Dino Teskeredzic Advisor: Dr. Florin Curta
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Teskeredzic 1 Creating a Bosnian Identity in Medieval Europe By: Dino Teskeredzic Advisor: Dr. Florin Curta Teskeredzic 2 Table of Contents Creating a Bosnian Identity……………………………………………………………pp. 4-32 Chapter I: An Introduction……………………………………………………................4-9 Chapter II: Bosnia in the Greek Sources………………………………………................10-13 Chapter III: A Discussion of Papal Policies in the Balkans prior to the Fourth Crusade..14-19 Chapter IV: Hungarian Interests…………………………………………………………20-25 Chapter V: Internal Serbian Politics……………………………………………………...26-29 Chapter VI: Conclusions…………………………………………………………………30-32 Bibliography…………………………………………...………………………………..pp. 33-34 Translations……………………………………………………………………………pp. 35-46 Theobaldo’s 1180 Letter………………………………………………………………...35-36 Vukan’s 1199 Letter to Innocent III…………………………………………………….37-38 Innocent III’s 1200 Letter to King Emeric of Hungary…………………………………39-40 Innocent III’s 1202 Letter to the Archbishop of Split and Johannes………...………….41-42 Bilino Polje Renunciation of 1203………………………………………………………43-46 Teskeredzic 3 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Curta for helping me choose and pursue my topic. He was instrumental to this paper, particularly when I needed help deciphering archaic Church Latin. I could not have finished it without him. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Louthan for helping me structure my paper and ensure that I made the deadlines. Finally, I would like to thank my mother, who helped me translate the Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic documents. Teskeredzic 4 Chapter I: An Introduction The Balkans have traditionally been regarded as the powder keg of Europe, a region in which competing national interests and views collide. The area of present-day Bosnia, the home of the medieval kingdom by the same name, found itself in much the same position in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. Back then, as much as now, religion played a considerable role in the construction of a Bosnian identity. Bosnia is first mentioned in an indirect (adjectival) form as an epithet in the imperial title of Manuel I Komnenos (1143-1180) in his edict of 1166 carved on a large piece of marble now in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.1 However, the first mention of “Bosnian” in reference to Bosnians appears in a letter sent in 1180 by Theobaldo, a legate of Pope Alexander III. There is no other surviving mention of the term until 1199, the year of a letter sent by Vukan of Duklja to Pope Innocent III. It is important to note that the term ‘Bosnian’ appears in the context of papal concerns with heresy and in direct association with specific references to ‘heretics’ believed to reside in the area. Can one therefore speak of a Bosnian identity in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century? If so, where and why did that identity take shape? The purpose of this thesis is to show that Bosnia and Bosnians are names invented and used by outsiders, primarily Pope Innocent III. I will examine the pertinent Greek sources, before moving to Alexander III and Innocent III’s letters, the first sources in Latin to mention Bosnia. Before that, however, it is important to turn briefly to the political scene in the Balkans 1 Cyril Mango, “The conciliar editct of 1166,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 17 (1963), p. 324: “Manuel, emperor who believes in God, born in the purple, ruler of the Romans, most pious, forever glorious, Augsutus, Isaurian, Cilician, Armenian, Dalmatian, Hungarian, Bosnian, Croatian, Lazian, Iberian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Zychian, Khazer, Gothic…” (emphasis added). Teskeredzic 5 ca. 1200 and to introduce the key historical actors who influenced the Bosnian identity emerging at that time. In the late twelfth century, the western Balkans were as fragmented politically as they are now. The neighbors of medieval Bosnia were Hum and Raška to the south, Serbia to the east, and Hungary and Croatia to the north and west, respectively. The papacy had both an interest and a great deal of influence in the region, which was at that time on the frontier between Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. From 1180 to 1204, Bosnia was ruled by a man named Kulin, who took the title of Ban. Little information exists on him for the years prior to 1199, which is when he was suddenly accused of harboring heretics.2 Judging from the limited sources that we have, it appears that Kulin came to power during the reign of Manuel I Komnenos, but began to style himself Ban of Bosnia only after the emperor’s death in 1180. Three years later, he shed the protective cloak of the Byzantines and instead paid homage to the king of Hungary, who was at that time actively involved in the expansion of his kingdom into the northern Balkans.3 During this period, his name is found on several inscriptions and in a few charters. However, it was in 1199 that he was thrust into the greater international arena. This was the year in which Ban Kulin caught the eye 2 Ban Kulin’s name appears in a Cyrillic inscription from Biskupići-Muhašinovići (near Visoko), ca. 1194. A second inscription was also found in Podbrežje near Zenica, which mentions Gradeša, a judge appointed by Kulin. A third Cyrillic inscription in Blagaj cites a contemporary župan, who is supposed to have built a church “in the days of the celebrated Nemanja. All three inscriptions have been published by Branko Fučić, “Croatian Glagolitic and Cyrillic epigraphs,” in Croatia in the Early Middle Ages. A Cultural Survey, edited by Ivan Supičić (London/Zagreb: Philip Wilson Publishers/AGM, 1999), pp. 277 and 279. 