the royal ideology and symbolism which did not rely on the models taken from Serbia. Thus, the aim of the paper is to shed light on those moments which both during Tvrtko’s rule and particularly after his death contributed to having the successors of prince Lazar, and not the successors of king Tvrtko, considered the restorers of the Nemanjićs’ state.

U radu se tretira politička i vojna uloga vlastelinskog roda Vlatkovića u vremenu gubitka političke samostalnosti Bosne. Herceg Stjepan je 1456. protjerao Vlatkoviće sa njihovih baština, optužujući ih za nevjeru. Vlatkovići su iskoristili priliku da se, nakon smrti hercega, vrate uz pomoć Ugra na svoje stare baštine. Sa novih pozicija porodica nastavlja borbu protiv Osmanlija u Humskoj zemlji, na terenu na kojem su se ispreplitali oprečni stavovi velikih sila.

The paper deals with the political and military role of the aristocratic family Vlatković at the time of the loss of political independence of Bosnia. In 1456, Herceg Stjepan expelled the Vlatkovićs from their estates, accusing them of infidelity. After the death of the duke, the Vlatkovićs used the opportunity to return to their old heritage with the help of the Hungarians. From the new positions, the family continues the fight against the Ottomans in the land of Hum, on a field where the opposing positions of the great powers are intertwined.

Ključne riječi: Vlatkovići, Ivaniš, Žarko, Bosna, Dubrovnik, Ugri, Venecija, Osmanlije, Humska zemlja, herceg, baštine.

Czech historians have long been aware of the information, otherwise unknown to domestic historians, that the testament of Duke Přemek of Opava (1366-1433) refers to his third wife Jelena (Helena) as the “successor of the Bosnian crown”. The title of this woman, formulated in this way, served as a basis for one German historian of art to think that she was a daughter of a Bosnian ruler. According to this, the son that she had with the Czech nobleman would also be the grandson of the Bosnian King who could claim his right to the throne of the Bosnian Kingdom. Since Czech heraldists and historians accepted his thesis, the author uses results of Czech historiography to present details about this story and additionally questions the grounds for some assumptions introduced about the heirs of a Bosnian ruler in the Czech lands.

Roman Ibrahima Kajana Katarina kraljica bosanska jedan je od onih tekstova koji tematiziraju srednjevjekovnu bosanskohumsku zemlju u kojem historijska „pozadina“ čini ambijent jednog vremena i zbivanja u njemu. Ono što se može primijetiti da bosansko srednjevjekovlje nije, još uvijek, u našoj književnosti kontekstualizirano u onoj mjeri u kojoj se srednjevjekovna prošlost može iz(čitati). Bosanskohercegovačka književnost u najvećoj mjeri je kontekstualizirana periodom Osmanske imperije i Austro-Ugarske monarhije pa sve do savremenog konteksta: izgubljenost čovjeka u vremenu iza dva svjetska rata, i na kraju dvadesetog stoljeća u našoj književnosti aktuelnom postaje poetika svjedočenja − bliske ratne prošlosti − gdje se tematizira ratno i izbjegličko iskustvo!