Coloman of Hungary controls the greater part…
1102 CE
Coloman of Hungary controls the greater part of Dalmatia by 1102, though this latter acquisition brings him into conflict with other major powers interested in the fate of this province.
The Croatian hinterland, having succumbed in 1097 to Hungary, is by a dynastic union in 1102 joined formally to Hungary.
The Croats retain their autonomy under King Coloman (and, under his successors, will begin to become Latinized and thereby separate from their Slavic kin to the east and south).
Coloman is crowned king of Croatia in Biograd na Moru in 1102.
The thirteenth-century Thomas the Archdeacon writes that the union of Croatia and Hungary was the consequence of conquest.
On the other hand, the late fourteenth-century manuscript known as the Pacta conventa narrates that Coloman was only crowned after he had reached an agreement with twelve leading Croatian noblemen, because the Croats were preparing to defend their kingdom against him by force.
Whether this document is a forgery or an authentic source is subject to scholarly debate.
In any event, the alleged crowning of Coloman forges a link between the Croatian and Hungarian crowns that will last until the end of the First World War.
Croats will maintain for centuries that Croatia remains a sovereign state despite the voluntary union of the two crowns, but Hungarians will claim that Hungary annexed Croatia outright in 1102.
In either case, Hungarian culture will permeate Croatia, the Croatian-Hungarian border will shift often, and at times Hungary will treat Croatia as a vassal state.
Croatia, however, will maintain its own local governor, or ban; a privileged landowning nobility; and an assembly of nobles, the Sabor.
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