3 Upon King Coloman’s coronation in 1102 in Biograd, Croatia became a part of the medieval Hungarian kingdom. The incorporation of Croatia resulted in a prolonged era of Hungarian hegemony in the Balkans. Under King Béla II and Helena, the daughter of the Serbian župan Uroš the Hungarians invaded Bosnia in 1137. However, in 1150 the Serbs and the Hungarians were defeated by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos at the battle on the Tara River in western Serbia. Following Manuel I’s death, Stephen I Nemanja allotted Hum to his brother, Miroslav, and Duklja to his son, Vukan. With the death of Manuel in 1180, Croatia and the majority of Byzantine Dalmatia came under Hungarian rule. See Florin Curta, Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500-1250 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 266, 329, and 347. For the location of the battle at the Tara River, see Miloš Blagojević, "Sečenica (Setzenica), Strymon (Strymon) i Tara (Tara) u delu Jovana Kinama," Zbornik radova Vizantološkog Instituta 17 (1974), 65-76. Teskeredzic 6 of Innocent III because of a letter the pope had previously received from Vukan, the ruler of Zeta (Duklja). Vukan had first established contact with the pope in the late 1190s in order to obtain religious guidance.4 Innocent III readily obliged and acquiesced to the request of Vukan, whom he called the “illustrious king of Dalmatia and Dioclea.” Two papal legates were dispatched to Zeta, and Innocent III re-instituted the see of Bar (now in Montenegro) as an archbishopric.5 In 1199, a synod was summoned in Bar to deal with such issues as priestly celibacy and beards, an indication that the goal of the papal policies in the region was to eliminate Orthodox practices. Vukan added heresy to the papal agenda, when in that same year (1199), he accused Ban Kulin of harboring heretics in Bosnia. He also accused Kulin and his family, including his sister, of embracing the said heresy. Such a personal accusation without evidence suggests that Vukan may have had political motives, such as territorial ambitions and a possible crown from the pope, two issues which will be discussed later. Nonetheless, the accusations were sufficient for attracting papal attention to the region. Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), the most powerful of all medieval popes, was already troubled by the issue of heresy, as is evident from his vexation with the growing strength of the Cathars in southern France. Vukan’s simple mention of heresy was therefore sufficient to garner the pope’s attention. Furthermore, the steady and slow withdrawal of the Byzantines from Dalmatia provided Innocent with an opportunity to intervene and strengthen the Catholic faith in the region. It was for this reason, and in order to cement Kulin’s loyalty that in 1203, the pope 4 Vukan of Duklja was the first ruler in the western Balkans to seek papal guidance. However, he was not to be the last. He was followed in 1208 by Demetrius, a local potentate in northern Alabania. See Alain Ducellier, La façade maritime de l'Albanie au Moyen Age. Durazzo et Valona du XI-ème au XVème siècle (Thessaloniki, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1981), p. 139. 5 In 1089, the bishop of Bar had been elevated to archbishop. However, in the twelfth century he was downgraded to a suffragan of the archbishop of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). See Lothar Waldmüller, Die Synoden in Dalmatien, Kroatien und Ungarn. Von der Völkerwanderung bis zum Ende der Arpaden (1311)(Paderborn/Munich/Vienna/Zürich, F. Schöningh, 1987), p. 160. Teskeredzic 7 sent a delegation led by his chaplain, Johannes de Casamaris, to investigate the charges laid against the Ban of Bosnia. Meanwhile, Innocent III had exchanged a number of letters with King Emeric of Hungary, the purpose of which seems to have been not only to gather support, but also to pressure Kulin, whom the pope regarded as Emeric’s subject. It is against the background of this affair that Innocent first referred to the inhabitants of Bosnia, and called Kulin the “Bosnian Ban” as opposed to Ban of Bosnia. King Emeric is another key figure in the region. By 1200, Hungary had become a major power in Central Europe, with increasing influence and territory in the Balkans.